The footage of the dead body wasn’t the only thing on the flash drive. There had been financial documents, building sale information, as well as a file that made no sense and had me stumped.
“Looks like our man, Larson here, was into all sorts. And he’s never had so much as a speeding ticket. Money laundering, buildings that failed safety inspections but were somehow reported as up to code, dumping illegal waste, tenantintimidation so he could clear buildings quicker, knock them down and rebuild on the land.”
“Building more subpar buildings.”
“And probably burying a few more bodies. I mean, if he got away with it once, do you think he didn’t do it again?” I questioned.
Sean paused as he twisted his seat side to side, like the motion was helping slot all the puzzle pieces together. “Do you think the hit and run was deliberate or an accident that gave him a taste of what he could get away with?”
I didn’t answer because the question felt rhetorical; we had no idea what Larson’s motives were or whether he was working alone, and Sean wasn’t usually the type to speculate.
“What’s that?” He pointed to the corner of the screen where there was an image that didn’t fit with the other files I’d found on the flash drive.
“It’s a tarot card.”
Sean’s brows pinched. “Larson into that woo-woo shit?”
“Nope. We can tell from the timestamps that the other files were all copied onto the drive at the same time and probably from the same source. Not sure where yet, but Wren’s working on it. But this, this was added afterwards. From a laptop, although we don’t know much more than that.”
I clicked on the image, so it appeared on the wall of screens across from us.
“Is that a lobster?” Sean said with a huffed laugh.
“Yep.”
“Right, so we have a lobster and a couple of dogs gathering under a full moon.”
I clicked the mouse, bringing up the explanation of the card I’d found online, and we read in silence together, even though I knew what it said.
“End of a journey, your past reemerging… sounds like a calling card if ever I saw one. Why do these murderers have to be all cryptic? I prefer it when they just carve their name into the body. It makes them so much easier to find.” I scoffed, rolling my eyes, which brought a sigh from Sean. “What? I’m just being honest.”
“And in terms of Larson’s movements after the mayoral announcement,” I explained. “He went for a drive through coffee, then he came home. His camera doorbell doesn’t show anyone coming to the front door, but there is a sensor on his back door that went off just before he got home. I presumed it was the wife or one of the kids, but the police report says they were all out, although we still need to check their alibis, so it looks like whoever killed him was already in the house when he got home.
“Downloading evidence on him?”
“Nope.” I popped the P for added emphasis. “This all came from elsewhere. We’re looking into where exactly as we speak.”
“Neighbours hear a gunshot?” he asked.
“Not according to the police report.”
Sean stood, wrapping his hand around the nape of his neck as he began pacing. “So, we have a squeaky clean property developer who’s involved in a hit and run, buries the body in his building?—”
“Allegedly.”
“Allegedlyburied the body,” he muttered, sounding pissed at my correction. “Then he gets caught up in a whole heap of illegal stuff that he wasn’t doing before the hit and run?”
I shook my head. “No evidence on that drive of any wrongdoing before the hit and run.”
“So what? He got a taste of being a bad boy?”
I twisted my lips as I began clicking out of the files currently open on my screen. “Maybe? I don’t think we have enough onhim yet to profile him properly. Give me a couple more hours, and I’ll see what else we can find.”
“Good work, Roman. See if you can find anything on that tarot card. Any other crimes with the same signature. I have a funny feeling this won’t be a one off.”
“You wanna go for a drink?”Jarrid asked as I closed down my laptop. I turned to find him standing in the doorway, looking as miserable as I felt.
“Yeah, a beer sounds good.”
