CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Faith drove her Crown Victoria as far up the dirt access rode as she dared, parking two hundred yards from where the suspicious man had been spotted. She heard shouting as soon as she stepped out of the car, a female voice screaming in rage.
Turk shot off like a rocket, easily bounding up the hill while Faith and Jessica followed as fast as they could. Meyers’s cruiser screeched to a halt behind them, and the sergeant joined the pursuit, huffing and puffing as he navigated the steep slope to the crest of the hill.
As Faith approached closer, a second voice joined the female one. This was male, lower-pitched, and not screaming.
“Where’s your dog? Where’s your dog? Where’s your dog?”
That was the female.
“I don’t have one. I told you, he—”
“Then why are you here? Are you a murderer? You’re a murderer!”
Faith reached the top of the hill and saw Turk standing about ten feet away from a red-faced woman in her late forties with short curly dyed blond hair who stood in front of a tall man in a hoodie and cheap work boots.
Her feet were spread shoulder width apart, her hands on her hips when she wasn’t shaking a finger in the man’s face.
Faith approached cautiously, seeing the frown on the man’s face and feeling anger rolling off of the woman in waves. Jessica moved to the other side with Meyers looping wide to circle behind their suspect.
“Excuse me,” Faith said, lifting a hand and moving so she was an equal distance from the two combatants. “Special Agent Faith Bold, FBI. Is everything okay here?”
The woman cast a fierce look Faith’s way. “Took you long enough! I called over an hour ago!”
Faith let the exaggeration pass. “Can you tell me what seems to be the trouble, ma’am?”
The woman jammed her finger toward the suspect. “This man is here without a dog! He’s being suspicious! He’s hiding his face, and I think he’s the man who killed those people!”
The man threw his hoodie back and glared at her. “Here’s my face! Here it is! Not hiding it! Not being suspicious!”
He had blond hair liberally streaked with gray and eyes so light blue they were almost transparent.
A two-day stubble covered his face and neck, and the lines in his forehead suggested an age closer to fifty than forty.
It was hard to tell what his build was underneath his thick sweater, but he was definitely in the right height and weight range to fit their killer’s profile.
And it would be very easy to conceal a gun underneath that sweater.
“Where’s your dog?” the woman demanded, stepping forward. “Where is he?”
“He’s dead, you stupid bitch!”
“Arrest him!” the woman shrieked, turning toward Faith and pointing imperiously at the suspect.
Faith met Jessica’s eyes, and her partner nodded and stepped closer to the woman. “Let’s go this way, ma’am.”
“Is he going to be arrested?” the woman demanded petulantly.
“My partner’s going to deal with him,” Jessica replied.
Faith met the man’s eyes and gestured with her head for them to walk away. “Let’s go talk over here.”
The man turned to see Meyers standing a few yards off, face impassive, hand resting on the butt of his gun. He swallowed. “Am I in trouble here?”
“We’re going to figure out what’s going on,” Faith said. “Come talk to us over here.”
“I wasn’t doing anything,” he protested. “I was just watching the dogs.”
“Let’s go over here,” Faith repeated, more firmly.
The man looked between Faith and Meyers. Meyers casually but very pointedly unclipped his handgun. The suspect sighed and said, “Fine. This is bullshit, but fine.”
He stomped away from Jessica and the still-shouting caller. Turk followed, keeping himself in between Faith and the suspect. He wasn’t growling or behaving aggressively, but he remained alert, ready to launch into action at a moment’s notice.
The man muttered softly as he walked away. “I wasn’t doing anything. That bitch probably just hates men.”
Faith didn’t offer an opinion to that. She led the suspect about fifty feet away, far enough that they could hear each other over the caller.
The suspect was much calmer now that he didn’t have her shouting in his ear. Or maybe it was the stoic, imposing presence of Sergeant Meyers and the watchful eyes of Turk that encouraged him to be docile. Either way, he seemed far less tense than before.
He put his hands in his pockets, and Meyers said, “Nope. Hands where we can see them.”
The suspect stared at him. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Meyers’s eyes narrowed, and the suspect pulled his hands out, fingers splayed open. “Okay, fine. Look, see? Not carrying anything. You want to search me to make sure?”
Faith shrugged. “Sure. We might as well get that out of the way.”
The suspect stared at her. “What? Seriously?”
“You’re being very jumpy right now,” Faith explained. “For my peace of mind, and for your safety, yes, I’d like to search you.”
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
Faith nodded at Meyers. The deputy stepped forward and patted the suspect down while Faith and Turk watched. The suspect’s lips were thin and his shoulders tense, but he didn’t make any attempt to resist.
Meyers finished patting him down, discovering nothing but a wallet, cell phone, and a pair of car keys. He stepped back and nodded at Faith. “He’s clean.”
Faith smiled at the suspect, hiding a pang of disappointment. She’d hoped to find the murder weapon. Not that its absence meant he was definitely innocent. “See? Nothing to worry about. Now we don’t have to be jumpy around you.”
The suspect scoffed. “Why would you be jumpy? I’m not doing anything.”
“Let’s start with your name,” Faith said.
“It’s Daniel,” the suspect replied. “Daniel Pierce. Your buddy checked my ID, right?”
“Looks valid,” Meyers said genially.
“Okay, so you can run that name, and you can tell that I don’t have a criminal record.”
“We’re just talking right now,” Faith said. “We haven’t put you in cuffs, have we?”
Daniel looked at Meyers, who kept his genial expression.
Daniel sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I was just sitting on a bench watching the dogs play when that bitch came up out of nowhere and asked me where my dog was. I was trying to explain to her that I don’t have a dog anymore, and she got irate and started calling me a murderer and saying she was gonna call the police on me.
I didn’t feel like dealing with that, so I got up and left, and she fucking followed me all the way over here shouting how I was a murderer and all this crap.
I don’t know what her damned problem is. ”
“Are you aware that there’s a bulletin out warning people about a suspect murdering people in dog parks?” Faith asked.
“Yeah, but I’m not doing anything suspicious. I was on the bench in broad daylight with my hands visible where anyone could see me.”
“We believe that the person who murdered Iris Caldwell, Mark Patterson, and Rebecca Hartley observes his victims in public before luring them or following them somewhere secluded.”
Faith watched Daniel’s eyes closely as she named the victims. He showed no sign of recognizing those names.
“Okay, well.” Daniel laughed and ran his hand through his hair. “I was just enjoying the day. My dog died last year. I come out to the dog parks to watch the dogs play because it reminds me of him.”
“A year ago?” Meyers said. “Why don’t you just get another dog?”
Daniel laughed again, bitterly this time. “You don’t have dogs, do you, officer?”
Meyers lifted an eyebrow. “Not currently.”
“Well, when you have a dog for years and years, they’re not just a pet. Okay? I live alone. My family is all back on the West Coast. I was married for ten years and that ended badly. Frankenstein was all I had.”
“That’s a cute name for a pup,” Faith offered, trying to build rapport with their suspect.
“Yeah, it was adorable,” Daniel agreed, smiling. “I called him that because he was a mutt. Irish wolfhound mixed with Labrador mixed with Border Collie mixed with something else that we could never figure out. He was like pieces of a bunch of other dogs put together. I had him for fifteen years.”
His smile faded. “You can’t just replace a dog like that. No dog could be Frankenstein.”
Faith looked at Turk and a pang ran through her.
Turk’s muzzle was nearly all white, and the “saddle” of dark brown fur that was a distinguishing feature of German shepherds was more gray than brown.
His body was still toned, and his eyes were still alert, but he was an older dog now.
He would be eleven in a few short weeks.
She had only a few years left with him, and she knew that when he passed, it would be a long time before she could replace him with another dog, if ever.
“You’re aware that we’re looking for a man who matches your description,” Meyers said.
“No, I wasn’t. I didn’t think about it. I mean, I’m just out here watching dogs. I’m not hurting anyone. I didn’t think, ‘Gee, I kind of look like the sort of person who would murder an old lady’.”
He was getting tense again, so Faith kept her voice soothing. “Can you confirm your whereabouts for the previous afternoon?”
“Sure. I was at Lonnie’s watching the game.”
“What game?” Meyers asked.
“Capitals. They’re actually doing pretty good this year. You watch hockey?”
Meyers shook his head. “Baseball.”
Daniel nodded. He was calm once more. “I grew up in Montreal. We were American citizens, but my dad worked for the State Department until I was ten or so. I used to watch every Canadiens game. We never had the money to visit the rink, but I would watch them on tv in my little jersey.”
He sighed and looked over at the woman, who was still glaring at Jessica but thankfully was no longer shouting. “Why do people have to assume stuff about me because I’m a man?”
Faith didn’t feed into that argument. While Meyers stepped away to confirm Daniel’s presence at Lonnie’s Pub during Rebecca Hartley’s murder, she asked, “What about the morning before last?”
“I work for the Quantico Sentry. That’s the Marine Corps paper on the base. I’m not in the Corps, but I deliver to the paper subscribers. I’m at work by five o’clock every morning, and my route ends between eight and nine depending on whether they’re using the roads for exercises. Does that count?”
Faith pursed her lips. If the paper verified that, then Daniel couldn’t have killed Mark Patterson either. She glanced at Meyers and the sergeant nodded at her, disappointment on his face. So, his alibi was good for Hartley’s murder.
“We’ll call them,” Faith told Daniel. “What about the morning before, around nine a.m.?”
“Nine? I was done with work already, so I was either at the Giant Food or home unloading groceries. I really hope I was at the Giant Food.” He laughed nervously. “Do you really think I did this?”
Not anymore. “We’re going to have to confirm your alibis,” Faith told him.
She looked at Meyers, and Meyers called the next number.
“If those come back confirmed, then you’re off the hook.
In the meantime, you might want to pick a different outfit if you’re going to come watch the dogs.
Maybe sneakers and a hood that isn’t pulled over your face. ”
“Sure, that’s fine,” Daniel said. “I was just cold. You’d think a Canada boy would be used to cold, but I spent the second half of my childhood in California. I got used to warm sun.”
This sun was warm to Faith, but that wasn’t important. Meyers looked at her and nodded, shoulders slumped. Faith concealed her disappointment and nodded at Daniel. “Okay. Looks like your alibis check out. I suggest heading home for the day to avoid any more confusion.”
“Yeah,” Daniel said, calm now that he wasn’t being accused of multiple murder. “I’ll do that.” He smiled sadly at Turk. “Maybe I’ll look for a dog. Maybe it’s time.”
“The local shelter has a lot of good animals,” Faith suggested. “Couple of Frankensteins too if you’re looking for another mutt.”
Daniel laughed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind a Frankenjunior. Thanks officer, uh, agent.”
“Faith is fine,” Faith replied. “Good luck, Daniel.”
Daniel moved off, and Faith chuckled drily as the woman who had called to report him stared in abject shock before unleashing a stream of invective at Jessica.
“Damn it,” Meyers said when Daniel was out of earshot. “I thought we had him.”
Faith didn’t reply, only sighed and looked up at the sun, which continued to climb and warm the day further. Their killer remained at large, perhaps hiding until the watchful eyes of Jane Q. Public were averted once more.
Or maybe he only waited for them to fall on another hapless Daniel so he could strike while others ignored the real danger lurking in the shadows.