Chloe gave Josh a sour look
.
“Skewered?” she asked.
“Well
,
that’s pretty accurate,” said Max.
“Then there was this.” Chloe held up a tiny surveillance camera with wires dangling like disjointed legs.
“Where’d you find that?” asked Manny.
“Just inside the rubber tree near your TV. It was pointed directly at the door leading to the living room.”
Manny shook his head. “He wanted to watch my face when I found out the body wasn’t Louise?
”
“That’s what I think,” said Chloe.
“I’m going to bury him.”
“And we’d like to help,” said Josh.
“Changing the subject,” said Sophie. “How’d he know about the crawlspace? Not a feature in every home.”
Manny nodded. “Back when this subdivision went up, maybe twenty years ago, the builder built a ton of houses in different areas of town. The first couple hundred had this design flaw so they put in the trapdoors for free. It wouldn’t take much effort to find out if ours was one of them. Then he used it to his advantage. At least that’s how I think he knew.”
“Makes sense,” said Josh.
“Now what?” asked Manny.
“We’ve got hundreds of officers and locals looking for him statewide. I think we’ve got a shot at nailing him.” Josh shifted his feet. “Did I just say that?”
“Glad you woke up. The chances of finding him without his allowing it are thin, at best,” said Manny. “But at least he knows the heat is on.”
The front door burst open and Jennifer Williams sprinted directly to her dad, latching on like she would never let go, sobbing the way teens do. “Is
. . .
mom
doing
. . .
a
l
l
right?” she asked in between heaves.
Closing his eyes, he held her close. “Hey baby
,
Mom’s okay
. S
he’s tough.”
“Tha-that’s what the two officers said. Are you
al
l
right
?”
His heart broke
t
hat his daughter would think of Louise and him instead of how she was feeling
.
It
made him think they’
d
done
something right
in raising her
.
“I’m fine. But the question is
,
how are you doing with all of this?”
She let go of her death grip and wiped her eyes. “I wasn’t tied up by some
lunatic
, and I don’t make a living chasing
psychos
, so I’m good. Just scared a little, I guess. Can I go see her?”
“She’s sleeping and
Sampson
is lying in front of the bed, but I can’t think of anything you
r
mom would like better than for you to climb in there with her.”
Giving him another hug, she left for the bedroom.
Head down, he let his heart slow to a normal rhythm and captured his
AWOL
poise.
“Definitely tougher than her old man,” said Josh.
“A hell of lot cuter too,” said Alex.
Manny
grinned
.
“Right on both accounts.”
One of the blues,
Officer Wang,
who had canvass
ed
the neighborhood, poked his head into the room. “Sorry to bother you all, but they found a hit-and
-
run
victim over on Washington. Real mess according to the first on the scene. Looks like she’d been backed over a few times.”
“What’s that got to do with us
, Wang
?
”
said Sophie.
“There was an APB out on her.”
“Shit,” said Alex. “Let me guess, Evelyn Kroll, right?”
“Yes sir. They’re wondering what you want them to do.”
“Call the lab and have them send out one of the FBI’s CSU crews
,
and let me know when the body is at the morgue.”
“Oh yeah, almost forgot why we’re here,” breathed Chloe
.
“Almost.”
The
frustration of
losing their best lead and top suspect in the Justice Club murders was palatable. They still had a serial killer running around Lansing
, one
who had turned
on
and killed her own
c
lub
members
,
and Argyle was now
free,
like a fox in the hen house. Could things get any better?
Finally
,
Manny spoke. “It’ll take them a few hours to get the site processed and
Evelyn’s body transported, and it’
ll take
Buzzy
some time to finish the phone tracing.
I don’t see much sense in processing our
house;
we know all we need to about what happened here.
”
Manny unfastened his holster and put it on the table. “I’m going to go spend some time with my family and get some sleep. After that, if it’s okay with
everyone
, I’ll see you all in the office at four this afternoon. You should all get some rest too. We’re going to need it.”
Chapter-67
Manny and the others spent the next two days trying to decipher all of the forensic information gathered by Alex’s crew and
the
FBI’s loaner staff. All the while,
they hoped
the phone would ring to say that Argyle was back behind bars, or better yet, being measured for a casket.
The mutilation slayings had stopped, but that didn’t mean the Justice Club was out of commission. Someone had flattened Evelyn Kroll, literally
,
and Manny knew it wasn’t a random incident. The cell phone records that
Buzzy
had subpoenaed tied Stella,
Kathy
, and Evelyn
together
. They each had purchased a pay-as-you-go, registering them with dummy e-mails and AKAs. The fact that they had all called each other from time
to
time solidified the assumption that they had all killed at least one victim, based on times and locations of the calls pinged at individual tower
s
. But they had been unable to unwind the
identity
of the
fourth number. The user had been very bright and only called from locations that were heavily used. The times of the calls helped some. However, there was nothing that linked the fourth number to any of the murders, with the exception of Stella’s last victim. The phone had been nearby that location at about the same time as the murder was committed. Manny suspect
ed
that the mysterious fourth member of the club had been following Stella and took her out in the conference room. The big question was why?
The .22 that had been used to kill
Dana Gary’s
fiancé and
Kathy
Ross was
not
the same
gun
that had been used in three of the mutilation murders.
That one weapon was still missing.
The other two
victims
and Gavin had been shot with Mike Crosby’s
handgun
,
the one Stella had taken from the family safe. The victimology tying the five victims together had been hard to put together, until they’d dug deeper. The three
degenerates
’
histor
ies were
a matter of public record, but Morgan and Becker hadn’t had any such record
. . .
until the crime lab played the DVD that Alex had taken from Evelyn
’s
car. The disc revealed that both men had unsavory appetites for underage girls. Alex wasn’t sure how
Evelyn
got the footage, but it could have been
staged
to see if the men would take the bait. They
had
.
Manny
sat at his desk, hands cradling his chin, reading more reports, and then felt the impulse to look out the window. The sun was setting on the last Saturday in September
,
and it was beautiful. Not like the last six days had been. Not at all.
Gavin was still
e
mbedded deeply
in
his
coma. His son Mike had somewhat recovered from the truth about
his mom
and had grow
n a different set of priorities,
namely not leaving his dad’s side. He’d
begun the tough journey to recovering from
Stella
’s
death, as much as could be expected, and now was going to be there for his dad. Nice to see.
Josh, Chloe
,
and Max were getting ready to leave. Josh’s boss
had
decided that it was time
for them
to get back and on
to something else. Josh
had
reluctantly agreed. Things had settled to a dull roar, and
there was
no telling where Argyle was. So until he surfaced
—
and
they knew
he would show again
—
it was time for the Feds to go.
Manny
felt his people
could handle things from here on out.
Besides,
he
had a couple of new contacts
, including the head of the ERT department
in Detroit
.
He’
d use them if he had to.
Sophie interrupted his thoughts. “Hey. What’s up?”
“The sky.”
“Smartass.”
“Seriously, the sunset is beautiful.”
“Yeah, okay. Anything about Argyle on the wire?”
Manny shook his head. “No
. N
o e
-
mail updates either. I did get an e-mail that offered me a new bra if I had trouble finding double D sizes. Does that count as an update?”
“Great! Forward that to me. My boobs are going to get real big, real soon.”
“
You’re lost
, you know that?”
“Yes, yes I do. But that’s why
I need you around
.”
She moved to the corner of the desk and sat down. “How are Louise and Jenny doing? This police protection thing has got to be getting old.”
“They’re doing just fine. They know it’s for their own
good
. And I promised no more than a nine
-
hour work day.”
“Damn. You’re going to need drugs to get used to that.”
He smiled. “I know where to get them if I do.”
Josh
walked
around the corner, followed by Chloe and Max, travel bags
—
a
ll the same
dark
-
blue
FBI
-
issue
—
over their shoulders
.
“So did you all go shopping at the same travel store?”
“Hey. I know it looks weird, but free is free. Besides
,
the department got a good deal on them,” smiled Josh.
Manny
reached his hand out to
him
.
The agent’s grip was pure, strong. “I’ll be in touch. I know this week was
mean
, but I want you to consider my job offer.”
“Thanks for all of your help, and I’m not
sliding
anything off the plate right now. We’ll talk,” said Manny.
He shook Max’s hand and Chloe’s next.
She had great hand
s
too. He moved on a split-second later.
“Good
seeing
you again Max, and good working with you
,
Chloe.”
“Thanks Manny,” responded Max.
Chloe grinned. “The pleasure was mine. Call me if you need
help with some profiling, or anything else
.”
He hoped no one else saw the tiny wink.
“To he
ck
with the handshake.” Sophie grabbed Josh and hugged him. Then stepped back. “Been wanting to do that. And what Chloe said
:
if you need anything, and I mean anything, call me.”
Josh grinned. “I’ll be sure to remember that, Asian
F
ox.”