“Okay. Let’s narrow this down a bit,” I began. “I mean, do you really think Oprah’s hairstylist wanted to kill a senator?”

“Yeah, I know.” Ronnie sighed and brushed a strand of hair from her face. “I guess I went a little crazy. Then again, the woman did make his hair look ridiculous. But I see where you’re going with this.”

“There has to be a motive for murder. And I’m still not convinced it was anything more than a bad heart.” I held up two medical forms. “How in the hell did you get these?” Wasn’t anything confidential anymore?

“From another theorist.”

“Well, they prove that the man had a rotten ticker. And there’s a lot of stress in holding public office.”

“I know that, but something about the whole thing just doesn’t feel right. You know?”

“Fine. Let’s go through these names, then.”

The rest of the flight went quickly as we went through each name on her extensive list. Veronica was willing to concede that Anderson ’s elderly kindergarten teacher and his neighbors weren’t proper suspects. I had to admit, her notes were pretty thorough. Anderson did have a lot of enemies. There were a lot of people who felt he was too revolutionary in his ideas.

“All right. So we have it narrowed down to four people, and you have excellent penmanship.” I stretched my arms above my head. The shoulder was starting to heal now that I wasn’t taking a beating every day. “But I think your research is pretty one-sided.”

Veronica was making piles from the pages we sorted. “How so?”

“Well, you only have information from major newspapers, liberal magazines and networks here. What about alternative papers, independent radio, the international press?”

“Well, I admit I haven’t really gone that far.” She looked tired and more than a little concerned. I suppose I could’ve given her a hard time about the basic tenets of scholarly research, but I just couldn’t do it. She’d been through too much.

I pulled her close and silently held her in my arms until the plane landed.

Chapter Twenty-five

London. One of my favorite cities. I did some postgraduate work once upon a time there and loved it ever since. It was a city where history came alive and grappled with itself. I still had some valuable contacts there. And it gave me an idea.

“Who are you calling?” Veronica asked.

“A friend who can help you.” And hopefully take you off my hands and keep you safe while I flush out my vic.

A few minutes later, I was hustling Ronnie through the airport toward the baggage claim.

“Richard works for the Sentinel. It’s the largest independent paper in the world, and it can give you a more unbiased perspective,” I said as I hailed a taxi.

“He’s waiting for you at the door.” I told the driver where to take Veronica, and to see that she got there safely I threw in one hundred euros. “I’ll meet up with you later.”

Ronnie looked at me in a way that said she wasn’t sure about this idea. But I was. And I could feel it as I shut the door on her and smacked the cab, sending it on its way.

“Monty,” I said into the Bluetooth I’d just inserted. “Where is Vic?”

“Hey, Coney! It’s Jack!” Missi’s other twin greeted me on the phone. Great, now I’d have to explain what I was doing all over again.

“We’ve been following him on the airport security cameras ever since the plane landed. He’s in the shopping area,” Jack said before I could reply. “Did you know Mom’s a contestant on a reality show?”

“I heard that,” I said quickly as I made my way through the terminal. “Where in the shopping area?”

“Looks like a toy store or something. It’s hard to tell…Hold on. I’ll find out what toy stores are there and map it for you on the phone,” Jack said, and within seconds I could see a little red dot indicating Dekker’s position. It looked as though he was in a room about two hundred yards on my right.

“Keep it on until I make visual confirmation.”

“Roger that,” Jack answered. I was pretty impressed with the boys. I made a mental note to knit that bag Missi wanted using the cashmere I’d gotten from Mongolia.

It should be said that it isn’t easy walking fast without looking like you are walking fast. There really is only one place where everyone moves that way. And that is an airport. As I closed in on the location, I congratulated myself for getting rid of Ronnie and fulfilling my promise to her at the same time.

“You should be within range now.” Jackson ’s voice rang in my ear. Oh, yeah, the assignment.

“I see it,” I answered. Dekker was standing with his back to me. Apparently he didn’t think I would catch up to him. That was his fault for underestimating technology in a place as security conscious as an international airport.

I suppose I could have said something clever or tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. That’s what they do in movies. But that’s not how it is done in real life. I came up behind him and grabbed him by the neck. Forcing his head down I managed to make it connect with the table full of stuffed badgers in front of him.

Unfortunately for me, the table had stuffed badgers on it and I wasn’t able to stun him. Arje Dekker pushed up and back, shoving me into a display of fluffy bunnies. By the time I steadied myself, he’d turned around and realized who I was.

“ Bombay!” Dekker cried, and reached for something to throw at me.

I stood there in shock as a Slinky collided with my forehead. My hands felt around me and grasped something square and plastic. I whipped the Etch A Sketch at his head, the tablet careening off his chin. As he recovered from the blow, I grabbed him by the lapels and dragged him deeper into the store. I hoped there would be a back door somewhere, since I noticed we were drawing a small crowd.

Dekker kicked out, connecting with my left shin, and I dropped him for a second. That was all the time he needed to grab a weapon. Without thinking I pulled a similar item from a box. And that was how we ended up fighting a duel with plastic lightsabers.

We must have looked strange-two middle-aged men slashing away at each other with toy swords complete with sound effects. I managed to land the majority of blows and went for the final thrust, only to have the collapsible lightsaber, um, collapse. So I threw the handle at him and grabbed him again, dragging him toward the back wall.

Dekker reached out and snagged a display case. I threw him through it, causing no less than thirty or forty Teletubbies to begin singing nonsensically. By now I was getting worried. The shop probably had surveillance cameras, and we’d put on quite a show. In fact, I’d bet Jackson was laughing hysterically. I was a bit surprised none of the staff intervened or even rebuked us. No doubt airport security had been called.

I pulled Dekker by the collar toward the back door. It was a bathroom. No exit. Dekker shoved me backward and locked himself inside. Fantastic.

There was shouting in the distance. The authorities were on their way. Killing Vic was out of the question.

“Jack, can you do something about the surveillance cameras?” I asked quietly while taking off my jacket, and started messing with the doorknob. It was a simple lock, easy to pick if I had the right tools.

“Already did. They have nothing but static,” he responded. “It’s a neat little program Mom came up with…”

The boy was chatty, just like his mom. “Thanks, Jack. I’ll check in with you later.” I hung up, quickly found a chemistry set back at the toy store and punched through the box. Science kits usually have probes and other tools you can use to pick a lock. Unfortunately, the box had that plastic clamshell casing that keeps everything pretty and safe inside. I didn’t have time for this frustration. Ignoring the sharp edges that tore at my flesh, I ripped the plastic apart and retrieved the tools.