“That I can’t tell you for certain.”
“Weeks, months, years?”
“Oh, you said a couple of things.” Gerald tapped his wrist. “Off you go.”
“Please, Mr. Stevens,” she pleaded.
“Fine, I’d say the better part of a few years.” He swept a hand in front of him, motioning for them to get going.
Jack pulled out a business card and extended it to Gerald. “Call if you feel like talking some more.”
Gerald tucked Jack’s card into a back pocket of his pants. “I wouldn’t be waiting by the phone, Agent. Good day.”
Kelly and Jack stepped outside, and behind them, the door was shut with force.
They got into the SUV, and Kelly did up her seat belt.
“Sorry if I came across too strong in there,” she said.
Jack turned the vehicle on and looked over at her. “You need to get a better handle on your emotions. They don’t have any place in an investigation.”
His words came as a blow. She’d half-expected her apology to be met with a rebuff, some off-cuff remark about it being unnecessary.
“I’m not saying that we don’t feel emotions,” Jack added. “We can’t help that. They will come up, but we need to rise above them.”
“So approach life like a Vulcan?” The words rushed out, and she balled her hands into fists so tightly her nails dug into her palms, a habit of hers. The pain would cause her to slow down and consider her next steps. As her grandfather always stressed to her, “pick your battles wisely.”
“Like a what?”
“You know Star Trek?”
Jack’s face pinched.
“Never mind. And yes, I understand.” That you want me to be Vulcan, suppressing my emotions in favor of logic. As far as she was concerned, there was a place for both emotions and logic in proper balance, but she’d suck it up. “At least now we know that Reid went to Wilson Place on a regular basis.”
“And he kept that schedule up until last week.”
“Predictable. That would have made it easier for the shooter. They’d know when to strike.”
“How they knew is still a question we need to answer. Did they track Reid, or were they fed the information?”
“If it is a hired gun, it’s quite likely the latter. Maybe a little reconnaissance of their own, but we still don’t know why the sniper chose Wilson Place. Was it to call attention to Reid being there and to expose his purpose?” Jack didn’t say anything, and she considered holding back her suspicions—for a second. “The way Stevens clammed up, I bet he knows Reid was there to see a woman. Just speaking out loud, but what if Wilson Place was chosen for the hit because the motive was driven by revenge for adultery?”
Jack tore the cellophane from a new package of cigarettes and tapped one out.
Kelly would try another tack. “We both felt that Arlene knows far more than she’s telling us about her husband and Wilson Place.”
Jack waved his unlit cigarette. “Go on.”
The gaping hole in Reid’s chest—had he been shot in the heart? A literal translation of how Arlene had been wounded by Reid’s affairs? Running with the assumption he was sleeping around and Arlene was aware.
“Talk, Marsh,” Jack prompted.
She flinched, much the same way a pooch shook under harsh rebukes from their owner. She hated that she felt that way with Jack, but she was uncomfortable with his condemning attitude and all the corrections—especially in front of other people. But she was powerless to do anything about his treatment of her. She didn’t need to go mouthing off or losing her cool and her job along with it. But she couldn’t keep biting her tongue, afraid to talk, either. And he was asking for her opinion...
She met his gaze, hoping she wasn’t stepping into a trap. “You’ve made a point of telling me that we can’t rush to any assumptions, so for now, I want to keep some of my theories to myself. Respectfully.” She held her breath.
“I can respect that.” Jack put down his window and lit up a cigarette.
“Actually,” she blurted out, “can I speak freely?”
Jack waved his hand that held his cigarette in a casual manner that said, Go ahead.
“If Stevens saw Reid go in that building, you can bet there are other doormen from different shifts who might have—and who might be more talkative. Maybe Reid was there on other days of the week, different times.”
“They’ll clam up, hide behind fear of job security and confidentiality clauses.”
Shot down in less than a second…
“Possibly, but we don’t know unless we try. And maybe there are other retired doormen from the building out there we can speak with.”
Jack didn’t say anything, just took a few puffs of his cigarette.
“Or retired front-desk clerks?” she grasped.
“I’d be more interested in them if they had a record of military service or law enforcement with training in sniping.”
“Herrera’s officers are looking into that. Want me to follow up on—”
Jack’s phone rang over the SUV’s speakers.
Kelly read the caller ID on the front display: N WEBBER.
Jack answered.
Nadia started talking right away. “Jack, I have a theory, and I’m still doing some digging, but I need to tell you what I know so far.” The sentence came out on one breath. She continued, talking a tad slower. “I believe our sniper has struck before. More precisely, three different times. And in all three cases, there was a sole victim, a man.”
“All shot in the chest?” Kelly asked, but purposefully didn’t look at Jack.
“Direct hit to the heart,” Nadia punched out. “What about with Reid? Do we know yet?”
“The autopsy’s underway as we speak,” Jack said. “We’ll know soon enough.”
“Nadia, were all the men married?” Kelly queried.
“They were.”
Tingles ran down Kelly’s back, and her heart picked up speed. She tried to get control of her pesky emotions before speaking again. “Were those men cheating on their wives?”
“I don’t know, but I can find out.” Nadia’s voice held uncertainty as to why that mattered.
Kelly filled Nadia in on what they’d been finding out about Reid’s character.
“Nothing’s proven on that front yet,” Jack inserted.
“Well, if it is, maybe we’re looking at someone targeting cheating spouses?”
Kelly felt reassured hearing her unspoken suspicion coming from Nadia’s lips.
“Too soon to know,” Jack stated firmly. “Where were the shootings?”
“Albuquerque, New Mexico; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Knoxville, Tennessee.”
“Hmm.”
Kelly glanced at Jack, not sure what to make of his hmm. “What did these men do for a living? What were their ages?” she asked.
“Varied backgrounds. Guy in New Mexico was—”
“Nadia, gather all this information together and send it over to me. I’ll call you back in about an hour or less, once the team’s back together at the Arlington police station.”
“You got it.” With that, Nadia hung up, and Jack made another call.
“Paige, I need you and Brandon to head back to the station— No, put off seeing Pratchett Junior for now.” Jack ended the call, flicked his cigarette out the window, and took off in the direction of the station.
“You don’t think we’re looking at a hit man?” Kelly ventured, based on the sharp look in Jack’s eyes. Nadia’s news pushed her thoughts about Wilson Place employees to the side for now.
“Not sure whether our sniper gets paid, but I think Nadia’s just found us proof that we’re after a serial killer.”
And the real hunt begins…
-
Fourteen
Paige had just got
ten herself fired up to talk to Pratchett Junior when Jack called them back to the police station.
“He didn’t say what he wanted?” Brandon asked.
“Nope.”
“Do you think Pratchett complained about us?”
That’s exactly what she was thinking, but then that didn’t align with Jack’s tone of voice on the phone. He wouldn’t wait to confront them in person—or would he? “If Jack asks how things went with William Pratchett, leave it to me.”
“No argument here.”
“Huh-uh.” Just like Brandon to happily take the easy road.
They entered the room where things were set up and found Kelly and Jack already there.
“Hey, Jack.” Approach things calm, relaxed, casual. “What’s going on?”
“Nadia has a theory.”
Paige’s lungs expanded a little further. This wasn’t about Pratchett. She glanced at Brandon, wondering if it was Nadia’s hunch realized. “Great. What is it?” she asked with true enthusiasm.
“She’s found three other shooting incidents, three other victims—all male.”
Previous murders connected with their open case? No wonder Jack wanted her and Brandon back at the station immediately.
“All married,” Kelly added.
“We still don’t know if it’s the same sniper, but if it is, he or she is mobile.” Jack went on to tell her and Brandon the shootings had taken place in different states.
Mobile was one thing, but New Mexico, Arkansas, Tennessee, now Virginia? That was a long journey, and she wasn’t sure how it meshed with their earlier thoughts. “How does that fit with a hired gun?”
“Doesn’t mean the sniper comes cheap,” Kelly put simply.
“When were the shootings?” Brandon asked.
“We’ll get all our questions answered soon enough. Just waiting on Officer Chase to return with the printouts of the briefing packet Nadia sent—”
There was a rap on the doorframe, and Officer Chase entered, holding a stack of paper in her hands. “I have what you asked for, Agent Harper.”
Jack took the pile from her. “Thanks.” With one word, Jack managed to be polite and also dismissive. Officer Chase left the room.
Jack distributed the binder-clipped reports. Paige took the one Jack gave her, examined the thickness, which was at least a quarter-inch. “Wow. Nadia’s outdone herself.”
“We’ll see about that, but what she started telling Kelly and I was promising. Now that everyone’s here and we have the report…” Jack’s voice disappeared, and he called Nadia on speaker. When she answered, he said, “The team’s here, Nadia, go ahead.”
“You received my information packet?”
“We’ve all got it in front of us in print.”
Nadia was quiet for half a beat. “I’m assuming none of you have had a chance to read it as of yet.”
“You assume correctly,” Jack said. “Give us the highlights to start.”
“Paige and Brandon, I’m not sure how much Jack and Kelly have shared with you, but there were three previous shootings where there was only one causality, and in each case, that was a man. The shootings took place in—” and she went off to list the states again.
“When,” Brandon cut in, “did they happen?”
“New Mexico six months ago, Arkansas three months ago, and Tennessee one month ago.”
“Huh. Three months between the first two, and only one month between Tennessee and here,” Paige voiced. “Why? Did our killer have a schedule to keep? Or were they rushed for some reason? A last-minute job?”
“All good questions, Paige, but I have much more information for you.”
By the look of the report, Nadia wasn’t lying.
Nadia went on. “All three victims were in their mid-fifties and married. This matches up with Darrell Reid’s profile. Now, the three men were shot in the heart. Direct hit. Do you know—”
“Not yet,” Jack interrupted. “Hopefully soon.”
Whatever they were discussing wasn’t going to be resolved soon enough for Jack, but the subject wasn’t entirely clear. “Do you mean where Reid was shot?” Paige asked.
“Yeah,” Nadia said. “Now, there are differences between the previous cases and our current one. None of the victims were in the same line of work. One was a plumber, one a public-school teacher, and one was an unemployed electrician. If Reid was a victim of this same killer, you know he was a prosecutor.”
Paige studied her colleagues. “It just means the victims weren’t targeted based on their profession. Are we sure that the murders are linked?” She hated calling Nadia out, but it was a necessary question.
“No doubt. All three men were shot with a 7.62×51mm NATO bullet, believed to be fired from an M40.”
“That’s standard Marine issue,” Jack said.
“That’s right,” Nadia replied.
Brandon shifted in his seat. “There’s a confirmed military connection.”
“Nadia, do the victims share a military background?” Jack asked.
“Not that I could find. None have a record of service, in fact. They were all born in different states, too, and lived in different cities, so no way to connect their pasts that way, either.”
Jack nodded, not that Nadia would have seen. “Herrera’s officers haven’t found any military or law enforcement connections in Wilson Place employees, either.”
“Were the bullets fired from the same weapon?” Paige asked. When a bullet was fired from a gun, it left behind grooves and impressions that could then be compared to databases and net a manufacturer—sometimes even gun type. But there were characteristics intrinsic with the gun itself.
“Unfortunately, of the three bullets fired, only one remained intact enough inside the body to get some grooves and striations. That didn’t leave much for ballistics testing to definitively conclude the bullets were fired from the same weapon. I’m guessing you don’t know what bullet was used on Reid yet?”
“We don’t,” Jack told her.
Paige was trying to understand how Nadia connected the shootings without the identical weapon coming up in the system, so she asked.
“I started first looking at sniping incidents where there was only one victim, who was male, and branched out from there,” Nadia replied.
“We might not know for sure if the bullets were fired from the same gun, but it would seem the same person’s pulling the trigger,” Kelly concluded, but withered under Jack’s eye.
What’s up with the hostility toward the new girl? Paige could understand the importance of not jumping to conclusions—or becoming laser-focused—but Kelly was just basing her comment on what was before them. In that, Paige saw no harm. It’s nothing she and Brandon wouldn’t do. Heck, if Kelly hadn’t said it, Paige might have.
“Kelly,” Nadia interjected, “you’d asked if the men were cheating on their wives when I called before. I can tell you all their marriages were in shambles. One couple was in counseling, another argued a lot, according to their neighbors, and the other one… This is horrible to say, and I’m just quoting, but one of the widows said, ‘Thank God for small miracles; burying him will be cheaper than getting a divorce.’”
“Brr. That’s cold.” Brandon mocked shivers.
Jack leaned back in his chair and tapped an unlit cigarette against the table. “Did investigators have any suspects?”
“No one solid,” Nadia replied. “But the men’s wives were looked at closely. A hit man was considered, but investigators hit a wall when none the widows’ finances supported one.”
Jack’s mouth set into a straight line. “I can’t believe no one linked these shootings before now.”
“As I said, Jack, I was looking at very tight parameters. Sniper shot with one male causality.”
“Yeah, and I can’t imagine shootings involving
a sniper are too common,” Paige reasoned.
“More common than you’d like to think, sadly,” Nadia responded.
“Where’s Zach to give us the statistics on that one?” Brandon bumped Paige’s elbow, and she shook her head, trying to stay focused on the seriousness of the topic. But if Zach were here, he’d know the stats. He was a genius and a walking encyclopedia.
“I should add,” Nadia said, “that in the shooting from a month ago—the one in Tennessee—the widow received compromising photos of her husband in the mail. Him with another woman having—”
“We get the picture,” Jack interrupted.
“Anyway, local law enforcement really looked at the wife.”
“That the one who celebrated her husband’s death?” Brandon asked.
“That would be her.”
“No wonder,” Paige said, completely understanding where LEOs would have been coming from.
“Were any photos sent to the previous two widows?” Brandon asked. “The ones in Albuquerque and Arkansas?”
“Not that’s on record,” Nadia replied. “What about with your vic?”
“None yet, that we know of.” Jack slid a glance at Kelly, and Paige took it to mean they weren’t confident Mrs. Reid had been forthcoming.
“This is in your packets, but all the murders took place along the I-40/I-81/I-66 corridor.”
While Kelly might like the hired-gun theory, Paige wasn’t so sure. There was the geographic distance between murders to consider, and there wasn’t any proof of a contract killer being hired. Paige felt their sniper was acting on a personal agenda. Now, what that was, she didn’t know yet. “What else can you tell us about the places where the victims were shot? Did they have any meaning to the men?”
“Here’s the thing…” Nadia seemed to leave those three words out there as a dangling teaser. “Two of the three men were sniped outside their regular haunts. They were as predictable as the rising sun.”
“And the third?”
“Sherman, in Tennessee, had never been to the restaurant he was shot at before.”
“If we’re looking at a hired gun, they could have been provided information on where and when to find their targets,” Brandon said.
Past Deeds Page 9