Page 50 of Girl, Entangled

‘The field from last night. So she goes missing in one state and turns up dismembered in another, and the second that line gets crossed it stops being a county murder and becomes a federal case. Ours, in theory, though it was years before my time. Do you remember it?’

‘I can’t say I do, but back then I wouldn’t have worked an isolated homicide no matter how violent. We were still the BAU back then, not whatever Vernon calls us now.’

‘Right. So, the first man they look at is Billy Hayes. Hayes knew her, the file won’t say how, and he was placed near the recovery site by a witness. They bring him in twice. They let him go twice. No forensics on him.’

‘Okay.’

‘And then they find Greaves. Forensic recovery, the file says. DNA and a recovered implement, tied to Thomas Greaves. They charge him, and here’s where Jennifer Darling walks in. She’s a first-term councilwoman, and she takes this case, and she builds a career on it. Mary Monroe becomes her cause. And the thing she fights for, the thing she stands at a lectern and demands, is that Greaves be charged federally instead of left to the state, because Maryland’s got no death penalty and the District’s got no death penalty, but the federal government does.’ Ella stopped. ‘She wanted him executed. There was no legal road to a needle for him until somebody made one, and she made it. She got him charged federal, he got convicted, he got the death sentence, and a week after he reached Terre Haute they put him down.’

Ripley blew out a breath. ‘And the field gets a bench. End of story.’

‘The field gets a bench. Darling reseeds it, keeps it as open ground, unveils a plaque to Mary Monroe under the oak. The campaign that made her career, sewn up with a nice memorial.’ Ella sat on the edge of the desk. ‘So now look at the three of them. Hayes, the suspect they let walk. Darling, the woman who made sure the real one died. Brennan, the loudmouth who held the whole thing up four years later as the model of justice done right. They don’t connect. There’s no thread between Billy Hayes and a councilwoman and an internet shock-jock and I’ve spent two days proving there isn’t. They connect to one thing. Greaves. Every single one of them had a hand in either catching him, killing him, or celebrating it.’

‘Somebody’s working through the list, in order, in the old ways. Hanging, beheading, burning. He’s not avenging Mary Monroe. He’s avenging Thomas Greaves. He thinks Greaves was wronged. He thinks the people who put him on that table were the real criminals, and he’s executing them the way the state executed his man. The execution isn’t a costume. It’s the whole point. He’s giving them back exactly what they gave Greaves.’

‘Except Greaves is dead,’ Ripley said.

‘Yes, he is, unless he slipped out of the death chamber somehow.’

‘There’s no back door out of the death chamber, Dark. Not in Terre Haute, anyway. I’ve seen it. We could always dig up his corpse just to check.’

‘Yeah right. All of this just means it’s not Thomas Greaves, or his ghost. It’s someone who looks – bizarrely – just like him. At least in terms of height and build. Greaves was six-eight according to his record.’

Ripley asked, ‘Has Greaves got any brothers? Half-brothers? Maybe his dad?’

‘No siblings. Both of his parents have passed.’

‘So we need to talk to someone who knew Greaves in real life. What about the officers at MCI Jessup?’

Ella thought back to two days ago, when she’d seen the door to Thomas Greaves’s cell. One of the other prisoners had scrawled DEAD MAN WALKING on it. Ella was only now realizing that Billy Hayes and Thomas Greaves – suspect and guilty party in the same crime – were ten feet apart from each other.

Ella was already reaching for the phone. The number for the shift desk at MCI Jessup had stayed in her recent dial. The line picked up on the third ring.

‘Good morning, MCI Jessup.’

‘Hi, it’s Agent Ella Dark with the FBI. I need to speak to Roy Kowalczyk, please. I was with him two nights ago. He should remember me.’

‘Hold the line, please.’

Ella held.

‘What did you say that for?’ Ripley asked.

‘Say what?’

‘That you were with him two nights ago. It makes you sound like his mistress.’

Someone picked up. ‘Maryland DPSCS, Jessup. Kowalczyk speaking.’

‘Roy, it’s Agent Dark. We spoke about Billy Hayes.’

‘Agent Dark. Twice in a week. I’ve been promoted. What can I do for you?’

‘Sorry to do this to you so early. I need to talk to you about Thomas Greaves.’

There was a pause down the line. ‘Ah yes. Greaves. Old Greave Digger, as we called him. Didn’t I mention him to you?’

‘Yes, but I need more. As much as you can remember.’