Smoke in Mirrors

computer screen when he took the call.
    “Stovall here.”
    “This is Walker. Thomas Walker. I know you don’t want to listen to any more conspiracy theories tonight, but if the Walker brothers and their associates are right about this one, Elissa may be in grave danger.”
    “Not anymore.”
    “Hear me out, Ed. There’s a chance that Osmond Kern shot Alex Rhodes tonight to cover up a murder that was committed thirty years ago.”
    “You know something, Walker? You’re good at this detective stuff. Maybe you should consider a career in law enforcement.”
    There was a beat of silence. Ed could hear the sounds of a crowd and easy jazz. The Walkers were in the Wings of Fire Pub. He wouldn’t mind being there right now himself. He didn’t drink much normally, but he could have used a shot of something strong right at that moment.
    “Am I missing something here?” Thomas asked finally.
    “I’ll make sure Elissa is safe tonight, but I don’t think there’s anything more for any of us to worry about.”

    “What makes you so damn sure she’s safe, Ed? I know you really like the idea that the shooter is on his way out of town but are you willing to bet Elissa’s life on it?”
    “The shooter isn’t on his way out of town,” Ed said. He could feel the weariness all the way to his bones but he wouldn’t give in to it. There was no way he would get any sleep tonight. “I don’t know where Kern is yet, but I expect to find him soon.”
    “Kern?” Thomas paused a beat, as if he was quickly reevaluating the situation. “Are you saying you believe that Kern was the killer? How did you put it together?”
    “I didn’t. Not until Elissa called me a few minutes ago to tell me that her father had disappeared. He left a suicide note.” Ed gazed down at the words on the screen. “He wrote it on his computer. Elissa found it when she got home from the concert tonight.”
    “Suicide,” Thomas repeated neutrally.
    “Suicide?” a woman said on the other end of the line, her voice muffled against the noisy backdrop of the pub.
    “What is it? What’s going on?”
    Probably Leonora Hutton, Ed thought. Sitting next to Walker, listening in on the conversation.
    “Kern and his boat are both missing,” Ed said. “Looks like he took it out tonight after he returned from Rhodes’s house.”
    “Any sign of the gun?”
    “Right here in the study next to the computer.” He hesitated, pondering procedure, and then thought, the hell with it. The Walkers had been through a lot this past year. They were entitled. “I won’t give you all the details of the note, but between you and me, it looks like the whole thing went down pretty much as you and your brother figured. Starting way back with Eubanks.”
    “What about Bethany and Meredith?” Thomas asked.
    “It’s all here. Bethany Walker threatened to expose himas a fraud. So he slipped her some drugs and pushed her off that bluff. Six months later Meredith figured out what had happened and tried to blackmail him. He arranged to meet with her in California. Said he wanted to make a deal. A one-time payment and her promise to disappear. They met for dinner in a neutral location. A restaurant.”
    “He slipped the drugs into her food and then set up the accident?”
    “Yes. He hoped that would be the end of it. He assumed that everyone involved would continue to write off the Walker brothers’ wild theories. But things just got more complicated. Leonora Hutton arrived on the scene. And the next thing he knows Alex Rhodes tries to blackmail him.”
    “You’re sure about that?” Thomas said swiftly.
    “He mentions it in his note. Also, Elissa tells me that she went through some of Kern’s financial records recently and found indications of some transactions that she can’t identify. She’s almost positive they’re the blackmail payments.”
    “Why did Kern fall apart after murdering Rhodes?”
    Ed studied the screen. “Tonight he almost got caught in the act of murder. It was too close. He nearly botched it and he knew it. He says he realizes that it’s just a matter of time before it all comes crashing down on him. Says he can’t face the humiliation of having his colleagues and peers discover that he’s been living a lie for the past thirty years.”
    “How about having folks find out that he killed three people in addition to Sebastian Eubanks? That give him any problem?”
    “The way I read this note,” Ed said, conscious of Elissa