The door opened suddenly, and two uniformed captains exited the office, followed by the sheriff.“Nancy, hold my calls for the next hour or so unless it’s an emergency.I’ve got a pounding headache.”
His secretary nodded, the phone’s receiver still held to her ear.She opened the top drawer of her desk and handed her boss a bottle of ibuprofen.Griffin grunted his thanks as he took it from her before turning to the three men waiting for him.“I was wondering when the damn press was going to come knocking.Come on in, guys.Join the party.”
Entering the office, they found another man sitting at the conference table.He stood as they approached, and Sean immediately recognized him as Jack Lynch’s father.
Griffin introduced all of them.“Brad Lynch, you already know Brian and Sean Malone, and this is Rafe Montoya, also from the SBI.”
The men all shook the detective’s hand, and then Brad grinned at Brian.“Hey, nice drug bust a few weeks ago.”
Sean knew he was referring to a huge bust that’d gone down that had included Brian, a team from the state police, and some DEA agents.They’d taken a million dollars worth of marijuana, cocaine, and ecstasy off the streets.
Brian nodded his thanks as Brad addressed Sean.“Good to see you again.It’s been a long time.”
He nodded.“At least five years.How’ve you been?”
“Good, good.Just got back from Jack’s wedding.”
“I heard.Give him my congratulations.”
“I will.”They all sat around the conference table.“Your Uncle Dan told me you were moving back here.”
“Took a post in Greenville to be closer to the family.”
“Yeah, he also told me KC and his wife are expecting.That’s great.”
From his seat at the head of the table, Sheriff Griffin cleared his throat.“Gentlemen, you can catch up with each other later.Let’s get through this so that I can get rid of you and this fucking headache at the same time.”
Brian tossed his notepad on the table in front of him.“How bad is the leak?”
Scowling, Matt ran a hand down his face.“I’m not sure.The press doesn’t seem to know many details, but somehow they got a hold of the victims’ names and where they were dumped.”
“Shit,” Montoya murmured.
That was putting it mildly.It was obvious from the sheriff’s expression and demeanor that when he found the leak, he was going to plug it… permanently.Whoever was spouting information was potentially putting a conviction in jeopardy if an arrest was ever made.“I agree.Anyway, let’s get this show on the road.Brad?”
The lead detective recapped for everyone what they knew about the first two murders.“Two months ago, Becky Travis, twenty-two, left a friend’s party after drinking almost half a bottle of vodka by herself.She apparently did a disappearing act on them without saying goodbye and was walking home, which was three blocks away.From what we can tell, she never made it.Two days later, she was found in an alley by sanitation workers in Kitty Hawk.Naked, with ligature strangulation, ‘slut’ carved into her torso, and a penny on her forehead.No witnesses.Videos from local businesses were scarce and revealed nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.
“Three weeks ago, Shannon Emerson, twenty-four, was at a bachelorette party at a place called The Toy Box in Elizabeth City.They have a male strip show at nine—get the girls all hot and bothered—then open the place up to men at ten thirty.Her friends never saw her leave.Apparently, everyone was pretty toasted and didn’t realize she was gone until around one a.m.She was supposed to be the ride home for two of the other women.Her car was still in the parking lot.”
“Any surveillance video?”Montoya asked.
Lynch shook his head.“The video from inside is black and white and very grainy.We were able to pick her out a few times, but she was still with her friends at that point.After it got crowded in there, it was hard to tell one person from another.The outside cameras hadn’t been working for weeks, and management hadn’t gotten around to fixing them.
“Anyway, the vic was found at the edge of a wooded area next to the soccer field of Manteo High School.The gardener was mowing the grass and spotted the body an hour before students started showing up, so we were able to isolate the area.Her condition was the same as the other one.No clothes were recovered from either scene, but from photos taken at both parties, the vics were dressed to impress.We checked out the ex-boyfriends on both women and didn’t come up with any leads.Neither one told family or friends about any stalkers or problems with anyone.And as far as we can tell, their lives didn’t intersect with each other.”
Sean took over from there, giving the two detectives the information on the latest homicide and what they’d uncovered about the victim so far.“It sounds like he’s going after blonde party girls.Daphne was all dressed up, too, according to her roommate.Also, no stalkers.Her last steady boyfriend was a year ago.It ended amicably when he moved to California for business.No other leads yet.It’s possible these women were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.Victims of opportunity.”
He paused, then added, “I’m curious about the dump sites.The first two were left in places where they would be found relatively fast.But Daphne was left in a wooded area.If it weren’t for the dogs, she wouldn’t have been easily spotted from the trail.It could mean something or absolutely nothing.”
Griffin reported that they still hadn’t located Stuart Crowell, but patrols were actively looking for him.
“What are the chances he’s our killer?”he asked, directing his question to the federal agent.
Flipping his hand in a “who knows” gesture, Sean frowned.“Slim.He doesn’t really fit the profile of a serial killer, but we have to rule him out.His print could have ended up on the penny anywhere.The other pennies had smudges, nothing to confirm he’d handled them.”Hank Cunningham had called him late yesterday afternoon with that information.The pennies hadn’t been cleaned with anything they could detect, either.
“So, where do we go from here?”Montoya asked.
Leaning forward, Brad rested his arms on the table.He was in charge of the task force, so he’d dole out the assignments.While usually a federal agent or at least a state investigator would be heading the team, both Sean and Brian were comfortable with ceding command to the man they’d known and respected for years.“We’ve got the surveillance tapes from Visions—I’ll review those with our video expert.Each camera angle is on a different disk, so it’ll take most of the day.”
