Page 146 of The 6:20 Man

CHAPTER

63

DEVINE WOULD NOT BE TAKING the 6:20 in that morning. He knew that as soon as he saw Detectives Shoemaker and Ekman waiting for him at the Mount Kisco train station. Shoemaker tapped out a smoke and both men came forward.

“Pretty early for you guys to be all the way out here.”

“Come on, we’ll drive you to work this morning, Devine, courtesy of NYPD,” said Ekman.

His tone was friendlier, which bothered Devine greatly. Was it just a façade before the hammer came down?

They started off, Devine in the rear seat. He was waiting for the question and it wasn’t long in coming. He just needed to pull off the surprised part.

“Fred and Ellen Ewes are dead.” Before Devine could reply in a shocked manner, Ekman turned and looked at him. “We know you already know.”

Devine nearly swallowed his tongue on that one.

“And we know you got an alibi. We talked to your ‘friend’ Helen Speers. You were with her at the town house during the time in question.”

“You talked to Helen? When?”

“That’s none of your concern,” pointed out Shoemaker. “I thought you’d be thrilled she’d provided an alibi.”

“So is that when they were killed?” he asked.

Ekman nodded. “Between eleven and one that night, yeah. Stabs to the heart. Died pretty quickly. But whoever it was just kept right on stabbing them. It was damn vicious. I’ve been doing this job a long time. It was one of the worst I’ve seen.”

Shoemaker said, “You have friends in high places. You should have told us.”

“I would if I could have.”

“So three people dead who were connected to Sara Ewes, who was also murdered. And what was her sin?”

“She was connected to Brad Cowl, who has disappeared.”

“So, he killed her?”

“He was probably in the building that night. He got a call that I believe was from Stamos on the night she was killed. He headed out in time to murder her. Her phone records should show that.”

“And why would he do that?”

“My friends in high places didn’t enlighten you?”

“The only message we got was that you were a good guy on a government mission and to have your back.”

Ekman added, “So, what’s so special about Cowl?”

“Some things have come to light. But I can’t share them with you. Not that I don’t want to, but fruit-of-a-tainted-tree sort of thing. If I infect the cops with it, the case is dead and the man walks.”

Ekman nodded. “Okay, that makes sense. So, Cowl is a bad guy. Is his money dirty, is that what this is about?”

“It’s not his money. It belongs to other people. People from outside this country. And that’s really all I can say. If the folks above me want to say more, that’s up to them.”

Ekman and Shoemaker exchanged a look. Ekman said, “Okay, but we’re homicide. Financial crimes are another division. We just want whoever killed these people. And it looks like it’s Cowl to you?”

“Or someone working for him. Rich guys don’t usually do the deed, do they? They hire others to do it. Like that Hancock guy. Speaking of, why would he focus on me out of all people?”

“We don’t know,” said Ekman.