Did You Miss Me? (30 page)

‘How did Pamela get to the mall?’ JD asked. ‘Was she with anyone?’

‘Pamela told her parents she was going to a friend’s house,’ Wiznewski said. ‘We pulled her cell LUDs and she got a text from 443-555-2320. Pre-paid.’

‘Mr Maynard told us about the call Kimberly made from Laurel Gargano’s birthday party,’ Ciccotelli said. ‘We’ve requested Kimberly’s back phone records.’

‘We have them,’ JD said, thumbing through the printout. ‘We requested them when we discovered Kimberly’s arrest record. And . . . yeah. The 2320 number is the same one Kimberly called the night of Laurel Gargano’s birthday party.’

‘So we’re one step closer to Doug,’ Joseph said. ‘Those pre-paids are traceable, but we’d have to lure him into making a few phone calls so we can triangulate.’

‘How about Richard Odum?’ Hector asked. ‘He’s Bill Millhouse’s second in command. Odum might be able to persuade Doug to call a few times.’

Joseph shook his head. ‘He’s dead. One of the SWAT teams found his body in one of the houses he bought with Reggie Millhouse’s defense fund. His throat was slit. As was his wife’s.’

‘The CSU team I sent to that house typed the blood,’ Brodie said. ‘Odum’s type matches what we found in the basement with Ford’s watch. Unfortunately, we’ll have to find someone else Doug trusts enough to call from his cell phone.’

‘We might be able to trace him another way,’ Ciccotelli said. ‘Yelton from IT is working on tracing the webcam he put in the ceiling of Trooper Gargano’s house to his own server which must have downloaded the images.’

‘How long will that take?’ Joseph asked.

‘Depends on how clever he is,’ Yelton said. ‘An hour or a day or never. The webcam was no longer connected to its host server. It had run out of battery. We’ll know if it’s still transmitting within a minute after hooking it back up. We’ll let you know.’

‘Good,’ Joseph said. ‘Anything else from your end, Lieutenant?’

‘We thought Dr MacGregor was going to let us search his medical cabinet without a warrant, since, you know, both his daughters are missing. But his attorney was there when we arrived and advised the father not to allow it.’ Ciccotelli sounded extremely annoyed. ‘He told the father that if Kim had stolen any of the drugs she could be found complicit in the death of Officer Zacharias. So we started a warrant app for Dr MacGregor’s supply cabinet.’

‘Dr Quartermaine?’ Joseph asked. ‘Did you get my message about one of the abductees’ fathers being a vet?’

‘I did,’ Quartermaine said. ‘I was late because I was waiting for the results of Officer Zacharias’s tox screen. Short answer is that you shouldn’t have any trouble getting a judge to sign the warrant. The victim had high levels of fentanyl and ketamine in his system, both of which would be found in a vet’s drug supply – especially a large animal vet. I’m happy to fax a copy of the autopsy report with the tox screen results to your office, Lieutenant Ciccotelli.’

‘Excellent,’ Ciccotelli said with satisfaction. ‘Thank you.’

‘What was Zacharias’s cause of death?’ Joseph asked.

‘Official cause of death was asphyxiation,’ Quartermaine said.

‘
What
?’ Clay sounded stunned. ‘He was strangled?’

‘Yes, but chemically, not manually. As I said, he was given a cocktail of fentanyl and ketamine, after being tased. The taser jolt incapacitates for thirty seconds at the most. Fentanyl is a fast acting narcotic – within thirty seconds, but it doesn’t last that long. Ketamine kicks in before the fentanyl wears off and lasts thirty to ninety minutes, depending on the dose. He was tased twice, then injected with the fentanyl into a vein. The ketamine was given intra-muscularly.’ He said the last sentence with a frown.

‘So how did he asphyxiate?’ Clay asked through the speaker.

‘Laryngospasm. It’s a side effect of the ketamine. The vocal cords spasm and slam shut, blocking the airway. It’s seen in operating rooms where ketamine is used as an anesthetic, but not often. Because the patient is monitored in the OR, his head would be repositioned, opening the airway. But this victim wasn’t repositioned because he wasn’t monitored. In more than two-thirds of the cases the ketamine is given intramuscularly, which was the case with this victim. It was a perfect storm – everything went exactly wrong. The victim would have been dead within seven to ten minutes.’ Quartermaine paused to stare at Daphne. ‘Miss? Are you all right?’

Daphne was white as chalk and for the second time that night Joseph wanted to kick his own ass.
You just let her sit there, listening to what happened to Zacharias, knowing the same drugs were given to her son
.
And what was Quartermaine thinking?

He wasn’t
, Joseph realized. Quartermaine had come in at the end of the introductions. He didn’t know he’d been talking to the abductee’s mother.

He opened his mouth to explain when Daphne managed a strained smile.

‘I’m okay. You came in after introductions and this is a very special situation. I’m Daphne Montgomery, State’s Attorney’s office. Ford Elkhart is my son.’

Quartermaine’s mouth dropped open. ‘Oh my God. I’m sorry.’

‘It’s all right,’ Daphne said, her persona having changed before their eyes. Her voice had dropped a few notes and smoothed. Her posture changed, her body becoming more . . . zen. ‘How could you have known?’

She’d become the woman he’d met in Grayson’s house nine months ago, cool, composed, collected. His Daphne was bold and inviting. This woman . . . wasn’t. He glanced at Grayson, saw that his brother was staring at her too. With the exception of Quartermaine, everyone around the table had noticed.

Hector Rivera scribbled a note and passed it down to Joseph.
She spoke with this same voice when she told her ex that Ford was missing and again when she talked about her cousin’s abduction
.
Does she even know she does it?

Damn good question
, Joseph thought. Then, it was like a switch flipped in his brain.
Would she change like that during sex?
He shifted in his chair, suddenly erect.
Oh for God’s sake
, he thought, disgusted with himself.
Not now
. With an effort, he pushed the mental image to the side and focused.

‘Still, I’m sorry,’ Quartermaine was saying to her. ‘Now you’re wondering if the same thing happened to Ford. And the answer is, no.’

Her brows lifted, elegantly. ‘No, definitely? Or no, in your opinion?’

He hesitated, a little rattled. ‘Both. Look, Mrs Montgomery—’

‘Miss,’ she interrupted. ‘It’s “Miss”.’

Quartermaine drew a deep breath. ‘Okay. Miss Montgomery. First, Ford fought him. We found his blood in the alley, but only enough to indicate he’d have a nasty bump. He couldn’t have fought if he’d had the same reaction as Officer Zacharias.’

She nodded. ‘Thank you, Dr Quartermaine.’

‘Neil,’ he said, still flustered. ‘Please.’

‘If you call me Daphne,’ she said. She made no mention of the way she’d just changed, but her cheeks flushed and Joseph knew she was very aware.

The speaker phone crackled. ‘Excuse me. This is Clay Maynard. Officer Zacharias was working in an off-duty capacity for me.’

‘Hell,’ Quartermaine muttered, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but where he was. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Maynard. I didn’t know you were acquainted with the victim.’

‘It’s okay,’ Clay said in a flat voice. ‘I can deal. I just wanted to know, was he wearing any body armor at all?’

‘No. He had his badge on a chain, under his sweatshirt, but no vest. His holster was also empty and no weapons were found on or around the body. I am sorry.’

‘It’s okay,’ Clay repeated. ‘Thank you for taking care of him. We appreciate it.’

Joseph turned his attention to Brodie. ‘Have you figured out how he got Ford and Kimberly out of the alley?’

‘We did,’ Brodie said. ‘I went back to the alley after the techs had moved a lot of the trash. The garbage on the street had been mixed around, erasing his tracks, but the techs found oil mixed with hydraulic fluid on the pavement at the end of the alley and on some of the debris in the area where Ford would have fallen.’

‘He used a cart with a hydraulic lift,’ Joseph said. ‘And it needs maintenance.’

‘We found the same oil/fluid mix in the garages of all of Odum’s houses,’ Brodie added. ‘I bet that’s how he unloaded the guns. He definitely visited all three houses.’

Joseph frowned. ‘He’s not hiding Ford at any of those houses, though. JD, did any other Millhouse properties come up in your search?’

‘None. The house and business that we searched today were rentals. I had Hyatt’s clerk run a property search for “Doug” in Maryland and Pennsylvania, both as a first and last name. I also searched variants on Doug, such as “Douglas” and “McDougal”. We got thousands of hits. I’ll start narrowing them down tonight.’

‘Good. Let me know if you need support to do any physical searches.’ He reviewed his notes. ‘Daphne, you’re checking all of your old cases to see if you prosecuted Doug. What’s the status?’

‘I keep all my cases in a database which I checked before the meeting. In my first year and a half with the state’s attorney’s office, I was Grayson’s assistant. When I wasn’t sitting second chair in court, I mainly handled cases like Kimberly MacGregor’s, where the defendant was taking a plea. I dealt over five hundred misdemeanors and class D felonies. Since I’ve been lead prosecutor I’ve closed less than a hundred cases. Reggie Millhouse’s case has sucked up most of my time.’

‘Did anybody jump out?’ Joseph asked.

‘Not yet. I know that I never prosecuted anyone with Doug in the first or last name or any of the variations JD just mentioned, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a family member. There are an army of clerks researching the cases I did when I was assisting. They’re also checking photos of all my defendants, pulling every male between twenty-five and thirty-five who has brown hair and who’s between five-six and five-ten. They should be done by mid-morning tomorrow. I offered to help, but my presence would require too much security.’ She frowned. ‘I’m banned from my office until Doug is caught.’

Joseph was secretly thrilled that she wouldn’t be going back to her desk or into the courtroom until the threat to her life was gone. But he knew she’d just lost a major occupier of her time – a way to keep herself busy so she didn’t think about her son.

He shot her a look of silent sympathy. ‘If they come up with any photos, we’ll get them in front of our eyewitness, that teacher in Timonium, as soon as possible.’ He turned to JD. ‘What did you find out about Kimberly?’

‘From Ford’s Facebook posts that you sent to us, we know Kim and Ford met at a party in September and he told his friends that she had more in common with him than any other girl he’d ever met.’ JD put an evidence envelope on the desk. ‘I found this in her dorm room. It’s a list of all the things Ford liked and her to-do list to find out about them. It’s handwritten. She did a lot of research.’

Joseph bit back a wince. Just looking at the list was painful. ‘Kimberly is a . . . calculating young woman. Did anyone else see her that way?’

‘Nobody I talked to,’ JD said. ‘She was funny, smart, laughed at their jokes. Baked them cookies . . . Didn’t complain when Ford went out with his friends. She was the perfect girlfriend.’

‘Joseph, it’s Deacon. I talked with the MacGregors for a while tonight. They live in a very nice house and the parents drive luxury cars. I wondered why Kimberly stole to begin with. The parents said that they’d hit some hard times two years ago and had to cut back Kim’s allowance. They put her BMW in storage so that they wouldn’t have to pay for the insurance and on-campus parking. She hadn’t taken that well. A month into the school year she wanted a new laptop and her parents told her she’d have to get a job. The next thing they knew she’d been arrested for stealing the diamond ring.’

‘That’s consistent with what I’d noted in my file,’ Daphne said. ‘She was caught trying to trade the ring to a pawnbroker for the laptop. I might have dealt her down to a misdemeanor, but she was disrespectful to me and to her parents. They’d hired an expensive attorney and paid her bail and she treated them like crap.’

‘Well, they sold her BMW to pay for the bail and the fancy attorney,’ Deacon said. ‘And Mrs MacGregor said Kim cussed you out to anyone who’d listen. The MacGregors hoped the experience would teach Kim a lesson. They were devastated to hear she’d had a hand in Ford’s abduction. They kept telling me to tell you how sorry they are.’

Daphne looked like she was struggling for the right words. ‘Um, tell them thank you and that we’re working to find both their girls.’

Joseph understood her hesitation. ‘I think it will be much easier to accept their apology once Ford is home safely.’

She smiled gratefully at him. ‘Exactly.’

Joseph lingered on her face another second, then dropped his gaze to his notes. ‘Lieutenant Ciccotelli, can you send us a photo of the man in the parking garage?’

‘Sure. We’ll make some stills of him in the wig and in the hoodie,’ Ciccotelli said.

‘Thanks. The objective is to find Doug, whoever the hell he is. Recapping – JD’s got property searches, Agent Coppola and Detective Rivera continue to be primary security for Daphne’s family. Ciccotelli’s sketch artist will continue working with the five-year-old witness who saw Doug’s face and his IT will try to route the webcam Doug used in Gargano’s house. Deacon, I’d like you back here unless you think you’re needed there.’

‘I think they’ve got it covered up here,’ Deacon said. ‘I’ll head home tonight.’

‘Good. Anything else?’

‘Yes,’ JD said. ‘Where’s Agent Lamar?’

‘He’s working with the ATF on finding the origin of the rifles that were found in Odum’s houses. He’ll keep us updated as he’s able. Everyone good with the plan?’

Heads were nodding – and then the cell phones began to buzz, up and down the table. A group text had been sent, resulting in considerable whooping and clapping. Grayson’s eyes grew moist and he wasn’t the only one. Joseph found himself blinking at tears as well and JD didn’t even try to hide his.

Joseph leaned into the speaker. ‘Hey, Maynard. You get that text?’