Chapter Thirteen #3
“I will. Come on, Ellie. I have to go shopping and it looks like it’s a long drive back to the coast.” Hellier put her arm through Elle’s. “Good night, Detective.”
Ronan watched them get into a fancy Mercedes and drive away. Then he found Gary waiting outside the lab. “Is Mason done yet?”
“Not yet. He still needs to do the GSR test, but he already ran the jacket and boots through X-ray. There is a bug in her jacket. I can tell you that.”
“Dammit. I didn’t think she was wrong, but I was hoping she was.”
Gary tilted his head. “You like her.”
“I respect her,” Ronan said, far too quickly if Gary’s slow grin was any indication. “She cares. And she’s probably going to lose her job after this case. Her boss wasn’t happy that she gave me so much information.”
“That’s a shame. I like her, too.”
Mason opened the door to the lab. “You can come in now. I have a bit of information for you.”
“Where’s the jacket?” Ronan asked.
“In a Faraday bag. Whoever planted it won’t be able to hear us.”
“That sounds good,” Ronan said. “What can you tell us?”
Mason put some photos on the table. “The device is small and its range is only about ten feet. It was slipped into the bottom hem. The leather there is rolled up and feels padded, so it hid the existence of the bug.” He pointed to the first photo.
The device was an inch-long thin bar with a small flat circular object on one end.
“That’s it. The round part is the mic. You can see how small the mic is, so it’s really not surprising that she didn’t know it was there. ”
“Audio only?” Ronan asked. “Or video, too?”
“Audio only. I didn’t find any cameras. I put the outer coat, the moto jacket, and the boots through the X-ray machine. The boots are clean. So’s the outer coat. The jacket had just the one device, but I don’t think it’s the first time her stalker has bugged her.”
Ronan frowned. “What do you mean?”
Mason spread a few more photos on the table.
“I zoomed in so you could see the detail. See those little lines? Those are slits in the leather. That’s how the devices were inserted.
There are at least ten of them. The slits are difficult to see if you’re not looking for them.
They’ve been treated with leather repair glue.
Whoever this stalker is, they knew how to cover their tracks.
The repair job is nearly flawless. But I think this means she’s had at least nine other bugs.
They’re powered with an internal battery and the device is voice activated.
If she’s asleep or quiet, it goes to sleep, too.
Preserves the battery. It can last from a few weeks to two to three months, depending on how often the recorder is activated.
This model has a satellite connection and can stream the audio to the cloud. ”
It was remarkable that such a small device was so powerful.
“So her stalker would…what?” Gary frowned down at the photos. “Wait until one of the bugs was dead and then insert another?”
“Something like that,” Mason said. “You should find out when she left her jacket unattended.”
“Why would he make new cuts in the leather each time?” Gary asked. “Why not just use the same cut over and over?”
“I think the leather would have begun to fray at the edges of the cut over time,” Mason said. “He made a fresh cut each time to keep her from noticing.”
Ronan thought about the dead woman in San Francisco, the one who’d threatened Elle after the rescue of the toddler. He wondered if she could have been bugged even then. “This person has had close access to her for quite some time. Why only bug her? Why not try to harm her, too?”
Gary looked troubled. “That’s a good question. Seems like if he—or she—had wanted Randolph dead, she’d be dead. Especially if he had access to her home, which he almost had to have to be able to put his hands on her jacket.”
“Or the office,” Ronan said thoughtfully. “Or on the road. She wears it everywhere.”
“She needs to be careful,” Mason said. “If they’re so focused on bugging her and we’ve taken away the article of clothing they’ve been using, they might try to get close to her to find another way to plant more bugs.”
“You’re right. If each of these devices would remain charged for a few weeks up to a few months, and she’s had ten of them, that means this has been going on for at least five months. Maybe up to two years.”
“What are you thinking?” Gary asked quietly.
“That if this guy’s goal is to frame her for murder, and he’s bugged her before, I wonder if he’s murdered someone before, too. Like that woman in San Francisco.”
“Shit, Ronan,” Gary breathed. “This clusterfuck just got even worse.”
“I know,” Ronan said grimly. “I need to find out where she’s been. I really hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.”
Gary sighed. “Neither do I. What are your next steps?”
Ronan checked the time on his phone. “Drive back to the coast to get Elle’s itinerary for the past two years. But first, I have to stop by Kasey’s parents’ house.”
Hopefully they’d be home this time. He needed to tell them that their daughter was dead.