“But what does that have to do with Oliver?”
“Well, you see . . . I want to take the café with Oliver, but he has meeting to go to.”
“Meeting, what sort of meeting?”
“Ah, that is what I say. What sort of meeting in middle of night? But off he go. Now, me, I am angry with this. Meeting and no café? So I pretend to go away, but I see him get in cab. And I get in cab too. I have money, I too can take cab.”
“Of course, of course,” Kate said. “What happened next?”
“I follow him to Georgetown. He get out, so I get out. He walk to river. I walk to river. And then I see his friends he meet with. I see what they do.”
“What!” Kate said it so loudly that she startled Adelphia.
“They get in old boat and they row out to island, that is what they do.”
“And then what did you do?”
“I take cab and go back. I not wait for them. And I not swim to island. I go back in cab. I get my café, and I see Agent Fort when he come by for Oliver.” Adelphia started to tear up. “And then I see TV and dead man.”
“And you’re sure it was the same night?”
“They say on TV. It is same night.”
“Adelphia, you say you don’t believe that Oliver did anything wrong. And yet you saw them row out to that island, and then a man was killed there.”
“They say he killed by gun. Oliver no has gun.”
“You can’t be sure of that. And what about the others? His friends?”
Adelphia laughed. “I know these men. Except for the big one, they are little frightened mice. One, he work at library. He love books. He has brought me some. The other one, he checks things.”
“Checks things?”
“You know he counts and hums and whistles and grunts. I know not what it was, but Oliver say it to me. He call it OD, something like that.”
“OCD?”
“That is it.”
“Do you know their names? The friends?”
“Oh, yes, this I know. The bookman, his name is Caleb Shaw. Sometime he dress in old clothes. Oliver say it is hobby. I say little bookman he is crazy.”
“And the others?”
“The counting one, he is Milton Farb. He is smart that one. He tell me things about the world I not know.”
“And you mentioned the ‘big one’?”
“Yes. Shifty pants. His name is Reuben, Reuben Rhodes. Rhodes like in Greece is how I remember.”
“So what do you think happened on that island? If none of them killed the man?”
“Do you not know?” Adelphia said breathlessly. She lowered her voice and said, “It is they see who did it. They see killer.”
Kate sat back against the bench. Her first thought was she had to tell Alex about all this. But then she wondered if that would be wise. Doubtless his first reaction would be to come back. That would get him in even more trouble with the Service. And she didn’t know if anything Adelphia was telling her was true. She had a sudden thought.
“Adelphia, would you mind coming with me to look at something?”
“Where?” Adelphia asked suspiciously.
“It’s nearby. I promise it won’t take long.”
Adelphia reluctantly agreed, and they drove to a parking lot near the Georgetown waterfront.
Kate said, “Can you describe this boat you saw them in?”
“It was long, about twelve feet maybe. And old. It all rotted. They take it from old junkyard down that way,” she added, pointing south.
Kate led her over to the river wall. “I want you to stay here.” She slipped down some rocks located to the side of the seawall and reached the drainage port. “If you lean over a little, I think you can see it all right.” She pulled some brush out of the way, exposing the bow as Adelphia leaned over.
“Is this the boat you saw them in?”
“Yes, that is boat.”
Oh, my God.
CHAPTER
49
OLIVER STONE WAITED OUTSIDE the high-rise condo building, watching well-dressed people emerge from the building and head off, probably to work, given the number of briefcases he saw. And then she came out. Jackie Simpson carried only a small purse over her shoulder. She didn’t look at Stone as she passed by. He waited a suitable time and followed her. His strides were long and hers short, so he had to constantly slow down. A couple of times he thought about approaching her, but both times something happened which had never happened to him before: He lost his nerve. However, when she stopped to buy a newspaper from a box, she spilled her change. He rushed to help her, laying the coins in her outstretched palm. His breath quickened when he saw it, but he merely smiled when she thanked him and walked off.
When she arrived at WFO, he stopped and watched her go in the building.
Petite, olive complexion and an attitude. He’d known a woman just like that once.
He turned and headed to a Metro station. He had a very important meeting to go to. Emerging from the subway at an agreed-upon spot, he found the other members of the club waiting for him.
They had decided that the safest way for Milton to retrieve his record of the break-in was to be escorted to his house by the security firm that had responded to the silent alarm. Arrangements were made, and Milton, followed at a discreet distance by the rest of the Camel Club in Caleb’s Malibu, met two guards near his home, and the three men went in together.
About thirty minutes later Milton joined up with his friends, and they sat in Caleb’s car.
Stone said, “Did you get it?”
Milton nodded and slipped a DVD out of his knapsack. “It was activated, so presumably there’s something on it.”
He popped it in his laptop, and a minute later they were looking at the darkened interior of Milton’s house.
“There!” Stone said, pointing at a man coming around the corner.
“That’s Reinke,” Caleb exclaimed.
“And there’s his confederate,” Reuben added. “The one you nailed with the helmet, Oliver.”
They continued to watch, seeing the pair move stealthily from room to room.
“My God, Milton,” Reuben said sarcastically. “You’re quite the Messy Marvin at home, aren’t you?”
“What’s he pulling out of that bin?” Caleb asked.
Milton ran that part again. “That looks like my receipt box, but I can’t see what the paper is.”
“Look, there’s the security guard,” Stone said.
They watched as the man advanced, and then something flew out of the darkness at him and he crumpled.
“What the hell was that?” Reuben asked.
“A man in a mask,” Stone said. “At least one of them had the good sense to burglarize the place without showing his face.”
“But it wasn’t Reinke and the other guy,” Milton said.
“Which clearly means there’s someone else,” Stone said slowly. “But this tape gives us the leverage that we—” He was cut off by the buzzing of Milton’s cell phone.
Milton answered, “Oh, hi, Chastity.” Then his expression changed in a hurry. “What! Oh, my God! What are you talking abou—”