Page 31 of Go Under

After all, she was his favorite.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It was well-past dark when the agents returned to the Philadelphia Field Office. Marcus started a fresh pot of coffee while Darnell outlined the information he’d received from the court. Kate sat at the table in the breakroom, left index finger tapping softly as she mulled over the case so far.

“When I told Judge Harmon that we had a third body, she finally relented and released the rest of the records,” Darnell told them. He didn’t sound triumphant so much as frustrated that it had taken three bodies—two of them related to the Avery case—to prompt action on her part. “Ray Castillo pointed out a series of footprints in an alley near the jewelry store. Police matched those to Daniel Avery’s shoes and presented that as evidence that he was inside the store and standing in front of Narek Tankian at the time of Tankian’s death. It proved instrumental in swaying the jury, as it was the strongest physical evidence the prosecution had.”

“Stronger than the blood on his sleeve?” Marcus asked.

“The blood was determined to belong to Mr. Avery,” Darnell said.

Marcus scoffed. “Wonderful.”

“So, Castillo was our witness?” Kate asked.

Darnell shook his head. “No. The eyewitness was a man named Stuart Pelham. I gave that information to one of our junior agents. Once he’s found, we’ll offer protection and alert his local police force of the danger to his life.”

“I want to talk to him, too,” Kate said.

“I’ll make sure to request an interview.”

“Don’t make it a request,” Kate said. “He could have information we need. We’re going to talk to him.”

“Understood.”

Marcus crossed his arms. “Donna Frick is still an outlier. That’s bothering me.”

“Me, too,” Kate said. “Darnell, has cybercrimes found anything on the victims’ computers?”

Darnell shook his head. “Nothing relevant to the case, no.”

“Hmm. And no indication that Donna Frick knew either Ray Castillo or Gerald Mace?”

“It appears she rarely used her computer,” Darnell said. “And no, there’s nothing to indicate that she knew either of the other victims.”

“You think the killer did it on purpose to throw us off?” Marcus asked. “To give themselves time to go after Ray?”

“I can’t imagine they’re that worried about us right now,” Kate said. “They’ve killed three people in three days. Combined with the anger in the handwriting of the ciphers and the gloating in the third cipher, I think they’re operating on emotion as much as they’re fulfilling a mission.”

“So, we do think they’re fulfilling a mission,” Darnell said.

“They are,” Kate confirmed. “Whether it’s Cox’s mission or a personal mission is still up in the air, but they’re definitely correcting violators of the ninth commandment.”

“Maybe the killer knew the Smiths,” Marcus suggested. “Maybe they’re killing people who hurt both Daniel Avery and the Smiths.”

“Hmm,” Kate mused. “That makes sense.”

“Maybe there’s a connection between Avery and the Smiths,” Darnell suggested.

“Could be,” Marcus agreed. “I can dig into that. I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight anyway, so I might as well have something to do.”

“I’ll continue to search for a connection to Elijah Cox,” Darnell offered. He looked at Kate. “If that’s all right with you.”

“That’s fine with me,” Kate said. “I want to get to the bottom of this cipher. In past Commandment Killing cases, the messages to me have usually indicated where Cox or his disciple intends to culminate their plan.”

Darnell frowned, but he didn’t push Kate for information on her relationship… Yeah, screw that word. Her connection—Cox’s obsession with her. Damn it, even that made her feel dirty.

Why me? she asked for the thousandth time. What does he see in me?