CHAPTER THREE
"I remember it now," Alison said. "Franklin Howard, Margaret’s ex-husband and Calvin’s cousin. They didn't just know each other, they were family."
"So, Calvin is betrayed by Alison, Franklin takes that personally, and they hatch a plan together?" Derek asked.
"That’s how it looks on the surface, but we need to dig into Franklin and find him. If he killed Margaret, he might have skipped town already or be in the process of doing so."
They were back in the CBI offices, a place they had worked together on two previous cases. Those two cases had led to the capture of two separate killers, and Alison wouldn’t mind adding a third to that list.
She shared Derek’s desk for now as they started their preliminary investigation, and would move to her own space once they branched off.
For now, it was beneficial to be close so they could share what they had on Franklin and Calvin.
Alison had her notes from the trial where she’d coached Margaret, and Derek was looking into Franklin’s background.
The office wasn’t small, and the desk was a regular size, but with both of them spread out over it, there wasn’t a lot of space left.
Derek had a large green potted plant five feet tall in the corner, and took great pride in how infrequently he had to water it.
Filing cabinets filled one sidewall and bookshelves filled the other.
The door was left open to make the room feel more spacious and allow the air to circulate.
The downside of that was that the noise from the bullpen, where multiple CBI agents worked multiple cases.
Still, there was something invigorating about being in that environment for Alison. They were all working separately toward a common goal: to remove criminals from society.
"What does it say about them in your notes?" Derek asked.
"I wrote down that Calvin was her husband’s cousin, and I would have been mindful of that when I was coaching her.
It’s hard enough to coach someone to testify against a violent offender with the risk of them going free and seeking retribution, but it’s quite another when you’re testifying against family. "
"I can't imagine," Derek said. "She must have been terrified."
"I don't remember the exact case well, but she would have been. She was at a bar with Calvin and Franklin when Calvin assaulted one of the patrons with a club he carried with him. No one knew how it started, but Calvin sure as heck finished it. He put the guy in the hospital for three months and then a couple of years of rehabilitation. The guy he assaulted was clean as a whistle. Calvin, not so much. He had a lengthy record, which went against him at the trial. It was a pretty open and shut case, and Margaret was not the only witness that night, but she’s the one who must have hurt the most."
"Alright, so Calvin assaults a guy in the bar where he’s drinking with Margaret and Franklin. We can assume Margaret and Franklin were still together at that point?"
"Let me see. I just pulled up the record of their divorce.
" Alison took a second to peruse the document and the trial records.
"Okay, so they divorced six months after Calvin was imprisoned.
That suggests that proceedings were initiated before that, possibly around the time of the trial.
Who knows how long they'd been having problems? "
"Could it have come to a head around the time of the trial?" Derek asked. "Margaret testifies against his cousin, and it’s the last straw in the relationship?"
"Possibly," Alison said. "It certainly wouldn’t have helped. I’d like to know what sort of relationship Franklin and Calvin had. If they were close, he would have been hurt by it. If not, then maybe he believes Calvin got what he deserved."
"Hold on," Derek said. "Detective Moore is calling." He picked up the phone. "Hello….All right…Yeah, send it all over…Yeah, thanks very much….Okay, bye."
Derek hung up the phone and said to Alison, "Maybe it was Margaret who wanted to leave, and it wasn’t to do with the testimony after all."
"What did Detective Moore find?" she asked.
"An arrest record for Franklin Howard as long as my arm, and threatening notes directed toward Margaret," Derek said.
Alison knew how that felt.
"Give me a second and I’ll bring the reports up.
" Derek tapped on the keyboard to open the files Detective Moore had emailed him.
"Okay, so get this," Derek told her as he read from the files.
"In the year before the divorce, police were called five times to their residence for a domestic dispute; three times by a neighbor and twice by Margaret.
On all five occasions, he was taken down to the station, but he was only charged once, and that came to nothing. "
"The same residence she was living in when she was killed?" Alison asked.
"Yeah," Derek confirmed. "She must have gotten it in the divorce."
"So, the apple didn't fall far from the tree," Alison said. "Or it falls sideways, maybe. Calvin was violent, and so was Franklin. I’d hazard a guess that Franklin was on Calvin’s side when it came to Margaret testifying at the trial. I’ve read dozens of domestic violence reports. I wouldn’t be surprised if Margaret recanted any accusations or was too scared to have them press charges against her husband.
Maybe testifying against Calvin was her way of finally breaking free. "
"That’s not all, though," Derek said. "Franklin wasn’t charged with domestic abuse, but he was charged with one count of assault, and soon after getting out for that, he was charged with a second count of assault.
These were both after the divorce. He spent his first sentence in the same prison as his cousin, and the second in a different prison, but apparently, he was active with the prison gangs in both. "
"All right, so he knew prison people, and so did Calvin by association."
"Sir?" a young female researcher said from the doorway.
"Yes?" Derek asked.
"I called the prison to ask about any visitors for Calvin Reynolds," she said. "He’s only had one visitor over the past six months, his cousin, Franklin Howard. Franklin visits him once a week, every week. Always on Wednesday afternoons."
"Good, thank you," Derek said.
"He’s still close with his cousin," Alison said. "That’s Calvin’s link to the outside world."
"He was already the number one suspect after being at the house, but he’s just gone up a notch if that’s possible," Derek said. "Calvin’s doing his time no matter what. Maybe the two of them have been plotting this for five years, waiting for the perfect time to take revenge. It’s long enough that they wouldn’t be immediately suspected.
They couldn’t have done it right after the court case—Franklin would have been brought in immediately. "
"I want to know when the alarm system was put in," Alison said.
"If it were when they were still married, Franklin would know the system.
Maybe the time spent was not about waiting for the right time, but learning how to bypass the system.
Although if he wanted to go after her, he could have gotten to her more easily. "
"She wouldn’t expect it," Derek said. "He took his time to kill her. He wanted to make her suffer. He needed a place where he knew she would be alone and no one would stumble upon them."
"Perhaps," Alison said.
"I’ll call the security company and see when the security system was put in," Derek said.
"Wait, you said there were threats, too," Alison said.
"I haven’t looked at them yet, but that’s the nail in the coffin," Derek said. "I’ll send them over, and you can take a look while I make the call."
Alison switched tabs to open her email and download the file Derek sent her. It was far more extensive than she expected.
It seems like visiting your cousin in jail is not the only thing you do on a regular basis.
The file contained copies of emails sent by Franklin and ignored by Margaret.
Perhaps not ignored, but no replies were sent.
She might have opened some of them in the months after the divorce, but Alison hoped Margaret had ignored them completely after that, sending them straight to the recycling bin.
She scrolled through the emails, which came in at two a month on average, except for the two times he was in prison.
A lot of them spoke about the big mistake Margaret had made in leaving him, with one or two over the year mentioning the testimony against his cousin.
There were threats mingled among them. He warned her that he would get her back and do what it took to make her his, and if she didn't come back to him, she would be sorry.
There were public threats and insults too on her social media.
He called her names that no one should be called in public, and accused her of cheating on him and other things that had destroyed the marriage.
The threats on social media stopped two years after they had started.
Alison suspected that Margret had shut down her social media in response.
The email threats continued until about two weeks ago, which meant the police had taken no action, and it was unclear whether Margaret had even filed a report.
She scanned through the threats. There were a lot, showing that Franklin was obviously someone unhinged and unable to let go.
Five years after his divorce, he was still messaging her.
It was as if it had become a habit or a ritual—there was always safety and comfort in that, even if they hurt the other person.
She stopped on one message, reading over it a few times. It had been sent to Margaret two months ago.
You need to stop being such a bitch. You know what you did, and you’ll get what you deserve; don't worry about that. I’ll make sure of it myself.
It was vague enough that it wouldn’t hold up in court, but put side by side with the recent murder, it could easily be read as a death threat.
"Six years ago," Derek said when he came off the phone. "That’s when the front gate was installed. The security system in the house, along with the extra cameras and security lights outside, was installed just after the trial."
"She was afraid of retribution from Calvin or Franklin," Alison said.
"Either that or it’s really coincidental timing," Derek said.
"Okay, so Franklin was there when the gate was installed, but not the house system. Let’s assume he visited the house sometime in the last five years for some reason.
He observes the system and becomes familiar with it.
With the number of threats he sent her over the past five years, I’d be surprised if he didn't turn up at her house, too. There are a lot of threats."
"So, he’s the guy?" Derek asked. "He plots with his cousin while seeing him every week, and then goes after her now."
"Or he snaps," Alison suggested. "He’s still messaging her. He still wants her back, and he likely wants her to feel the pain he feels. Maybe something flipped in his brain, and he decided to confront her, maybe scare her. We know he took the bag to the house where she was suffocated. No, he must have meant to kill her. He wouldn’t have gone there to scare her and used the bag, then left her alive.
" Alison shook her head and sighed. "With the messages he sent her, I think it’s more to do with the marriage breakup than his cousin. He was obsessive and angry."
Derek’s phone chimed, and he checked the message.
"They have eyes on him now," he told Alison. "Detective Moore and her partner are at his apartment building, and they’re waiting for backup before they go in. If he’s the killer, I get the feeling he won't go down without a fight. Let’s hope they can take him down before he kills anyone else. Let’s hope there’s no collateral damage when they do go in.