Chapter 12
Catherine listened to Reid’s lawyer make a compelling case for both dismissal of all charges and a low bail.
“Your honor,” Franklin Graves was saying, “the police rushed to judgment. My client explained why he entered the suite where,
in the course of his job on the maintenance staff of Sapphire Shoals, he saw two guests lying on the floor who he thought
were unconscious. He went to help, not to do harm.”
“Your honor,” Anson stood, “Mr. Reid had a laundry cart that he wheeled into the room. He had zip ties and duct tape on his
person. Two FBI agents came in and caught him squatting over Agent Costa. As you are aware, three couples have been abducted
from the resort over the last seven months, and all of them have been found dead. Detective Quinn perfectly fits the description
of the three women who were abducted and murdered.”
Graves said, “If the police had evidence that my client killed anyone, they would have charged him with homicide. As it is, they are desperate and grasping at straws. My client has worked at the Shoals for nine months and has an exemplary employment record. In addition, he did not attempt to restrain anyone. The zip ties in his pocket are the same zip ties that are used in any number of tasks at the resort from wrapping wire to tagging equipment. Virtually every employee in his department has the exact same ties while working.”
The judge said, “We’re not litigating this case here. My job is to determine if there is probable cause to hold Mr. Reid.
Mr. Anson, will you be charging Mr. Reid with homicide?”
“Detectives and my office are still investigating and—”
The judge hit his gavel. “Bail is set for $100,000 and I will see all parties back in my courtroom in one week, Monday, 9:00 a.m.,
for a preliminary hearing. You will have your ducks in a row, Mr. Anson, or all charges will be dismissed. Understood?”
“Yes, your honor.”
“Court adjourned.” He banged the gavel.
Bianca swore under her breath. “We’re screwed.”
“We need to talk,” Catherine said quietly as she watched Reid. He whispered with his lawyer. Reid looked pleased. Not simply
relieved, but pleased as if he expected the outcome but it was better than he thought.
He would run, she suspected. Graves’s claims that Reid wanted to clear his name notwithstanding, he had to know they weren’t
going to stop looking for Matt and Kara. Anson was right not to charge him with homicide. Putting that in the charges would
have started the clock. They would have to turn over evidence to the defense in discovery, and without anything of substance,
the defense could easily have had the entire case dismissed.
Attempted kidnapping was enough for now; they could always add on charges as soon as they had hard physical evidence against
Reid. When they arrested him for first-degree murder, they’d get his bail revoked.
Bianca followed Catherine out of the courtroom. Catherine turned to the detective and asked, “How long until he’s released?”
“Hour, take or leave.”
“The lawyer seems competent. Have you seen him in action?”
“No. John hasn’t even heard of him, and he knows most of the defense lawyers in northern Florida.”
Catherine wanted to know more about the lawyer because it seemed odd that Garrett Reid, who had lived in Florida for less
than a year, had a specific lawyer to call when arrested for a serious felony.
“Someone needs to follow Reid,” Catherine said.
“My boss won’t authorize that,” Bianca said. “He’s already angry about how this entire thing went down, and is playing CYA
with the DA and media right now.”
Catherine was afraid of that. “I’ll have my people do it, but we’re going to need to work together to build a case against
him—and find my agents.”
“Unless you’re wrong,” Bianca said pointedly. “Maybe he is innocent, and someone we haven’t even considered is the killer.”
Catherine tensed, expecting the reaction but still angry about it. “I’m not wrong,” she said. “He’s not innocent.”
“You were wrong about the partner.”
She nodded once.
It wouldn’t be the first time she was wrong. So wrong that she may have gotten her best friend killed.
Like she got her sister killed.
She pushed her grief back deep inside. If she started thinking about Beth now, if she started remembering the bastard who
killed her—and how wrong Catherine had been about the profile—then she wouldn’t be able to do her job and she might as well
go home, curl up into a ball, and cry.
John Anson stepped out of the courtroom. “We have one week to find something on this guy, or he’s going to walk.”
“We can make a case about kidnapping—”
“No, we can’t. We don’t even have the alleged victims, do we? And it will be pretty easy for the court to determine that Reid
couldn’t have been involved because he was in jail all weekend.”
Catherine said, “My people will follow him. Can you please give me a heads-up when he’s cut loose?”
John nodded. “I’m sorry about Matt and Kara. I hope we find them, but I don’t know how to connect their abduction to Reid.
We might think he’s involved and knew about it—an accessory—but it’s going to be damn hard to prove when he only made one
call while in custody, and that call was to his lawyer.”
“Do you know anything about Graves?”
“Nothing. He’s a member of the Florida State Bar in good standing, which is all that is required.”
Catherine had already asked Ryder to look into Graves’s background, but she had hoped John had better information.
“What are the next steps?” John asked. “I’m open to any ideas on how we’re going to prove this guy is a killer in the one
week we have to do so.”
“Dr. Esteban is working closely with the crime lab and medical examiner,” Catherine said. “His primary focus is to find any
trace evidence that will help us determine where Reid kept his victims.”
“And?” John said, making a motion with his hand to hurry up, then pointedly looking at his watch.
Catherine tried not to be irritated at his attitude. “Agent Harris is reinterviewing staff at the resort. We may have found
video of the individual who abducted our agents. The lab at Quantico is working on enhancing it and using facial recognition
to identify the person of interest.” She paused, said, “It may be a woman. The face is unclear, but the body type suggests
female.”
“None of this is going to give us evidence that Reid tortured and killed six people,” John said with growing irritation. “One week—if I don’t have something tangible, Reid walks and it’ll be ten times harder to bring him in if we do find something.”
John walked away and Bianca sighed. “We’re fucked,” she said.
“I need your help,” Catherine said. “My team is going to be laser focused on what Garrett Reid does over the next forty-eight
hours. Who he makes contact with, who he talks to. We need a warrant to tap Reid’s phone.” Catherine suspected he had a second
phone, likely a burner or under a different name or business, which was how he communicated with his partner.
“I’ll need to talk to my boss. He wants this guy, but he’s going to take a lot of heat for the bail. And John is going to
have to get the warrant, which I don’t think will come from this judge.” Bianca gestured with her thumb to the closed courtroom
behind them.
“I can have my boss reach out,” Catherine said. She wasn’t sure Tony Greer would be of the right mindset at this point. He
kept texting her for updates, but she had none, until now. And it wasn’t good news.
Bianca said, “I’ll talk to John first. I’ll let you know what, if anything, we can do. Bringing in the big guns from the FBI—when
the sheriff is already pointing fingers in your direction for the screwup—isn’t going to get anything accomplished.”
“Don’t forget to let me know when he’s leaving and who’s taking him home.”
Bianca gave a quick salute and left. Sloane approached Catherine and said, “I heard.”
“You and Michael will follow Reid. I doubt he’ll drive directly to where Matt and Kara are, but we need eyes on him at all
times.”
“Michael finished interviewing staff and is on his way in.”
Catherine glanced around. No one was within earshot, but she kept her voice low.
“Whoever took Matt and Kara was very familiar with the resort. He—or she, as Ryder suggests—avoided most every camera and when they were in the range of one, they turned away or tilted their head and used the uniform and hat to avoid giving us a good image. They entered through the patio because there are no cameras beachside. There was a risk—someone could have seen them from the beach—but because of the way the cabins are laid out, it would be difficult to know exactly what the person was actually doing.”
“We interviewed staff twice. Reid was never seen with someone who didn’t work there. Oh,” Sloane said, realizing what Catherine
was thinking.
“Yes, I think his partner is on staff.”
“And a woman.”
“Possibly, but we can’t state it with certainty.”
“Ryder is positive,” Sloane said. “He isn’t usually so emphatic when he has an opinion. And I see it, too, but don’t know
if I see a woman because Ryder put it in my head. I remember the seminar you taught at Quantico last year—that the majority
of female partners are subservient to the male partner.”
“I’m not comfortable making that determination yet,” Catherine said cautiously. Was she cautious because she’d been wrong
about the partner from the beginning? Or because she didn’t have enough information? “But whether or not the partner is a
woman, it makes sense that Garrett Reid recruited from his immediate sphere. Sociopaths recognize sociopaths.”
“If his partner is another employee, wouldn’t that make her easier to identify?” Sloane asked.
“Our interviews on Friday and Saturday didn’t reveal that he had a girlfriend, and we specifically asked the question about
known relationships.”
“Do you think it’s realistic that an attractive, friendly thirty-year-old who has been living in Florida for nearly a year
would never go on a date?” Sloane asked.
“He could have received his sexual gratification through the acts of violence,” Catherine said. “For predators, not all sexual release comes from rape.”
Michael strode down the corridor toward them, anger in every step. “He walked?”
“Bail,” Catherine said. “Sloane, fill him in. I have to brief Tony.” Something she wasn’t looking forward to.