She took out her phone and scrolled through the pictures she’d taken at the crime scene.
Wendy James’s killer had also left a message.
There was no obvious connection between Wendy James and Nicole Bellows, but that the killer of each had left a message was definitely odd.
There was a singsong quality to the first one.
And this guilty whore don’t cry no more
And the second was definitely the killer’s version of a nursery rhyme.
Six blind mice, see how they run
“From the angle of the wound,” Sheila said, jolting Lucy from her thoughts, “I can say fairly confidently that the killer was taller than the victim.” She tapped the chart. “She measured at five foot six. I can’t tell you how tall the killer was, but definitely several inches taller.”
“What if she was on her knees?” Lucy asked.
Sheila considered. “No, because the cut would most likely have an upward angle, especially at the end. This was straight across. Non-serrated blade. He tilted her head back with such force that he broke several capillaries in her throat. Put the knife on the soft area just below her chin and sliced deeply, without hesitation, severed her trachea and her carotid artery. She died immediately from massive blood loss.”
“There was no obvious sexual assault at the scene,” Lucy said.
“No evidence of recent intercourse, vaginal, anal, or oral. But I found something else you might find interesting.”
Lucy looked at the table. Nicole’s chest and abdomen were exposed. Lucy stared at a perfectly formed fetus.
“She was pregnant.”
“I’m guessing fourteen weeks. I’m going to run standard tests and DNA. You get a suspect, I can tell you if he’s the father.”
“That’s a solid motive,” Miles said, making note.
Motive maybe—but why leave the rat in the sink? Nicole being pregnant didn’t play into the message on the mirror.
Lucy stepped out of the room to text Noah about Nicole’s pregnancy, then remembered she was working with DC police on this case. She sent Genie the text message instead, then made a note to herself to write up a report for Noah at the end of the day.
When she returned to the autopsy station, Sheila had just finished closing the body.
“We’re done here,” she said. “You know what I know, but I’ll write up the official report, pending labs.”
Sheila stripped off her gloves and tossed them in a bio-bag. Her assistant started the process of cleaning the body so it could be placed in cold storage pending release.
Who wanted you dead? Who were you running from? The baby’s father?
Maybe Noah had been right and this case was a common homicide. But while she had the case, she would unearth the truth. The dead may not be able to speak, but their life and death told a story.
Ben motioned for Sheila to come over. “Do you know what this is?” He lifted Nicole’s left hand. Her skin was dark brown, but her palm was several shades lighter. In the center were three numbers, very faint.
“She wrote something on her hand,” Sheila said. “A locker combination? Date?”
Lucy tilted her head.
565.
She looked more closely. “I think there’s more here. Can you bring out the ink so we can tell?” There was just a hint of the other numbers, so faint and incomplete she couldn’t make out anything but the 565.
“Maybe—but it’ll take some time.”
“I have an idea,” Lucy said. She opened a supply drawer and retrieved a flashlight. “Cut the lights, please,” she said.
She put the flashlight on the backside of the victim’s hand. The high-wattage bulb illuminated the area.
“It’s a phone number.” She tried to contain her excitement. The phone number was faint, but Lucy read it out loud.
555-6598
She left to call Genie. They might have their first break and the case wasn’t even a day old.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lucy finished typing her report for Noah on the Nicole Bellows homicide. She could have done it from home, but she liked being at FBI headquarters in the evening when the office ran on minimal staff.
She’d heard there was a debriefing in the conference room about the Wendy James investigation, and she wanted to be there, but Noah hadn’t invited her to attend. She didn’t know what had happened when the cyber crimes unit came in to inspect the wiring and hidden room. She wanted to know what they’d found, if they had uncovered evidence of blackmail.
Her relationship with Noah was strained, and she still didn’t understand why Josh Stein was so opposed to her involvement. She’d even e-mailed an apology, but he hadn’t responded.
If she hadn’t questioned Crowley, they may never have known about the executive apartment or the hidden room. At least not this early in the investigation.
She had to put it aside. Hard as it was, it wasn’t her case. She had an equally compelling assignment with Detective Genie Reid. She liked the detective, and was learning a lot watching how she observed a scene and questioned witnesses.
With that in mind, Lucy proofread her report to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, then she e-mailed it to Noah. She gathered her things and walked to the front of the building, where the guard buzzed her out.
“Hold up,” Matt Slater called from behind her.
She waited, a bit nervous, and glanced around looking for Noah. He wasn’t with Slater.
“I wanted to talk to you if you have a minute.”
“Of course. Your office?”
“I’ll walk you out.”
Lucy caught herself biting her lip. She stopped, but her stomach tightened. What did Slater want? To reprimand her?
“I’ll cut to the chase,” Slater said as soon as they stepped outside, out of earshot from the guard and any lingering staff. “I didn’t like the idea of letting you work in the field. You should have been cooling your heels at home or working another job when there was the delay getting you into the Academy. Don’t think I don’t know you have friends in high places.”
Her heart pounded in her chest. She almost couldn’t hear herself speak, her voice sounding like she was at the far side of a long tunnel. “I didn’t ask for any special privileges.”
“I don’t know whether you did or didn’t. You’re smart, and you’ll make a good agent once you get more training under your belt, but I wanted to make sure you understood something that I doubt Noah has made clear.”
Though terrified by what he might say, Lucy didn’t break eye contact.
Slater said, “If you screw up, it’s on Noah. He’s given you a lot more leeway than I would have. I wouldn’t have let you out of the office.”
“You’re the SSA. If you wanted me at a desk, I would have stayed at a desk.” She was nervous, but at the same time, she wanted him to know that she was happy just to have a position.
“I don’t know that you would have.” He sounded serious.
“I’m good at following orders. I’m sorry about what happened with Agent Stein after the Crowley interview, but—”
“Forget that. Josh has his own way of investigating, he gets the job done. He doesn’t make a lot of friends, but again, he gets results. The problem is that you aren’t even an agent, but you act like one. It’s making some people in the office uncomfortable.
“You’re very good at getting your way,” Slater continued. He stepped forward. “Lucy, I’m not upset with you or your performance. You’ve been an asset. Noah explained it was your diligence that landed us the biggest break in this case, the hidden room at the Park Way building. But the situation with Josh illustrates the primary problem with having you in the field, which I explained to Noah months ago.”
“I don’t see wh—”
“Stein is your superior,” Slater interrupted. “I’m your superior. Noah is your superior. Why were you even raising a question during the interview? Noah tried to smooth it over, then when that failed, he gave you a case with DC Metro. Do you understand the limbs Noah is bouncing off for you? You’re not going to get another chance. You screw up again, you’re not only out of the field, you’re out of the office.
“Remember, you’re an analyst, and that analyst title is thin, at best. Which means Noah will take the heat if the case goes south and you’re involved. So think twice before you do
anything
. There is a chain of command for a reason. Use it.”
“I understand,” she said quietly. She didn’t want Noah to get into any professional trouble because of her, either.
He rested his hand on her shoulder. “Like I said, you have a good head and good sense. You’ll make a fine agent someday.”
Lucy forced a smile while she waited for Slater to go back inside. Her chest felt like it was going to split in half.
Do not cry. Do not cry
.
Matt Slater was right. It didn’t matter how much experience she had, she wasn’t an agent.
She practically ran to the Metro station, wishing for the first time she had a car so she could sit behind the wheel and cry in private.
* * *
“Sorry I’m late,” Matt Slater said as he walked into the conference room.
Noah caught his eye, but couldn’t read Matt’s expression. He knew his boss was angry with what had transpired yesterday, but Noah thought he’d fixed the problem. He wished he hadn’t had to pull Lucy off the Wendy James case, especially now. Her insight would be invaluable.
Yet, she had frozen yesterday in the linen closet. Noah didn’t think she’d even noticed she didn’t move for more than a minute. Just stood there, hunched over, staring at the back wall, not doing
anything
.
Noah knew she still battled panic attacks on occasion, but until now he’d never seen it while she was working. But last night, the brief hesitation, and then this morning at the Red Light Motel it was obvious.
Frankly, he was concerned. If she panicked at the wrong time, it could put the lives of fellow agents in jeopardy.
He adjusted his seat. He was also worried about Lucy, personally. Working with her he realized she put the weight of every case, no matter how big or small, on her shoulders. She internalized it, rather than compartmentalizing.
He had asked Slater to bring Dr. Hans Vigo, a forensic psychologist and assistant director from national headquarters, in for a preliminary psych analysis on Wendy James’s killer, but he also had an ulterior motive. Hans Vigo had been the one to clear Lucy for the Academy, after she failed her first psych profile. Noah needed to know that she wasn’t going to have a breakdown on the job. Not just for his safety, or her future partner, but for
her.
Miriam Douglas and Henry Archer from cyber crimes were in the room along with Josh Stein, Slater, and Hans. Noah pushed aside his thoughts about Lucy.
Slater asked, “What’s the word on apartment seven-ten?”
Henry said, “The cables and wires are consistent with audio and video recording equipment, but we found no equipment anywhere in either seven-ten or Wendy James’s apartment. We sent her laptop to the lab as a priority, hoping they can rebuild deleted files, but our examination indicates they were deleted by a high-end erase program. It’s doubtful we can get anything from it.”
“What about other apartments in the building?” Slater asked.
Noah was about to respond when Stein said, “I’m working with the U.S. Attorney’s office on warrants for all executive apartments, but the management company is balking. We asked, they refused, we got the warrant for number seven-ten”—he shot Noah a dirty look—“
after
we nearly blew the case searching without one.”
Noah wasn’t going to let that comment stand. “We had the express
written
permission of the manager to search that apartment, and the general warrant for James’s residence covered our subsequent searches.”
“As soon as you found the first hidden compartment you should have sealed the room and contacted me.”
Stein wasn’t budging, but neither was Noah. “We didn’t know what was in there until we found it.”
“If this case gets blown because of an illegal search, I’ll have your badge.”
Slater put up his hands. “No one is stripping badges. Precedent allows management to give access, and we got the warrant before a full and complete search. There was no fishing on this one, it’s a gray area, but the law is on our side.”
“I want Crowley. We have to do this right,” Stein said.
“If Wendy James was making sex tapes, that opens up a whole array of possible suspects,” Noah said.
“Who? We have no evidence of other affairs, other than Congressman Bristow who, by the way, has also lawyered up.” Stein was turning red in frustration.
Hans spoke up. “I think we’re all missing an important component here. Did Ms. James clear out the apartment? Was she the only one who used it?”
Slater asked, “Where are we with the rentals?”
Miriam spoke up. “The last lease was for one week, the governor of Oregon. That was over a month ago. Before that was ten days for an environmental protection organization that was lobbying Congress, before that a one-month stay, the wife of an alternative energy executive, then a long dry period. In February, a union representative stayed for two weeks. I’m digging deeper, seeing if any of them had meetings with Congressman Crowley or Congressman Bristow. We should send agents to interview each of them, none are local.”
“Miriam,” Slater said, “contact each local agency and brief them. We need the interviews stat.”
Hans said, “Tell them to go in easy, no hint that we think they were recorded. I suspect if they were being blackmailed, as soon as the Park Way apartment is mentioned they’ll show signs of distress. Tell them to be on the lookout for not only the standard signs, but subtle clues. Anyone who acts suspicious or nervous, we’ll look at harder.”
“But Crowley’s the one who’s sitting in Congress and admitted to having an affair with her!” Stein exclaimed. “It all comes back to him.”
“Who tipped off the media?” Hans asked. “Maybe Wendy tried to blackmail him and he didn’t bite, so she released the photographs.”
“The pictures weren’t taken in seven-ten,” Miriam said. “We believe they were taken at a local hotel, and we’re working on finding the exact location.”