Allison Brennan - Silenced

Lucy recognized the victim, who was the tallest of the three, but not the other two girls. One was in her early twenties, but the other was definitely younger, with the awkward movements of a young teen who had recently grown. Thirteen? Fourteen?

Genie said, “We’ll take the best head shots of the girls and distribute them widely so we can ID them quickly. We’ll send them to your cell phones to show witnesses. We need to know who these girls are, so we’re doing a complete canvass of the hotel and nearby restaurants.”

Wright flipped to the hotel system. The feed was much clearer than in the garage, and in color instead of black-and-white.

“The girls went to the room with Mrs. Taylor, and until last night, none of them left.”

“Do you notice that each of the girls has a backpack,” Lucy said, “but Jocelyn Taylor has no luggage?”

“She left Tuesday afternoon and returned a few hours later with shopping bags. Then she left and didn’t return until Wednesday afternoon.”

“So she wasn’t staying here,” Genie said.

“Doesn’t appear that she was,” Wright said. “On Wednesday evening she left the room, met her husband in the lobby. They walked out-didn’t take their vehicles-and came back nearly two hours later with carryout from a nearby restaurant.”

Taback said, “CSU found a receipt in the room for two meals eaten at the restaurant, and a large carryout order charged separately. We didn’t find any food bags, only one half-eaten container.”

“At ten thirty P.M., approximately thirty minutes after the Taylors returned, the brunette and the blonde left,” Wright continued. “You can see they’re each carrying a backpack and the younger teen has the food. They went to the garage, and footage shows them leaving in Jocelyn’s car.”

“Do we know that the Taylors were alive at that point?” Lucy asked.

“Chris Taylor made two phone calls between ten thirty and eleven P.M., and we’re tracing them now,” Genie said. He also called down to the desk asking for a six A.M. wake-up call. The hotel rang three times, ten minutes apart, and there was no answer.”

“Did they find the bodies then?”

“No,” Wright said. “Housekeeping found the bodies just after eight this morning. Last night, Taylor left the room at eleven fifteen and went to the garage, removed a suitcase from his car, and shortly after that, the main hotel security went down until twelve-oh-three A.M.”

“Jammed,” Lucy said when she saw the fuzz on the screen. “It was jammed-very easy to do with wireless. The hotel is on wireless, correct?”

The security chief nodded. “The garage is hardwired, but the hotel security cameras were upgraded to a secure wireless network.”

“Not very secure,” Taback muttered.

Lucy glanced around and wished Noah had arrived. She’d called him right when she got the call from Genie. He was in the middle of a meeting, but said he’d be over as soon as he could.

“We called our IT department and they were working on the problem when it resolved itself,” Wright said. “We’ve had some glitches with the system, but it had never been down for this long before, hotel-wide.”

“We need copies of film from all security cameras in the immediate area,” Genie said. “Two-block radius.”

Taback nodded. “We’ll get it.”

Lucy said, “Downed network, master pass key, killer who showers after killing three people? I think we’re dealing with a professional. Premeditated, planned attack.”

“There’s more,” Wright said. He fast-forwarded the tape. “We get visual shortly after midnight. At one forty-five A.M., one of the two girls returns.”

Lucy watched as the brunette parked in the garage. “Is the other girl in the car?”

“Negative,” Wright said. “We have a camera at the entrance and unless she was lying down in the backseat, she wasn’t there.”

The brunette had a backpack and went in the elevator. “After hours, all floors are locked unless you have a room key,” Wright said. “She used the room key to access the sixth floor. Seven minutes later, she’s back in the garage.” While he spoke, he fast-forwarded through the film until they could see the brunette exiting. Though the film wasn’t sharp, it was obvious the young woman was in distress. She left the garage in Jocelyn Taylor’s car.

“She’s not a suspect,” Genie said, “but she’s definitely a person of interest. Why didn’t she report the crime? What happened to the teenager? Who are these girls? How are these murders connected to Nicole Bellows at the Red Light?”

“They’re connected?” Taback asked.

“I see a lot of homicides each week, but rarely does the killer leave a message. Two messages in two days?”

Three messages. But Lucy didn’t say anything. She had to run her theory by Noah first. She wasn’t going to overstep her place again.

But it all made sense. The hidden room. The prostitutes. Whore implied prostitute. Slut would have been more appropriate for a promiscuous young woman as Wendy appeared to be on the surface.

What if the three murders were connected because the girls all knew each other?

There was one easy way to find out. Go back to Nicole’s previous residence and show pictures of the other victims and find out from Cora Fox who had gotten Nicole out of the slums.

“Kincaid, ready for a road trip? Let’s talk to the people who knew the Taylors best, starting with their employers.”

“Detective.” One of the CSU investigators stepped into the cramped room.

Genie said to Lucy, “Meet me in the lobby.” To everyone else, she ordered, “Get to work, people. You know what to do.”

Lucy took the opportunity to call Noah.

“Armstrong,” he answered brusquely.

“It’s Lucy. I’m still at the Hotel Potomac. Genie and I are going to interview the victims’ employers.”

“Good. I don’t need a blow-by-blow, you’re in good hands with Detective Reid.”

“The male victim is chief of staff to Congressman Hartline.”

“Call me if anything comes of it, or e-mail a status report. You wanted to work this case, work it. You don’t need me to babysit you.”

“No, but-”

“Lucy, do you have a question?”

“No.” She bit her lip. She was trying to be diligent. She wasn’t an agent-as she’d been reminded countless times in the last three days-and she didn’t want to screw this up.

“I have to brief Assistant Director Stockton in ten minutes. Since Wendy James’s identity has been plastered all over the news, the media has been doing our case more damage than good with their speculation. Stockton is going to give a statement and hopefully stop some of the leaks and misinformation.”

“I know you’re busy. I’m sorry. I’ll e-mail a report tonight.”

“Lucy-” Noah hesitated. He must have put his hand over the phone because she only heard muffled voices, then he came back on. “Sorry. Lucy, you don’t need me to hold your hand, okay? I wouldn’t have let you work with Genie if I didn’t think you were more than capable of handling this investigation.”

You don’t need me to babysit you.

You don’t need me to hold your hand.

He must think she was the neediest agent-in-training the Bureau had ever hired.

Lucy decided to take the compliment at face value and not read anything into it, otherwise she would be paralyzed into inaction.

“Thank you.” She hung up.

Genie crossed the lobby, her skin shiny with perspiration. She grabbed a tourist pamphlet off a rack near the registration desk and began fanning herself. “I swear, menopause in summer is God’s way of punishing me for the sins of my youth.”