CHAPTER
52
TO SAY COWL AND COMELY was like a morgue might have been an understatement, Devine thought.
Everyone looked on edge. Everyone looked like they wanted to be somewhere else.
Me included.
The firm had had an all-hands-on-deck meeting at nine o’clock in the largest conference room. Surprisingly, Brad Cowl didn’t speak. He wasn’t even there. Neither did the mysterious Anne Comely pop out of a cake and give her two cents’ worth to the troops. Instead, one of the top executives provided scant information about the crime.
Stamos had been found in her bedroom. The police had not released any information on how she had died. When someone asked who had found her and called the police, the executive said he didn’t know. The firm was providing counselors for anyone who wanted them.
And that was about it. Everyone went back to work.
And that included Devine, until a message dropped into his personal mailbox.
And there goes Jennifer. It was only a matter of time. You can only love one person. After that, you love and lose. And she lost. I will spare you the more intimate details. It wasn’t pretty. And it wasn’t fun. But it had to be.
Devine stared dully at the message. Again, he didn’t recognize the sender. It was just a series of numbers like last time.
Devine texted Montgomery, asking if she could meet him for lunch in the city. She texted back in the affirmative and he ducked out of the office around twelve thirty.
They met roughly halfway between the Cowl Building and her walk-up in SoHo. Montgomery had on white jeans and a blue short-sleeved blouse. Her features were strained and her eyes were puffy.
Devine had a terrible thought. “Wait a minute, he didn’t—”
She held up a hand. “No, he didn’t force himself on me. I . . . I let him. I encouraged it, actually.”
“You didn’t have to do that, Michelle. When I said ‘distract him,’ I didn’t mean—”
“Then what did you mean?” she shot back. “For me to read him fucking poetry? As soon as I got back he grabbed the phone and was going to make a call. I had to think fast and that was the only thing I could think of.”
“God, I’m an idiot. I’m so sorry.”
“Just . . . just forget it. It’s over and done with. It’s not like I haven’t screwed the guy before. It’s the only reason he has me around.”
“You’re taking this pretty calmly.”
“Sex is sometimes just sex, Travis, okay? Men look at it differently than women. So long as I controlled things and it ended on my terms, I can deal with it. So please just deal with it too, okay?”
“Okay,” he said quickly.
They went inside a small brick-faced café, sat at a table in the back, and ordered. After they got their drinks Montgomery said, “Did you get what you were looking for on that floor?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on?”
“Transfers of money in amounts that are beyond belief. And that money is being distributed to lots of different entities, which, in turn, use it for other purposes.”
“But isn’t that what Brad’s company does? What all those companies do?”
“Not like this.” He took a sip of his iced tea. “Something about this has me confused.”
“Just one thing? Wow, you’re way ahead of me.”
Devine continued, “I was sure that Cowl had framed me in connection with Sara’s murder, cloning my security card and putting me on the security video around the time of her death.”