Page 39 of Go Alone

“Yes.” She drummed her fingers on the table, then got abruptly to her feet. “We can have CSI take the scene now. I want to get the property records for this lot.”

“What was the rest of the cipher?” Marcus asked.

“What?”

“The rest of the cipher. What was it.”

Kate blinked. “Just the usual stuff. The commandment, a verse explaining the specific nature of this victim’s crime, in this case Deuteronomy 19:14, and then the killer’s rant. ‘Brannigan used the law to manipulate possession away from the rightful owners. He cheapened a valid claim and trumped up a worthless one. He now goes to the grave as poor as he was when he entered this world.’”

Marcus nodded. “Nothing else?”

Kate’s brow furrowed. “No.”

Marcus stared at her. Kate stared back. After several seconds, Marcus said, “Right. Okay. Let’s go meet up with Anita and see what we can learn.” He frowned. “What’s been taking her so long anyway?”

As though reading his mind, the door to the conference room opened, and Anita stepped in. She flinched when she saw the body, then sighed. “Jesus Christ. Poor guy.”

“CSI’s going to look at the scene, then we’ll get the coroner to take him out of here,” Kate said. “We’re just about out of here ourselves. What did you learn from the dental office?”

Anita sighed heavily. “Well, our guy was here.”

Marcus’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Yeah, the dental assistant told me. She said she got here around four to take care of some paperwork she was behind on so she didn’t have that hanging over her head while she was on vacation. She was just wrapping up when I showed up and told her about the murder.”

“She didn’t figure that out with the police cars and news vans?”

“She was at the reception desk. It faces the interior of the building, so she didn’t see anyone show up. I guess Gahanna PD didn’t think to take a peek into the dental office.”

“When did she see the suspect?” Kate asked.

"According to the dental assistant, he was in the lobby when she arrived. He asked for directions to the airport. I asked her if she'd seen anyone suspicious, and she said she wasn't sure, then gave me a description of a rough-looking guy of around forty, soft around the middle but with broad shoulders and what she described as 'creepy blue eyes.' She assumed he was homeless, but he seemed nice despite the eyes. Very soft-spoken and proper. He called her ma'am and tipped his hat when he thanked her."

Marcus sighed. “Shit. She saw him right after he finished committing the murder.”

“More likely after he finished staging the body,” Kate said. “Dennis said Raymond was never at the office that early. My guess is he was killed elsewhere and the killer brought him here.”

“She didn’t think to wonder what the hell he was doing here at four in the goddamned morning?”

“Nope,” Anita said, her clipped tone expressing her frustration in a more subdued manner than Marcus’s curse.

“What color was his hair?” Kate asked. “When he tipped his hat, she saw his hair. What color was it?”

“Blond,” Anita said. “So we can add that to the description.”

“Call the airport,” Marcus said. “Maybe he’s still there.”

“I don’t think he’s going to the airport,” Kate said. “I don’t think he was planning on seeing anyone else, and he just came up with a question on the fly.”

“Call them anyway,” Marcus insisted.

He put his hands on top of his head and started pacing around the room, stopping when the pacing brought him next to Raymond Brannigan’s body. “Let’s get out of here and let CSI finish their job and then get Raymond out of here.”

“I’ll call the airport,” Anita said.

Marcus and Kate followed her out of the conference room and out of the twenty-second floor of the office tower. The reporters had left sometime over the past hour, apparently accepting that they weren’t going to get a close look at anything yet.

Their killer was here. The dental assistant saw him. She was minutes away from catching him in the act. They were so damned close.