That wasn’t like the man.
He put on his coat, snagged Jamison’s car keys, and walked out, locking the door firmly behind him. He passed the FBI agents stationed in the building’s lobby.
“Take good care of her, guys,” he said as he walked by them.
He knew where Mars was staying. It wasn’t that far away.
He wedged himself into Jamison’s subcompact, wishing for the moment that he could be a foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter.
The drive only took about fifteen minutes. There was little traffic at this early hour of the morning.
He pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and grabbed an open space. He was about to get out when a car he recognized pulled up to the front of the building and a man in a uniform got out. It was one of the hotel valets. He turned the keys over to the owner and that person got in the car and drove off.
Decker checked his watch.
It was nearly five in the morning. Decker opted for a change in plan.
He pulled off and started to follow the other car.
Twenty minutes later it veered into an open space at the curb. The door opened and the driver got out.
Decker pulled up, stopped, and rolled down his window.
“You’re out early,” he said. “Or coming home late.”
Harper Brown turned to look at him.
“What are you doing here?’
“You were telling the truth.”
“About what?”
“You are quite social in your off hours. So how’s Melvin? Resting comfortably?”
She let out a sigh, leaned against the front fender of her Beemer, and said, “You want to come in for a cup of coffee?”
“I don’t know. Do I?”
Decker pulled into a free space two cars down and got out. He joined Brown as she was putting the key in her front door.
“Glad you had a good night,” he said.
“Thanks, me too. How about you?”
“Nothing to write home about,” said Decker as they went inside.
CHAPTER
48
BROWN FLIPPED ON the lights in her kitchen, put her bag down, and busied herself making coffee.
Decker sat at the table and watched her. She slipped off her jacket, revealing her shoulder holster and pistol.
A couple minutes later she carried two steaming cups over, leaned down, and handed Decker one of them.
That’s when she saw his bruised face in the wash of the overhead lights.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Just a little altercation tonight. Nothing too serious.”
“Why do I think you’re lying?”
“Whatever happened, it’s over and Alex and I are good.”
“Jamison! She was involved?”
Decker took a sip of coffee. “Very. So let’s move on to Melvin.”
She took a drink of her coffee. “You disapprove, of course,” said Brown.
“It’s really none of my business. But Melvin is my friend and I don’t want to see him get hurt either.”
“So I’m guessing you think this is all too sudden given we just met tonight?”
“I don’t think anything. I don’t judge anything. But I can tell you that Melvin’s got a lot of stuff about his life to work out. It’s complicated. That can make somebody vulnerable.”
She said heatedly, “It’s not like I do this all the time, because I don’t. It was actually just sex, Decker. That does happen, you know, when two people are immediately attracted to each other.”
“Just sex for you. Was it just sex for him?”
“Maybe it was.” She set her cup down and stared at him. “You really do care about him?”
“Why do you sound so surprised by that?”
“Unfairly or not, some view you as this machine without a lot of human touches.” When he didn’t respond, her features softened. “I don’t include myself in that group, Decker. I’ve seen you being human. You’re being human right now with your concerns about Melvin. It’s…it’s nice, actually.”
“If you two hit it off, great. He could use someone like you.”
“Meaning what?”
“You may have to deceive as part of your job, but I see you as honorable, Agent Brown. Your father got on that wall because he served his country faithfully. I don’t see the apple falling far from the tree. And Melvin is a very honorable person. So you two have that in common. I would say you both deserve nothing less.”
This was obviously not what Brown had been expecting. She took a sip of coffee and looked away. When she turned back her eyes held a shimmer of moisture.
“Let me rephrase what I just said about you being human, Decker. I actually think you’re one of the most human people I’ve ever met. And call me Harper, please.”
They both sat there in silence for another few seconds until Brown cleared her throat and said, “Why were you at the hotel in the first place?”
“I’d called Melvin a few times and he never answered. I was worried.”
“I think he turned his phone off. He was fine when I left him.”
“Good to know. Thanks.”
She fingered her cup, her gaze pointed at the tabletop. “We did talk some. Mostly about you. How amazing he thought you were. How, if not for you, he’d still be in prison.”
“That’s a stretch.”
“Not according to him.”
“It was nice of him to say,” Decker said quietly, not looking at her either.
“What really happened to your face? I’ll find out eventually.”
Decker took a few minutes to tell her what had happened. Brown’s jaw sank lower with each sentence.
“Is Jamison okay?”
“Not now, but she will be. It’s not easy, killing someone. You don’t just get over it in a day.” He looked over at her. “You know that feeling.”
She nodded. “The guy in your parking lot was not my first. And though I know I didn’t show it that night, I went home, drank a bottle of wine, and didn’t sleep a wink. I kept looking down at my hand and thinking that there was one less person alive that day because of me.”
“I figured as much.”
She smiled weakly. “I guess I’m not as tough as you thought I was.”
“Actually, that makes you tougher than I thought you were.”
“Every time I think I have you figured out, Mr. Decker, you throw me a curve.”
“Not my intention.”
“I wonder.”
“How did you leave things with Melvin?”
“That I very much wanted to see him again.”
“We still have a case to work,” he replied.
“I compartmentalize with the best of them. Speaking of the case, any revelations since we were last together?”
“Berkshire was a spy or a spy’s handler. Dabney may or may not have been her mole. We have no real record of her past ten years ago. She might not have been in this area all that time, but Dabney has. Same house, same wife, big family.”
“So you’re saying there’s an incongruity if we think Dabney and Berkshire were working together long-term?”
“You tell me. Do the spy and the handler need to be in the same place?”