Joan Pickart - Body of Evidence

“This place is as cold as his eyes,” Darien had said, and Colin couldn’t argue with her.

They’d found two computers, one laptop and one desktop, and confiscated them both to be inspected in depth at the station. And now that she knew how they’d been hidden, Darien was able to find and decode the files in relatively short order once they got them there.

“Got it,” she said, and Colin saw the same change from garbled text to a match for the files they’d pulled from Gardner ’s computer.

“Looks like we’ll need to go chat with Mr. Reicher again.”

Colin stood up, but before he could reach for his coat Darien said, “Wait a second. There’s more here.”

“More? More on the list?”

“No. Another file. Hang on…”

He waited, knowing she’d tell him when she could.

“There. Dates and times and some sort of abbreviations.”

He leaned in to look over her shoulder. He studied the new list she’d uncovered for a moment, but it didn’t mean anything to him. A couple of the abbreviations seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place them. After a few fruitless minutes, he walked to a cubicle across the aisle and up one.

“Palmer? Can you come here and take a look at something?”

The man lumbered over. If he noticed Darien pulled back so there was no way they could even brush, he didn’t say anything.

He looked at the new list. “I don’t know. Doesn’t mean anything to me. Unless there were events scheduled at each place on those days. I could check, if you want.”

Colin stared at the detective and asked carefully, “Each place? What places?”

Palmer gestured at the third column in the list. “Those. You know, Safe Haven, Laurel House, Lakeshore.”

“Of course!” Colin exclaimed. “That’s why those abbreviations seemed familiar.”

“What are they?” Darien asked.

“They’re halfway houses and shelters for runaways.”

It didn’t take her long to figure it out. Colin saw her eyes widen as it hit her. “That’s where they…went shopping?”

“Let’s just say when we correlate this list with the other list and the missing persons reports, and check with those agencies, I won’t be surprised if there’s yet another series of connections,” Colin said.

“ Gardner was on the board of the charity that funded three of these,” Palmer contributed, and Colin knew they had yet another nail in Reicher’s coffin.

Within an hour of concerted effort, they knew he was right. Everything matched. Phone calls to the shelters and halfway houses verified the last facet of his guess.

“I think we’ve got it,” Colin said. “Thanks to Darien,” he added. The words were for her, but he was looking at Palmer, who had the grace to look abashed.

“So Gardner did the shopping, off this list, at these halfway houses and shelters, sent the list to Reicher, who arranged the kidnappings?” Darien asked.

“Probably helped deliver them to the buyer,” Colin said.

“And I’m supposed to be sorry he’s dead?” she asked.

Colin and Palmer gave her a startled look. “Ah,” Colin said. “Under that beautiful exterior beats a justice-craving heart.”

Darien stared at him, so intently he felt nonplussed.

“You going to go get him?” Palmer asked.

Colin shook off the odd sensation Darien ’s steady gaze had given him.

“That we are,” he said.

“T his is an outrage!”

“You’re right about that,” Darien said, her voice cold. “Did you figure you could get away with it because nobody cared about those kids?”

She’d been stunned when, after discussing interrogation strategy, Colin had told her to go ahead and start the questioning. She’d asked why, and he’d told her she was just angry enough to face Reicher down.

“I’ll step in when the time’s right,” he said.

So, quashing the nerves that were making her stomach jump, she had begun.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Reicher snapped now. “I’ve taken all the insults I’m going to take. I demand to see my lawyer.”

“Your request has been noted. You’ll get your call as soon as a line is free.”

She saw him glance at the phone on the interview room desk. All the buttons were indeed lit or flashing. They’d made sure of that.

“In the meantime,” she said, “you might want to figure out how you’re going to explain this.”

She tossed the printout of the list on the table in front of him. He glanced at it, and she had the extreme satisfaction of seeing him pale visibly beneath his carefully maintained tan. His gaze flicked up to her face, and she saw a trace of apprehension in those cold, crocodile eyes.

“Where did you get that?”

Not what is it, she noted, satisfaction flowing through her again.

“Right off your hard drive, unedited and uncut.”

“How dare you?” he sputtered.

“Oh, with a warrant, Desmond.” She used his first time intentionally, almost insultingly. “Rest assured, the legal system is already fully engaged.”

“You can’t prove a thing. My attorneys will make a hash out of your warrant. And then I’ll slap this department with the biggest lawsuit it’s ever seen. Anybody could have put that on my computer.”

“Interesting. Your staff told us you were paranoid about it, that no one was allowed to touch that computer, or even clean the room it was in unless you were physically present.”

Reicher muttered something under his breath, and Darien doubted any of that staff would be employed by Reicher much longer. But she also guessed none of them would be particularly upset about that fact.

“Was it really worth it? You can’t need the money, so was it for kicks? The thrill? Or just the pure joy of putting a few more women in their place?”

“Someone should put you in yours,” he snapped.

She lifted a brow at him, and he flushed, as if realizing he’d betrayed something he should have kept hidden.

“My place,” she said softly, leaning over the table to invade his space, “is to make sure you go to jail, where no one will care how rich you are, for a very, very long time.”

“That will never happen,” Reicher said. “You’ll never prove I had anything to do with those women disappearing.”

“Who cares?” Colin asked, speaking for the first time.

“What?” Reicher said, clearly startled.

“That’s just our reason to hold you until we gather up the last bit of evidence for the big one.”

Reicher frowned. “The big one…what?”

“We know when and how you did it, but what we don’t know is why. Did he want out, maybe, cutting off the flow of easy cash? Did he develop a conscience, threaten to go clean, maybe confess?”

Reicher looked puzzled, and Darien thought it seemed real. “What are you talking about?” the man asked, in an entirely different tone than he’d used when he’d said similar words before.

“Nice try, Desmond,” Colin said, using his name familiarly just as Darien had; the man was used to more respect than this, and with his ego, not getting it could only add to his anger, which might make him make a fatal mistake. “If I didn’t have all this evidence, I might even believe you didn’t do it.”

“Whatever evidence you think you have, my lawyers will tear to pieces. I had nothing to do with those women.”

“And it won’t matter, when you go on trial for murder,” Colin said flatly.

“Murder?” Reicher’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute…you think I killed Franklin?”

He looked so astonished Darien found herself thinking, I almost believe him.

“Are you crazy? Why would I do that?”

“I think I gave you some possible reasons,” Darien said.