“Yes,” Pam answered.
“And were his friends with him?”
“No. Eddie came by himself, to see Sarah, no doubt. Anyway, around ten-thirty we told Sarah we wanted to go back to Deerwood to get closer to our place, so we wouldn’t have to drive so far at closing. We left Antlers, but she and Eddie followed us to The Serpent,” Pam described. “We hung out until closing but while Trish and I were going home, those two were making plans.”
“Do you know where they went?” Braddock asked while taking notes.
Both women shook their heads. “Sarah just said they were going to meet up. I suppose it could have been at Eddie’s or at her cabin. I know her parents were back down in the Cities.”
“How about the backseat of her car?” Tori blurted out. “Would Sarah do something like that?”
Pam and Trish shared a look and then after a moment they both nodded. “She did that two summers ago up here. Right out in the parking lot at the Blue Goose over in Garrison with the guy who was her boyfriend at the time, so it’s not unheard of. She was the throw caution to the wind type.”
“I’m just so shocked it was Eddie Mannion who could have done that,” Trish asserted through moist eyes, dabbing them with a tissue.
“We don’t know that it is,” Tori replied.
“He was so cool,” Trish asserted. “I mean, I didn’t think she should give it up so easily, but I wasn’t worried anything bad would happen.”
“Me neither,” Pam added. “He was Eddie Mannion, local millionaire, a well-known guy, not someone nobody had ever seen before. I still find it hard to believe that he would do that to her.”
“But she left with him, correct?” Tori pressed.
“Yes,” they both answered.
“She told me she was leaving with him,” Pam added. “Those two were hooking up, no doubt. That was the case all night, the only question was the logistics.”
“But after you two left the bar, you never heard another word from her?”
Pam and Trish both shook their head.
On the way back to Manchester, Braddock called Renfrow. “Doc, I know it’s early, but do you have any idea on time of death for Sarah Craig?”
“I’m running some tests, but preliminarily rigor mortis and liver temp suggests she was killed between three and six a.m. Friday morning.”
After the doctor hung up Braddock looked to Tori. “She was last seen around one a.m. leaving The Serpent. Preliminarily, she’s dead two to five hours later.”
“Yet the car doesn’t show up until three a.m., twenty-four hours later. Weird.”
They made their way back to Braddock’s office. Sarah Craig’s phone showed no activity after she left The Serpent. In fact, her phone was not found with her and they’d been unable to locate it. It was not in her car, nor was her purse or any other personal belongings.
“If he killed her that quickly, three a.m., he dumps her phone immediately,” Tori concluded. “First thing he would do. At a minimum he powers it down and around there it would take two minutes to find a body of water to toss it into.”
Braddock set out crime scene pictures on the table, along with his notes. He picked up a photo of the car. “Odd to park it there,” he mused. “Something about that seems…strange.”
“Is it?” Tori asked. “He parked four other cars with women’s bodies in the trunk within ten to fifteen miles of where the women had been last seen. I’d argue it’s entirely consistent. What I don’t get is why disappear all the other women but Sarah and the other four?”
Braddock’s phone rang. It was a call he’d been waiting for. “Detective Bruening. We’ve had some developments here on our end.” Braddock told him what had happened.
“Well, Detective Braddock, I think I can help you then. Two nights before her disappearance, Joanie Wells was at the grand opening of Mannion’s here in Brookings. And at closing time, she told a friend she was meeting up with…”
“Eddie Mannion.”
“Correct. She identified him right away. He was putting the moves on her all night and she left the restaurant with him. That was two nights before she disappeared. She went to his hotel, the My Place. I have surveillance footage of them entering the hotel and then of her leaving around six the following morning. So, he knew Joanie Wells.”
“How about the night she disappeared? Anyone see Mannion that night?”
“No, not with her, at least yet,” Bruening replied. “But I was able to confirm that he was here in Brookings that night.”
“Was he at the restaurant?”
“He was there during the day, but not that night.”
“What about the hotel?”
“He is seen entering the front at six-thirty p.m. and we don’t see him leave again until late the following morning. However, he had a main floor room with windows looking out the back. The windows open with screens on them. He could easily remove the screen and get out the back and nobody would really know. There is a small wooded area behind the hotel.”
“And he left Brookings when?” Tori asked.
“His plane didn’t leave Brookings until midday following the night Joanie Wells disappeared.”
Braddock and Bruening spoke for a few more minutes before agreeing to stay in touch.
“We’ve got a pattern of behavior developing here,” Braddock said looking to Tori. “A pattern of hunting.”
“It’s adding up,” Tori said, shaking her head. “It really is. I can’t believe it, but it really is.”
They went to Backstrom.
“Now, we should have enough,” Braddock said after summarizing what they had, finishing with, “Eddie is the last one to be seen with her. The doctor is running tests to confirm but puts time of death between three and six a.m. That doesn’t really leave time for anyone other than Eddie. Then in Brookings, we have it basically confirmed that Eddie slept with the victim two nights before she disappeared. And then you look at Sarah Craig and what happened. It paints a compelling picture,” Braddock finished.
“One woman was found, one wasn’t,” Wilson noted.
“Two methods, one man,” Tori answered. “Why? I would love to ask him.”
Backstrom sighed. “What are you thinking for warrants, Will?”
“His house, Mannion Companies, any property he has, his financials, phone records. Hell, let’s see if he ever purchased a stun gun. I want anything and everything I can get.”
Backstrom nodded. “Let’s get typing.”
Braddock, Tori, Steak and Eggleston all completed affidavits to support the warrants. Renfrow called and confirmed time of death. Backstrom and Wilson went to court, the judge hearing the request in chambers with only himself and a court reporter.
“You’re good to go,” Backstrom reported.
They quickly accessed Eddie Mannion’s credit card records. His American Express card showed over two-hundred dollars of activity the night he met up with Sarah Craig. There was no other activity on any of his other credit cards that night. His cell phone showed calls were made early in the evening but none after 9:53 p.m. until the following day, with a call made at 11:04 a.m. to his brother, Kyle. Later in the evening, Backstrom had search warrants for Eddie’s home, a piece of lake property on Lake Vermillion another two hours northeast and hunting property in Cass County an hour away.
Everyone was concerned about serving the warrants on the company. “It’s a massive company,” Cal noted hesitantly. “Lots of people around. We’re not going to be popular. It’s going to get people talking.”
“You’re just afraid of Kyle Mannion,” Tori needled.
“We are a company town, Tori,” Cal admonished. “You go after the company, people worry you’re jacking with their futures, their jobs, their lives. Some of those people could be your friends.”
“I…understand,” Tori replied quietly, chastened.
“Right now, the search warrant is for just the restaurant component of the business,” Backstrom explained. “That’s Eddie
’s business and not Kyle’s. Now, depending on what we find we may have to go to court to expand it. We’ll need to be clear about that. The warrant is for all records, computer files, hard copies, all of it, for the restaurant business.”
“In other words, it’s isolated to Eddie Mannion,” Wilson added. “And his business.”
“Still,” Backstrom sighed, looking to Cal and Braddock, “I can only imagine the look you’re going to get when you show up with this.”
“Let’s get the BCA to serve it,” Braddock suggested in a sudden brainstorm, helping everyone chicken out. “We handle Eddie, the state serves Mannion Companies. I clued them in earlier where we were at and that we might be calling on them. The BCA Superintendent offered any assistance we needed, as he has all along. This would be assistance we need. Let them take the hit.”
“I kind of like that,” Backstrom replied with relief. “Do it.”
CHAPTER 30
“WHAT DO YOU CARE WHAT YOU DO TO US NOW?”
Will and Tori strategized that they wanted to question Eddie first before serving the search warrants for the properties and the company.
“I don’t want to give him time to prepare,” Tori theorized, “I want him to react and talk.”
“If he’ll talk,” Braddock answered skeptically.
“He’ll talk,” Tori replied confidently. “We’ve already seen it. He loves to talk about himself, about his ability with the ladies. His vanity is his weakness. Lead him where he wants to go.”
Braddock nodded along. “And we might get something as we interview him that helps expand the warrants. Most importantly, I want to lock down the probable cause for the DNA sample.”
“And besides, we’re just questioning him at this point, getting his story,” Tori added. “Unless, of course, if he admits it…”
“And unless he actually admits it, or comes damn close, you’re not arresting him,” Backstrom answered. “We need to keep amassing evidence. But this is obviously a big step.”
“And just to play devil’s advocate, maybe he tells us something and we have to call off the dogs,” Braddock noted, seeing another angle. “Better safe than sorry.”
Steak and Eggleston were at Eddie’s house at eight a.m. to ask him to come into the government center. Eddie warily agreed, although he asked to call his lawyer first, which wasn’t unexpected. What was unexpected was who he brought. Braddock had half-expected the lawyer would be Warner, but instead it was a well-known local attorney named Ben Westlund.
That was a mistake.
Westlund, in his mid-sixties, was a good ole’ boy, jack-of-all-trades practitioner with a small firm that handled a wide array of legal matters, including some minor criminal work. Braddock had worked an occasional case against him and always found him to be amiable and competent on straightforward minor crime matters, but this case was a whole other animal. You’re in way over your head, Ben, Braddock thought.
“Eddie didn’t want Kyle to know,” Tori speculated.
“Maybe,” Braddock replied.
“You’re thinking something else?”
“Possibly.”
Tori gave him a perturbed look.
“I, unlike you, do not always feel the need to share every single thought that I have. Sometimes I just like things to marinate in my mind.”
“Just afraid your thoughts might be wrong?”
“If I never tell you, you’ll never know. I’m going in.”
Braddock stepped into the interrogation room.
“I didn’t think you were involved with this, Will,” Westlund commented as Braddock sat down. “It was Steak who asked Eddie to come in.”
“Being the lead investigator for the county, and given your client’s standing locally, I thought it best if I handle this.”
“Handle what? Why am I here?” Eddie asked testily.
“Sarah Craig,” Braddock answered.
“Sarah? What about her?”
“Were you aware that she’s been missing for two days?”
Eddie was taken aback. “No, I wasn’t.”
“Well, she has. We’ve been looking for her and in retracing her steps we have witnesses, many who say they saw you leaving The Serpent Bar in Deerwood with her two nights ago. Is that true?”
“Yeah,” Eddie replied easily.
“Where is this going, Will?” Westlund asked warily, already sensing danger.
“I just have some questions, Ben,” Braddock answered lightly. “So, you left The Serpent Bar with her at closing time two nights ago?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“And then what did you two do?”
“Eddie,” Westlund interrupted. “I really think…”
“Relax, Ben, Will knows I left with her, that’s why he’s asking these questions,” Eddie said, waving off his lawyer before explaining that he and Sarah Craig each drove their own cars, her Mazda M6, his little BMW convertible over to Cuyuna Golf Club. They parked in the southwest corner of the long narrow parking lot. Then they moved to the backseat of her car and they had sex. “It was nothing unusual.”
“Classy, Eddie.”
“What can I say?”
“Why that parking lot?”
“Her place was fifteen miles away and my place was twenty miles the other direction and there isn’t a hotel in Deerwood worth a damn. So, I whispered in her ear, how about we act like kids and use the backseat. She laughed and smiled at the suggestion. There was enough room in her Mazda four-door.”
“And then what happened?”
“Like I said, she was game. We did the deed.”
“Was it conventional sex or was it rough?” Braddock asked, pen at the ready.
“What? Do you want the dirty breakdown?” Eddie replied with a gregarious laugh. “You want positions? The Kama Sutra? What?”
“I simply asked was it rough.”
“Eddie, don’t…” Westlund started.
“No!” Eddie exclaimed indignantly, blowing past his lawyer. “Not at all. It was casual, nice, fun. She was totally into it, Will. Since you’re asking, she spent most of the time on top because it was a little easier in the car.”
“And this all lasted until when?”
“I suppose it was two, maybe a little after, something like that. After we finished, we laughed a little, touched a little, kissed a little more and talked about maybe getting together again and using a bed.”
“And then what happened?”
Eddie shrugged. “We got dressed. I said goodnight. I got out of her car and into mine. I saw her start her car, I saw her lights turn on and then I drove away. She followed. I turned right out of the parking lot and she turned left. And that was the end of it.”
“And you’ve had no contact with her since?”
“No.”
“You two finished, said your goodnights and left the parking lot and that was the end of it?" Braddock asked, seeking confirmation.
“Yeah.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“You’re sure?” he pressed.
“Yes.”
There was a light knock on the one-way mirror behind Braddock. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment.”
Braddock stepped out of the interrogation room and into the observation room to find Tori, Steak, Eggs, Cal and Backstrom. “We’ve got him on the DNA.”
“I agree,” Backstrom replied.
“Is there more to be had?” Tori asked in a tone that said she thought there was.
Eddie’s tongue was loose. He was cocky, confident and talking and didn’t seem to see his vulnerability. His lawyer was wary of where this was going but he was also out of his depth and clearly didn’t have the clout to control his client.
It was a situation ripe to be taken advantage of.
“I’ve taken my shot at him. Let’s change it up.”
Braddock stepped back into the interrogation room.
“Anything else, Will?” Eddie asked, checking his wristwatch.
“Just a few more questions.”
On cue, Tori opened the door and stepped into the interrogation room carrying a folder.
“Counselor, this is Special Agent Tori Hunter with the FBI.”
“I know who Agent Hunter is.”
“What’s she doing in here?” Eddie asked, suddenly wary. He was smart enough to know Tori was only interested in one case.
Tori sat down next to Braddock and peered to Eddie, leaning forward, her posture aggressive and her demeanor austere. Her eyes narrowed and bored in on him. They might have been friends, but that wasn’t what she saw now. Now she saw a killer. There would be no preamble. “Eddie, I’ve been watching. You’re not telling us everything.”
“Excuse me?”
“You haven’t been totally forthcoming,” Tori declared as she opened the plain manila folder and took out a photo and slammed it down on the table. The picture was of Sarah Craig dead in the trunk of her car faceup, her arms bound behind her back and ankles tied together with a green nylon rope. “You left something out.”
Mannion recoiled from the picture. “Whoa!”
“Eddie, don’t say a word,” Westlund ordered, reaching for his client’s right arm, a panicked look on his face.
“I didn’t have anything to do with that!” Eddie declared dismissively, ignoring Westlund, shoving the photo away.
“You were the last person to see her, Eddie,” Braddock stated. “We found semen in the middle of the backseat of that car. Given what you’ve told me, the court will grant me an order for a sample of your DNA. That will match up to you. And I have blood in the backseat of that car. It’s her blood, and there’s blood in the trunk of the car. Her blood.”
“I didn’t hit her. I had sex with her and that’s it.”
“Really?” Tori replied in disbelief. “That’s what you’re going with, Eddie?”
“Come on, Tori. You know me. You know I couldn’t do something like that.”
“Do I?” Tori replied coldly.
She stood up and made a point of deliberately laying out four photos on the table. The pictures were of the four women who’d been found dead in the trunks of their cars. In all four photos their hands were bound behind their back and their ankles tied together with green nylon rope. The victims were lying on their stomachs, their heads turned toward the camera, the bruising visible on their necks from the strangling, their faces bruised and beaten with blood smears. Their names and the dates of the photos were detailed on stickers. Next to each photo of the dead women, Tori placed an individual headshot of the victim. Then she added a fifth victim, photos of Sarah Craig, to the array.
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