Ruthless (14 page)

CHAPTER 48

Hoodie narrowed the list of elimination techniques down to a handful. Guns and knives had been used before, so they were immediately ruled out as an option. A mail bomb wasn’t sufficiently precise—there was too great a probability that the targeted subject might not be the one to open it.

Then the perfect idea presented itself—electrocution. It wouldn’t take out more than one person, but it should work on the primary target: Alton Blackwell.

Hoodie had studied Blackwell’s patterns. The man seemed to be glued to his laptop. That was his fatal pattern. It would take some research to find the right high-voltage electrical parts to substitute into a laptop’s outer shell, and then there would be the challenge of switching the modified laptop with Blackwell’s unit without being detected. But those details could be worked out. The important point, as far as Hoodie was concerned, was that the plan to take him down could be set in motion. After he and Mallory Wilson were eliminated, Chelsea Mancini would finally be from under the protection of her annoying, tenacious bodyguards.

CHAPTER 49

Mallory knew she didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle for her alternative explanation of the murders, but she believed she could establish enough probable cause to obtain a search warrant. She presented her hypothesis, her sparse but compelling evidence, and the information provided by Dr. Roland to a federal judge, who agreed with her. The judge issued a warrant authorizing the search of a particular storage unit as well as a review of the owner’s financial and internet-search records. Within the hour, Mallory presented the warrant to Mrs. Zolanski, the manager responsible for the storage unit facility.

Mallory and Zolanski, a middle-aged woman with a matronly air, trudged towards the storage locker together.

“You understand this is an ongoing, criminal investigation,” said Mallory. “It would ruin my case if the unit’s owner learns I’m conducting this search, so you’d be charged with aiding and abetting if you were to share any information about my visit with anyone. Even though it’s exciting to tell your friends you got a visit from the FBI, don’t do it. That news could make its way back to the owner of this unit,” she said as they approached the storage building.

“Okay, I get it. My lips are sealed,” replied Zolanski, who seemed disappointed with the lost opportunity to share the titillating news.

The manager inserted her duplicate key into the lock and swung open the door. Mallory entered the gloom of the interior and glanced around the floor for a particular apparatus. Along the back wall, she found it among a pile of camping equipment. Mallory noticed that attached to the apparatus was a second, newly-purchased object. The two items together added another brick to the foundation of evidence she was constructing to support her new hypothesis. Her theory had not been proved, but it now appeared a bit more probable.

Mallory donned latex gloves. She gently lifted both objects and placed them in an evidence bag, which she carefully sealed and labeled.

She spent the next thirty minutes combing through the remaining contents of the unit in case some other, unanticipated piece of evidence could be found, but nothing of importance was present.

“Okay, you can close it up,” said Mallory. “I’m finished here. Again, please remember to tell no one.”

Mallory immediately took her discovered items to the Atlanta Crime Lab, a shared facility used for federal and state forensic investigations within Georgia. She asked the technicians to check the items for fingerprints and any other trace evidence.

“Here’s my card,” she told the lead technician. “Call me when you get the results.”

To further prove her hypothesis, Mallory set about matching the newly-purchased item she had found in the storage unit to the owner’s financial records, a review authorized by the search warrant. It hadn’t been Mallory’s original intent to look for that specific item in the financial records, but knowing the item was recently purchased gave her a particular type of transaction to seek. Mallory hoped the purchase had been made on a credit card, aware it would be hard—if not impossible—to track down any other type of transaction.

The suspect’s fourth credit card showed a transaction at Dick’s Sporting Goods that could have been used to buy the item in question. Mallory took the transaction amount and purchase date to the store. The manager used Mallory’s information and the customer’s frequent-shopper card to search for the specific items the customer had bought that day. As the manager typed in the last authorization code and the list of purchased items scrolled down the screen, Mallory pursed her lips in triumph.
Here’s another nail in your coffin
.

CHAPTER 50

Hoodie had spent the last few days ordering electrical components and now laid them out on a table. The search for techniques to build a high-voltage apparatus that would fit within the confines of a notebook computer had been daunting, but Hoodie eventually adapted the instructions for creating a battery-operated high-voltage generator. Hoodie had been forced to change the generator’s design to deliver more amps, a change that would cause the unit to burn out in roughly sixty seconds. But such a destructive end was actually an advantage, since the burnout would damage potential evidence.

Hoodie had purchased a laptop which was identical to Alton’s and now set about gutting it, removing everything not needed for the generator. After several hours of careful assembly inside the laptop shell and the application of conductive paint to the keyboard, the modified unit was ready to deliver a lethal shock.

Hoodie settled in to wait for an opportunity to switch the booby-trapped laptop with Alton’s.
I just have to be patient and use Blackwell’s patterns against him. It should be only a matter of days
.

CHAPTER 51

Agent Stewart called Mallory. His usual placid voice contained a twinge of excitement. Since Alton was sitting at the table with her, Mallory put the phone on speaker so they could share in the conversation. They moved to the apartment’s back bedroom as they greeted Stewart.

“I think we’re on to something, Wilson,” said Stewart. “We traced down Doug Mancini’s flight. Where do you think he went?”

“Atlanta?” asked Mallory.

“Bingo—and he arrived just nine days before his brother’s murder.”

“Were you able to determine when he returned to San Diego?”

“Yes, six days before the murder, but that’s not too surprising. These mob types rarely do their own dirty work. Six days is just the amount of time needed for Doug’s hired thug to plan and execute the job.”

“Do you have any leads on who he might have hired?”

“No, we’re just starting to look into that,” replied Stewart.

“In that case, let me make a few suggestions,” said Mallory. “The first is a resident at Eagle Crest, the apartment complex Louise Sinclair lived in when she first met Jay. The resident’s name is Victor Durov. We suspected him of possibly being involved in the last murder, the one in which the victim was Miles Worley. Durov has a criminal record for stalking and hasn’t made a secret of showing his admiration for Chelsea Mancini. We have him on our list to investigate but haven’t gotten to it since he seems like a bit of a long shot. To be honest, we don’t have anything to associate Durov with the first three deaths, but we thought he might have eliminated Worley out of jealousy. Worley went on a date with Miss Mancini the week before he was murdered, and Durov saw them leave together.”

“Okay, noted. We’ll take a look at Durov.”

“Frankly, the same motive could be attributed to Brent Tanaka, Chelsea Mancini’s ex-boyfriend,” added Mallory. “He’s a smooth talker, but who knows what’s going on under the surface? He could have sent the warning message to deflect attention away from himself, or a worried co-worker could have sent it, not knowing that Chelsea is the object of Tanaka’s affection, not his aggression. Like Durov, though, it’s hard to connect Tanaka with the other murders, even if he did commit Worley’s.”

“Okay,” said Stewart. Alton remained silent, listening to the sound of Stewart hurriedly scribbling notes.

“Speaking of Kruptos employees, Chelsea Mancini’s boss, Winston Lewis, is a bit of a sleaze ball,” said Mallory. “He’s anxious to make VP and isn’t above taking credit for his employees’ work if it helps his career path. According to my…colleague, Mr. Blackwell, Chelsea’s work is pretty cutting edge. Lewis knows he couldn’t take full credit for it without her calling him out. Perhaps he decided that the quickest way up the corporate ladder is to remove Chelsea and take credit for her breakthrough work. It doesn’t fit in with the mob murders, but we’ve known all along that there could be different perpetrators involved.”

“Okay, we’ll run a background check on Lewis, too.”

“There’s one last guy—Eddie Delvecchio—who supposedly misdelivered pizza to Chelsea’s apartment twice in the space of a week or so. On both occasions, he was pretty aggressive about trying to enter the apartment, and Durov, who lives two doors down from Chelsea, emerged from his apartment within seconds of Delvecchio’s arrival.” Mallory shared the details of the break-in at Chelsea’s apartment and the role Durov claimed to play in it. 

“The Atlanta FBI office has had a tail on Durov and Delvecchio for the last week,” continued Mallory, “but the suspects haven’t done anything unusual. We know they weren’t involved with the bombing outside Chelsea’s apartment a few days ago, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t involved in the murders. We theorized that one or both of the more recent deaths could be a diversion to throw suspicion off of the Mancini family for the first two. If that’s the case, perhaps Durov or Delvecchio—or both—were involved in all of the homicides. We thought the mob may have called in a specialist for the car bombing rather than relying on these two guys again.”

Mallory reviewed the warning note Chelsea had received and their suspicion that it had been sent by a technical expert at Kruptos. She explained why she and Alton considered Winston Lewis and Brent Tanaka the top two candidates for having sent the note and, possibly, for having planted the car bomb.

The sound of Stewart’s scribbling ceased. “Thanks.  Most of your general theorizing is similar to ours, but we didn’t have these four specific suspects on our list. We’ll take a look into their backgrounds immediately.”

The next evening, Agent Stewart called Mallory and Alton with an update.

“We’ve dug a little into the backgrounds of Durov and Delvecchio,” he said, “but so far we haven’t found any smoking gun. We’re going to start looking at Lewis and Tanaka tomorrow morning.

“I have an interesting piece of information, though. Guess who’s coming back to Atlanta this weekend?”

“Doug Mancini?” asked Alton.

“Bingo,” confirmed Stewart. “We don’t know the reason for his visit. Is he paying off someone for a job well done? Eliminating evidence? Going to watch an Atlanta Hawks game? We really have no idea, so our plan is to trail him and see what unfolds.”

“Interesting,” said Mallory. “Hopefully, his visit will shed some light on the case.” In the back of her mind, Mallory couldn’t see how any evidence uncovered as a result of Doug Mancini’s visit would fit in with her new hypothesis, but she understood the importance of waiting to see what evidence his visit would reveal.

After the call ended, Alton and Mallory emerged from the back bedroom in which they had conducted the conversation. They rejoined the apartment’s full-time occupants as well as David and Fahima. The latter couple had joined their companions for dinner and a round of Pictionary, a game Fahima found hysterical.

“So did you learn anything?” David asked them in quiet tones, mindful of shielding Chelsea and Pam from the disturbing details of the investigation.

Mallory recounted Agent Stewart’s information.

“I can see why Doug came out here the first time,” said David. “He had to make the ‘arrangements’ for Jay and Louise’s executions. But why would he risk coming out here again? What’s so important he couldn’t do it over the phone?”

“That was Stewart’s question, too,” said Mallory.

“One obvious answer is that Doug is running the same type of errand,” said Alton. “In other words, making the arrangements for another assassination. Doug’s itinerary for this new weekend seems completely parallel with his first murderous trip—at least so far.”

“Agent Stewart theorized that Doug might be coming back to make a payoff for the first two hits,” said Mallory. “An electronic transfer of funds would be too easy to track down, even if it’s laundered first. Doug would want to make a payment in cash only. Probably the best way to do that would be to come back here.”

A peculiar light gleamed in Fahima’s eyes, but she remained silent. David noticed her compressed eyebrows and asked, “What is it? Do you have an idea?”

“I do not know this country well, so maybe I am wrong,” she said in hesitant language. “In my country, we have gangs like this Mancini family. They sell the drugs and take money from the shopkeepers. They also have rules about no talking to people outside their family. In these families, they kill other people, but they do not kill each other—not usually.”

“I see your point,” said David, “But the Mancini family seems to be different.”

“We’ve always known Doug had the motive,” added Mallory. “Now that we know he flew into Atlanta just before his brother’s murder, we know he also had the opportunity to line up a local hit man.”

Fahima spoke no more on the subject, but her eyes still reflected a faraway look, as if she continued to ponder the subject.

As the dinner commenced, the friends directed their conversation to other topics. Thanks to David’s groan-inducing humor and the creation of a series of curious sketchings during a round of Pictionary, the mood of the friends improved over the course of the evening.

Eventually, Alton drove David and Fahima back to his condo. Shortly after he returned from this errand, Chelsea and Pam retired for the evening, leaving Alton and Mallory to discuss the investigation in private.

After a few minutes of secret agonizing, Mallory decided to share her new theory with Alton. She had remained silent until this time for a fixed purpose: Alton’s very nature, and the change in his nature that the knowledge of her theory might produce, could put him in danger. It was important that he appear to the rest of the world as he always had, with no outward change in his habits or mannerisms, despite being aware of the identity of the potential perpetrator. To cause such a visible change would be to place his life at risk.

Mallory explained her concern to Alton. “Whatever I tell you, you need to promise me you won’t appear at all altered to anyone else. If you don’t feel you could do that, it’s better for me to continue this particular line of investigation on my own.”

“You seem convinced I can’t keep it a secret. Why is that?” asked Alton.

“Because you’re a genuine person, Alton. I can easily visualize your having trouble hiding anger toward someone we suspect may have been involved.”

Alton smiled. “Do you know how many months in Afghanistan I kept my love for you a secret? And that wasn’t just any old secret, but one saturated with the strongest of emotions. But you never guessed. I only told you of my love after you had first shared your feelings for me.”

Mallory nodded in tacit acknowledgement.

“I can maintain an unchanged demeanor,” assured Alton. “Don’t worry.”

“You promise? I don’t want anything to happen to you because I told you too much. I might not even need to tell you to crack this case.”

“I’ll be fine. Trust me. I don’t relish the idea of you facing the perils of a new line of investigation on your own. You could pull it off, I think, but why should you face dangers alone when you can be joined by a companion who’s just as concerned about your protection as you are?”

“Okay, Alton.” With that, Mallory shared the small piece of evidence that had first led her to form her theory, the information she had gathered from the CDC, and the evidence she had collected from the storage unit and sporting goods store.

Alton nodded his head. “It’s a good hypothesis. I don’t see any holes in it. The problem now is we have several conflicting hypotheses that are equally strong. Shall we wait to judge between them until Doug Mancini’s visit is complete and the background checks on Durov, Delvecchio, Lewis, and Tanaka come back? Those results could tip the scales on our competing theories one way or another.”

“Fair enough,” said Mallory, “but watch yourself. My theory might turn out to be the right one.”