Chapter 34
34
Aaron glanced at the paperwork, still piled on his desk, before looking up at Sam. “We have no murder weapon for William Gaston. No murder site. No witnesses. We’ve looked at the security cameras of the gas stations along Highway 13 in our county and had Liam do the same in his county. Nothing. All we know is that a man washed up on our shore. He’d been shot and hadn’t been in the water long. And we don’t have his car.”
“So you think this will be a case we send off to the state police?” Sam asked.
Grimacing, Aaron replied, “Maybe. I just keep thinking that there’s something right under our noses that we’re not seeing.”
“You’ve been under a lot of stress lately, Aaron.”
“Are you saying my instincts are off?”
“No.” Sam sighed. “I have the same niggling feeling.”
Looking up, he spied Colt walking toward them and then turned one of the chairs by their desks to face both of them. “I’ve just gotten some news about William Gaston, which may close the case in our county.”
Aaron’s chin jerked back, and it wasn’t hard for him to notice that Sam had the same physical reaction to Colt’s words.
“I got a call from the police chief of Virginia Beach. He said an abandoned car had been located in a shopping center. When they ran the tags, it belonged to William Gaston. As soon as they came up with his name, they looked in the database and saw that we had an open case on his murder.”
“So he wasn’t murdered in our area? He actually made it across the CBBT and into Virginia Beach?” Aaron asked for clarification.
“Why was his car just sitting in a shopping center? He drove it there and was then murdered? Kidnapped and then murdered?” Sam asked.
Colt shook his head. “The police chief didn’t have any answers. They’re going over his car right now, fingerprinting and seeing what they can find. He said they’d stay in touch.”
“So what does this mean for our case?” Aaron wondered aloud.
Colt shook his head. “Right now, it’s still an open case that I want you working on. My suggestion would be to contact the CBBT. They have security cameras all along the Bay Bridge Tunnel. See if we can find out when he left our area and crossed into Virginia Beach. I know that something that their police can do, but since his body was found on our side of the bay, I’d rather we do it.”
“That makes sense, Colt. If he did make it to Virginia Beach and was killed over there, and then his body was dumped, it would take more than two days to wash up on our shore. The timeline just doesn’t add up,” Aaron added.
Colt dipped his head. “Agreed. Check with the CBBT, and let’s see what we have. Here’s the Virginia Beach detective handling the case for them.” With that, Colt stood and handed them the information before returning to his office.
Aaron looked over at Sam. “I’ll call Ivy and find out what we need to do.”
Sam chuckled. “Convenient that your sister-in-law works there.”
“I think so, but she may not agree by the time I get through asking her what I need.”
He dialed Ivy’s number, glad when she picked up immediately. After greeting her warmly, he told her what they were looking for and why.
“This won’t be nearly as hard as you think,” she said. “Because every car that goes through here has to have either an EZ Pass or they pay a toll, and we can find out exactly when he entered the CBBT and left it on the Virginia Beach side. If you give me his full name, I can run his EZ Pass and get back to you.”
“Damn, that was easier than I thought it was going to be. His full name is William Lionel Gaston. The last known address where he was living was in Richmond, Virginia.” He rattled off the address.
“Okay. This shouldn’t take me long, and I’ll get back to you.”
“Ivy, you’re the best sister-in-law a detective could ever have.”
She laughed. “I’m your only sister-in-law.”
Disconnecting, he looked over at Sam and nodded. While waiting, he walked to the coffee machine to get a weak-ass cup of coffee. Dumping creamer and sweetener into it to make it more palatable, he took a sip and winced. Walking past Hunter and Brad, he asked, “Any luck?”
“My eyes are crossed right now,” Brad complained.
“We’ve gone back to the ones where you’re in a couple of them,” Hunter said, one side of his lips curving up in a smirk. “Looks like you two were at Kiptopeke. That must have been when you first got together again.”
He nodded, thinking of the conversation he had with Belinda last night. “Don’t make fun of those pictures, man. It was at that meeting that she and I got back together. She forgave me for being such a dumbass, and we started moving forward again. Slowly, but surely.”
“Hell, I won’t make fun of that,” Hunter said. “Belle and I had the same kind of situation. She got caught up in a case I was working on, and even though she wasn’t part of it, it blew up in my face. I’m lucky as fuck that she gave me a second chance.”
“You guys are so whipped, it’s not even funny.” Brad shook his head.
“Yeah, and thinking like that is why you’re still single,” Aaron quipped.
Within the hour, his phone rang, and he looked down to see Ivy’s name. Grabbing it up, he asked, “What have you got for me?”
“William Gaston’s vehicle entered the CBBT on the shore side at 10:43 p.m., four days ago. It left the CBBT on the Virginia Beach side at 11:09 p.m.”
“Ivy, you’re the best!”
Disconnecting, he looked over at Sam and said, “We have confirmation that William Gaston’s vehicle left the shore at 10:43. So it doesn’t look like his murder occurred in our jurisdiction.”
Two hours later, a deputy walked over to their desks. “Detective Bergstrom? I just came back from a callout to a small gas station that was on Breeton Road, south of Baytown.”
Aaron nodded for him to continue.
“I noticed he had a security camera and thought to ask about the murder victim you were checking into. He grumbled a lot but admitted that he didn’t really have the camera hooked up. He said it was to keep some punk from trying to rob him. I had the photo to show him, and he said he remembered the guy. Said he didn’t get many people coming in who were dressed in a suit and tie unless it was on a Sunday when people stopped in after church. And even then, he knew the locals.”
“Fuckin’ good work,” Sam said. “Did he happen to remember anything else?”
“He said the man stopped by about noon. Mr. Critcher remembered that because the man bought a bag of chips and a candy bar. He asked if that was going to be his lunch because Mr. Critcher was trying to sell him one of the sandwiches his wife makes to sell to customers. He said the man thanked him but just kept the chips and candy bar. But he did add a soda for later.” The deputy shook his head and chuckled. “I think that old man can probably remember every customer he’s ever had in the past forty years!”
“Thanks. Good work.” Aaron smiled at the deputy, but his mind was already racing.
The deputy smiled and left his information with him. Aaron picked up the phone and called the Virginia Beach detective. After introducing himself and explaining why he was calling, he asked, “Can you tell me if a candy bar and a bag of chips were in the car? Either uneaten or just the wrappers.”
Sam watched, and Aaron tapped his pen on his desk until the detective got back with him.
“Detective Bergstrom? You’re right. The log of the contents of the car includes a half-eaten candy bar and a full bag of chips. The notes say they were sitting between the driver and passenger seats in the middle console.”
“Thank you, that’s helpful. To let you know, we’re still looking at the possibility of what happened to William Gaston while he was on the Eastern Shore. As soon as we find any information, we’ll share it with you and would appreciate it if you would do the same.”
Gaining the affirmation from the Virginia Beach detective, he disconnected. Looking at Sam, he asked, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Sam held his gaze and then blew out a long breath. “I wonder what William Gaston was doing from the time he bought gas and snacks on the lower part of the shore at around noon and didn’t get onto the CBBT, just a few miles south, until 10:43 p.m. What the hell was he doing for almost eleven hours?”
Nodding slowly, Aaron sighed. “The only person he knew down there was Harry Malroney. He’s the key.”
“He’s a hothead, but is he a murderer?” Sam asked, shaking his head. “I don’t see it. And if he did, I can’t see Harry coming up with a way to get rid of the body and the car to Virginia Beach.”
“The one thing we saw when we last talked to Harry was that he adored his wife. Hard to understand what she sees in him, but there’s obvious affection there. And her reaction to William’s death was very strong. Maybe something happened. I was going to say an accident, but unless William fell into a moving bullet, it would hardly be an accident. But if they’d had a meeting and something occurred, I could see Harry wanting to do anything to protect his wife.”
“You’re right. But we need to find out if Harry has a firearm.” He turned to his computer and began running a check. “Hmph.”
“What?”
“Harry Malroney doesn’t own a weapon.”
Aaron cocked his head to the side. “O…kay?”
“But Ruthanne Malroney does.”