by Gina LaManna
“What if that’s not a new trend, though?” I looked up, my theory gaining steam as I thought it through. “What if they were both guilty in Flystone’s mind?”
“Flystone’s in prison,” Asha reminded me patiently. “This killing wasn’t him.”
“No, but if he’s working with someone, there’ll be a link of some sort,” I said. “We also have to take into consideration the fact that there were differences between the murders of Travis and Tammy. Almost as if someone—Flystone—was providing insider information to an outside killer who is growing and changing with each kill.””
“Let’s assume that’s the situation, for a minute,” Russo said. “How’s Flystone getting his information to this proxy murderer? Did Flystone select the targets or did the new killer?”
“I’d guess the new killer,” I said. “But if that’s true, then he’d need to understand how or why Flystone picked his targets in the first place. Suggesting there would be a link between these murders and Flystone’s old murders.”
“It doesn’t help if we don’t know that link,” Asha said. “I’m already trying to link the original six murders to the new murders. It’s not an easy task.”
“Let’s start with what we know. We actually have learned information recently,” I said. “Flystone thinks his victims were guilty. Which means that they might have done something he disagreed with. Something that, in his mind, made them deserving to die.”
“Gambling?” Asha asked. “We know Travis wasn’t going to the casino, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t in trouble financially elsewhere.”
“I doubt it,” I said. “His brother said it was practically painful for Travis to part with his money.”
“Prostitution?” Russo threw out. “He could’ve been visiting someone on his unexplained nights out.”
“Affairs,” I said. Then, more excitedly, I added, “It works for Tammy too.”
“I can see your point,” Asha said. “But some of Flystone’s earlier victims were single. How could they have been having an affair if they weren’t in a relationship?”
“Were any of his other victims having affairs?”
“Yes, three that were noted on the original case files,” Asha said. “Brody and his team looked into each of those situations to see if it was a disgruntled partner or shafted lover, but they all turned up clean or alibied out. The theory was set to rest.”
“What if there’s more to the story?” I asked. “All I’m saying is it might be worth a second look. My gut is telling me there’s something to this theory. Maybe you’ll be able to pull some sort of phone records or receipts or something that would give us new light, something the feds might not have had access to the first time around. Technology has changed, and they didn’t have you back then.”
“I’ll check,” Asha said with a resigned smile. “Don’t hold your breath, sweetie.”
“Thank you.” I started to stand up, then hesitated. “One more thing. If my theory is true, then Holden might be in trouble.”
“Why?” Russo asked. “Because he was the one seeing Tammy?”
“Exactly.”
“In the other cases, only one person was killed,” Russo said. “It wasn’t the partnership. It was the person having the affair. Which would mean Tammy and Travis, not Holden. Holden was single.”
“I still think we need to warn him,” I said. “I’m going to put a cop car outside of his house for the next couple of hours. If Asha turns up evidence that proves me wrong, I’ll back off.”
Nobody argued as I called for a squad car to plunk itself outside of Robbie’s place. I then called Holden and told him to stay put, giving him a brief description of why he might be in danger. He didn’t seem like he had any problems not moving from his couch.
Asha filtered out of the room. Jimmy followed her. Soon enough, Russo and I were alone. I could tell he was lingering, but I wasn’t sure why.
Finally, Russo asked, “Did you hear from Gem today?”
“No, why would I have talked to him?”
“It was just a weird night. I thought he might want to clear the air.”
“I haven’t thought about him,” I said. “We’ve got a case.”
“Yeah, I know. About that,” Jack said. “I’m sorry about Brody. He was a little dismissive of you today.”
“He wasn’t technically out of line,” I said. “Flystone is his case. He’s here to help us, and if he thinks he needs to visit Flystone, then that’s his decision.”
“I think he’s almost hoping there’s a second killer related to Flystone. An accomplice of sorts. Someone Flystone cares enough about to protect.”
“You think Agent Brody is trying to hurt Flystone. Since Brody can’t touch Flystone in prison, the only way to affect him would be to go after someone he cares about in some way.”
“I just hope Brody’s personal ties to this case don’t cloud his judgment.” Jack stood, and we made our way to the door together. “What do you suggest we do today while they’re away?”
“I think—”
“Here you go.” Asha was on the other side of the door when we got out of the conference room. “A couple more license plates to check out. I’ve got the names of the people the vehicles are registered to and their photos as well. Take a look and see if anything’s clicking.”
I raised the stack of papers toward Russo. “I guess we’ll sift through these. We can start digging through the drivers of the vehicles in the area of Travis’s killing and go from there.”
“Works for me.”
“We’re running out of leads to pursue,” I said, “which is weird because it feels like we’re getting closer than ever to catching the killer. What are we missing?”
“We’ll find it, Kate,” Russo said. “We’ll find it.”
“Hang on, one more second,” I said. “Why is this woman’s name listed as Helen Maricone?”
Asha peeked over my shoulder at the top sheet of paper on my pile. “Um, because that’s the name and photo that came up when I pulled the plates?”
“Her name’s not Helen.” I tapped my finger against the picture. “This is Julie. I interviewed her at Travis’s office. She’s the receptionist.”
Russo blinked. “I think you’ve just found your new lead, Rosetti.”
Chapter 19
WITH ASHA SET ON HER task of investigating the link between Flystone’s six previous victims and our two new dead bodies, Russo and I headed downstairs. I met briefly with Melinda who was mid-autopsy of Tammy.
“Nothing helpful yet,” she said. “The cause of death was most certainly the gunshot wound. The broken heart was carved postmortem, just like on the previous victim. Time of death was about an hour before we arrived on the scene.”
“Those teens were cutting it close,” I said. “They almost stumbled upon the killer.”
Melinda nodded. “We’re looking into everything else. We’re running tests on any fibers we found. At this point, though, it looks like the killer was careful. Aside from the heart, there’s not much personalized about the murder.”
“If there were no signs of a struggle, why do you think Tammy was in an abandoned parking lot in the first place?”
“I don’t know,” Melinda said. “But there were no signs of defensive wounds or restraints of any sort. She was definitely killed on the spot, as well. We’re running tox screens to see if there was anything in her system that might’ve impaired her judgment. I should have those results soon.”
“I have an idea,” I said. “Thanks, Melinda. Call me if you have anything.”
“You’re on a lead, aren’t you?” Melinda turned to Russo instead. “She’s on a lead.”
“The receptionist at the law firm where Travis worked is possibly using an assumed identity,” Russo said. “That’s where we’re headed next.”
Before leaving the building, I stopped upstairs to fill Jimmy in on all that we’d figured out, thanks to Asha’s license plate grab. Then I went over to Asha’s d
esk with Jimmy and Russo trailing along behind me.
“Can you do me a favor?” I asked. “Do you have access to Tammy’s phone records?”
“What sort of question is that? I have access to just about whatever I want.” Asha’s nails flicked over the keyboard. “What are you looking for specifically?”
“The night she was murdered,” I said. “Were there any phone calls that came in?”
“I’ve already looked,” Asha said. “I didn’t see anything suspicious in the days leading up to her death, but here you go. Here’s her outgoing and incoming call log. I marked off numbers that I found unsuspicious. There were a couple calls from her family members; there were a few calls from Travis in the days before he died—both on the office line and her cell phone. She had a friend named Trinity that I already checked out. This one highlighted yellow was her dentist office calling about a cleaning.”
“I hope you told them to cancel,” I muttered, squinting at the list. “Okay, well, you’re right. There’s not a single phone call in the hours leading up to her death.”
“Did you want me to be wrong?”
“I’m trying to figure out how Tammy might have voluntarily ended up in an abandoned parking lot in a bad section of town,” I said. “I thought she might’ve had a meeting set up with someone.”
“It’s possible that she did have a meeting set up that she didn’t use her phone to coordinate,” Asha admitted. “I’ve already scoured her email accounts, but I can print copies for you if you want. There’s always the chance that she had a burner phone I haven’t been able to locate or some throwaway email address that she was very cautious about. While unlikely, I wouldn’t rule it out.”
“Yeah, I don’t buy it, though,” I said. “Why would she have a burner phone, and how would this person know to contact her on it?”
“She could’ve had a burner phone if she wanted to communicate with Holden,” Asha mused. “Maybe their affair was getting more serious than Holden let on. I suspect that Tammy would’ve followed Holden to an odd section of town if he’d asked.”
“It’s possible,” I said. “Let’s check on this Julie lead and go from there. We’ve got Holden under surveillance anyway for the day. Asha, do you mind digging into this Helen-slash-Julie woman to see if you can find more on her story?”
“Already on it.”
“Hold on a second. Pull up that call-log screen again?” I watched as Asha clicked her mouse, and a list of calls was projected onto the massive monitor mounted at the front of the room. “The phone calls highlighted in green are calls going to Travis’s cell number. What about those blue highlighted numbers?”
“That’s the number for Travis’s office,” Asha said. “The calls stop shortly after—holy smokes. How did I miss that?”
I walked toward the screen and raised a finger, pointing to the log that everyone had noticed by this point. “This call is from Travis’s office.”
Jimmy swore under his breath.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s the day after he died. Travis didn’t make this call to Tammy, but someone at that law office did.”
“I remember seeing that and thinking it was one of the partners possibly calling to send their regards,” Asha said. “What an idiot. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. There really is nothing suspicious about it,” I said. “Except for the fact that Julie, Helen—whatever her name is—works there. She had access to this phone line. She could’ve called Tammy and given her instructions on where to meet.”
“It’s possible,” Russo said. “It would’ve taken some foresight, but if she’s half as calculated as Flystone, we can’t count anything out.”
“We’ve got to find this woman,” I said. “If it’s her, she’ll probably be vanishing soon and changing her identity again. I’m going to make sure she’s at the office.”
I stepped away from the group and made a phone call to Travis’s former place of employment. The line rang straight through both times I called it. Finally, I returned and asked Asha to pull up the number for Greg Schneider—the man I’d interviewed earlier in the week.
I returned to the hallway and dialed Greg. He answered on the third ring. I quickly introduced myself and reminded him of our prior meeting.
“Yeah, what do you want?” he asked gruffly. “I told you everything I know.”
“I actually am just trying to get ahold of your receptionist, Julie,” I said. “I called the main office line, and I couldn’t get ahold of anyone.”
“She quit! Can you believe it? First Travis, then Julie.” Greg paused and cleared his throat. “I mean, I guess the Travis thing isn’t really his fault seeing as he’s dead, but still. I’ve been dealing with all of his leftover clients. Do you think the bosses would lend a hand? No, they’re too busy playing golf before the end of the season. Then today, Julie just pulls a no-show. I don’t know where she keeps the freaking coffee beans. Not to mention, she was in the middle of rescheduling all of Travis’s clients, and nobody knows what’s happening with that.”
“Has Julie ever been a no-show before?”
“Not that I noticed.”
“What’d you think of Julie overall?” I asked. “Was she interested in anyone in particular?”
“I mean, Travis was nice to her. I guess the rest of us sort of just, you know, did our thing around her.”
I thought to myself that meant they mostly ignored her unless she could help them. Before, I’d felt bad for Julie having to work at a place that wasn’t treating her right. Now, I just wondered if she’d been using it as a scouting ground for her next potential victims.
Once I disconnected with Greg, I made another call before reuniting with Russo and Jones. I waited a few beats while the phone rang through until there was an answer.
“This is Agent Brody,” the voice said across the line.
“Rosetti.”
“I’ve got you on speaker,” Agent Brody said, the sounds of the road obvious in the background. “Chloe’s here next to me.”
“I need you to do me a favor. Drive a little faster.”
There was a beat of silence.
“He’s driving pretty fast,” Chloe chirped. “If he wasn’t in law enforcement, I’d be concerned about getting ticketed.”
“What’d you find?” Agent Brody asked.
“I need you to ask Flystone if he’s familiar with a woman who goes by the name Helen Maricone or Julie Nolan.”
Agent Brody made a startled noise. “Are you telling me that you found evidence of an accomplice?”
“I’m not sure what we found except that there’s a woman with an assumed name who had access to both victims.” I quickly explained the details about the former receptionist. I also let him know about my theory on the affair link between several of the victims. “See if you get any sort of reaction out of the name drop.”
“You bet I will. Hey, Detective...” Agent Brody paused. “I looked into that sort of thing. You know, that maybe Flystone was picking people who’d had affairs. But a couple of the folks were single on his target list, so I don’t see how that would fit with all six of the previous victims.”
“Yeah, I know. Maybe I’m wrong. Asha will let me know soon enough.”
“If she’s looking into it, she might as well check out Arnie Helm’s ex-girlfriend. He was victim number three. His ex-girlfriend disappeared a few months before his murder. I always thought the timing was odd, but I could never connect anything.”
“Did they ever find her remains?”
“Nope. I’ve looked into it a little myself. One of those cases where she just seemed to vanish without any real explanation.”
“I’ll have Asha poke around.”
I completed the call and returned to Asha’s desk. Immediately, I could tell something was wrong. Jimmy, Russo, and Asha were all standing there silently. It was obvious they were waiting for my return.
I glanced around. “What’s up? What’s wrong? I was only gone a couple of
minutes, right?”
Asha winced. “She’s got a kid, sweetie.”
“Who does?”
“Helen or Julie.”
“She didn’t mention a kid to me,” I said. “Not that I asked specifically, but I guess I’m surprised it wouldn’t have come up. Are you sure?”
Asha clicked a few more times until a couple of images appeared onscreen. “This is the woman known as Helen Maricone picking up her son from after-school care. The kid’s name is Donovan Peterson.”
“Crap.” I exhaled. “He definitely belongs to her? Despite the different last names?”
“I mean, I’m going to look up birth certificates and everything else,” Asha said. “But she’s definitely been picking him up every day after school, and they live together. It certainly seems like it’s a mother and son situation. I haven’t yet confirmed if it’s biological. As for the different names, I think that’s pretty easily explained by the fact that this woman goes by the name Helen at her son’s school and Julie at her place of employment.”
“Can you get more information?” I asked. “I’ve got to call Brody back.”
I redialed. He picked up on the first ring.
“I’ve got one more name,” I said. “Donovan Peterson.”
“Who’s that?” Agent Brody asked. “Never heard of him.”
“Unfortunately, I think he’s an innocent bystander. He’s in grade school. Helen Maricone’s son.”
“What’d you say his name was?”
I repeated Donovan’s name.
Agent Brody cursed. “Peterson was one of Flystone’s aliases. It wasn’t uncovered until after he was arrested.”
“You don’t think...” I hesitated. “Do you think Clint Flystone has a son? Potentially with this Helen or Julie woman?”
“I think that might be the only thing I’ve heard of since he’s been arrested that makes sense. To be honest, I always doubted Clint Flystone could love a woman or a partner enough to cover for her. No way he’d rot in prison for romance.”
“But a son,” I murmured. “He might do it for his son.”