IF SHE RAN

by Blake Pierce

  As they got back into the car for what felt like the hundredth time, Kate looked over to DeMarco and asked: “Feel like going back to the elementary school?”

  “You thinking maybe they caught the guy on the security cameras?”

  “That’s the hope.”

  As Kate sped away from the Jensen residence and back out into Ashton, DeMarco got on the phone and called the school, ensuring someone would be there after hours. Kate meanwhile was still stuck on the puzzle that had come to her while speaking with Tonya.

  Jack Tucker is murdered in the same way as Frank Nobilini; it’s discovered that Jennifer Nobilini and Missy Tucker were both having affairs that took place within a few months of their husbands’ murders; while the Tucker case is active, a strange man tries to pick the Nobilini kids up from school.

  Just what in the hell is going on?

  Kate wasn’t sure yet, but as they neared the school and she kept going through that chain of information in her head, she certainly felt like they were finally headed toward some definitive answers.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  Most of the faculty and staff had left for the day by the time Kate and DeMarco arrived at Ashton Elementary at 5:04 that afternoon. The only staff remaining in the office was the vice principal and the school nurse. The art teacher was also running around in and out of the office, preparing for an art show the next day. She was making copies in the office copy room while Kate and DeMarco waited for the vice principal to come up front.

  “That’s some impressive work,” DeMarco said, pointing to a photocopy of a black and white sketch.

  “Oh, thank you,” the art teacher said. “There’s going to be a lot of fantastic work at our show tomorrow. Are you parents of students here?”

  “No,” DeMarco said. “Just visiting.”

  “That’s a shame. It’s going to be a great show. The pieces are even going to be auctioned off. Nothing huge, of course. Fun little bids that will go to local charities. Something the PTA set up. It was a nice touch, I thought.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Kate said.

  “Well, if you can’t make it tomorrow, feel free to swing by the gymnasium and look at some of the work I’ve already put up. The kids here are quite talented.”

  “I doubt we’ll have time, but thanks all the same,” DeMarco said. “And good luck with the show tomorrow.”

  The art teacher grabbed up the last of her copies and dashed back out the door. As she did, the vice principal finally made her way to the front desk. She was a tall older woman who introduced herself as Mrs. Talley. She showed the agents the monitor that sat behind the check-in desk, showing three different angles around the school: the front parking lot, the rear parking lot, and the central playground sitting on the western edge of the property.

  “Of course, this is all live feed,” Mrs. Talley said. “Anything we need to do to enhance or review the footage needs to be done from the central console. I’m not the best with it, but I can probably do enough to get you what you need.”

  She then led them from the front part of the office toward the back. They passed a few staff offices, the nurse’s office, and then came to a small filing room. Sitting against the front wall was a small table with a relatively new security hub on it.

  “When I got your call, I took the liberty of pulling up the afternoon in question, but I haven’t had a chance to scroll through it yet.”

  “Do you mind?” DeMarco asked, sitting down behind the monitors.

  Kate wasn’t sure if DeMarco was asking her permission or Mrs. Talley’s. Kate nodded just in case, while Mrs. Talley said, “Of course.”

  While DeMarco started to look through the footage, Kate did her best to get a better understanding of what happened.

  “Mrs. Talley, were you outside when this all occurred?”

  “No, I was in the office. But I got a very detailed report from the teachers that were there. You see, over time, we start to notice trends in the arrival of the parents. There are a few that are always first in line to get their kids at the end of the day, and there are a handful that are almost guaranteed to be last. Jennifer Nobilini is nearly always in the last ten cars or so.”

  “How long does the dismissal process go on for car-riders?”

  “Usually about twenty minutes or so. We have a crossing guard up on the main road, and that helps a lot. It’s very thorough and efficient.”

  “And how are the kids let out?”

  “Well, that’s one of the nice things about living in a smaller town. Many of our teachers know the child by the car that is waiting on them. The children remain on the sidewalk or breezeway, a good distance from the parking lot, while the cars cycle through.”

  As she explained it, Kate could also see it on the screens. There were roughly twenty kids lined up, waiting for their rides. Many others were behind them, back closer toward the school. She watched as three kids were motioned forward by a teacher standing at the edge of the sidewalk and then watching them as they entered the cars of their parents.

  “Right there,” Mrs. Talley said, pointing to a red car at the start of the car rider line. “That’s the man.”

  “How long into the dismissal process is this?” Kate asked.

  “About four minutes,” DeMarco said, pointing to the elapsed time in the bottom corner of the screen.

  The three women watched as one of the teachers started to engage with the man in the car. The teacher spoke to him and then looked back behind her—for the Nobilini kids or for more support, it was impossible to tell.

  They watched the scene in real time. About fifteen seconds later, the man actually opened the door and started to get out.

  “That right there,” Mrs. Talley said, “proves that he’s not accustomed to the car rider line. At the beginning of the year, we send out a notice for all parents to please remain in their car unless there is some sort of emergency or, in the mornings, if their child needs help getting out of the car. So this was the second red flag…the first, of course, being that the two teachers that saw him did not recognize him.”

  They watched as the man got out and pointed at one of the teachers. When he realized that he was making a scene and that there were impatient parents behind him, he gave up, got in his car, and sped off. The license plate was in view for only a moment; it was blocked by either other cars or out of the screen at almost every moment the car was visible.

  “DeMarco, can you back the footage up and zoom in on the man?” Kate asked.

  “Yeah, one sec.”

  DeMarco worked quick, making it evident that she was very well trained on newer systems. The footage reeled backward and when the man was back to standing outside of his car, tuned toward the teachers on the sidewalk, DeMarco froze the footage. She zoomed in slowly and by the time the man became more than just a vague shape on the screen, a hard lump formed in Kate’s throat.

  “Oh my God,” she said.

  “What?” DeMarco asked. “Who is it?”

  She looked closer, making sure it was not simply her eyes playing tricks on her. It took a second or two for her to be absolutely certain.

  “That’s Zeus Beringer.”

  ***

  “How in the hell is that even possible?” DeMarco asked as they exited the school. “If this guy had plans to kill Jack Tucker within the next day or so, why would he be here trying to pick up the Nobilini kids?”

  “I don’t know,” Kate said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  But even as she said that, she thought she felt a connection being formed in the back of her mind. She’d been looking for a connection and here it was, practically slapping her in the face. But what did it actually mean?

  They had gotten back into the car, Kate thinking it might be a good idea to go to the precinct to dig up everything they could on Zeus Beringer outside of his basic criminal record, when her cell phone rang. When she saw Duran’s name on the display, she winced. Nine times out of ten, when his name popped up on her
cell display, it was bad news.

  She answered it, determined not to let whatever bad news he had derail the progress they were making on this case.

  “This is Wise.”

  “Agent Wise, I just got off of the phone with a very irate Jennifer Nobilini. Would you care to tell me how accusing her of an affair has anything to do with Jack Tucker’s case?”

  “Sir, it’s where the trail led us. More than that, her affair—”

  “Alleged affair,” Duran interrupted.

  “—it adds yet another link between Tucker and Nobilini. It turns out that Missy Tucker was also having an affair during the time leading up to Jack’s murder.”

  “That seems very coincidental. Besides…I still don’t see what affairs have to do with these murders. On the surface, it looks like you’re doing nothing but digging up dirt on these widows and I shouldn’t have to tell you how damning that is for the bureau!”

  “I know it all seems like a stretch, but these bits of unfortunate information have given us perhaps the strongest lead in the case.” She went on to tell him about the security footage they had just watched—how the man she’d found dead in a Bronx Comfort Inn had showed up at Ashton Elementary in an attempt to pick up Jennifer Nobilini’s kids.

  The moments of silence after her explanation told her right away that she had Duran hooked. He, too, knew there was something there.

  “You may be right, Wise. But if I’m being honest with you, this…well, this case has been eye-opening for me and shows me that we might have made a mistake. I want you back in DC tomorrow. And when you get here, be prepared to hand in your badge. Have DeMarco keep working on the case. But I can’t have you on it.”

  “What? But you—”

  But Duran had already ended the call. Kate stared at her phone for a moment and then set it down slowly.

  “He’s pissed, huh?” DeMarco said.

  “Yeah.”

  “What did he say?”

  She thought about not telling her any of it—of telling her it was just a slap on the wrist and that they could carry on as usual. But she could not put DeMarco in that position. God only knew how much trouble she could get in. Besides, she was sure Duran would inform DeMarco soon enough, just to make sure Kate didn’t interfere.

  “He said the case is yours now. He wants me back in DC by tomorrow. Jennifer Nobilini wasn’t bluffing. She called and filed a complaint.” She decided to leave out the part where Duran had told her that she would be handing in her badge when she reported back to DC. There was no sense in placing that thought in DeMarco’s mind while they worked to finally wrap this damned case.

  She thought of Zeus Beringer as they headed back to the precinct. She thought of his sparse apartment and the lack of any real results that had been pulled from his laptop. Sure, Pritchard had found the dark web software, but, as he had said, that really didn’t prove much of anything.

  But the Ruger found in the motel room seemed to tie it all together.

  It was, quite literally, the smoking gun.

  And Kate thought that if they could find who had pulled the trigger on Zeus, it would wrap the entire case. And it would be all the better if she could find out before she headed back to DC.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  It was a special sort of hell for Kate to be sitting in her hotel room at 7 o’clock that afternoon, knowing that DeMarco was hard at work down at the precinct. They had parted ways rather awkwardly; it had been clear DeMarco wanted Kate to remain by her side but Kate also knew what was going through the younger agent’s head. This was her opportunity to show Duran that she respected him and his orders—and a chance to prove that she could close a case like this one on her own.

  She sat on the bed, eating a takeout pizza and staring at the TV, though not watching it. Her mind was still wrapped tightly around the case. She felt a little bit like a villain, but she was trying to figure out a way to wrap the case even without her official FBI capacity. In the end, if she was successful, she’d have to blow her own cover—would have to rely on her position as an agent. Besides—Duran had said she’d have to hand her badge in when she got back to DC. That technically meant she was still an active agent. She would not be considered inactive until that badge and ID went across Duran’s desk.

  She didn’t know how rigid Duran was going to be on this, so that meant she could not risk accessing the bureau’s network remotely. If he wanted, he could check in on her to see if she had accessed it. That left her with only the scant notes she had on the case that had been printed out. She laid the information she had on Zeus Beringer and Jennifer Nobilini side by side, trying to figure out how the two were connected.

  At first glance, it made no real sense. And because of that, Kate let her mind go where it wanted to naturally go. It meant making some assumptions, but she was fine with that for now.

  Based on the little bit of evidence at her disposal, she was fine making the assumption that Zeus Beringer had killed at least one of the men she was looking into—probably both of them. The gun in his motel room as well as his reputation among a small group of hitmen seemed to point in that direction. And now that he was dead, that made the who question just about obsolete.

  There were, of course, a few questions that remained. Why did he kill them? And why was he trying to pick up Jennifer Nobilini’s children from school?

  She stated to put a theory together—one that made little sense at first but grew more and more appealing the more she thought about it. There was one piece that didn’t quite fit, though. And even if she did feel comfortable using the bureau network, she wouldn’t be able to find the information she needed there anyway.

  Her mind kept going back to Jennifer Nobilini and how she had managed to keep her affair mostly quiet. And even after she had more or less admitted to it in front of Kate and DeMarco, there still seemed like she had been hiding something. The fact that she had called Missy Tucker when she barely knew her, even if they did share a similar tragedy, was quite strange, too.

  She’s hiding something, but what?

  Kate considered calling DeMarco to share her theory but thought better of it. DeMarco deserved to be holding the reins of a case. And the last thing she wanted was for DeMarco to feel as if Kate was trying to steal it from her—especially after Duran had removed her from the case.

  She had driven to the city this last time so she didn’t have to bother with booking a flight. This probably meant that Duran would expect her to drive to DC tonight or, at the very latest, early tomorrow morning. She started to wonder just how late she could leave tomorrow without attracting attention to herself.

  While she was thinking, a thought suddenly occurred to her. She recalled their visit to Ashton Elementary that afternoon. She remembered the art teacher, working frantically to get a little fundraising exhibit set up for tomorrow. Hadn’t she said something about how the PTA had set the event up?

  With a new idea hatching in the back of her head, Kate pulled out her laptop and Googled Ashton Elementary. She went to the website, clicked on the events link, and started to read. The first event, as they were listed in order of scheduled dates, was the art show tomorrow. It was being called The Art Auction Extraordinaire and boasted “more than fifty art pieces from our very talented fourth and fifth graders.” It was scheduled to start at 8:45 a.m., in the Ashton Elementary gymnasium.

  Then, at the bottom of the event information, Kate came across something that all but verified that she was on the right track—that she might be destined to wrap these two cases after all. The last thing listed on the event listing was: For more information and details about this exciting event, contact Jennifer Nobilini or Alice Delgado.

  Their numbers and email addresses were then given, but Kate had no interest in either of them. She read over the information again with a nervous smile crossing her face.

  She already had a plan in mind. Duran had stripped her away from the case. That meant she could get in some very big trouble if she vi
sited a private residence—for instance, paying another visit to Jennifer Nobilini. Besides…she wasn’t sure what a visit would really accomplish at this point.

  But this art show…well that was open to the public. It was a loophole that would benefit her in the long run, albeit one that Duran could potentially use as a noose to hang her from.

  But it was a chance she was willing to take. Because if Duran was already planning on taking her badge, what else did she have to lose? This was yet another thing she thought age was making easier for her—not giving too much of a damn what people, particularly Duran, thought about her.

  ***

  She’d set her alarm for 6:30 the following morning, but she was jerked awake by her cellphone at 6:16 instead. She saw that it was DeMarco and answered it right away, hoping there had been a break in the case. For a moment, she even dared to hope that at some point in the night, DeMarco had managed to find the one missing piece and blown the case wide open.

  “Hey, DeMarco.”

  “Good morning. How are you doing?”

  “Jaded. Bummed. Not wanting to drive back to DC today. How about you?”

  “Good. Look, we dug up everything on Zeus Beringer last night and there’s nothing new. We did see where his name came up in a few other cases—guys that were hired to kill. We’re going to revisit some of those cases today—maybe even visit a few in jail to see if we can get more information.”

  “Good idea,” Kate said. She meant it. But she also wasn’t going to tell DeMarco about the potentially reckless thing she had planned for the morning. She wasn’t going to tell her how she was planning to visit the school and corner Jennifer Nobilini during the art auction—in a place where there would be multiple witnesses if Jennifer tried to get away from her. A place where she would have to remain civil.

  DeMarco would almost have to report it to Duran and if she did, that would be the end of it. She hated to keep such a secret from DeMarco. When all was said and done, DeMarco would probably be pissed at her for sneaking around behind her back.