“And the Richardses?”
“The banker told us that Don Richards was Katz’s go-to person there. Maybe the people behind this were afraid that Katz had told Richards too much. We’ve already speculated that Karl Stevens learned through his drug deals with Richards’s son about some communication between Katz and Richards. Stevens must have told someone and then they struck on the idea of pinning all this on Meryl Hawkins.”
“Because Stevens knew Mitzi.”
“Right. Hell, Stevens might have been the one to suggest pinning it on Hawkins. He certainly knew about Mitzi’s drug addiction and probably also about her mother and her need for pain meds. But Meryl wasn’t stupid. He must have figured out that his daughter set him up. But he didn’t know why. Maybe he just thought she’d gotten in trouble. He said nothing because he didn’t want to add to her grief, and to his wife’s.”
“But then he runs into Karl Stevens in prison. And Stevens maybe runs his mouth. He lets Hawkins know the truth, or close to it.”
“So he gets that tat of the arrow through his little star, symbolically killing his daughter. And comes back here trying to prove his innocence.”
“And somebody kills him,” said Lancaster. “But how would they have known what he was up to?”
“Stevens might have tipped off someone on the outside about Meryl getting out of prison. When he shows up back here, they decide they need to get rid of him before he can start making waves.”
“Fortunately, he reached us before they could kill him,” pointed out Lancaster.
“It won’t befortunateif we can’t figure out the truth,” Decker retorted.
“So Gardiner and Peyton are both on the run. You think they’re going to hook up at some point?”
“Anything’s possible. Gardiner really outsmarted me. But the guy was scared, Mary. And he wasn’t scared of his wife, even though she was shooting at both of us.”
“He was scared because of the people he’s involved with.”
“Well, considering what they’ve done so far, who can blame him?”
His phone buzzed. It was Jamison.
“Hey, Alex, I’m a little busy ri—”
She interrupted, “The team’s coming to Burlington.”
“What? I thought you were in New Hampshire.”
“We were. But another case is suddenly taking precedence.”
“What case?”
“Yours.”