Chapter Twenty-Five
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Zach was enjoying a slice of apple pie after his cheeseburger when he received an email from Jared. The other partner in the firm had been burning up his laptop trying to find out all the minute details for each victim.
“Jared just sent me the preliminary report on Darrell.”
“And?” Leann prompted. “What does he say?”
“It does appear that Darrell was seeing a woman but he can’t tell who it was. Yet. There were out of town hotel rooms, purchases of wine and flowers, even condoms.”
“So this woman might know who killed Darrell?” Dizzy asked.
“She might,” Zach conceded. “He may have mentioned something or someone to her.”
“Pillow talk,” Jason echoed. “Men will reveal all sorts of secrets when they aren’t thinking straight.”
“Which is most of the time,” laughed Logan. “Does Jared say anything about Darrell’s phone call history? That might give us a clue.”
Scanning the report on his phone, Zach nodded. “Mostly just the people you would expect. His ex-wife, his ranch suppliers, his sister in San Francisco, but there is one number that he called quite a bit this last month. A throw-away cell phone. Now isn’t that interesting?”
Darrell Madison moved up several notches on Zach’s suspect list. He hadn’t been convinced before but this one item pushed him toward that conclusion.
Logan’s fingers tapped the surface of the table. “So let’s see what we have here… Darrell has a girlfriend. A girlfriend, according to our Jared, that he never calls. Could she be behind the untraceable cell phone? And why would she have one?”
Dizzy frowned. “Maybe she’s married.”
“That’s how I’d do it if I was cheating on my husband,” Leann agreed. “I’d keep everything separate. Calls, credit card charges. I’d go to an out-of-town motel too, just like Darrell did. Remember, he was already separated from his wife so he didn’t need to sneak around.”
“Or this person just doesn’t like cell phone contracts,” Jason cut in. “It doesn’t have to be nefarious. It could be completely innocent. I’m not saying it is, but it could be. I just don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves.”
Logan chuckled and took another bite of his pie. “Hell of a coincidence. What else do we know? Darrell was shot by someone he trusted. Someone he wasn’t afraid of, presumably from the crime scene. And since he was shot, he could have been killed by a man or a woman.”
“But Bitty had to have been killed by a man,” Zach pointed out. “A woman couldn’t have subdued her so easily. There was barely a struggle.”
“And Carole,” Jason said, tapping his fork against his plate. “She was killed by a tire iron to the head. That says male to me.”
“Wasn’t Carole drugged?” Leann queried, her brows pinched together. “If she could barely stand she would have been an easy target, man or woman.”
Zach nodded in agreement. “And once again, she had to have trusted her attacker because why else would she go behind the bar into that dark parking lot unless she did?”
Leaning forward, Dizzy placed her iced tea glass down on the table. “I think it was a woman. I wouldn’t go out someplace dark with a man I only kind of knew. An acquaintance. He’d have to be either my father, husband, boyfriend, or someone I’d known for years. But a woman? I doubt I’d think twice about it, but of course now that I’ve said this I certainly will. My new motto is trust no one.”
Dizzy made a compelling argument. A woman who was woozy and drugged would trust another female far more easily than she would a man.
“What about Drew’s murder?” Leann asked. “Man or woman?”
Stroking his chin, Zach pondered the question. “There was little sign of struggle and only a few defensive wounds. I believe Marshall was taken by surprise. He wasn’t subdued in any way and the killer was close to him to be able to do this. Really close. Marshall trusted them. So I guess you could say it could have been either one.”
“It could have been someone from the party,” Dizzy said. “Who had opportunity?”
Zach had been all through this part. “Lots of people, but opportunity is only one part of the equation. After killing Marshall, the murderer would have been covered in arterial spray. No way he or she could stroll back into the party clean and tidy. He’d either have to leave the building immediately or have a supply of clothes stashed somewhere to change into, and we looked for bloody clothes in every dumpster for a ten block radius. Of course, he or she could have taken their clothes with them.”
Logan signaled the waitress for a coffee refill. “Then let’s go with the theory that he or she had to leave immediately. Is there a back door they could have snuck out so they didn’t see anybody?”
“Yes,” Zach replied, running images of the hotel through his mind. “He could have exited by a back door and driven away. If we ever find Darrell Madison’s truck we can test it for blood.”
Jason’s gaze darted around the table. “So are we saying we think there could be two murderers working together? A man and a woman?”
“Wait,” Leann said. “You think that Darrell and an unknown woman did these murders? And then she killed Darrell? Why would she do this? What’s her motivation? And why kill her partner in crime?”
“It’s possible. Maybe she’s another female from the reunion,” Zach replied. “And this was some sort of revenge plot for their lives not working out the way they planned. As for why she killed Madison? Perhaps he was having second thoughts or maybe that was the plan all along. Confuse the cops with murders that could only be done by a man and then kill the patsy. Darrell Madison takes the blame.”
Dizzy blew out a slow breath. “Except my home was broken into after Darrell’s body was found. That means she – or he – isn’t done, right? The unknown gender killer has another name on the list.”
“This is whole bunch of conjecture,” Leann observed. “And not a lot of evidence. As Jason said the cell phone could be a complete coincidence, and his girlfriend knew nothing about what he was doing. Or not doing. We don’t even know for sure that he was involved in the murders. We only think he was.”
Too many questions and few answers.
“We know what to do now,” Logan said. “We go back to the beginning and review everything. Somewhere the killer, or killers plural, left a clue. But one thing is for sure, if Darrell was involved, he wasn’t alone. We know that because of Dizzy’s break-in. Unless you believe in coincidences, which I don’t. Not for a second. I’ll add this as well. Whoever did break into Dizzy’s place…they’re an amateur. A pro wouldn’t have made so many rookie mistakes. I don’t think we need to go looking for previous murders that don’t seem connected to these. This person has had some luck on their side but that always runs out.”
The group finished their desserts quietly, all of them ruminating on the theories they’d discussed. Zach was frustrated but Logan was correct. This was exactly the right time to go back and review everything, especially now that they had some context after Dizzy’s break-in.
They all left the diner and headed for the vehicles but Zach held Logan back for a moment.
“Thanks for looking after Dizzy. Jason had other ideas.”
Logan looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Giving Jason shit is what I live for. He told me his plan and why, by the way. I mentioned it to my wife Ava and she hit the ceiling. Lectured me that Jason shouldn’t be trying to manipulate his sister like that. She was so upset I had to remind her that I wasn’t the one doing it. Anyway, I agree with her and think Jason is being a pain in the ass. Leann seems happy staying with you and just the little that I’ve talked to Dizzy, I can tell she’s going to be fun to protect.”
Zach shook his head. “This case is…”
“Yep, I can see that. We’ll go over all of the evidence again. We’ll find something. But there is something I think we should do. Might be too late to do it today but maybe tomorrow morning.”
“I think I know what you’re going to say. We need to go to that motel and see if we can get an identification on the female.”
Logan grinned. “Bingo. Do we have photos from the reunion? We could take the desk clerk pictures of the women.”
“We do,” Zach confirmed. “In the meantime let’s hope ballistics tells us something. I’m tired of coming up empty everywhere we turn.”
Hopefully, Logan was right. The killer’s luck was bound to run out eventually.