CHAPTER ELEVEN
Derek took the document from Loxley. It was a printout of a photo from the website showing Sarah Livingstone being confronted outside what looked like a court building. A man accosted her, pointing a finger into her face as if he were about to jab her in the eye. Beneath the picture was a caption.
Women like this need to know we won't stand for injustice. They need to be made to pay, and we’ll make sure they do!
Alison looked at the man’s face, lips pulled back, teeth bared like a wild animal.
His eyes were full of fury. If the photo were a video, he might erupt into a vengeful scream, and Sarah would cower from him.
He looked like a man who took matters into his own hands, and he was attacking a witness and victim advocate in the photo.
Had he taken matters into his own hands?
"All right, I want to know everything there is to know about this man, and I want to know it now," Derek said. "And I want him located yesterday."
"His name’s Raymond Nichols," Special Agent Loxley said. "He runs a group called Balanced Justice, which he started—"
"When his brother committed suicide after his parole hearing," Alison finished.
"You know him?" Derek asked.
"Not personally, but I remember the case," she said. "His brother was up for parole, and it was denied. He killed himself in his prison cell, and there was some outrage at the time, led by Raymond. He claimed that the witness lied on the stand and emotionally manipulated the panel."
"Did they?" Derek asked.
"I’d have to look at the transcript," Alison said, "but almost all hearings are emotionally charged. Both sides appear to be emotional unless there’s discovered evidence to be submitted, in which case, emotion isn’t needed.
In cases of violent crimes, the prosecution would focus on what might happen if the inmate were released, and how it would affect society.
I gave some notes on the case, that’s all I remember, but afterward, I remember that the decision was a fair one, even after hearing about the suicide. "
"Raymond Nicholls obviously didn't think so," Loxley said. "It was after his brother’s death that he started the group, and they’ve had multiple run-ins with Sarah Livingstone over the past two years. He’s had run-ins with many witnesses, but numerous with her, after she became a victim advocate."
"He’ll believe that she’s part of what’s wrong with the system," Alison said. "Do we know who testified against his brother?"
"Mary Candlemaker," Loxley said. "We’ve already sent a patrol car over to her house, and she’s safe. An officer will stay outside the house for now to keep an eye on her."
"Good," Derek said. "Okay, so his brother is up for parole, he has been denied, and he kills himself.
Raymond can't deal with that and blames the woman who testified against him in the hearing, and starts the group, believing injustice is being done and the system needs to change.
He targets women he believes are giving emotional testimonies to manipulate judges and juries, and what? "
"Lots of protesting outside courthouses," Loxley said. "He confronts them when he’s able."
"When Sarah Livingstone becomes a victim advocate, she becomes enemy number one to him. So, he decides to take matters into his own hands and kill her? But before that, he kills Margaret Donovan? Does that make sense?"
"To the killer, it might," Alison said. "If he's mentally unstable, maybe caused by the death of his brother, he might resort to actions he never normally would and rationalize them.
I'm only going by one picture so far," she pointed to Raymond in the document Derek still held—"but that looks like the face of a man who's unhinged.
He looks like a man capable of violence. "
"If he has a group of people all fighting for the same cause, he has options and reach," Derek said. "Maybe he convinces a few of them to fight like he’s fighting. A loss of family can drive someone to do desperate things."
Alison knew that was true. She lost her sister twenty years ago, and she’d never stopped looking.
There had been times when she had come close to losing control and letting her anger take over, but she had channeled it into positivity.
It would have been so easy to slip in the other direction.
She didn't condone killing, but she understood how someone could get to that place.
"While we wait for Jason to provide an alibi, we chase down Raymond," Alison said. "He’s definitely a person of interest."
"Do we know where he is?" Derek asked.
"He’s a hard man to find," Loxley said. "After his brother’s death, he slipped off the grid, apart from his organization. We’re still looking for an address, but if we don't get that, we know he has a demonstration or rally planned outside the courthouse in two days."
"Two days," Derek said. "I don't want to wait that long. I want him found long before that."
***
They did have to wait that long to find Raymond. There was no known address or place of work, and he hadn't used a credit or debit card in eighteen months. One day, he was a regular member of society, and the next, he disappeared—he was a ghost.
Derek and Alison sat in their car on the other side of the road from the courthouse, waiting for Raymond to show, both of them with the horrible feeling in the pits of their stomachs that he wouldn’t.
"The timeline from Jason Weber is extensive and detailed," Derek said. "It all looks and sounds real, and the work was carried out as he said, but we don't have one shot of him on camera. Most of the work done on the systems could have been done remotely."
"If he accessed the buildings, there must be records of him accessing the alarm panels on site," Alison said.
"There is," Derek replied, "but we still have two problems."
"Which are?"
Across the street, two people, a couple, stopped before the courthouse and waited. One of them had a placard with a long wooden pole attached. Alison couldn’t read what it said from the other side of the street, but it was apparent they were there for the rally. Neither of them was Raymond.
"At the times Margaret and Sarah were killed, we have records of Weber physically turning off the alarms and then turning them back on when the work was done," Derek explained. "However, there’s still time in between for him to make it to each residence, kill the women, and complete the work remotely. It’s a little far-fetched, but it's possible if he were quick.
And it gives him a pretty good alibi: not too solid but not overly flimsy, either.
Just the sort of thing you would expect if it were real and not planned. "
"And the second problem?" Alison asked.
A third person joined the rally, a young man who was also not Raymond.
"We’re looking for someone who’s tech savvy enough to be able to bypass advanced security systems and enter a residence without being seen or tracked.
Who’s to say they couldn’t do the opposite and log into a system from a distance while making it look like they were on site?
What if he never was at the buildings he was supposed to be working on, and did everything from the crime scenes? "
"Then we’re in the realm of anything being possible," Alison said. "We don't know if alibis are real or not anymore."
"Which makes it nearly impossible to know if Weber is telling the truth or not, and I don't have enough to formally arrest him. He might be the killer, and we have to cut him loose."
"You’ll keep an eye on him, though," Alison said.
"We’ll have to," Derek said. "I’ll have an agent follow him twenty-four seven until we figure this whole mess out. If he’s our guy, he won't be allowed to kill again."
"There he is," Alison pointed out.
Raymond approached from around the side of the courthouse, holding a loudspeaker. The three people waiting for him seemed to stand to attention as he approached, like a general addressing his troops before war. He addressed each of them, nodding, likely thanking them for coming.
"From the way he’s acting, I think this is all that’s coming," Alison said.
"Not much of a rally," Derek replied.
"Good," Alison said. "There’s no place for this sort of thing in our justice system. He might believe he’s doing something good, but all he’s doing is harassing witnesses when they’re scared enough as it is.
It takes a lot of courage to get up on the witness stand and testify against someone who might not be imprisoned. Someone who is a violent offender."
"Then let’s go shut him down before he gets started," Derek said.
"I have complete faith in the women I’ve coached before trials," Alison said as they both got out of the vehicle. "I do my due process and make sure to have all the facts. I wouldn’t let someone testify if I weren’t completely sure they were testifying against someone guilty."
"I know that about you," Derek said as they walked toward the crossing. "When it comes down to you against anyone else, I'm going with you. I’ve seen how you work, and you wouldn’t help to put someone in jail unless you were completely confident of it."
"Everyone makes mistakes," Alison said as they waited to cross.
"Yeah, they do, and you’ve made mistakes before and owned them," Derek said. "Still, mistakes in testimonies are rare. There aren’t enough mistakes for someone to protest outside a courthouse and attack women who haven’t testified yet, when you have no idea what they will say and what the case is.
He’s angry about one case, his brother’s, and he’s using that as free rein to attack all witnesses.
Maybe he’s right once, but he’s wrong hundreds of times in the process. "
When they reached the other side of the road, they could hear Raymond speaking through the loudspeaker out front of the courthouse. The other three stood behind him, one of them lifting the placard, which read: We Believe In-justice.
"…to reform the parole system," Raymond blasted. "We need to vet witnesses and not let anyone into the witness box. Studies show that women are more likely to be believed than men, which means that women hold all the power when it comes to trials where emotion is key. As men, we’re taught not to show emotion, and when we do, we’re thought of as weak. It’s a double-edged sword, but I will bring that double-edged sword of justice down on any woman or man who lies and manipulates to send innocent people to prison, and—"
Raymond suddenly stopped when he saw Alison and Derek approach.
"I fully support retaliation against witnesses who are shown to be liars," Raymond shouted quickly. "There is no punishment strong enough for these people, and no justice that can overcome death."
Raymond stopped again, turned quickly, and ran from the courthouse