“He immigrated here with my grandparents as a child. He became a citizen, earned his undergraduate degree, and then joined the Secret Service. Later he started what became Gamma.”
“And he’s now retired?” asked White.
“No, he…A boating mishap, three years ago.” She looked toward the window. “Far out there, in the Atlantic.”
“Sorry to hear that,” said White.
“That’s when I took over running Gamma. I’ve worked here full-time after spending five years with the Secret Service. I followed in my father’s footsteps, you see. Then I worked my way up here and was second-in-command at the time he—”
“When can we speak to the person here who dealt with the judge?” interjected Decker. “And we understand there might have been threats that she’d received. If so, we’ll need whatever records you have on that.”
Roe looked at him from under hooded eyes, and her lips curled in displeasure. “You’re quite tenacious. You would make a good operative.”
“Right now I’m just trying to be a good investigator. Is the person in this building? We can talk to them now. And any record of threats? We’ll need copies.”
“As I said, I will—”
“Yes, I know, check the file and talk tocorporate counsel.” He glanced at the people standing behind her. “Can you send one of them off to do thatnow? They don’t look too busy. And we drove a long way to go home empty-handed. I’m sure you can appreciate that.”
Andrews coughed and frowned, while White looked as resolute as Decker.
Roe flicked a finger in the direction of her team. They looked at one another for a few moments. Then one of them walked out of the room, tapping on her phone screen.
Decker once more eyed the clocks on the wall.
Roe turned to see what he was looking at.
“We have offices in all those places,” she explained.
“Yeah, I get that. But I’ve never seen a clock forBratislavabefore.”
“It’s the capital of—”
“—Slovakia,” interjected Decker.
Both White and Andrews exchanged startled glances at this.
Roe said, “That’s where my given name comes from. I believe its true origins are Germanic, but my father was Slovakian from Czechoslovakia. He left long before it was split into the Czech and Slovak Republics.”
“Not easy to emigrate from there when it was under Soviet rule,” said Decker.
“The Soviets taking over was the reason my family left. They wanted a better life.” She smiled. “In Slovakian, ‘Kasimira’ means ‘command for peace,’ or something to that effect.”
“And you have an office there?” said Andrews.
“Yes, a small one. I try to get out to each of our foreign offices every couple of years if I can. But I haven’t been to Bratislava for three years now.”
“Ever since your father’smishap?” said Decker.
She eyed him with a bit of alarm in her look. “Yes, that’s right.”
Decker was about to ask another question when the woman who had earlier left the room returned with another woman.
She said, “This is Alice Lancer. She can give you more information about Alan Draymont and Judge Cummins.”
Decker looked Lancer over. She was around forty, medium height, blond, and slender, with attractive features and a no-nonsense demeanor.
But then her face turned the color of putty and the woman grabbed at her chest as she began to breathe heavily.