Chapter 29
I’d just gotten a text from Wade—No luck on getting a location for John Russell’s phone. I shook my head.
“Figures,” I said.
I stood inside the main doors of Alton’s Furniture while looking at the weekly ad.
I flipped from one page to the next, inspecting the individual letters against the image of the killer’s letter on my phone.
I flipped another couple of pages through the ad but wasn’t seeing anything in the weekly flyer that matched up.
“Can I help you out, sir?” a woman asked.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw a female employee wearing a red polo shirt and a big smile.
“What can I help you find?” she asked.
Not having much luck with the weekly ad, I dropped my phone into my pocket.
“Do you have something called a Connerton living room set? Or Connerton love seat?” I figured I would inquire about the furniture set, thinking that maybe they had more literature relating to it near the items for sale.
“Absolutely, we do,” she said. “I’m Amy.” She pointed at the name badge pinned to her shirt.
“Same as my wife,” I said.
“Well, she sounds cool.” The girl smiled. “I’d be happy to show that set to you. Right this way.” She spun on the toes of her shoes and started walking.
I followed a few steps behind her, thinking that she seemed eager to do her job and possibly get a sale.
As soon as she showed me where the set was, I planned to tell her that I wasn’t really there to shop so as not to take any potential money out of her pocket that she might get from an actual customer.
Amy took me to the far-right side of the store before she made a left and walked me halfway toward the back of the store and the living room set that I’d inquired about.
Before me sat a rather dull-looking L-shaped gray couch, a love seat, a small coffee table, and a pair of matching end tables.
The area was set up with a fake television on a small wall, some lamps, and a shaggy green rug.
My eyes darted around, looking for pamphlets or literature, but I didn’t see anything.
“Have a seat,” she said. “Check it out.”
I came clean with the saleswoman, letting her know that I wasn’t there to buy but was there in regard to an active police investigation to find whatever literature I could that advertised the living room set.
She mentioned that they’d just put up the new weekly flyers that I’d been looking through at the front of the store and said she would see if she could find any remaining copies of the prior week’s ad.
I thanked her and asked if I could also speak with a manager.
Before she walked off, she said that she would find me someone named Conner.
I hadn’t been alone twenty seconds when a guy wearing a red polo shirt similar to the one worn by the Amy girl headed straight toward me.
“Is someone helping you today?” he asked.
“Yeah. Amy,” I said.
“Sure. Are you looking at the Connerton? I have the same set in my apartment. I’m pretty happy with it.”
Not really knowing what he expected for a response, I gave him a smile and a nod.
He lingered before quickly darting toward a couple standing near the bedroom sets who apparently hadn’t been helped.
A few minutes later, Amy returned with a couple of thin magazines—and a guy in a suit on her heels. I figured him to be the manager.
“This is last week’s ad and the week before,” Amy said.
“Thank you,” I said. “Appreciate it.”
“Okay. If you and your wife with the cool name ever need anything in the way of furniture, come and see me. I put my card in with the flyers.”
“Thanks. And we will,” I said.
She looked at the guy who had followed her over then back at me. “Um, this is Conner, my manager.”
“Thank you, Amy,” I said.
She left me with the manager.
“Amy said that you had an investigation that had something to do with one of our ads or living room sets or something?” he asked. “I may not be understanding exactly what she said.”
“No, that was pretty much it,” I said.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with what happened across the street, does it?”
“What did you hear about that?” I asked.
“Just that they found a dead body over there behind the building or something. I mean, aside from seeing all the cops over there, they’re a furniture store, we’re a furniture store. Word travels pretty quick.”
“Right,” I said. “Unfortunately, I can’t really discuss what exactly we are looking for due to this being an active investigation, but can you think of any other paperwork or literature or anything that might contain the name and price of this living room set here? Connerton or whatever.”
“Hmm. Well, this living room set has probably been out for five years or so. And it’s one of our more popular sets.
” He squinted. “It’s probably been in every weekly ad.
So fifty-two weekly ads multiplied by five years or so.
And these weekly flyers get mailed to pretty much everyone. And we’re a nationwide company.”
I grabbed the back of my neck and gave it a rub, realizing that the chances of us getting anywhere from the weekly ad, had the letters even come from one, were pretty much zero.
“Okay, I’m guessing that probably isn’t going to do us much good, then.
Anything aside from the weekly ads that would have this living room set in it? ”
“I mean, probably,” he said. “But I’m not sure off the top of my head what that would be. We do send out a big holiday catalog. Actually, we send out a bigger catalog each season. Spring, summer, fall, and winter, which is our holiday catalog.”
“Do you happen to have any of those around?” I asked.
“Um, we should still have the holiday ones floating around. I may have a couple of the other ones in my office. If you want to give me a second, I can go and have a quick look.”
“That’s fine,” I said.
Again, I waited yet opted to wander around the store. A few minutes later, the manager found me near the recliners, and he had a single thick catalog in hand.
“Just the holiday one.” He passed the catalog to me. “We must have tossed all the ones from earlier last year. I didn’t see any floating around.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I can take this?”
“Yeah, that’s yours,” he said.
“All right. Thanks for the help.”
“Not a problem. If we can do anything else, just let me know.”
I gave him a nod and held up the ads and catalog. “I think this should be good for now, but I’ll let you know.”
I parted ways with the manager and walked out to the Explorer.
In the parking lot, as I sat in the cruiser, I flipped through the weekly ads.
Finding the living room set in each ad, I looked at the other side of the page—the corresponding letter that had been clipped out and used on the killer’s letter was never there.
I’d also noticed that the text—from front cover to back in each weekly ad—seemed to be in a smaller font than what was used in the killer’s letter.
The ads were looking to be a bust, and they found the passenger-side floor of the Explorer.
I opened the holiday catalog next, again finding the living room set in question and again finding that there wasn’t a match on the opposite side of the page.
“Well, that was a waste of time,” I said.
I tossed the catalog to the floor, on top of the weekly ads, and fired the motor.
Just before I could pull back from my parking space, I noticed the manager come out from the front of the store with a thick white binder.
He looked like he’d spotted my car when he started heading in my direction.
I dropped the driver’s-side window as he walked up.
“You know, I just thought of it as I walked back into my office. We have some internal product-knowledge and training materials that also have that living room set in them. Did you want to take a look?”
“Um. Sure,” I said. “Why not?”
He passed me the binder through the window.
“Do you need this back?”
“Nah,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of them. We give them to every new hire.”
“All right. I’ll have a look. Thanks.”
He gave me a nod and walked toward the store.
The three-ring white binder was similar to the one I’d kept notebooks in during high school about thirty years earlier.
I flipped it open and found a few spiral-bound training books.
One said bedrooms, one said office, and the last said living rooms. Each book was printed in color.
I flipped open the living room book and went from one page to the next.
For each living room set, the book gave the model name, details of what was included, the cost of each piece, and some corresponding product information that included measurements and weights and whether the product was an in-store item or special order.
I found the Connerton living room set and flipped back a page.
I stared at the print on the back side of the page and pulled up the photo I’d taken of the killer’s letter. My eyes darted from my phone to the page and back, then back and forth again. I zoomed in on the image of the killer’s letter on my phone. The individual letters matched the size and font.
“Son of a bitch.” I dialed Colt, who picked up right away.
“Yeah, Harrington,” he answered.
“What are the exact letters that you found the text on the back sides of?” I asked.
“Um, one second,” he said.
Colt took a moment then gave me each letter.
I flipped the page back and forth to check each. Then I checked them again. And a third time.
“We got it,” I said.
“Got what?”
“An actual lead,” I said. “The letters he used in his little message came from an employee product-training manual for Alton’s Furniture.”
“Are you sure?”
“One hundred percent positive.” I flipped the book inside of the binder closed and looked at the cover.
“This employee manual is from 2025. Which would lead me to believe that our suspect might have been a new hire here last year. Or at least worked here. Or somehow had access to internal training materials.” I killed the running motor of the Explorer.
“I’m going inside to try to get an employee list.”
“Do you want me to relay the message to Halloway?” Colt asked.
“Yeah. I’ll call back with an update if I have one. But I’ll bring this binder that the manager gave me back to the lab so you can confirm and then check the other letters contained in the killer’s message.”
“Perfect,” Colt said.
“I’ll talk to you in a bit.”
I ended the call, pulled the handle for the driver’s-side door, and shouldered it open.