“After he leaves, Seth falls asleep; a cat comes in and eats a rat,” Nelson continued. “Then Seth gets out of the handcuffs, writes a note, and leaves the room. We know from the cops who went to investigate the scene that Seth wrote a note saying that he was going home.”
“The missing person lists a missing cat,” Fran said. “Some kind of pricey cat that Panteli Jr. was breeding.”
Wondering if that was the cat Seth had spoken of, Ava gave Nelson a vague nod. Leslie’s face soured at the idea of breeding a cat. The air began to feel thick with judgment.
“So NYPD think Panteli Jr. is dead,” Nelson said. “They’re sure it wasn’t Seth because they have him on video. He denies knowing anything about it.”
Nelson shrugged.
“Last week, O’Malley had meetings with every crime family in New York, except the Pantelis,” Ava said. “I was so worried that these bloody murderers would kill him, but he came through it unscathed. You should have seen everyone at the party. Mob bosses chatting with Mexican Cartel while their kids play together. NYPD standing around eating hotdogs. It was surreal and very O’Malley.”
“So what’s the deal with the Pantelis?” Fran asked. “I think we should do some research into that family.”
“Good thinking,” Ava said.
“On my list,” Nelson said.
“How’s the lab work going?” Ava asked Fran and Leslie.
“Good,” Fran said at the same time Leslie said, “Boring.”
They looked at Leslie.
“We’re just redoing what other qualified professionals did perfectly well before,” Leslie said with a shrug. “It’s a waste of time and money. You know how you were talking about someone helping Seurat with the letters?”
Ava nodded.
“There’s some smudged prints on the letters,” Leslie said.
“Of O’Malley’s?” Ava asked.
“No,” Leslie said with a laugh. “Take a breath, Ava.”
“There’s no evidence that O’Malley touched any of the letters,” Fran said. “Not anything. Maresol’s prints are on the envelopes along with a variety of unknown fingerprints — probably the mailman and people at the jail.”
“Anyway, we’re trying to clean up the prints, but it doesn’t look good,” Leslie said.
“I wonder how Seurat paid to mail the letters,” Ava said. “According to the background information, he was basically homeless, with no family. He was in and out of institutions until he was eighteen years old. So who paid?”
“We figured the Pantelis were paying for his lawyer,” Bob said.
“I wonder if anyone knows,” Ava said. “Seems like he’s been a part of the Panteli family since his mom, Delilah, was killed. So why didn’t he get a pricey lawyer for his first trial?”
Ava shook her head.
“There’s something here that we’re missing,” Ava said. “Can you get the records from Seurat’s time in institutions?”
“As a kid?” Nelson asked.
Ava nodded.
“Legal or no?” Nelson asked.
“If you hav-ta ask . . .” Fran and Leslie said in unison. Nelson laughed.
“What are you tracking, Ava?” Bob asked.
“I guess I’m just wondering about all of this,” Ava said. “It’s a tremendous expense for . . .”
Ava shrugged.
“I wondered if there was something that might have happened when Seurat lived with the Pantelis,” Ava said. “Something that would make all of this make sense.”
Her eyes faded out of the room and she sucked in a breath. No one said anything for a moment.
“Maybe I’ve been around O’Malley too long but . . .” Ava said and stopped talking. She shook her head. “Maybe it’s just gas.”
“What is it?” Bob asked gently.
“I’ve been wondering about all of this,” Ava said. “Like I said. I get that we have a vested interest to make sure the forensics are good, but why would Seurat waste his time? We think that in that last letter, he was saying that he was going to kill O’Malley and me. We know he had a bone-marrow transplant, and that he’s better, healthier. He could live another twenty or thirty years.”
“Unless he’s not well,” Fran said. “He might just want to get all of his murders out in the open, gain the attention, because he knows he’ll be dead soon.”
Ava nodded but still looked worried.
“Why does this bother you so much?” Bob asked.
“I don’t have an answer for that,” Ava said. “I guess . . .well . . .”
“Well?” Bob asked.
“It feels like something is off,” Ava said. “You know, like all of the pieces are here but we’re not looking at them correctly. I wondered if Seurat killed someone while in the care of the Pantelis. They covered it up and sent him off to prison. But now . . . I mean, what’s the end goal here? To let this monster out of prison?”
Ava shook her head.
“Unless . . .” Ava said and stopped talking.
They watched Ava while she thought it through.
“What if they need Seurat to do something?” Ava asked. “What would that be?”
“Kill O’Malley and you,” Fran said with a shrug.
“It sounds like Panteli Jr. had O’Malley,” Leslie said. “He could have easily killed Seth. It could take months to find him in that abandoned subway station. From what Nelson said, Panteli Jr. only wanted information.”
“Maybe he didn’t get there,” Fran said. “You know, someone interrupted him before he could kill Seth?”
“There’s a cheery thought,” Bob said with a scowl to Fran.
She gave a slight shrug.
“Nelson, do you remember what Panteli Jr. wanted information about?” Ava asked.
“Honestly? No,” Nelson said. “I couldn’t really figure out what it was about.”
“Can you send a copy of the file to the film guys at the FBI?” Ava asked. “If you send it now, we’ll have it in the morning.”
“Why?” Leslie asked. “Don’t you think he’s just asking about this knife?”
“I thought so,” Ava said. “But . . . what if this entire thing — Delilah, Delmer, Seurat — is a smoke screen, something to get us chasing our tails.”
Her team looked at her and blinked.
“We’re expecting you to tell us more,” Bob said.
“Oh,” Ava said, and blushed. “I guess I was thinking about Seurat’s blood disorder. Most of those disorders are genetic. We’d have to track down Delilah’s family, but, well, I don’t know the facts, but . . .”
“But?” Bob asked.
“Okay, this is what I was thinking,” Ava said. “It’s kind of crazy, so . . .”
“Go ahead,” Nelson said.
“We’re dying of the suspense,” Leslie said.
Ava chuckled.
“Okay, okay — if you insist,” Ava said with a grin. “I wondered why the Pantelis didn’t come to Seth’s meetings to divide up Big Daddy’s businesses. According to Seth, every other crime family was there. Some of them were there to pick up business, and some of them were there out of curiosity. No Pantelis. And he invited them to attend — the Pantelis, I mean.
“Then, we were talking about Seurat having a blood disease as a child,” Ava said. “Most of those blood diseases are genetic variations. I can’t remember them all . . .”
She pointed at Nelson.
“On it,” Nelson said.
“ . . . but from what I remember, they come on in childhood and can be managed with blood or red blood cells. They are ‘cured’ by bone-marrow transplant,” Ava said. “Then Nelson was talking about this old man interrogating Seth. I wondered why an elderly man, head of a mob family, would do the work himself and then . . .”
Ava made a circular motion near her ears around her head and added, “It just all came together in my head.”
Ava didn’t say anything for a moment.
“What if the Pantelis don’t have an heir?
” Ava asked.
“Holy crap,” Leslie said. “The Pantelis are the carriers.”
“They don’t have an heir because their children have this blood disease,” Fran said.
“Like Seurat,” Ava said. “Not necessarily deadly, but certainly the heir wouldn’t ever be well enough to take over the family business.”
“They get Seurat a bone-marrow transfusion, but maybe it’s not an exact match,” Fran said. “It’s close, as close as they can get, but not perfect. Seurat gets a new lease on life, and they get to test it to see if it would work for this heir.”
“Exactly,” Ava said. “Seurat gets to be front and center one last time. Gets a chance to threaten me and O’Malley again, confess to more murders, revel in the spotlight.”
“I’d bet you twenty bucks that Panteli Jr. thought his son was sick because of something Delilah did or something in her family,” Nelson said.
“I’d bet you twenty bucks that that ‘home’ that Seurat went to was to treat this thing, whatever it is,” Fran said with a nod. “We need to track down where that was.”
“I’m on it,” Nelson said.
Fran nodded.
“Any idea what blood disorder he has?” Ava asked.
“You know how Seurat looks so weird?” Nelson asked. “Short, odd face, weird hands, cleft palate?”
“They told us in the initial briefing that Seurat’s cleft palate was re-fixed in prison,” Leslie said with a shrug. “He doesn’t look as weird now.”
“Well, so wait,” Nelson said. “After seeing Seth’s interview, you know, from the library, I wondered if I could fix the video. You know how Seth said that we could probably get a lot more now?”
The team became almost too silent as they were thinking. Nelson gave a slight nod.
“It’s not like TV, and I’m certainly not the FBI film team,” Nelson said. “I mean, I couldn’t make it perfect, but you can see more. Well . . .”
Nelson set his laptop on the table, and the team gathered around so they could see.
“Okay, see what you think,” Nelson said.
The video showed a man with dark hair they believed was Seurat. The dark-haired man was talking to the man they knew as Victim One. The dark-haired man said something and they saw a flash of compassion cross Victim One’s face. Victim One laughed and walked out of the gas station store. He held the door for the dark-haired man. The dark-haired man seemed to say something else, and Victim One smiled. Victim One took out a twenty-dollar bill and gave it to the dark haired man. The dark haired man seemed to refuse but took it in the end. They then went their separate ways. A moment after Victim One and Victim Two left the gas station, an old truck that they knew to be Seurat’s followed Victim One’s car out of the gas station.
“What do you think?” Nelson asked.
“To me,” Leslie said. As their most observant team member, they let her speak first. “Well . . . This is Victim One, right?”
Leslie backed up the video to the moment she was referring to and pointed to the man.
“Right,” Nelson said. “I’ve matched his face to facial recognition. That’s Seurat. I used a side profile, but it’s definitely him. Those are his ears.”
“Okay, I see that Seurat uses his deformity to gain compassion from this victim,” Leslie said. “Whatever he says to Victim One here . . .” Leslie ran the tape forward. “It elicits a compassionate response from Victim One. He feels badly for Seurat — so much so that he gives Seurat money.”
First to jump in, Bob moved in front of the laptop to run the video himself.
“That’s how he gets them,” Leslie said with a nod.
“People feel sorry for the deformed, disabled man,” Nelson said. “This gets him close enough to the victims to capture, detain, and torture them.”
No one said anything for a moment.
“That’s how he lures them in,” Ava said.
“Yes,” Leslie said, pointing to the laptop. “That’s what I saw happening there.”
“Any idea what’s wrong with him?” Fran asked.
“I’d bet he has Diamond-Blackfan anemia,” Nelson said. “It causes all the deformity, requires regular blood transfusions, and is generally fixed by a bone marrow transfusion.”
“Okay, if we’re placing bets,” Ava said, “I’d bet that he’s dying. That’s his twist on the Pantelis. They’ve got to figure out what’s wrong with Seurat to save someone else.”
“The CBI took those samples,” Leslie said. “We should know in the morning.”
“Let’s see if I’ve got this,” Bob said. “Panteli Jr. beats Delilah nearly to death because his son is sick. He thinks it’s her fault. Later in life, he has a legitimate child or possibly a grandchild, with the same disease. Which is why they don’t participate in taking over Big Daddy’s businesses.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Ava said.
“Some time ago, they get Seurat this bone-marrow transplant to see if it might save this grandchild or whatever,” Bob said. “In return for being a guinea pig, Seurat gets a lawyer and an appeal.”
“Do we know who paid for all of that?” Leslie asked.
“It’s on my list,” Nelson said.
“It’s probably Panteli Jr.,” Ava said.
“Okay, so Seurat gets a second chance at life and a chance to fuck with Seth and be on-stage again,” Bob said. “That’s Seurat’s buy in.”
“Sure,” Ava said.
“So what don’t we know?” Bob asked.
“Who’s paying for all of this with Seurat?” Leslie asked.
“How Seurat received this treatment in a maximum-security prison when it’s not in his official medical files?” Nelson asked.
“Outside of genetics, we don’t really know what Seurat’s relationship to the Pantelis is,” Leslie said. “Is he a beloved family member? Is he an embarrassment? I mean, for that family, not being a murderer would leave you uninvited for Thanksgiving.”
“True,” Bob said.
“Why did Panteli Jr. grab Seth?” Ava asked.
“Was he going to kill Seth?” Bob asked.
“Where is Panteli Jr.?” Nelson asked.
“We don’t know about the Diamond-Blackfan Anemia, if that’s even what he has,” Leslie said. “Or his current health status. Ava postulated that Seurat is dying, and so he pushed this to happen.”
“Oh, I see,” Ava said. “You’re saying that Panteli Jr. picked up Seth because Seth’s in town, not because of this thing with Seurat.”
“Could be,” Leslie said.
Ava nodded.
“Who gave the bone marrow for Seurat?” Nelson asked.
“We need the records from the home,” Fran said.
“The results from the CBI tests,” Leslie said.
“So we’re in the middle of everything,” Ava said.
She fell silent, and her team watched her. She sighed.
“To me, the real question is, ‘What did the Pantelis expect to get from all of this with Seurat?’” Ava asked. “Certainly not redemption. He’s been in prison for more than a decade. I don’t remember seeing them at the trial, either. I never heard of this connection between the Panteli family and Seurat until now. I don’t know every little detail, but, if they were close, I should have at least heard about it.”
“Whose life are they trying to save?” Bob asked.
“What does Panteli Jr. think that Seth knows?” Ava asked. “For that matter . . .”
Ava fell silent. She felt a stab of anxiety. She bit her lip and scowled.
“What does killing Seth and Claire and R.J. and Bernice get Panteli Jr.?” Ava asked in a low voice. “What do they know?”
“What does he think they know?” Nelson asked.
“Okay, I must insist that we set this aside,” Bob said. “We have brownies and some special chocolate cake from Spammy. We’re not going to answer all of these questions tonight. We need rest, because tomorrow is likely to be brutal.”
Every
one except Ava nodded.
“Do we have forks?” Bob asked.
“Here,” Fran said.
She passed a plastic fork to everyone.
“Let’s have dessert and call it a night,” Bob said. When Ava didn’t respond, he said, “Ava? Are you with us?”
Ava smiled and got up to get a brownie. They ate brownies and shared the special chocolate cake. They drank the rest of the bourbon and laughed. One at a time, everyone left for bed, leaving Bob and Ava in her room.
“What is it?” Bob asked.
“I’m just terrified for O’Malley,” Ava said. “He, Claire, R.J . . . What if Seth’s luck runs out?”
“Why would it?” Bob asked. Ava didn’t look at him. “You have to know that is an equally valid question. Seth has been incredibly lucky in his life. He has a lot of friends — everywhere. He’s always shared his luck, giving him an army of people who want to help him and usually do. What’s more likely is that someone will come out of the woodwork to save the day.”
Ava gave Bob a distracted nod. Bob leaned down to kiss her cheek and left for his room. Ava stayed awake for a long time. She was just about to get up to go to bed when she woke up. She was still sitting on the couch, and her alarm was blaring in her room. She went for a run, showered, dressed, and went to find her team.
|-||-|||-||-|||-||-|||-||-|||-||-|||-||-|||-||-|||
Twenty-Three
Seth awoke the next morning when the cat batted at his head. He opened his eyes and petted the creature. They’d retrieved the cat from the vet on their way home from the Bethune Towers. Claire had planned to keep the cat, but it became upset whenever Seth left Claire’s apartment. Exhausted, Seth took the cat back to his apartment where she made a bee-line for his bed. Seth changed into his pajamas and got in bed next to her. He was fast asleep until the cat awakened him.
Wearing his pajamas, he carried the cat to the litter box Claire had set up in his pantry. When she finished her business, he fed her something that smelled disgusting but had been recommended by the vet. With Claire’s daughter, Melissa, in Boston, R.J. was asleep in the second bedroom.
Seth started the coffee and went to shower. Not sure what he was doing today, he dressed in jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt with a thick blue sweater knitted by his friend and oracle, Delphie. He came out of his bedroom to find Inspector Oscar Dekay sitting at his table, drinking his coffee. R.J. was in the bathroom.
The Cigarette Killer Page 18