“The time frame is what concerns me. It feels rushed. A shortened cooldown period suggests escalation and could indicate he or she is getting impatient or they’re losing control.”
I glanced over my shoulder to confirm my sergeant wasn’t in—she rarely showed her face on weekends. Lowering my voice, I said, “You’re not listening. If they have an agenda, for all we know, he or she is finished. Boom, boom, boom. This may not be serial at all if it’s vengeance for a wrongdoing.”
“You’re hung up on those girls Yates talked about.”
“Why not? It makes sense.”
Rue looked ready to object, so I capitulated, motioning to the computer screen and the highlighted section of the map she’d blown up. “You’re right, though. This one was risky. It might be dark at six thirty in December, but that’s not a nature trail or a park. Anyone could have witnessed it.”
“Unfortunately, a majority of the students have gone home for the holiday, so it was quieter than usual.”
“Our killer knew this, too.”
“My guess is, Ford was harder to get alone. His mother claimed he was a homebody. He worked, attended therapy, and stayed in his bedroom. His walks to and from these locations were our perp’s best bet.”
“So maybe it has nothing to do with escalation and more to do with opportunity.”
My partner leaned back in her chair and tossed the pen she’d been gnawing on the desk. “Anything from Fatemeh?”
“You mean besides caustic words and threats to rip my balls off?”
“I hope you played nice.”
“Not exactly, but she wasn’t winning awards for her behavior either.”
“Kobe—”
“Hear me out before you tear me to shreds. First, she made a plausible connection between Navid and Jesse.”
I explained about the drugs, how Navid procured his own stash for personal reasons, how it wasn’t outside the realm of possibilities that he might be providing Jesse with opioids or roofies or whatever the fuck he wanted to sell on campus. Then, I told Rue about my trip to the college to chat with Buckley.
“She lied to me, Rue. Fatemeh told me that after the divorce, she only spoke to Navid when he was late with her alimony, but according to Buckley, she made quite a scene when she found out her ex voted in favor of Jesse staying in school. That woman made a few pointed and caustic remarks about men during our conversation, too, and as much as I’m sure you’d like to think it was all aimed at me, I didn’t get that vibe. She knew about Jesse’s reputation from a colleague whose daughter went to school with him. I didn’t imagine her disgust. It was real. She’s a boiling pot of oil.”
Rue studied me, her expression giving nothing away. Her earlier anger seemed to have simmered, but I waited, letting her decide our next move.
“Are you suggesting we bring Fatemeh in for formal questioning?”
“I’d like to know if she has an alibi for when the two younger men were killed. We know she didn’t have one for Navid’s murder. Our puzzle pieces are scattered, Rue, but this womanhas a lot of ticks against her. I wouldn’t mind clearing them up. Not gonna lie, as a proud testicle owner, she makes me nervous.”
Rue almost smirked. “Aw, poor Kobe. Does she scare you?”
“That woman is fucking jacked. Have you looked at her? She could lay me out without breaking a sweat.”
“Huh. Imagine that. A woman taking down a man twice her size without blinking. How could that be possible?”
“Don’t be a brat. Besides, what other suspects do we have?”
“Gaining Fatemeh’s cooperation may not be easy. We don’t have anything solid on her, so we can’t make a formal arrest. The best we can do is ask her where she was at the time of all three murders.”
I whimpered. “Please don’t make me be the one to talk to her again.”
Rue patted my cheek as she stood. “Mama will take care of it, sweetie. There’s a mountain of surveillance videos to go through and phone calls to make. I’m sure you can keep yourself busy while I’m gone.”
By midafternoon, Rue was en route to Hôpital Montfort for an unscheduled rendezvous with Fatemeh Kordestani—hopefully she was still there—while I made phone calls to a few of Jesse’s known cohorts. Reviewing video surveillance was the bane of my existence, so I left it for later.
On a Saturday this close to Christmas, luck was not on my side. Everyone on the list was out of town or not answering their phone. It didn’t help that Jesse was a social butterfly. The list of acquaintances we’d compiled was long and daunting.
Rue returned several hours later and dropped onto the seat at her desk, seeming irritable—or rather, irritable for Rue.
