The service was short. The minister didn’t have much to say about Gordon, mostly talked about how his death would affect his parents. Near the end of the service, Dan could feel someone staring at him. He turned and spotted a man sitting in a late-model Buick. The guy was definitely staring at him and, as Dan stared back, he couldn’t help feeling that he had seen this man before. Then he remembered where.
Somehow he kept himself under control and nodded to the detective who returned his nod. He forced himself to face forward. The minister’s words blurred together into a monotonous hum. As he swallowed, he could feel a fuzziness coating his throat, then a coldness pushing hard into his skull. A shadow fell over his eyes and the world started to slip sideways on him.
I’m going to pass out right here, Dan thought. Well, fuck it, let them think I was overcome with grief.
But he knew the cop wouldn’t think that.
The moment passed. Gripping the seat of his chair with both hands, he kept himself upright. While his heart was beating wildly, he knew he was no longer going to pass out. He just had to think this through. It made perfect sense for that cop to come here. Why should he have expected anything different? And as far as that cop now connecting him to Gordon, so what? It didn’t matter. They had already pinned the robbery and shootings on Raymond Lombardo. So now he just had to stay calm…
“Are you okay?”
He turned to Carol. “I don’t know, I was just thinking about Gordon,” he said. “I’ll be okay.”
Carol took hold of his hand and squeezed it.
The service ended. He didn’t want to walk back to Peyton’s SUV and have to pass that cop. Instead, he wandered over to the minister and engaged him in small talk. He was trying to steel himself for what was coming when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Dan Wilson?”
Dan turned, forcing a confused smile as he looked back at the cop. “I thought you looked familiar. Detective…?”
“Alex Resnick.”
“That’s right.”
Carol was looking on. Dan introduced her to Resnick and told her he had met Resnick the other day when he met with Brown, that the detective was investigating the bank robbery.
“Anything I can help you with?” he asked.
“This is quite a coincidence,” Resnick said. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Small world, huh? Gordon and I were good friends. We worked off and on together for almost twenty years.”
“I saw his obituary had him as an engineer. So he was a computer programmer like you?”
“Software engineer, that’s right.”
Resnick glanced around. “Doesn’t look like he had many other friends.”
“Connecticut is a fair hike from Boston.”
“I’m sure plenty of people from his community theater would’ve come if the funeral were closer,” Peyton’s wife, Wendy, volunteered.
Resnick raised an eyebrow as he turned to her. “Community theater? Was Gordon an actor?”
“No, nothing like that. He was some sort of makeup guru.”
“No kidding?”
“He’s been doing community theater for years.”
“I saw on the news you caught the guy behind the robbery,” Dan said.
“It looks that way.”
“That’s a relief. At least the guy will pay for what he did.” Dan paused. “Did he tell you yet how he broke the security system?”
Resnick shook his head.
“I’m still studying the software and I think I’m close to figuring it out,” Dan said. “As I thought, a backdoor was added. A pretty clever one, actually. I need a little more time to finish things up. Maybe another day. With some luck I’ll be able to meet with Craig Brown again on Monday.”
Resnick smiled thinly. “That was quick.”
“Not really. I’m pretty good at what I do.”
Peyton put a hand around Dan’s shoulder. “This guy’s being modest. He’s one of the best.”
Resnick looked past them towards Gordon’s parents. “I don’t want to hold you guys up,” he said. Looking at Carol, he asked if he could reach her at the same number Dan had given him.
“I’d hope so since I’m living at home with my husband.” Carol moved closer to Dan, her grip tightening on his arm.
Resnick took a notepad and pen from his inside jacket pocket and handed it to Peyton, asking if he could write down his and his wife’s names, along with a phone number and address in case he needed to contact them. After Peyton handed him back the notepad, Resnick excused himself, telling them he needed to have a few words with Gordon’s parents.
On their way back to the SUV, Peyton and Wendy commented on the police showing up at the funeral. Dan couldn’t pay attention to what they were saying. All he could think about was the glint in Resnick’s eyes when Wendy mentioned that Gordon used to do makeup for a community theater. The way Carol gripped his arm, he had a sick feeling she had noticed that glint also.
26
Resnick didn’t believe in coincidences. Fate he believed in, and he had no doubt that it was fate that sent him to Carmichael’s funeral. As soon as he spotted Dan Wilson, he knew the guy was involved somehow and when he heard about Carmichael’s community theater work, he started to get an idea how.
Resnick couldn’t help shaking his head as it occurred to him that Wilson had forced the bank to pay him thirty-two grand to find a backdoor that he had snuck in himself. No kidding he found it so quickly.
As he drove back to Massachusetts, Resnick realized what it was about the robbery videotape that had been bothering him. In his mind he played back the scene of the second victim, Mary O’Donnell, being kicked over on to her back. Concentrating, he slowed it down, seeing it play out frame by frame. As if a pause button had been hit, the scene froze on the gunman’s foot being raised. Then a close-up of the sneaker the gunman wore. Then on the logo.
Fuck…
In his mind’s eye he could see the logo as clear as day. The one star logo used by Converse. He had Carmichael’s report memorized.
Victim at time of death was wearing Grateful Dead T-shirt, khaki-colored short pants, white Converse basketball sneakers…
Resnick pulled the Buick over to the access lane and called the Lynn Memorial Hospital using his cell phone. He’d been contacting the hospital regularly, keeping up with Mary O’Donnell’s progress, and knew she was now expected to recover. He was put on hold for several minutes and then transferred to a Dr. Carl Warner. O’Donnell was now alert and able to talk, but since Resnick still had a three-hour drive to get back to Lynn he wouldn’t be able to see her until the next day. Even then, Dr. Warner didn’t want Resnick to spend more than five minutes with her. Resnick agreed to Warner’s request and arranged a time when he could see her.
He swung back on to the highway. Images from the robbery videotape popped into his mind. He could picture the person who had masqueraded as Raymond Lombardo stopping after the robbery to take off his ski mask. There was no question that the person had posed for the camera, and Dan Wilson would’ve known where the security cameras were located. He was about the same height as Lombardo and had a similar body type, maybe thirty pounds lighter, but that could’ve been taken care of by some padding under the overalls. The makeup job was first rate, especially the nose and jaw. There was no reason that couldn’t have been Dan Wilson.
So Wilson had fixed the software so it would break. If he could’ve done that, he could have also hacked into the bank’s records and discovered who owned which safety deposit boxes. He had to have done some homework, found out who Petrenko was and then come up with his plan. Break into Petrenko’s boxes and frame Raymond Lombardo for the robbery. It was damn clever. Wilson must’ve guessed that Petrenko wouldn’t be able to report what was stolen from him; likewise, that the FBI and police wouldn’t give up on the Lombardo frame unless they were forced to.