Chapter Fifteen #2
“He was found dead in your home earlier tonight.”
She tipped her head, as if trying to make sense of what he’d said. “Troy’s not dead. I talked to him earlier, too. He was doing some paperwork and going to bed early.”
“What time did you speak with him?” Malone asked.
“I don’t know exactly.” As she spoke, her hands trembled. “It was this afternoon sometime. I’m sure he’s fine. I can call him now for you if you’d like.”
“Mrs. Hamilton,” Farnsworth said, saving Avery from having to do it. “I’m afraid Agent Hill is correct. Your husband was attacked and killed in his home. His body was found on the floor of his study.”
She shook her head. “That’s not possible. Not Troy. He can take care of himself. He always says there’s nothing to worry about.” Tears slid down her cheeks. “He can’t be dead. He’s Troy Hamilton.” She said that as if he weren’t as human as the rest of the world’s population.
“Did you know of any problems he was having with anyone who might want to harm him?” Malone asked.
“There was always someone unhappy with him. That was the nature of his work. He told me there was nothing to worry about, so I didn’t worry.
” She looked up at Avery, heartbreak etched into her pretty face.
“I should’ve been worried. Why didn’t I worry about him?
” She used her sleeve to mop up the tears.
“Is this why you were looking for my son earlier? You don’t think he had something to do with it, do you? ”
“This is not why we were looking for him,” Malone said.
“Is he a suspect?” she asked.
“Not at this time. Do you have reason to believe he’d be capable of harming his father?”
“No, of course not. He and Troy never saw eye to eye, but they loved each other. Josh couldn’t harm a flea, let alone the man who raised him.”
The man who raised him. The peculiar choice of words set off alarms for Avery, and apparently for Farnsworth and Malone, too, because the two men exchanged glances.
“Mrs. Hamilton, may I ask what might seem to be an odd question?” Avery said.
She nodded as she continued to wipe away tears. “Is Josh your biological child?”
“No,” she said hesitantly. “He’s adopted. I was unable to have more children after my daughter was born, so Troy and I adopted him. We’d always wanted a big family and were disappointed when we couldn’t have more than two of our own.”
“Does Josh know he’s adopted?” Malone asked, sitting now on the edge of his seat.
She looked down at her hands. “No, he doesn’t. Troy didn’t want him to know, and I went along with what he wanted because it seemed so important to him.”
Avery felt like he’d been struck by lightning. What the fuck was going on here? He could sense that Farnsworth and Malone were equally riveted by the revelations.
“What do you know about Josh’s birth parents?” Farnsworth asked.
“What does this have to do with my husband being murdered?” she asked.
“We’re not sure yet, but it might have everything to do with it,” Malone said.
“I… I don’t know much about them. The mother was an administrative assistant in my husband’s office. She got pregnant outside of wedlock and couldn’t afford to keep the baby, so we took him in.”
Avery forced air into lungs starved for it. “Did you know her name or anything else about her?”
“Her name was Danielle. I can’t recall her last name off the top of my head. It was a long time ago.”
Avery exchanged glances with Farnsworth and Malone.
“In a conversation with Josh about your husband’s career, it came up that you all once lived in Knoxville,” Avery said. “But Josh was adamant that you never lived there. Do you know why that would be?”
“We… Troy and I… We had some marital problems during those years. It was a difficult time in our lives, so we rarely talked about living there. That’s probably why.”
Avery found that explanation curious, to say the least. “Have you been with your mother all day today, Mrs. Hamilton?”
“Yes, since she called me this morning to tell me she was feeling poorly.”
“And your other children are where?”
“Mark is in Chicago, and Maura lives in Boston. Why?”
“Establishing the whereabouts of the immediate family is routine in a Homicide investigation,” Malone said. “Do you know if they’re both at home today?”
“I… I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to them.”
Hill produced a notebook and pen. “We’ll need their phone numbers.”
She took it from him with hands that were trembling more violently now. “You don’t honestly think they’d harm their father? They adored him!”
“We have to explore all possibilities, ma’am,” Malone said.
“Why isn’t the bureau investigating?” she asked. “In light of recent events, I’m not sure I trust the MPD to handle it.”
To his credit, Farnsworth didn’t react to the insult. Rather, he said, “We have jurisdiction because of where the crime occurred, and it would be a conflict of interest for the FBI to investigate the murder of its director.”
“Is that true, Agent Hill?”
“It is.”
“Dustin will need to be notified. Troy would want him involved.”
“I have a call into the deputy director, ma’am,” Hill said. “If you could please write down the contact information for your children as well as a number where we can reach you, I’d appreciate it.”
With her jaw set in a stubborn expression, she did as he asked and handed over the notebook. “What happens now?”
“The director’s body is with the city’s Medical Examiner, who will perform an autopsy. When that is completed, the body will be released to the funeral home of your choice. The ME will call you when she has completed her work.”
Mrs. Hamilton nodded.
“Thank you for your cooperation,” Malone said. “We’ll be in touch.”
She saw them out the door and shut off the porch light, the deadbolt clicking loudly.
When they were in the car and on their way back to the city, Farnsworth said, “Did anyone else find it interesting that she didn’t ask how he was murdered?”
“I found it very interesting indeed,” Malone said. “And she didn’t ask to see him. Family members almost always ask to see the victim, like they need to see it with their own eyes before they’ll believe it’s true.”
“How about her referring to Hamilton as the man who ‘raised’ Josh, rather than as his father?” Avery asked. “Parents of adopted children are almost always extra particular about those semantics.”
“We need to look more closely at her, and we need to notify the media,” Farnsworth said. “If there’s anyone you should tell within the bureau before we go public with this, now is the time. I’ve asked my Public Affairs people to get the media to HQ within the hour.”
Hill withdrew his cellphone and tried to reach Dustin, getting his voicemail again, so he contacted his director supervisor, Leslie Monroe, the executive assistant director for the criminal, cyber, response and services branch.
“Agent Hill,” she said when she answered. “What can I do for you?”
“Director Hamilton has been murdered.”
After a gasp, she said, “What?”
“I’ve been trying to reach Dustin, but I keep getting his voicemail.”
“Have you got a team at the scene?”
“It’s not our scene. The murder occurred in the director’s home. The MPD has jurisdiction.”
“Not this time they don’t. He’s ours. We’ll see to it.”
“Leslie, we can’t, and you know it.” He liked and respected her—most of the time. She left him alone to run his division the way he saw fit, and got involved only when he asked her to. But she was dead wrong on this, and he was prepared to dig in if need be.
“How did you hear about it?”
“I was the one who found him.”
“And you didn’t call us first? What the hell Avery.”
“I followed procedure, and when you take a minute to think it through, you’ll realize that.”
After a long pause in which he wondered if he’d ended his own career by criticizing his boss’s judgment, she said, “What were you doing at the director’s home on a Sunday?”
Avery filled her in on what’d been going on with Josh, the APB that had been issued, the subsequent statement that had come from the director and the reason he had gone to the director’s home. He wanted to ask what rock she’d been living under all day to have missed the events from earlier.
“We had my daughter’s birthday party today,” she said, answering his unspoken question. “I’ve been off the grid. Was Josh located?”
“Yes, the MPD has him in protective custody until we figure out what’s going on with the kidnapping case.”
“I’m trying to understand what you’re saying about that. You honestly believe that it’s possible a young man Troy Hamilton raised as his son was kidnapped from a family in Tennessee thirty years ago?”
“I’m saying only that Hamilton’s son bears a striking resemblance to the age-progressed photo that was released by the family.
The DNA results are being sent to the police in Williamson County tomorrow.
We’ll know very soon if we have a match.
That, coupled with the director’s odd behavior today, has us operating under the assumption that he knew something about the kidnapping. ”
“What’s the plan if there’s a DNA match?”
“Then I guess we’ll have to figure out how Taylor came to be in Hamilton’s custody.”
“I’m trying to wrap my head around this.”
“I’ve been trying to do that all day.”
“You should’ve called me the minute you heard about this, Avery.”
“There was nothing to tell you other than a man raised as Hamilton’s son looked like an age-progressed photo of a missing kid.”
“What’s the plan for announcing the director’s murder to the media?”
“The MPD chief is calling a press conference within the hour.”
“I’ll try again to call Dustin, and if I can’t reach him, I’ll issue a bureau-wide alert to let people know before it goes public.” Pausing, she added, “There’ll be a lot of questions because of the APB and the director’s statement about his son.”
“You could be preemptive by saying the MPD is working to resolve a situation with Hamilton’s son that arose earlier in the day, and it’s unclear at this time if there’s a connection between the two events.”
“But there has to be, right? How can it not be related?”
“I don’t know if it is or isn’t. I’ve told you everything I know.”
“And the MPD is keeping you in the loop?”
“I’m with Chief Farnsworth and Detective Captain Malone right now. We’re on our way back to the city after notifying Mrs. Hamilton who was in Chantilly with her sick mother.”
“That poor woman. What she must be going through.”
For some reason, Avery chose not to mention to Leslie that the poor woman had shown a distinct lack of curiosity about how her husband’s life had ended.
“I’ll get the alert out,” Leslie said. “Keep me posted on every development.”
“I will.”
When they arrived at the MPD headquarters thirty minutes later, they were met by Patrol Captain Hernandez. “We’ve got a situation, sir,” he said, speaking directly to the chief.
“What now?” Farnsworth asked.
“Detective Cruz’s car was found running and abandoned at a stop light at North Carolina Ave and 14th Street Northeast. The driver and passenger doors were open. There was no sign of Detective Cruz or Mr. Hamilton.”