CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Bree carried her leftovers into the break room. She and Matt had stopped for sandwiches on the way back. Right behind her, Matt set the bakery box on the counter.
Todd was pouring coffee into a mug. He sniffed. “What’s that?”
“Apple pie.” Matt opened the box. “Help yourself.”
Todd started toward the pie.
“Did you eat dinner?” Bree asked.
Todd shook his head.
Bree handed him her massive leftover half sandwich. “There’s a quarter pound of roast turkey on this half alone.”
“Impressive.” Todd unwrapped one end of the sandwich and took a huge bite. “We need to review the case. Cases?”
Bree eyed her chief deputy. His triathlete body always ran lean, but he’d definitely lost weight with the flu. “I need to check my messages. You take the time to eat. Get some of that pie too.”
He grinned. “Will do.”
“Conference room in ten.” She headed for her office to check her inbox. Then she gathered her files and headed for the murder board. Matt was already there, studying the whiteboard and adding notes and images.
Bree stopped in front of the board. A photo of Trish had been added. Matt used a magnet to secure a photo of Jana. He had used an X to mark a place for the skeletal victim. When she was identified, her photo would join the others.
Todd walked in, carrying his laptop, a manila folder, and a piece of pie. “I never thought I’d be able to eat while working a murder.”
“Starving yourself will not help you solve the case.” Bree sat at the head of the table. “The sleep deprivation is unavoidable. You need to practice self-care if you want to be useful. That means prioritizing nutrition, even if you’re not hungry.” She wasn’t sure apple pie rated very high on the nutritional scale, but you worked with what you had.
“I’ve been asked to do worse things than eat.” Todd dug into his pie.
Bree opened Ally’s murder book, a thick binder where all information pertaining to the investigation would be kept, including interview summaries, photographs, lab reports, and witness statements. “We have three murders and one disappearance. The missing girl, Jana Rynski, was friends with one of our murder victims, Ally Swanson. But we don’t know if Jana’s disappearance is related to Ally’s murder.”
“It is.” Matt pointed to the board with his dry-erase marker. “I have no definitive proof, but I don’t like coincidences. Jana disappears just as we wanted to question her about Ally’s murder? As Ally’s best friend, Jana could have known something. Or the killer might have assumed she knew something.”
“The timing is suspect,” Bree agreed. “My gut says the same, but our educated theories don’t mean anything. We have to follow the evidence.”
“Of which we have damned little,” Matt said.
Todd held up a hand. “Let me start with the hikers who found the remains. We know Steve has a record for stalking his ex. He says she filed the complaint as revenge. I checked the arrest records. There was no physical evidence to support the girl’s case, but the prosecutor went after him hard. The story could fit his narrative, but we don’t have any hard evidence either way. I’d like to keep him on the suspect list.”
“Yes. He stays on the list.” Bree pressed her fingertips to her temples, willing her brain cells to work harder. “Do we have any links between Ally and Trish?”
“None that I can find.” Todd wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I did find a potential connection between Trish and Jana. Trish attended community college. So did Jana, but not at the same time. Trish Bitten just started this past fall, and Jana attended the previous school year. Their paths would not have crossed in classes.”
“Let’s get their records from the college and see if there’s any other connection between them,” Bree said.
Todd pushed his empty plate to the center of the table and opened his laptop. “I’ll work on a warrant.”
“Did you make any progress with background checks?” Bree asked.
Todd woke up his laptop. “Ally is the only one who’s been arrested, and all I found was the recent drug possession arrest and the dropped prostitution charge. Jana has never even had a ticket. Trish has had a couple of parking tickets, mostly near the college campus, but that’s it for her.” He scrolled, focused on his screen. “None of the girls have much money. Ally had no credit cards. Her bank account balance is under five dollars. Trish’s father is on all of her accounts, savings and checking. He regularly deposited small sums, but she didn’t have much of her own, and honestly neither do her parents. Their house is mortgaged from attic to basement, and they’ve been shuffling money to pay bills.”
Todd paused to scroll, then continued. “Jana has the most money, with nearly a thousand dollars in savings and a few hundred in checking. She has one credit card, which she uses minimally and pays off in full each month. Her account history shows regular deposits and a frugal lifestyle.”
“She’s saving to take more college classes,” Bree said. “What about Chevy?”
“I found nothing other than the misdemeanor charges we already knew about,” Todd said. “Chevy is broke, and his three credit cards are maxed out. He’s behind on his vehicle loan payments. I would predict his F-150 will be repossessed in the near future.”
“Shocking,” Matt said. “With him not having a job.”
Bree relayed the information Sandy had given them about Jana possibly being followed by a black car. “It’s vague, but we should keep it in mind.”
Todd wrote black car on the board with a question mark. “I confirmed Ally’s father suffered a huge financial setback two years ago and declared bankruptcy.”
Bree checked her notes. “That’s about when his wife died of cancer.”
“Yes, most of the debts appear to have been medical in nature,” Todd said. “His recent statements look more stable. Not much money coming in or going out. The house he rents is owned by Heath Swanson.”
“That’s his brother,” Bree said.
Todd nodded. “Which might explain why the payments coming out of his checking account seem ridiculously low. His brother is subsidizing his housing.”
Bree’s phone vibrated. “This is Stella Dane.” She pressed “Answer” and put the phone to her ear.
“Sheriff, what can I do for you?” Stella asked.
“You handled Trish Bitten’s missing persons case?”
“Yes.” Stella’s response sounded curt.
“I’d like to put you on speaker,” Bree said. “Matt Flynn and Chief Deputy Todd Harvey are also present.”
“Fine,” Stella agreed.
Bree set her phone on the table. “One of the victims found in the woods was ID’d today as Trish Bitten.”
A few beats of silence passed before Stella said, “I’m very sorry to hear that, but it doesn’t completely surprise me that she was a serial killer’s victim.”
“Why do you say that?” Bree asked.
Stella sighed. “Because she was plucked off the face of the earth with no clues as to what happened to her. We never made any headway with the case. We investigated everyone in her life and got nowhere. After weeks with no progress, the chief pulled us off. We still worked it when we had time, but no real leads ever turned up.”
“What can you tell us about the family?” Bree asked.
“Hold on. Let me grab the file.” Over the line, a drawer opened and closed. Papers rustled. “The Bittens have quite a bit of debt,” Stella began. “Mr. Bitten is a lawyer, a partner at Grady, Howell, and Bitten. One of the partners, George Howell, suffered a massive heart attack last year. It’s forcing him to retire very early. He’s only forty-five. The other partners, Grady and Bitten, were required to buy out his equity. With all of the partners being relatively young, the situation wasn’t expected. Partners Grady and Bitten were forced to acquire debt to cover the buyout. The financial drain did mean that Trish couldn’t go to the college of her dreams, but her parents said she handled the disappointment well.” Stella took a breath. “The transaction seemed unfortunate but aboveboard. Frankly, if Grady and Bitten were inclined to kill anyone, they would have taken out Howell. If he’d died, his life insurance would have covered his equity. We couldn’t find any connection between the debt and Trish’s disappearance.”
“Noted. The family debt could be a rabbit hole.” Which didn’t mean Bree would ignore it.
“What about the boyfriend, Jacob Gatt?” Matt asked.
“Of course he was the first person we looked at. He was ice fishing with his father the day Trish disappeared,” Stella said. “Jacob and his father’s stories matched. He seemed distraught when Trish went missing. Given that his only alibi was his father, we kept him on our suspect list, but we didn’t have any evidence that tied him to the crime.”
“Is there anything else that might help us?” Bree asked.
“Not that I can think of,” Stella said. “I’ll call you if I do. Meanwhile, I’ll make a copy of my files.”
“I’ll send someone to pick them up,” Bree said.
“Let me know if you need any assistance, but it might be better to look at the case with fresh eyes. God knows I never got anywhere.” Stella sounded a little bitter. Bree understood. Some cases stuck with you, and some cases were never solved, no matter how many hours you worked.
Bree ended the call with a thanks and turned back to the board. They were organizing their case, but the investigation still felt chaotic. She needed more deputies to cover all the investigative angles for three murders and a potentially related missing person.
She turned to Todd. “Are you up to conducting interviews?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Good. Matt and I can’t possibly do it all. Grab a deputy and work on Trish’s case. Talk to the people at the law firm. You can also take on interviewing the neighbors Trish babysat for, Kier and Marion Reich. Talk to the boyfriend and Trish’s sister, Diane. Make sure you talk to Diane away from her parents. If Trish was doing anything the parents wouldn’t have approved of, Diane might hold back in their presence.”
“Will do.” Todd took notes. “I’ll pick up the files at the SFPD on my way home, read through Detective Dane’s reports tonight, and jump on these interviews first thing tomorrow.”
Matt added the names to the whiteboard and marked them with a capital T for Todd.
“Let’s update our ViCAP query,” Bree added.
Matt added, “The body dumping seems very organized for a first-time serial killer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s killed before.”
Todd said, “I’ll call over to the community college too, and confirm there’s no overlap between Jana and Trish.”
“Matt and I will stop at the Shady Acres Motel in the morning.” Bree checked the time on her phone. She’d already missed Kayla’s bedtime, but she couldn’t help it. An active killer demanded her time.
Matt said, “We need to find out who got Ally pregnant. Someone must know.”