Chapter Thirty-Two
“And you know why I know about that dead body?” Houston demands.
“Are you saving me the trouble of investigating by confessing? I’m honored you’d bare your black soul to me and me alone.
“Because everyone but you told me,” he shouts into the phone, ignoring my excellent sense of humor that he underappreciates.
“Who is everyone?” I ask calmly, though people having a breakdown like he is right now, hate calm.
“Everyone doesn’t matter,” he snaps. “You matter.”
“Ah, thank you, Chief. That means so much coming from you.”
Again he ignores me, continuing as if I haven’t spoken at all. “And so does the mayor who wants to know what’s going on since no one is talking to him. Not to mention this is my city, and I’d appreciate a head’s up. After the Umbrella Man the city is fragile and on edge.”
“Who leaked?”
“Anonymous call to 911. I need to be involved in this.”
“What leaked?”
“Dead body at the governor’s mansion. Nothing else, but if the press wasn’t there, it will be soon. Was the governor there? Is he involved?”
“I’m too busy looking for chopped off hands to get into details. We need to discuss this later.”
“Fuck. Fuck. I repeat, I need to be involved in this.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You will. Right now, I’m dealing with the governor and the governor-elect under one roof. I’ll call you when this is done.” I disconnect.
I was right. The killer is seeking distraction and confusion and wasn’t about to allow us to control the narrative. In fact, it’s beginning to look desperate. The question is why? What is right in front of our faces that he doesn’t want us to see?
I text Tic Tac: The hunt for connected cases is a priority and stretch beyond state lines
He answers almost instantly: Nothing yet
I think for a moment: We need any murder that somehow connected to a political figure. It doesn’t need to match the details of this crime which could be flash and distraction
I dial Adams who picks up on the first ring. “Agent, if the problem over there is solved, I might call you a magician not a bitch. Or both.”
“Just a bitch and proud of it. Anonymous tip to the press about the murder. The press is headed your way.”
He curses. “That didn’t last long. What do they know?”
“Dead body found at the governor’s mansion. That’s all. My gut says the killer is trying to keep us busy and distracted. And I don’t have time to get into this, but everything about the crime scene says he’s looking for a distraction to me. And in my humble opinion, this move reeks of desperation.”
“Nothing about you is humble, Agent.”
“No need to get honest with me, Director, when you never have before.”
“We’ll talk about that at a later date. What do you want to do with the witnesses in light of the development? I know what I want to do, but I want to know what you want to do.”
“Chief Houston’s losing his shit because the mayor is losing his shit. I want to interview them tomorrow at the NYPD. Houston can observe. And make sure they all know they are not at liberty to leave the city. One of them could be our guy.”
“If the killer is in the witness room, I’d think he’d have told the press your father was here.”
“I don’t. Not with Pocher breathing down his throat.
And if he told that kind of detail, we’d know he’s there.
Or we’d know he’s watching and close. I judge him smart enough to know better than to give up too much information.
In my book, the only thing that matters to me right now, the why of the tip he handed out.
Is it because he’s under our noses, even in that witness room, and is afraid of being caught?
Or is he creating the distraction he needs to kill again?