Karen Rose - I’m Watching You

Dunning licked his lips nervously. „About which? The affair or his being missing?“

„Both,“ Mia said.

„I don’t think she knows about Rosemary. Hillman would be broke if she did. And about his being missing, yeah, she knew. She called me herself, about eight. I…“

„You told her that he was somewhere else,“ Mia finished, annoyed.

„Yeah. Look, I came here of my own free will. Can I leave now?“

Abe handed him a notepad and a pencil. „First write down Rosemary’s name and number, your car description, license plate number. Then you can go.“ He gestured to Mia and together they left the room. Shutting the door behind them, Abe looked at Dunning through the window. „Hillman could be fine.“

„Mrs. Hillman could have done him in for having an affair,“ Mia said.

„But you don’t think so.“

„No more than you do.“ Mia scrubbed her cheeks with her palms. „Damn, I’m tired of this. I guess it’s back to Kristen’s list.“

Thursday, February 26,

8:00 A.M.

Their faces were grim, Kristen thought, looking around the table. They had a right to be. They were missing a judge. The press was in an uproar, the legal community even louder.

Spinnelli pressed his thumbs to his temples. „Please tell me you found something around the car.“

„Nothing.“ Even Jack was discouraged. „Not one thing.“

„And nobody saw anything,“ Abe added.

Kristen cleared her throat. „I know you all are tired of my lists, but here’s another one. All the sexual assault cases I prosecuted in front of Hillman. I’ve already talked to a number of the former complainants. Most are still bitter. None reported trauma in the last three months.“

„Any names we’ve seen before?“ Mia asked.

„One. Katie Abrams.“

„The five-year-old who ‘came on’ to her mother’s boyfriend,“ Spinnelli said bitterly.

Familiar anger simmered at the memory of Katie Abrams and the gross miscarriage of justice. „Yes, that’s the case.“ Kristen looked over at Todd Murphy who’d joined them again. „But Murphy checked out Katie’s family after Arthur Monroe was killed. The mother’s in prison for possession and Katie’s been in foster care. I talked with her social worker who said she saw Katie two weeks ago. It’s a good foster family and Katie’s relatively happy.“

„The foster parents?“ Spinnelli asked. „Anything there?“

„Solid alibis, Marc,“ Murphy said quietly.

„Dammit,“ Spinnelli gritted. „What next? Miles?“

„It depends.“ Westphalen held up his hand when Spinnelli looked angry. „It depends on whether he picked Hillman at random or if Hillman’s been his target all along. He hasn’t hit anyone since he missed Carson on Monday night. Maybe he was shaken up. Maybe he’s ready to tell us what his revenge is really all about.“

„If Hillman’s the next random target, we got nothing more than we had yesterday,“ Abe said. „If Hillman’s his revenge, is he done?“

„I have to believe there is a pattern,“ Kristen insisted. „He’s so regimented. Everything’s always done the same way. And the focus is always on the victim.“

„And you,“ Mia commented.

„And me. Somehow I factor into this. But it’s more about the victims. Think about the headstones and the letters. I’m only the P.S. The victims are the focus. Maybe I’m just sensitive because I’ve been talking to these people for the last few days, but I hear the same things over and over again. The victims who’ve been denied justice blame the system. They blame the criminal, the defense attorney, me, the judge. It’s a package.“

„Just like the box he leaves for you,“ Miles said. „Interesting parallel.“

„So where are you going with this, Kristen?“ Jack asked. „What’s the connection? Katie Abrams?“

Kristen shook her head. „I don’t think so. For one, there’s been no recent trigger with Katie Abrams. Second, there was no one who cared enough about Katie to avenge her. That was one of the things that made that case so hard. I think it’s someone else.“

„Maybe we’re all wrong, and we just have a wild card,“ Mia said quietly. „Maybe he reads about you in the paper, Kristen, and decided to give you these gifts because he’s crazy. Like John Hinckley, Jr. and Jodie Foster. Maybe there isn’t a connection other than you.“

„Then we have nothing,“ Kristen said flatly. „Because he’s been too smart to leave us anything mere than a bullet and a partial print and a cup of coffee.“

Spinnelli sighed. „What about the shack yesterday? Any prints, Jack?“

„A few partials from the picture frames, but they were under layers of dust. We took a few from the newspaper. The prints on the newspaper could have been from anywhere, but we’re running them. None match the partial we found on Conti’s body. There was writing on the back of both pictures. One said, ‘Worth: Henry, Callie, Hank and Paul.’ The other said, ‘Hank and Genny, 1943.’ “

Abe noted it. „So Paul was the other son, which makes sense because the records clerk told us the Worth property had passed to Paul Worth when Henry the father died. And we know from the marriage certificate that Genny married some guy named Colin Barnett. We have the parish church where Genny and Barnett married and the year and a picture of Genny. I say we pursue it, because it’s the only lead we have.“

„We have Paul Worth,“ Mia inserted. „He would have had his father’s old bullet molds. We should check him out, too.“

Abe acknowledged the point with a rueful smile. „That would be more obvious than a child that may or may not have been born sixty years ago, wouldn’t it?“

„I’ll follow up on Paul Worth,“ Kristen said. „If he owns that property you found yesterday, there should be records in the tax assessor’s office.“

„Good.“ Spinnelli wrote it all on the whiteboard. „What else?“

„One more.“ From the end of the table Murphy spoke up. „Marc asked me to get the details of the Aaron Jenkins’s sealed record. Jenkins plead down to sexual imposition. He tried to rape a girl under the stairwell in middle school seven years ago. But she’s not on any of your victim lists, Kristen. I checked. Her name is June Erickson.“

Kristen searched her mind. „I’ve never heard the name. Can we talk to her?“

Murphy grimaced. „If we can find her. Her family moved soon after the complaint was filed. I found some neighbors who said the girl had a hard time in school after that. Kids pushed her around because she reported Jenkins. Apparently he was a pretty popular kid back then. I’ve got listings for people with the same names as her parents and I’ll work through them today until I find them. I’ll let you know when I have something.“

„Then we have our direction,“ Spinnelli said. „Abe and Mia, find Genny O’Reilly. Murphy, find the Erickson girl. Kristen, you find Paul Worth, but don’t leave the building without one of us. If anybody makes any deliveries to your house regarding Judge Hillman, the officer sitting in front of your house will let us know.“

„And you?“ Abe asked.

„I’ll hold off the politicians and reporters that want to tell us how to do our jobs.“

Kristen gave him her latest list. „The Hillman cases with defense attorneys and accused. Assuming there is a connection and this is his revenge, one of these guys will be next.“

Thursday, February 26,

9:30 A.M.

Father Ted Delaney of the Sacred Heart Church fancied himself a bit of a detective, having watched Columbo religiously, as it were. So when Abe told him what they were looking for, the old priest plunged into the task with an enthusiasm that made them smile.