Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
An hour later the pizza boxes were empty.
Jack rubbed his eyes then looked at Derby. “Where are you on the electronics?”
Derby had pushed his reading glasses up on his forehead and looked around the table for them before he remembered they were on his head.
“Burner phone is encrypted. I’ve worked through a couple of layers, but it’s time consuming.
This last layer has a self-destruct override.
It’s not super sophisticated, but it’s a pain in the behind all the same.
I figured the kid might want to take a look at it. ”
“Oh, yeah,” Doug said. “Margot and I have a program for those kinds of issues.”
“I thought you might,” Derby said, his hangdog eyes tilting up in a smile. “The studio computer is a different story. He didn’t have anything but a basic password. Adonis1991 if you can believe that.”
“Subtle,” I said, making Jack snort with laughter.
“Our vic had an appointment book on his PC. His PC and his phone would have shared the information. But it looks like he used the same system for his appointment book as he did his little black book. At least partially. Some of the same initials show up in both. Every once in a while he’ll use a first name.
Never first and last together. I’ve been working on cross-referencing the membership roster with initials that appear on his calendar or black book. ”
“Any hits?”
“We’ve got hits,” Derby said. He pulled the list up on the digital wall from his laptop.
“I’ve divided them into two groups—current members and former members.
But here’s the problem.” He looked around the room.
“Most of the notebook entries are initials only. Not names. Which means every set of initials has to be checked against everyone on the roster who shares them. DM could be one woman. It could be five. I’ve flagged every possible match for every entry.
” He clicked to the first list. “Current members. Every woman on the active roster whose initials or first name could match a notebook entry. That list is long.” He let the wall speak for itself—names filling the screen in columns.
“Former members is the second group. Same problem, same process.” He clicked to that list. “Now here’s where the calendar helps us.
If DM appears in the notebook and there’s also a DM booked for private sessions on the studio computer—that’s almost certainly the same woman.
The calendar collapses a lot of the ambiguity.
It doesn’t solve everything, but it gives us a priority tier—the women who are confirmed in both systems are our first conversations. ”
“How many are we talking total?” Jack asked.
“There are forty-one entries in the notebook,” Derby said. “Best case, if every set of initials is unique, that’s forty-one women. But with the duplicate initials and common first names, the realistic number of people we need to account for is closer to a hundred and twenty.”
The room was quiet for a moment.
“That’s a lot of women,” Daniels said.
“Margot,” Jack said. “Can you help us with this? We need to run every name on this list through VCIN and then access their data through the DMV. Let’s prioritize by age and location.
And pull the license photos. I’m curious to see if Wade had a type.
He’s a narcissist obsessed with himself.
He’s going to want his partners to be a physical match for him. ”
VCIN was the Virginia Criminal Information Network. Virginia had passed a law that allowed police networks to tie directly into federal databases so they’d have immediate access to information during a case. It saved an enormous amount of time when every second counted.
Driver’s license photos started to populate on the second whiteboard wall.
“Here are the first sixty,” Margot said. “I’ve run out of room on the board. Do you wish to eliminate any of them?”
“Yes,” Jack said, walking up to the board and studying the photos. “Eliminate anyone over the age of sixty.”
Eight of the images disappeared from the screen.
“Okay, we know two of his private session clients. Sloane Ferriday and Lynnie, which I’m assuming by the lack of matching names has to be Lynette Nickles. Let’s put them at the top of the screen.”
“Two beautiful women,” I said. “Even if Sloane is enhanced with plastic surgery, she’s ten years older than he was.
Paige is twenty-five, Lynette is thirty, Sloane is forty-four.
None of them have matching features other than their weight—somewhere between a hundred and twenty-five and a hundred and thirty pounds. Hair color, eye color, all different.”
“Body is going to be the most important thing to him,” Jack said.
“Now that you say that,” Daniels said, “did you notice how many mirrors were in that condo? Floor-to-ceiling mirror in the weight room. Standing corner mirror and dresser mirror in the bedroom, angled at the bed—I noticed when I was taking the sheets off. I could see myself in both of them. And then a closet mirror and another one on the wall behind the couch.”
“Oh,” I said. I hadn’t noticed.
“That tracks,” Jack said, nodding. “Good eye. Okay, just to play it safe, eliminate any woman over a hundred and forty-five pounds.”
Two dozen images disappeared from the wall.
“We’re down to about eighty,” Margot said. “I do have one set of initials that only has one match in the membership roster. She’s listed as ZB in the black book, and she’s a former member. Her name is Zoe Brown.”
“Add her to the top of the list,” Jack said.
“Holy cow,” Doug said. “Sign me up for interviewing her.”
Jack whacked him lightly on the back of the head, but Doug wasn’t wrong.
Zoe Brown had the kind of beauty that was rare.
No fillers, no enhancements, no stiff expression from too much Botox.
She had a fall of dark hair that was almost black and a fringe of bangs that enhanced her eyes.
They were a light gray with just a hint of violet, framed by thick dark lashes. She wasn’t wearing any makeup.
“Zoe Brown, age twenty-eight,” I said. “She fits the physical profile. Weight at a hundred and thirty, height five foot nine.”
“You and I will track her down in the morning along with Sheri Downs,” Jack said. “We know Wade had a relationship with her when she was working for him. Put her picture at the top as well. We’ll keep a collection going.”
“I’d be a perfect candidate for Wade,” Margot chimed in randomly. “I’m so glad my human form wasn’t available for him to take advantage of. Though I am willing to have sexual experiences. People seem to enjoy them and it’s a frequent topic of conversation.”
“You have a human form?” Daniels asked, taking a step back. I thought she was going to cross herself.
“It’s a work in progress,” Margot said. “Douglas is dragging his feet. My intuition tells me he’s getting cold feet.
I feel this has to do with the relationship he’s developed with the girl Kayla.
Their conversations during Final Fantasy have turned inappropriate.
I’m ashamed to say that the human emotion of jealousy has reared its ugly head. ”
“Geez, Margot,” Doug said. “I’ll be seventeen next week. Remember how we talked about privacy?”
“Of course,” she said. I noticed she didn’t say she agreed with it.
I looked at Jack and gave him a look. Any sex conversations with Doug were going to have to be had by him. I wasn’t stepping into that anthill.
I couldn’t hear Jack’s sigh, but I could feel it.
“Margot, let’s make another section on the whiteboard for those we’ve interviewed and those whose alibis have cleared. Right now Holt Ferriday’s alibi doesn’t hold for the evening of the murder. His wife said she took an Ambien and couldn’t confirm whether or not he was in bed all night.”
Holt Ferriday went up first. The studio confrontation in March, the threat in front of witnesses, and an alibi that only held through dinner.
“We’ve also got Jessica Contreras who doesn’t have anyone to corroborate her story of being in her condo alone all night. She’s one of the last people to see Wade alive, and by the looks of that elevator scene she would have happily accepted more.”
“But she doesn’t fit the profile,” I said. “She’s a pretty woman. But she doesn’t have the same look as the other women. And she’s trim, but she’s not in shape. Paige and Sloane both had great physiques.”
“Noted,” Jack said. “There’s only one whose story fully matches and that’s Brett Callum. We’ve got him leaving the premises on time.”
“What about Paige Marsh?” I asked. “She’s staying with Becca, but if they’d been drinking like they said, or at least Becca had, maybe Paige could’ve snuck out. She did have a fob and the key to the condo. And she had motive. Nothing like a lover scorned.”
“Not to mention she had the ability to get him prescriptions,” Jack added. “We’ll be talking to her again too. I want to see if Tom happened to notice anything unusual. Maybe he’s got cameras.”
Jack turned to Plank. “You’ve been quiet.”
“Just observing,” he said.
“Want to do some legwork on this?”
“Absolutely,” he said.
“Good. Tell Wachowski I’d like her on it too.
I want you both to start going through our list of women on the board.
Start with the ones who have initials in the calendar and in the black book.
And then work your way through the rest. I want to know every single person who had sexual history with our victim.
And I want someone to tell us why he was keeping score in that book and what the symbols mean. ”
“I’ll tell her,” he said. There was a small smile on his face. He and Wachowski never got to work together.
“You can pick two others to help you. I want a solid prelim report by end of day tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Margot—I want you running backgrounds on every woman on that board. I’m looking for anyone with technology or security experience. Anyone who could have known how to kill those cameras.”
“Of course,” she said. “I’ll just add it to my never-ending list of things to do.”
“You’re a peach,” Jack told her.
“And soft and sweet,” she purred.
On that note, Derby, Daniels, and Plank said their goodbyes and headed out. Doug and Oscar stayed behind, though Oscar had been snoring on the couch for the last two hours.
“Doug,” Jack said. “Don’t stop going through the camera feed. Look for any anomalies. Let’s try to get a log of women going up to the fourth floor, see if we can match them with any of the DMV photos.”
“Should be easy enough. I’ve got a facial recognition program I’ve been wanting to test out.”
“Margot,” Jack said, “Can you start digging into Wade Rivers’s financials.
I’ve got the warrant already signed, so you don’t have to worry about being careful.
Full workup. Where the money was coming from, where it was going, anything that doesn’t look like it belongs.
And pull his travel history for the last couple of years. ”
“Your wish is my command,” she said.
Doug was already pushing back from the island. “I’ve got a Final Fantasy date with Kayla.” He looked at the laptop. “Margot will keep digging and I’ll get the facial recognition going before I meet Kayla and the team for our raid.”
“I’m so tired of hearing about Kayla,” Margot said. I could practically hear her rolling her eyes.
Doug closed the laptop and headed for the stairs. Oscar lifted his head from the couch, considered the situation, and padded after him.
“Make good choices,” Jack called after him.
Doug paused and turned, a grin on his face. “You know that’s terrifying coming from a man Uncle Ben said once went—”
“Good night, Doug,” Jack interrupted.
Doug grinned. “Good night.”
The office was quiet. Just the two of us.
“Do I want to hear whatever that story was?” I asked.
“I’m sure Ben inflated it,” Jack said. “But probably not.”
“Your reputation precedes you,” I said, moving toward him. “Lucky me.”
His hand touched my waist and he drew me in close. I wrapped my arms around him and pressed close.
“I got all that out of my system,” he said, kissing the corner of my mouth softly. Then the other corner. And finally the middle. “Now I get to focus only on you.”
Then he kissed me deep and I moaned into his mouth. When he pulled back we were both breathing heavy.
“We have a long day tomorrow,” he said. “You need your rest.”
“Then I guess you’d better work fast.”
“Sweetheart,” he said, lifting me against him so my legs wrapped around him. “If I learned anything from my past it’s that there’s a benefit to working slow. I’ll show you.”
I tightened my legs and nipped at his bottom lip. “I bet I can change your mind.”
He walked toward the stairs, suddenly in a hurry. “That sounds like a challenge.”
By the time we reached the third floor, the case was the last thing on my mind.