Chapter Forty-Four
The task that Hunter had given Shannon and the Research team wasn’t exactly a difficult one, but it was certainly laborious. Backtracking a person’s life could easily be done from behind a computer keyboard, especially if the researcher had access to information that was restricted to the general public, like police files, traffic accident documentation, school records and so on, but for a thorough backtracking job, the researcher would also need to spend time on the phone – talking to doctors, teachers, relatives… whoever they needed to, depending on the case, to get the kind of personal history they were looking for. And what Shannon and her team were looking for in this particular instance were ‘no red flags’.
There were twenty-five names on the initial list that Hunter had given Research, and that would no doubt take time, but Hunter and Garcia didn’t need all the information at once. Research could trickle it through, a name at a time, and the two names right at the top of that list were Keri Liftridge and Roberto De Souza. Both of them were career therapists, and both of them ran two of the eleven domestic violence support groups that catered specifically to help those perpetrating the violence. And their support groups met on Tuesday evenings – Terry Wilford’s only night off during the week.
It took Research almost a full day to backtrack Keri Liftridge’s life to a ‘no red flags’ status. They were able to track back on her personal history all the way to her birth. Her parents were still alive and living in Connecticut. Shannon herself had spoken to both of them on the phone.
Due to the fact that Roberto De Souza’s family was all back in Puerto Rico, his backtracking was taking a little longer than the team expected, but all indications were that he would also make the ‘no red flags’ list.
‘So what do you want to do?’ Garcia asked, as he walked back into the UVC Unit’s office, holding an unopened can of Dr. Pepper in his right hand. ‘It’s Thursday today, neither Keri Liftridge’s or Roberto De Souza’s support group meet until Tuesday, but we don’t need to wait until then to go talk to either of them.’ He cracked open the can. ‘Though Mrs. Liftridge’s support group meets in Monterey Park, her regular consulting office is in North Hollywood.’
‘Yeah,’ Hunter replied. ‘I saw that.’
‘Roberto De Souza doesn’t have a private office,’ Garcia continued. ‘During the day he’s a school psychologist at Morningside High School in Inglewood.’
Hunter checked his watch – 4:20 p.m. ‘Well, school is out. So just turning up at Morningside High could turn out to be a wasted journey.’
Garcia knew that, whenever possible, Hunter preferred to turn up unannounced. It gave them the upper hand.
‘School might be out, but we can still drop by Keri Liftridge’s office in North Hollywood. It’ll take us less than half an hour to get there.’
‘We can,’ Hunter agreed. ‘But I don’t want to do that together.’
‘Why not? She’s a “no red flags”.’
‘Still,’ Hunter explained. ‘Regardless of finding out if any of our victims had attended any of these support groups, we’ll still have to sit in on all of them.’
Garcia nodded, picking up on what Hunter had meant. ‘And it’s better if they don’t know that there’s a cop sitting in on their session.’
‘Much better,’ Hunter agreed.
‘So with the groups that you talk to the leader, I sit in on their sessions.’
‘And vice-versa,’ Hunter agreed.
‘So who’s going to drop in on Keri Liftridge today?’
‘I can do it,’ Hunter said, already reaching for his jacket. ‘You can take the sessions.’
‘Fair enough. Tomorrow I’ll talk to Roberto De Souza and you’ll take the sessions.’
Hunter smiled. It seemed like they finally had a workable plan of action.