by C. M. Sutter
Colin nodded. “I’ll do anything to help.”
“That includes staying in Chicago. You can’t leave town until you’ve been cleared of any wrongdoing. Do you understand that?”
Colin looked at Lutz and said he did. “May I see Renee now?”
Bob stood and rounded the table. “I’ll call the medical examiner and see if that’s possible. Excuse me.”
Lutz walked out, then I turned to Colin. “If there’s anything at all you need to get off your chest, now would be the time to do it.”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t kill my wife, and I didn’t have her killed.”
I set down my pen. “Good enough.”
Lutz returned a minute later. “Our medical examiner said we can come down. This will be Renee’s official ID and will be recorded as such.”
Frank and I walked out behind Lutz and Colin Barstow. “Meanwhile, we’ll check in with Todd to see how it’s going.”
My cell rang as we were taking the stairs to the tech department. I nodded to Frank. “Go ahead, I’ll catch up with you.” The call was coming in from Steve, and I dreaded having to tell him we hadn’t found Charlotte’s killer yet. I couldn’t share my thoughts with my longtime buddy since our investigation involved not only Charlotte but also possibly three other victims. I took in a calming breath and answered even though I didn’t know what to tell him. “Steve.”
“Jesse. You’ve been making yourself scarce.”
I raked my hair as I took my time descending the stairs, then I stopped at the landing. “Nah, not on purpose. This is a tough case to crack, but we’re doing everything we can to solve it. Believe me, I’m not going to rest until we find your mom’s murderer.”
“And I appreciate you saying that. Any leads at all?”
“Maybe, and our tech department is working on that right now. I was heading downstairs to check on their progress when you called.”
“Okay, then I should let you get back at it.”
“Steve?”
“Yep?”
“We’re good, right?”
“We’re good, and I know you’ll find the killer. I don’t mean to be a pain.”
“You’re definitely not a pain, and you have every right to ask. We’re getting closer, that much I can tell you, and you’ll be the first person I call when something breaks.” I hung up and continued on.
Frank and Todd were already at the computer and viewing the recording when I walked in.
“Were you able to work your magic?” I asked as I approached them.
“Check this out, Jesse,” Frank said. “You aren’t going to believe what we’re looking at.”
Chapter 45
I picked up my pace as I crossed the room and looked over Frank and Todd’s shoulders. “What have we got?”
Frank pointed. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that sure as hell looks like a woman to me.”
I squinted as I stared at the screen, then I pulled my reading glasses from my chest pocket and slipped them on. Giving the screen a closer look, I stared into the face of what I agreed was a woman. “What the hell?”
The stocking cap was snugged down over her hair, but the person didn’t have a single male feature.
Todd pointed out the perp’s height compared to the door knocker. “A typical knocker is mounted about five feet from the bottom of the door. That’s a six-foot-tall woman we’re looking at.”
“And you’re one hundred percent sure it’s a woman?”
Todd frowned. “You aren’t?”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Yeah, I am, but this is completely blowing me away.”
Frank added his opinion. “But it explains how she was able to tip the bookcase over on Renee. She has height to use as leverage, and she might have emptied it of all the books first. That woman could be as strong as an average man.”
“This new revelation would likely exclude Colin as a suspect since I doubt if he would think to hire a woman as a hit man.” I took off my glasses, breathed a puff of air onto them, then wiped them with a tissue. I put them back on and stared at the screen again.
“Something bothering you, partner?”
“Yeah, there is. Her face seems familiar to me, but I don’t know why.”
Frank shrugged. “We come across a lot of people in our line of work, Jesse.”
“I know.” I jerked my chin at the computer. “Load her up in the facial recognition program, Todd, and see if you get a hit.”
“You bet, and I’ll do that right now. It won’t take long to see if she’s in the system, and I’ll call you the second I have the results.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
Frank and I took the stairs to our floor and headed directly to Lutz’s office.
“He isn’t going to believe this shit when we tell him that Renee’s killer was a woman,” Frank said.
I huffed. “Hell, I don’t believe it myself, but there’s no other explanation unless Don’s TOD is off.” I rapped on our commander’s door, and he yelled out to come in.
“We have news, Boss.”
“Good. Let’s hear it.” He pointed at the chairs. “Take a load off.”
Frank blurted out our discovery before we even sat down. “Renee’s killer was a woman.”
“What! Are you sure?”
“Sure as the sun rises and sets every day.”
Lutz palmed his eyes and groaned. “It did sound like women envied her, and Renee liked to flaunt her lifestyle, according to both Isabel and Colin. Somebody likely reached that tipping point and did her in.”
I had to agree. “And she’d probably hire a woman as a personal assistant before she’d hire a man, especially since she liked to feel superior to her followers.”
“Speaking of that, did Tech crack the password to the laptop yet?”
“Billy is still working on it, and hopefully, Renee’s social media pages will tell us everything we need to know,” Frank said.
I massaged my temples as I thought. Lutz and Frank’s voices droned on in the background, but my mind was on that woman.
Where have I seen her before?
I slapped Lutz’s desk so hard the coffee shook in his cup. “I have it!”
His eyebrows nearly met in the middle from his frown. “You have what?”
“I know where I’ve seen that woman. She was on the library’s video footage, and I just got a glimpse of her then too.”
“A lot of people went in and out of the library that day, but you were looking for those poker players Mitch Blass hung out with, not a woman,” Lutz said.
“True, but she was carrying a laptop and left shortly after seven thirty.”
“That isn’t proof of wrongdoing.”
I swatted the air. “Are you forgetting that the same woman walked out of the Barstow house yesterday during the time frame Don said Renee died?”
Lutz pointed his palm at me. “Hold that thought while I call Don.”
I leaned back in the chair and huffed. “I know I’m on the right track.”
“Don, it’s Bob. I’m in a meeting with Jesse and Frank, and I’m putting you on Speakerphone.” Bob pressed the Speakerphone button then placed the receiver back on the base.
“What can I do for you guys?”
“I need to know without a shadow of a doubt that Renee Barstow died yesterday during the afternoon hours.”
“Yes, she did, and science, rigor, and her internal temperature confirm it. I’d say she passed away between one and four p.m.”
“No question?”
“Nope. No question.”
“Okay, thanks.” Lutz hung up the phone. “Get someone to watch that doorbell video between noon and five to see if anyone else came in or left the Barstow house. If they didn’t, then we’ll know for sure it was that woman who killed Renee.” Lutz nodded at Frank. “Get Colin Barstow back here to take a look at that enhanced footage. I want to know if that woman is someone he recognizes.”
We returned to the bullpen
, and Frank called Colin Barstow then hung up a minute later. “He said he’d be here in a half hour.”
I tasked Henry with watching the doorbell camera video during the span between noon and five o’clock. He could speed through it since the only thing he’d be looking for was whether somebody—other than the woman at three o’clock—entered or left the Barstow home. I carried my laptop to his desk and set up the video, and he got busy.
Racking my brain, I replayed the moments Mitch Blass and I had watched the library video together. Mitch said he didn’t know that woman, but there was a reason I paused the footage that night as well. She looked familiar to me then, but why, and from where? Seeing that same woman twice couldn’t be a coincidence, no matter what anybody else thought. I wasn’t buying it.
I yelled out to my colleagues. “That’s why the voice-altering software was used! It was her calling from the library, and she didn’t want anyone to know she was a woman.”
Frank stared at me from his desk, and I saw the light bulb go on in his head. “That comment is the most sense you’ve made all day, pal. She made the call and tried to pin the murder on Mitch. She’s the person who killed Jill Blass and now Renee Barstow. Jesse, do you know what this could mean?”
“Damn straight I do. We have a serial killer on our hands who probably killed Charlotte Sanders and Jeff Vaskey too.” I picked up my phone and dialed Lutz’s office. “Boss, you need to come to the bullpen and listen to our theory. The puzzle pieces are finally fitting together.”
Chapter 46
Lutz hung on our every word as we explained our theory. The murders, at least starting with Jill Blass, were falling into place, and the evidence put our mystery woman at the library and at Renee’s house during the times in question. In our opinion, she had killed them all, but we didn’t know why. There was a hatred that carried over to each victim, and we needed to find out what that was.
Todd called me with unfortunate news—the facial recognition software didn’t ID the killer as anyone in the system, so we didn’t have a name or an address for her.
After reviewing the enhanced doorbell footage in our tech department, Colin Barstow had left with no idea who the woman was who’d exited his house, other than that she was likely his wife’s murderer.
Henry had almost reached the three o’clock mark on the doorbell camera video, and up to that point, nobody had entered or exited the Barstow home. It was looking more and more like the woman was the only person who’d met with Renee yesterday, but we had to eliminate all other options before we could move forward and know without a doubt that she was the person we needed to apprehend.
Lutz took a seat at Henry’s side. “Nobody between noon and three entered Renee’s house?”
“Nope. That’s a fact, and we already know the back doors hadn’t been disturbed. The killer had to enter and exit through the front.” Henry pointed at the paused footage. “My money says it’s her and only her.”
“Okay, now we need to find out who she is.” Lutz picked up Henry’s desk phone and called downstairs. “Todd, I need a screen grab of the perp’s face. Make sure it’s crystal clear because it’s going on the five o’clock news.”
Frank added his two cents. “We have her face, the clothing she’s wearing, and her approximate height. I hope it’s good enough.”
I hoped it was, too, because my gut told me the killer wasn’t finished. She was bold, brazen, and on a mission to do in a group of people for reasons known only to her, and in her mind, she was justified. None of the victims were acquainted with each other, and that in itself was more than dangerous. That told me she had a kill list and was following it to the letter.
As I was about to review the notes on Charlotte’s murder, my desk phone rang. We had to find the nexus that had outraged the killer enough to end four people’s lives. The only connection I’d put together so far was that each victim enjoyed reading, worked or volunteered in some capacity in the literary world, and had a collection of novels.
I answered the phone to hear Billy’s voice on the other end. “I’m in. I cracked the password on Renee’s laptop and have her social media page open.”
“Great! Can you bring the laptop upstairs? Everyone, including Lutz, is here in the bullpen.” I hung up and felt the excitement building. “With any luck, Renee’s posts will tell us who she was expecting to stop by yesterday afternoon.”
Billy arrived within minutes. He told us the password to get into Renee’s computer in case we needed it, then we began with her most-used social media site.
“Here it is, guys. Hope you find what you’re looking for.”
“Has Todd sent me the screen grab of the perp yet?”
“I believe he has, Commander, and it should be in your in-box.”
We thanked Billy, and he left. Lutz needed to make the call to the local TV stations so they could get the perp’s face on the evening news. He knuckled my desk before heading to his office. “Let me know if you find anything on her social media pages that’ll help.”
“Will do,” I said as everyone gathered around Renee’s laptop. I looked at the group standing on both sides of me. “Here we go.”
I began with the posts she had written at the start of the week. She’d mentioned how badly she needed a personal assistant since her life was overwhelmed with events, luncheons, and dinner parties.
“Yeah, she sounds like a real tool,” Frank said, “but that doesn’t make murder okay.”
“Look here.” I pointed at the post she had written several days before saying she intended to choose the person best qualified for the position by the weekend. “Sounds like she reviewed the résumés first to cherry-pick the candidates and then interviewed them after that.”
“Maybe the killer was the last person she intended to interview,” Shawn said.
Henry shook his head. “And unfortunately it was.”
“True enough, but that means she had to look over their résumés before deciding who to interview.” I closed the social media tab and opened her email. We would probably find an assortment of résumés that had been sent to her, and hopefully the killer’s would be included with the others. As I ran my finger down the list of incoming emails from the week, I counted fifty-five that had Personal Assistant Position—or some form of that heading—in the subject line.
“That should be a gold mine of information, but open the last one first,” Frank said.
“No, the last three haven’t been read at all because she was already dead when they came in.”
I pointed out that they had today as the sent date. “Let’s look at the last one read and then work our way backward.”
The last two emails Renee had opened had gone unanswered, likely because the applicants’ qualifications appeared to be lacking. We continued on and opened the next one on the list. I bolted upright in my chair.
“This has to be it. The day and time would work, and the qualifications are top-notch. It’s signed with only the first initial and a last name—V. Smith.”
“You’ve got to be kidding—Smith? Isn’t that convenient?” Frank groused. “But there is a phone number listed.”
I blocked my desk phone’s number and dialed the one shown in the email. Nobody answered, and no voicemail picked up. “It’s got to be a burner, but try the reverse lookup and see if a name is attached to it.”
Henry jumped at that opportunity and, once he had the reverse directory up on his computer, asked me to read off the number. He punched in the number I gave him, then his shoulders slumped. “There’s nothing listed for a name attached to that number, and it just says that it’s a mobile line.”
Frank huffed. “Yeah, a burner phone. How about the IP address on that email?”
I called Todd, read the IP address to him, and placed him on Speakerphone while he checked into it.
He returned to the call minutes later. “You aren’t going to like this, Jesse.”
I grumbled. “I’m not liking anything so far. Just go a
head.”
“It’s the library.”
“Again? Son of a bitch. Well, at least we know we’re barking up the right tree. I think it’s time to pay the library a visit. While I’m gone, I need somebody to look up all the Smiths in Chicago and then narrow it down to the people who have a first name that begins with a V. I’m heading out now, and hopefully, the library staff can tell me something.”
Frank grabbed his jacket from the chairback. “I’ll go with you, partner.”
I poked my head into Lutz’s office as we passed. “Hey, Boss, we’re heading to the library.”
He looked confused. “May I ask why?”
“We found out from reading Renee’s emails that the perp sent her a dummy résumé. A phony name and a burner number were attached, but the email was sent from the same damn library again. The woman must live in that area if for no other reason than convenience.”
Lutz waved us on. “Here’s the screen grab that I sent the news channels. Go ahead and see if the library personnel recognizes her.”
I took a picture of the still shot Todd had sent Lutz, then Frank and I were on our way. Maybe the library staff would know something about our mystery woman. She might have checked out books in the past and possibly had a library card, but I wasn’t holding my breath.
Inside the building, Frank and I walked directly to the patron counter, showed our badges, and asked for the head librarian. The lady behind the counter said that would be Louisa Penn—a fitting name—but I wasn’t going to make cute remarks. She walked away and said she would inform the librarian that we needed to speak with her.
Frank and I scanned the library’s large main room. I wasn’t expecting to see our killer, but it didn’t hurt to remain vigilant.
Seconds later, a voice sounded at our backs. We turned to see a slender woman who appeared to be in her mid-fifties and wore her gray-streaked hair pulled back into a sleek bun. She smiled and introduced herself with her hand outstretched.