Page 125 of Fire and Bones

Half nodding, Deery hooked a thumb toward two cups bearing the little green Starbucks logo.

“I’ve made a breakthrough,” I said, wiggling the closest coffee free of its center console holder.

“As have I.”

Though bursting to share my news, I let Deery go first.

“A judge granted a warrant allowing me access to W-C Commerce.” The man came as close to effusive as I believe he was capable.

“The holding company that owns the two Foggy Bottom properties that were torched.”

“W-C stands for Warring-Clock.”

That surprised me. I thought the second initial would turn out to represent Warring’s associate, Bill Cady.

I lifted the small flap on the cup’s plastic lid and took a tentative sip. Flinched as the scalding liquid touched my lip.

Clock. Where had I heard that name?

Before my brain could cough up an answer, Deery provided one.

“Amon Clock was a Warring henchman who went by the nickname Alarm.”

“Yes! Alarm Clock dated a woman named Doris Gardner.” Disparate data bytes were toggling in my brain. “Gardner was killed during a shoot-out between Clock and a rival bootlegger.”

“Mmm.” Dismissive? “The relevant fact is that the sole living partner in W-C Commerce is Lloyd Emmitt Warring.”

“Lew. The man gunned down in his driveway last week.”

“The fires. The shooting. It’s become clear that someone is targeting the Warrings. What remains unclear is the reason. When I get to the why, I will get to the who.”

“I may have made a breakthrough with regard to motive.”

Deery regarded me with a face locked into skeptical angles.

“Doris Gardner died in 1944, leaving behind two daughters, Susan, age eight, and Sally, age six. In 1954, Susan Gardner married a man named Roger Lipsey. In 1961, the Lipseys had a daughter, Marilyn. Marilyn Lipsey married a man named Fenton Stoll and, in 1983, gave birth to your favorite twins, Roy and Ronan.”

“You know this how?”

I told him about the Lipsey-Stoll wedding announcement and my subsequent online research. One brow lifted slightly. In surprise? Approval?

“Doris is the great-grandmother of Ronan and Roy.” Deery grasped the link right away.

“Yes.”

“The twins who maintain a rather casual relationship with the truth.”

“Yes.”

“Susan Lipsey is their grandmother.”

“And their alibi.”

“Are you suggesting the arson and the drive-by are connected to Doris Gardner’s murder eighty years ago?”

“I’m suggesting they could be.”

“In your scenario, who is the doer?”