Chapter 20 #2
“She was the daughter of a prominent Irish family back in Dublin who lost their fortune when her father was imprisoned and killed the month after her marriage to our father. That was when we all relocated to the States, but she didn’t last long in the family.
Angus divorced her within seven months, then remarried two months later.
She died about six months after the divorce. ”
“Right, right, I vaguely remember all this.” Cranwell flipped through his notepad. “The first victim…”
“Our father’s third wife, Jessica O’Leary-Davis,” Brody continued, reading his notes.
“Died almost three months after Fiona. Her tox screen detected extremely high levels of LK’s chosen toxins, demonstrating the killer’s inexperience.
Ingestion levels were perfected after victim three to inhibit and weaken targets but not kill.
Victims two and three ingested lethal levels of foxglove and hellebore, but Jessica was the only victim to pass away from the poisoning before the stabbing.
The knife wound also showed numerous signs of hesitation, more so than the other earlier victims.”
“Well, shit. This might really be our connection. How’d the second wife, uh, Fiona, die?”
Brody clicked over a few documents. “Death certificate lists cardiomyopathy at nineteen, here in Boston at Massachusetts General Hospital.”
“Any signs of toxins?”
“Nothing listed. No stab wounds either.”
“Then she couldn’t have been an unidentified victim. Family situation?”
“Father’s dead. No siblings. Mother’s listed as being on marriage five, previously living in Ireland. I’d need to make a check to see if that’s still the case.”
“Leave it. I’ll handle it and look into her more.”
Brody didn’t even look up from his computer. We all knew that he would be investigating the information, no matter what Cranwell said.
“You saying you never did before?” I crossed my arms and stared the old Fed down.
“Look, O’Leary. My memory’s not what it used to be. You’ll get it when you’re my age. Twenty-nine years is a long time.”
“It’s your job.”
Sweat beaded his forehead. “All I know is back then, there were no connections to make. If wife two died of natural causes, there was no reason to link her death with wife three’s murder. I’ll look up my notes, but I don’t think there was anything to find.”
“Or you missed something.” I pried my knife open and flicked the cheek of the blade, never looking away from his sweaty face. “Brody, do you have the original case files?”
“Checking.”
I advanced on Cranwell.
“Careful, O’Leary. I’m still a Fed.”
The blade swirled under the artificial light as I rolled my thumb around.
“If your negligence is what drew this out, I promise no badge’ll save you.”
From my back pocket, I pulled out a small baggie with the couple of hairs I’d plucked from Alice’s head before leaving her in my bed. I tossed it at him.
“Test this for me.”
He fumbled to catch it. “Whose is it?”
“Someone who’s recently started clinging to me. I need to know that she’s not associated with all this.”
With LK’s blood and DNA on file, this wouldn’t be the first time my brothers and I made such a request.
He whistled. “A real cougar.”
“No.”
“Well then, I’d say it’s pretty unlikely. Profile puts the killer at forty-five to max seventy. Anything younger would be practically impossible.”
“When a woman forces herself into my life, and suddenly LK makes a change in pattern, I’m going to pay attention. Something’s up. Now run the damn thing.”
“Taxpayer money is not at your disposal, O’Leary.”
“But you are.” I gestured to Liam, who handled payments to our informants. Before we left, he’d slip an envelope of cash into the Fed’s suit pocket. “Don’t forget whose money you’re living off.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” he grumbled.
“And keep us updated with everything you find.”
“Always do, kid.”
The insult barely hit. “Let’s get out of here.”
The car’s back passenger door slammed shut. As the engine rumbled to life and our driver pulled out, Liam practically bounced in his seat.
“Now that was some grade-A shite. LK finally fucked up.”
“Whatever happened, all of us, we’ve been sitting on this information for a long time,” Brody groused.
“You really thinking this has to do with Da’s second wife?” Liam asked me.
“Aye, I’d bet my bleeding life on it. Brody, get some people on this with you.
We need everything on Fiona Maguire, from beginning to end.
Everyone she ever spoke to before she met Da and after she moved with us to the States.
Where she was staying after the divorce.
Who visited her in the hospital. Did she have a funeral?
Who paid for it? Absolutely everything.”
“Will do. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days.”
“Good. Liam, I’ve assigned a team to LK’s next possible target. I want you to keep up with them. Don’t you dare bungle it up. If LK is changing patterns, we need to follow.”
“Wait…what target?” Liam’s brows furrowed. “You didn’t, did you? Oh, fuck my balls, you did. I can’t believe it. You broke your celibacy streak? Brody, our bruh here’s back to dipping his wick. We need to celebrate.”
“Do I look like I’m in the mood?” Honestly, I needed some rest and time alone, preferably in the dark.
“You’re never in the mood.”
“Who is she?” Brody asked.
“Oh, do tell. Must be a good story to this.”
I forced my fingers to uncrimp so as not to punch that smug grin off Liam’s face.
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing gets someone protection detail these days?” Brody unhelpfully added.
“Just get it sorted. We don’t have time to waste on this.”
“When do we get to meet her?”
“What’s the point in that? She’ll be dead soon anyway.” It was just like Brody to state the cold, hard facts, no matter how unpleasant they were.
The difficult truth was, there wasn’t a point to any of it. Everyone around us died. It was simply a matter of time. I was so bloody tired of knowing nothing came next.
“If you like her, avoid her. It’s the safest thing you can do for her.”
With her personality, she wouldn’t let me. Truth was, I wasn’t sure I wanted her to.
“Like I said, she’s nothing. Just a bit of amusement.” I stared out the window at the passing scenery. It’d been fun and exciting but fleeting. Like everything. She was just another high that ultimately crashed. “Where are we with the cartel’s government contacts?”
“The governor’s aide is at our beck and call.” Liam squished a receipt in his fist, then dropped it, slapping his palms together. “The secretary though…won’t bend. I told Arthur to turn him in. I think the cartel holds something worse over him.”
“I put a lookout on their families.” The clicking of Brody’s keyboard keys loaded his words.
Organization was crucial to him, and no matter the conversation, every meeting required a detailed write-up.
“His son has been missing from work, and no one, not even his building concierge, has seen him since the day Arthur and Big Charlie first made contact with the Health and Human Services secretary.”
“The man’s an eejit.” Liam settled his head back against the seat. “If the cartel has the son, he’s never getting him back.”
“Get rid of him. Then have our grafters appoint someone loyal to us in his place.” The secretary was more useful to us dead than alive at this point. “Have Monkey Boy handle it. Tell him discretion is mandatory. We don’t want too much noise.”
The kid took kills to the next level: precise, elegant, and versatile with his tools. He was the best reaper the clan had and loyal to a fault since we’d taken him off the streets over a decade ago.
“Not afraid how the cartel will reply?” Liam asked me.
“If we give them an inch further, they’ll take the whole board. I intend to kick them off it. Boston is ours.” We weren’t going to lose to the Love Knot Killer and Joaquin Sosa. “But we can’t show our hand too quickly. A war will only hurt business.”
“Well then,” Liam said. “We need to review who is selling on the streets. Both Shiner and Skipper reported our boys have noticed outsiders distributing on our territory.”
Feckin’ bastards, they moved quick. “Get them all checked. Those not with the cartel go count worms.”
“And Sosa’s men?”
“Pick them up. Take a finger from each. We’ll avoid war for now, but it’s time to make the message clear. As long as our agreement stands, any business they have in Boston goes through us. We have never and will never give them free range.”