Chapter Twenty #2
They held their breaths.
“When we ran it, they came back for an employee at the local school. Robert Fergus. Sound familiar?”
Oh, it did.
“He was sleeping with her. We didn’t find that out from him, so he’s going to hear from us in a little while when we can reinterview.”
The man wasn’t done.
“There was nothing of interest in the car that was brought in for Megan Vessey, and the pictures and rosary that were found at Phylis Lizney’s home were clean. Not a print on them, but smudges on the rosary. We can’t pinpoint a print.”
Well, shit.
“We appreciate it, Doc. Thanks for blowing through them, and keep going.”
He was to the point.
“As annoying as the ME is, he didn’t miss anything. I found his personal notes in the file, the ones not in the report, and he noted all of the things I just did. So he actually did the job. He was clearly fucking with you both.”
What a douche.
“Or he wanted to slow us down. Or was he being a dick?” Gene asked.
The man laughed.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he stated. “Maybe we annoy him for some reason, or he has ulterior motives. That’s for you to decide. I read evidence. You read nutjobs.”
Oh, they were well aware.
“Thanks for letting us know, Doc. Be ready for another victim, in case one pops up.”
Oh, he was already on standby.
As his team kept working on forensics, he was taking a nap in the office.
“I’ll contact you when the latest victim’s forensics is finished being processed,” Luis offered. “It’s going to take a few hours. We’re behind due to coming in late on this.”
Yeah, he was aware.
When the ME hung up, he focused on Ethan.
“So, nothing surprising,” Gene said.
It appeared not.
Of course, that was going to be just their luck.
When there was a knock to the door, Gene took their suspect list and tucked it under his laptop, just in case. He didn’t know who was out there, but he was paranoid as fuck.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and there stood the two detectives. It had been a while, and they hadn’t heard from them, so Gene was curious.
“Find anything?” he asked.
They sat down, and Dannie pulled his phone from his pocket.
“Well, it’s been eventful,” he said, taking off his coat to drape it over the back of his chair.
Gene was curious.
“Okay, share.”
So, he did.
“When we arrived at Vina’s home, we found her car open, and her home unlocked. She had to be taken from dropping off groceries. Two bags were in the trunk, and two were inside with the keys.”
Gene and Ethan both listened.
“Nothing was wrecked, so we think this person grabbed her mid-grocery carry. The house was impeccably clean.”
Gene was making notes as the cop kept talking to share what they’d found.
“In the grocery bag, we found a receipt for the local market, and it is right near where the person shot at you, Gene,” Dannie offered.
He lifted a brow.
“That area again,” Ethan said. “There has to be a reason why, or it’s where the person is comfortable. Because the shooter knew the area to take a shot at Gene, and then disappear into a hole,” he added.
On that, they agreed.
Now, they just needed to figure out where.
“So, we took that receipt and went and woke up the man who owns the market.”
Gene was impressed.
“That’s thinking outside the box.”
Well, that was what Dannie hoped the Feds would think. He was legitimately trying to help, and he knew they were not thrilled with how this had been handled from the get-go.
Hopefully, he got bonus points since it didn’t pan out.
“Well, that was a big fat zero. He did know her, and he told us that he saw her yesterday around five. The time matches the receipt. We had hoped there would be cameras or something.”
Ethan took a stab at it.
“There wasn’t?” he asked.
The man shook his head.
Well, strike one.
“Nope. The owner is an older man, likes things the old-fashioned way, or so he said,” he offered. “He said she shopped, and he even helped her put her things in her car. They talked about spring, and he told her that he’d get her some pepper plants for her garden.”
Well, that was not giving them anything.
“I asked if he saw anyone following her, and he’s pretty much as blind as an old man normally is.”
And there was strike two.
“He did say that she and her boyfriend came in a lot. We found a picture of her and him in her living room. They don’t appear to live together.”
Ethan confirmed.
“We found on social media that she was in a relationship. I was just about to do a deep dive on the man’s social media to see what I could find.”
Shit.
He’d hoped to find something they didn’t know, but it appeared the Feds had been busy, too.
Still, Dannie kept going.
“We searched the house, and found this,” he said, flipping through his phone to the picture in the bathroom. On it, there was a Polaroid with the dead woman. “Under it, there was a rosary. Check out the next picture.”
Gene did, and he showed his partner.
Ethan didn’t respond, and Gene knew that wasn’t a good thing. Oh, he knew when his partner had an epiphany, and this was anything but that.
So, he shared.
“We don’t know if this plays into it or not,” Gene admitted, regarding the rosary. “I saw on her social media that she’s religious. Again, people own rosaries. There are a lot of Catholics in the world,” he admitted, raising his hand.
Leah raised hers too.
“See? Fifty percent of us here are Catholic,” Gene offered. When the man opened his mouth, he stopped him. “Seventy-five percent,” he said, covering for the fact that Ethan was currently still wearing a rosary.
In frustration, Dannie closed his notebook.
“We didn’t find anything good,” he admitted.
Yeah, they could see that.
Gene continued.
“EJ, send a text to the ME. We need to get a team over to the victim’s home. If she was taken there, and a photo was left, we might get lucky,” he said. “It looks like they have more forensics to handle.”
He took Gene’s phone, since his partner had just gotten a call from the man. Then, he texted him. When he was finished, he placed it down, and Gene continued.
“Anything else to report in?” Gene asked.
The cop sighed.
“No, not particular. We did those two stops, and then headed here. I was really hoping we’d get some camera footage of the killer, but if she was taken from her home…a lot of people use that market, including us.”
Yeah, it would have been nice.
That was for sure.
“What have you guys found out?” Dannie asked, hoping they’d share.
This was going to be a careful dance, since they were up to their eyes with leakers and now a cop suspect.
So, Gene told them about the bible verse, and how this is somehow connected.
“What we know is someone saw something, heard something, didn’t speak about it, and lied about it. Anyone have any ideas?” he asked. “Because we don’t.”
Neither cop had a guess.
Blackhawk continued.
“We found the boyfriend’s name from her social media,” Blackhawk admitted. “Maybe we should hit him up in an interview, or a notify, if he isn’t aware that she’s dead.”
Dannie raised his hand.
“We can do both,” he offered. “Do you have his name?” he asked.
Ethan read it off his screen.
“Scott Nickerson. He’s a cop,” he offered. “I don’t know what shift he works, but he’s on the beat.”
The second he said the name, Dannie tensed. That hit like a ton of bricks.
Oh, he knew that name.
And this wasn’t good.
Glancing over, his partner wasn’t looking at him, but instead at anything but him.
Oh, fuckity.
This.
Was.
Bad.
Dannie knew that this was about to go so far south, he was getting a bad burn.
“I’m searching his social media now,” Ethan admitted. “There’s basically nothing but pictures of him and Vina. They look happy,” he admitted. “I don’t think he’s been with her long,” he added. “There’s a patch of pictures with no women in them.”
Dannie kicked his partner in the foot under the table, and when she looked over at him, it was crystal clear that she wasn’t going to say shit.
Well, he was.
There was no way he was getting blamed for keeping shit from the Feds. He didn’t want to be kicked off of this case.
Only, right before he could say anything, Ethan gasped, and said one thing.
“What the fuck?”
Oh, boy.
Here it came.
He could feel it in his balls—as in he was about to be kicked in them.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Blackhawk said, looking up from his laptop.
Gene was confused.
“What?” he asked.
Turning the laptop, he showed Gene what it was that he found. Oh, and it was very INCRIMINATING.
Ethan went there.
“Well, we have another liar,” he said, staring right at Leah and her partner.
Dannie closed his eyes.
Well, this was badly timed.
“Here we go,” he said. “I knew this was going to fuck me good,” he stated.
Ethan pointed at her.
“Guess who dated the same man that our fourth victim dated. In fact, she dated him four months ago. Detective Balo is his ex-girlfriend.”
At his words, Leah flushed red.
“What?” Gene asked, horrified.
Ethan shoved his laptop toward his partner.
“Scott must have missed a picture. It’s the only one with the detective in it.”
It was him kissing Leah.
Under it, it said one thing.
‘Until Death.’
Oh, well, that was a big problem for them, and the woman at the table. You know…since people were turning up DEAD. Once more, they had another cop angle, and it was enough to make the Feds twitchy.
But it got worse.
“They’re in the pub in that picture,” Ethan admitted. “We sat at the table right next to that.”
Jesus.
H.
Christ.
Now, Gene was staring at her.
“Get the fuck out of here. You’re kidding me!” he stated. “Not only is she tied to the latest victim, but she was at the pub where the second victim worked?”
Oh, boy.
Dannie knew that this was about to go nuclear. In that moment, he had to choose a side. Yeah, he was not going down with the ship.
His partner had lied during an active homicide investigation, and that risked them both.
Only, before he could defend himself, his partner went there.
“I can explain,” she said.
Ethan glared at her partner.