“Yes. She was cheerful as usual. The only thing she ever worried about was her parents discovering she was dancing. They didn’t approve.”
Evan hoped they never had to find out. What would be the point of their being disappointed now? “Did she ever bring a friend or boyfriend here?”
“No. She was very professional in her approach to teaching and took it seriously.” Alicia bent down to unbuckle shiny black shoes.
“I need a list of students enrolled in her classes,” Kiley said.
“Sure, but, well...” She slipped off her shoe and looked up. “You won’t contact them, will you? I mean, I’m barely making ends meet here, and I couldn’t afford a scandal.”
“We’ll have to talk to them, but we’ll make sure they know Firuzeh’s death had nothing to do with your school.”
“Thank you.” Alicia attacked the other buckle, jerking it hard. “Seriously, thank you. If you follow me, I’ll print out a roster.”
She pushed off the shoe, leaving the pair lying on the floor, and ran from the room, her bare feet thumping on the wood flooring, the pitch deepening when she hit the hallway tile. Her office was filled with racks stuffed to overflowing with a rainbow of costumes, and stacks of papers covered her desk. She sat behind her computer, and Kiley tapped her foot as if she wanted to move the woman faster.
The printer soon whirred to life, and Alicia handed the page to Kiley. Evan got a quick look at fifteen names, all female. Hopefully Firuzeh confided something in one of the women, and they would shed more light on her last days.
“Can you think of anyone who might want to harm Firuzeh?” Kiley asked as she folded the list and shoved it in her back pocket.
“No ... definitely not. She’s been coming here for years,taking classes before she started teaching. She never fell out with anyone. Or even had an argument. She was just a genuinely nice, happy person.” Tears glistened in Alicia’s eyes. “I’m going to miss her.”
Kiley looked like she might be tearing up as she handed over her business card. “Call me if you think of anything.”
They left Alicia behind and stepped into the cool night. Kiley stood staring ahead. The bright city lights against the dark sky, reflecting off the Potomac, made a striking landscape. He could easily imagine being on a date with her in the moonlit night, but he doubted she was even seeing the sparkle. He knew she was thinking about finding that breaking lead.
“What’s next?” he asked.
She jumped.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I want to review Firuzeh’s journals.” She dug out the keys to the Escalade. “They’ll need to be processed for prints and DNA first. Let me call someone to meet us at the office so we don’t waste any time.” She hurried to the vehicle and climbed behind the wheel.
Evan slid in and held up Waleed’s cup. “Can they run DNA on this too?”
“Yes. And good thinking on taking it, by the way.” She made a call and held an enthusiastic conversation with a forensic tech before starting the SUV. “Once they finish processing the journals, you can copy them while I run an ALPR search on Waleed’s vehicles.”
Evan knew all about Automated License Plate Readers—cameras mounted on police cars and sometimes fixed locations to record license plates as vehicles passed. Once recorded, ALPR footage was run against a database known as a hot list containing information on potentially stolen cars or ones linked to criminal offenses or terrorist acts. Hopefully they could use the database to track Waleed’s movements the night of Firuzeh’s murder.
“Does D.C. have many plate readers?” he asked.
She maneuvered the vehicle out of the parking space. “A pretty good network. On police cars, like many cities, and on fixed poles too. I read once that the local cameras record up to eighteen hundred plates per minute, catching cars driving up to a hundred miles per hour.”
He let out a low whistle. “Impressive number.”
“Impressive, yes, but in our case only helpful if it captured one of Waleed’s vehicles near the mall.”
Her phone rang, and she accepted the call. “Agent Dawson.”
“Quinn here.” The agent’s deep voice thundered through the car’s speaker.
“Agent Bowers is with me, and you’re on speaker,” Kiley told him.
“Our suspects were caught on video outside a gas station. Facial recognition ID’d them as Bilal and Gadi Amari. I’ll email the video to you.”
Kiley shot Evan a questioning look and whispered, “Know them?”
Evan shook his head.
