CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The following day was a flurry of procedural activity that would have made any Hollywood show-runner proud.
Analysts at the field office created three different possible descriptions for a forty-six-year-old Nora Avery and distributed them to law enforcement in the Philadelphia and Trenton Metropolitan areas.
Researchers sifted through the records Marcus and Kate had discovered the night before, digging for details of the Averys’ lives after their persecution at the hands of Donna Frick in Wilmington.
Detectives, both with the field office and about a dozen local police agencies, scoured an eighty-mile radius for any sign of Stuart Pelham, almost certainly one of the targets on Nora Avery’s list.
The other potential targets, the DA, Assistant DA, and the judge, were all deceased.
After much deliberation, it was decided that the jurors were not at high risk, since they had acted in good faith based on the evidence available to them.
Kate continued to work on the remainder of the Ray Castillo cipher without success.
Without success was a good way to summarize that Friday.
A lot of activity, very little in the way of results.
They still lacked the most crucial details: where was Nora Avery, and where was Stuart Pelham?
Had Cox indeed contacted Nora Avery after her father’s death, and if so, how? What had he told her?
Why did he accuse Kate’s father of being a false healer?
By lunchtime, they had a more complete image of the case, though the most important questions remained unanswered.
They discovered that after Daniel’s conviction was officially overturned in early 1997, life got much better for the Avery’s, now living as the Montgomery’s.
Theodore and Georgia retired and purchased a home in a middle-class neighborhood in Norwalk.
Nora attended Norwalk high school for her junior and senior years and graduated with a respectable three-point-six grade point average.
The settlement amount might not have been disclosed, but it was clearly considerable.
And, as far as Kate could tell, the elder Averys were satisfied with that.
That could explain why Nora cut off contact with them when she left. They were happy with the money they received, but that provided no closure for their daughter. She wanted justice. The very last thing she wanted was hush money.
Darnell offered a perspective on that as the three lead agents enjoyed—well, ate—their lunch, cold sandwiches catered from a local sub joint that was a favorite of the field office.
“She was a young Black woman living at a time when racism may have been driven underground but was still alive and well. Being the sister of a convicted murderer would have granted some people license to reveal that latent prejudice.”
“Would it have to be racism, though?” Marcus asked. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, but he was her brother, after all. I’d be pissed if my brother was murdered whether the killer murdered him for being white or for being a Red Sox fan.”
Darnell shrugged. “It wouldn’t have to be racism.
I’m only speculating why her parents’ choice to accept the settlement might have infuriated her so much.
Daniel Avery was convicted of a murder he didn’t commit.
During the trial, they played up his criminal history, including some very tenuous ‘gang affiliations’, and they used the video of his resisting arrest to paint a picture of him as violent.
That’s a stereotype Black people have been dealing with ever since the abolition of slavery.
“Then after that, her family is persecuted mercilessly by her schoolteacher. Despite the fact that neither Nora nor her parents were even accused of wrongdoing, Donna Frick referred to them as unworthy of sharing the same society as the rest of them. And though officially, Donna was reprimanded and forced to stop, she was allowed to keep her job.”
“And she got what she wanted anyway,” Kate said.
Darnell nodded. “Exactly. The Averys were forced to move and change their names once again. All because of a false conviction.”
“Then, years after her brother’s death, the courts come to the family and say, ‘Gee, our bad’,” Marcus continued. “‘Here’s some money, and in return, you’re not allowed to talk about how we fucked up and put your son in prison, which eventually got him killed.”
“Exactly,” Darnell said again. “Essentially, Georgia and Theodore knuckled under. They gave up. Nora couldn’t handle that.”
Kate bit into her sandwich and chewed thoughtfully.
It made sense. Nora would have carried that anger with her for decades.
Not just anger either. Guilt that she had done nothing herself.
Guilt that she hadn’t carried the torch where her parents had dropped it.
Perhaps even guilt over monies she’d accepted.
After all, it was easy to hold onto righteous anger but very difficult to say no to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That made her a perfect candidate for a Cox disciple.
“I still don’t know if I buy it, though,” Marcus said. “Donna taught a lot of Black kids. She treated Nora differently from them.”
Darnell smiled. “Well, I’ll admit that her motivations may have been more personal. We discovered her relationship to Narek Tankian.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes. It turns out the two of them were engaged.”
Marcus’s eyes widened. “Really? How did no one know about that?”
Darnell shrugged. “Clearly, they kept it secret. But Narek Tankian applied for a marriage license between himself and one Donna Frick of Wilmington, Delaware that was pending when he was killed. My best guess is that she planned to run away with him. From what we’ve gathered, she was not happy with her life here.
Maybe she was planning on building a new life with him.
Then he was murdered, and the family of the man who killed her suddenly lives in her neighborhood.
His younger sister attends her school, sits in her classroom.
Maybe even looks a little like him, so instead of seeing the face of possibly the only man who could love her every day, she sees the faith of the man who, as far as she knows, killed him. ”
“But he didn’t kill him,” Marcus pointed out. “So, what happens after she finds out?”
Darnell chuckled. “She doesn’t believe it. By that time, she’s built an entire worldview around Daniel Avery being the killer. She’s succeeded in ruining a family’s life and tearing the spirit of a child down. She wouldn’t want to confront the possibility that she was wrong to do so.”
Kate sipped her water bottle. She felt restless. This was all well and good, but it didn’t really help them. They needed the answers to the important questions. Damn it, they needed to find Nora Avery.
She got to her feet. “I’m going to take a walk. I need a moment to clear my head.”
“Everything okay?” Marcus asked.
“I’m just a little frustrated at the lack of material progress,” she admitted. “It’s no one’s fault, but it’s frustrating. I need to breathe for a minute and approach everything refreshed.”
“Fine with me,” Marcus said. “We’ll call you if we find anything out.”
She stepped outside and weaved through the cacophony of movement and noise in the field office.
It was nice to see everyone working hard, but once again, all their hard work meant nothing without results.
The FBI didn’t award participation prizes, and if their killer struck again, no one would pat them on the back and say, “Good try.”
She wasn’t just going to walk, though. She needed to clear her head and find answers.
So, when she was outside, she dialed Gabe’s number.
Professor Gabriel Levine was the chair of the Linguistics Department at New York University. He was also Kate’s mentor and the man who had suggested she join the FBI after her father’s death. She owed him her passion for cryptography and her career.
He was also the person she felt most comfortable opening up to. She needed to open up to someone. Marcus would just want to protect her, and her mother would sweep all of her concerns under the rug for fear of finding something actually dangerous.
Gabe answered on the second ring. “Kate! It’s good to hear from you! How are you feeling?”
She sighed.
He chuckled. “That bad, huh? Personal or case-related?”
“Personal.”
“Cox?”
“Who else?”
Gabe released a sigh of his own. “That fucking prick. It’ll be a good day when someone finally puts a tire iron through the back of his head.”
Kate blinked, startled. Gabe wasn’t one to use vulgarity, even when the moment called for it. “Are you okay, Gabe?”
“I’m tired of hearing how not okay you are. I’m tired of this plankton still breathing the same air.” He took a breath and calmed down. “I’m sorry. It’s not helpful for me to be angry.”
“I mean, it’s nice to know you care,” Kate said.
“I do,” Gabe replied, his voice forlorn. He sighed again. “Well, tell me how I can help, and then maybe I can claim to have done my part to bring him to justice.”
Kate bit her lip. “Cox… Accused my father of something. He claimed that my dad was a false witness. I know you didn’t know Dad, but what…
I mean… could he mean that Dad lied about someone?
He also said that Dad took something that wasn’t his, so maybe he plagiarized a paper or took credit for someone else’s idea—"
“Kate,” Gabe interrupted.
Kate steeled herself for the lecture. “Yes?”
“Cox is a liar, Kate. Even when he states facts, he lies. Whatever he’s trying to say about your father is a lie. Even if it’s the truth.”
Kate shook her head slowly. “I think I’m following, but I still want to know what it is.”
Gabe sighed. “I just don’t want you to keep allowing him to lead you by the nose.”
Kate’s lips thinned. She didn’t want to hear this from Gabe.
She had enough people telling her to just ignore Cox and act like nothing he said mattered.
It did matter. Her father was the strongest pillar in her life, and Cox was tearing it down.
She needed to know if he was lying, because if he wasn’t, then did anything really matter?
Could she trust anyone? She had to know, not just believe, know.
Her father didn’t have to be perfect, but she needed to know his flaws, and she needed to know that in spite of those flaws, he was still a good person.
She needed to see the rot Cox was alluding to and see for herself that it was nothing to worry about.
And all anyone did was tell her to deal with not knowing or offer some vague assertion that Cox was a liar and therefore never told the truth.
She’d solved enough Lawgiver cases to know how often and how completely he told the truth.
She was spared the need to argue with Gabe by a phone call from Marcus. “I have to take this. Thank you, Gabe.”
Gabe, with his usual placidity and gentleness, didn’t react to her abruptly ending the call she’d made to him.
“Of course. Remember what I said.”
“I’m sure you won’t let me forget.”
She ended the call with Gabe and answered Marcus. “Hey. What’s up?”
“Hey, Kate. We found Stuart Pelham.”
He sounded exhausted. Forlorn. A chill ran down Kate’s spine. “And?”
“He’s dead.”
The strength left Kate’s body. In the field office next to her, dozens of people were working hard to find and stop Nora Avery. Throughout the metro area and surrounding cities, hundreds of police officers were fighting to keep people safe.
And none of it mattered. Not one ounce of their effort made any bit of difference.
As Cox’s mocking laughter echoed in Kate’s ears, another vehicle ran through the puddle next to Kate. The water soaked her left side, but she didn’t react. What was the point? The car was already gone.