Page 179 of The 6:20 Man

He perched on a chair opposite her. “That must’ve been a difficult conversation.”

“Well, at least it was a short one, since I hung up on her.”

“You’ve still got your retirement portfolio.”

“I’m not sure that’s going to be enough, Travis,” she said dully. “Apparently I’ve got a bull’s-eye on my back. You too.”

“Maybe, maybe not. They probably don’t want to make more waves. They know the big guns are out for their blood.”

She brushed the hair out of her face. “Do you really think so?”

“I can’t guarantee it, but the truth is these guys just care about getting their money clean and using it to buy property and people. And the fact is, we’re not that important, Michelle. They go somewhere else and set up shop, and the pipeline opens up again.” He sat back. “But that doesn’t get us any closer to figuring out who killed four people.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I was thinking of going back to the scene of Sara’s murder.”

“Can I come?” she said quickly.

“Why?”

“Because right now I don’t want to be alone.”

Devine hesitated.

“My ass is on the line too, Travis,” she snapped.

“Okay, let me clear it with Campbell before your security team freaks out.”

“After seeing what you did in Brad’s penthouse I feel safer with you than I do with them.”

He got permission from Campbell, and they left the hotel. Devine used his security card to get into the Cowl Building. It being a weekend and the firm probably going under, the place was pretty much empty. They rode the elevator up to the fifty-second floor and got off. Devine led Montgomery over to the storage closet and opened the door.

“That’s where she was found?” said Montgomery.

“Yes. By the custodian. She was hanging from that pipe you can see in the ceiling. The chair was knocked over. Her shoes were on the floor. They tried to make it look like suicide but failed.”

She glanced nervously at him. “Murder disguised as suicide, like Brad was talking about with you and those men in the Army who died?”

“That’s a long story that I hope one day to be able to share with you, but not right now.”

“And the guy who found Sara’s body?”

“Jerry Myers, the custodian who works here. Freaked him out. There was no one else on the floor because there was an all-hands-on-deck seminar at the Ritz that morning. And the admin folks hadn’t arrived yet.”

“Is that a coincidence?” said Montgomery. “That her body was found on the morning when no one would be up here?”

“I don’t think so. I believe it was planned that way, which smacks of inside information.”

“When was Ewes killed again?”

“The previous night, between like midnight and four.”

“So whoever killed her was long gone by the next morning. But you got the email in the morning telling you about her being dead.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, I doubt whoever killed her snuck back up in that time window you were talking about to look at the crime scene so they could write you that email. They already knew what it looked like.”