I wondered if Deck was serious or just blowing smoke up Cope’s ass.
“Take a seat, Copeland,” said Buck, turning to Stella. “Go ahead whenever you’re ready.”
I listened as Stella went over things I’d already heard or knew about. She told Cope and Ali how she’d gone to visit her aunt the day after their wedding and then found her dead a few days later.
I half listened as she continued the story about her aunt’s career in journalism ending when she wrote an article accusing Nicholas Kerr, then-president of Interpol, of accepting bribes in the cover-up of Operation Argead.
She told them about the safe-deposit key her aunt had tried to give her that night and that Rock found hidden in her piano after she died.
Ali had questions about the evidence Stella’s aunt allegedly had, but since no one knew where the safe-deposit box was located, there was no way to know what was in it.
“Why didn’t she just release the evidence then if she had it?” Ali asked.
“They threatened to kill her.” All eyes turned and looked at me.
“But why kill her now?” Ali asked.
“Exactly. Why now, instead of ten years ago?” asked Stella.
I looked at Decker. “You said there weren’t any bugs in Barb’s apartment. Is that right?”
“Affirmative,” Deck answered.
It was obvious to me that either the bugs had been removed by whomever killed the aunt and her housekeeper, or the housekeeper was the one who’d ratted Barb out.
“What do we know about the other victim?” Ali asked, obviously thinking the same thing I was.
Stella told her that her aunt’s caregiver had worked for Barb since shortly before the career-ending scandal, but she knew little about her, including whether she had any family.
“How did your aunt find her?” Ali asked.
“I can’t remember the details, but I think it was through a temp agency.”
Ali volunteered to see what else she could find out about the woman. “What’s next?” she asked Stella.
“Irish, Buck, and I have been focusing on making connections between the people we consider to be players both back when Barb made the accusations and more recently. Let’s start with Nicholas Kerr, Antoine Moreau, and Stanley Donofrio.”
I’d been researching all three men extensively over the last several days.
“What are you thinking?” Stella asked me, perhaps noticing I was lost in thought.
“How many cold cases of murdered agents could be linked to these three men.”
“And?”
“All of the older ones.”
She continued to talk about her aunt, Kerr, and what she believed was a possible connection to Ed Fisk. Judging by Cope’s reaction, he thought it was as much of a stretch as I did.
What I was far more interested in was how Fisk might be connected to Interpol’s current executive committee. I turned to Stella when she took a deep breath.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded and told Ali about Kerr’s marriage to her aunt’s former editor. “Clearly, they set her up.”
“How?” asked Ali.
I cleared my throat, and Stella told me to go ahead. “I’m theorizing, but Kerr knew Barb had enough evidence to bring him down because Sally shared Barb’s story with him. Neither of them thought anyone would pick it up. After it ran, Hennessey wrote the follow-up herself, and in it, accused Barb of manufacturing evidence.”
“As well as accusing her of having an affair with Kerr that ended badly,” Stella added.
“It makes sense that one or both of them threatened your aunt. Like Irish, I’m theorizing,” said Buck. “Kerr, most likely, delivered the threat, demanding your aunt turn the evidence over to him or he’d kill her. She refused, but he didn’t go through with it.”
“Why not?”
“Mutually beneficial arrangement,” said Decker, who had been mostly quiet to that point.
“Meaning?” asked Stella.
“She still had something on him. Probably whatever is in the safe-deposit box. And someone, like Barb’s attorney for example, has instructions for what to do in the event of her untimely death.”
“Wouldn’t that come into play now?” asked Ali.
“Not if Kerr believed he could intercept it,” Buck answered, stroking his beard.
“Because he finally knew where it was?” I asked.
“I still don’t understand the timing,” said Ali.
“There’s a connection. I’m sure of it,” I mumbled.
“Between?” Ali asked.
“The housekeeper and either Kerr or Hennessey.”
“I need to find that damn safe-deposit box, and in order to do that, I need to go to New York and meet with Barb’s lawyer,” said Stella.
“Have you spoken with him?” asked Deck.
“Not since the first time.”
“I’ll check with the medical examiner and see if the death certificate is available yet. If it is, then I agree. If not, I’d recommend waiting.”
Stella left the room. I assumed to call her aunt’s attorney. My eyes met Cope’s, and he motioned for me to join him outside. Before we got to the front door, Ali and Buck swept past us.
“We’ll be back in a minute,” she told Cope.
“What the hell is that all about?” I asked.
“Ali sticking her nose into Buck and Stella’s business.”
“Why?”
“My guess is she’s not exactly thrilled that the two appear to be in a relationship.”
“Does it bother you?”
Cope smiled and shook his head. “I’m not sure what you’re asking me exactly, but I feel confident Buck will put my wife in her place.”
“I meant that Ali and Buck are so close.”
“Doesn’t bother me at all. She’s married to me, and based on what I’ve seen, Buck is with Stella.”
“How is it, being married?”
Cope walked over and sat on the oversized sofa. I followed.
“All those years, I never would’ve believed it was possible. Ya know?”
“I do.”
“And yet, here we are. What about you? Who was the woman I saw coming out of your cabin?”
“That’s Buck’s sister. She helps run what I think will eventually become a dude ranch. We’re the first guests.”
“Looked like there was more to it.”
“To what?”
“The two of you.”
“You’re imagining things.”
“It’s okay, Irish.”
I didn’t want to have this conversation, but I knew Cope well enough to anticipate
