Laugh or Death (Lexi Graves Mysteries Book 6) (20 page)

"We don't have enough? What happened to your gut instinct
s?"

"It's all supposition
, so far. Nancy's death could be an accident, and Leo could have sent these gifts innocently..."

"They're so creepy! And he was trying to marry Nancy
, but making a play for Peta!"

"Some guys don't know
their boundaries." Solomon shut the door, rounded the car, and climbed in. "I still don't like the dude," he added, buckling up. "I still think he's a creep, but if every creep got arrested for that charge alone, we'd have to turn the entire Midwest into a penal colony. We need something substantial. Something that unequivocally ties him to the crimes."

"Maddox thinks Nancy was collateral damage. He's going to visit her aunt and hav
e her corpse exhumed."

"I can see why he'd think that. If Leo killed her, her body could be the key to catching him."

"He put a 'bolo' out on Leo, and asked you to get the team to watch Leo and check in with him."

"Not a problem." Solomon pulled out his cell phone and fired off a text. "While Maddox deals with Nancy and her aunt, let's talk to the employers and find out why Nancy left. I checked with the Hansons
, and there's no one else Peta would have confided in besides Nancy, so every other clue regarding Peta is a dead lead."

Abigail Harris was a
n extremely tiny woman with a very big voice. We found her behind the cashier's desk at the bookshop and she told us to grab a seat while she got her assistant to cover the desk. When he arrived, she stepped down, and I realized she'd been standing on a foot-tall platform. She barely scraped five feet in her flats, but had a commanding presence nevertheless.

"Like I told you on the phone, Nancy passed away six months ago," she said, taking the chair opposite me. "I can't think
of a good reason why you'd be looking for her."

"We think her identity may have been stolen," said Solomon.

"Really? How awful. I still don't see how I can help you."

"Actually, we hoped you might tell us why Nancy left
her job?"

"Well, sure that's easy. She was lovely, really great
, but I had no choice..." Abigail trailed off. "I didn't want to, and truthfully, I regretted it, especially after she had that awful accident."

"Why didn't you want to let her go?" I pressed.

"It wasn't her, but that boyfriend of hers, Leo. He used to come in and just stare at her, and if she got too friendly with the customers, he'd say mean things."

"To Nancy?"

"Yes, and the customers too. There were complaints. I told Nancy and she pleaded with me to give her another shot, but I'd had enough by then."

"Why was that? Was he mean to you too?"

"He punched one of my delivery guys after he thought he was getting fresh with Nancy. I had to let her go. I couldn't afford any trouble here. She said she'd leave him, but really... I could just see things with Leo getting worse. If she left him and he kept following her around... oh, you must think I'm awful. I feel terrible about it now."

"Do you know what happened to Nancy after that?"

Abigail shook her head. "I saw her around town a couple of times. Next, I heard she died after some kind of fall. I went to the funeral. Her aunt was all shook up. They were all each other had left."

"What about Leo?"

"He never came around again after I let Nancy go. Nasty piece of work, if you ask me. Something’s not right about him."

"His temper?" asked Solomon.

"Yes, and something else. I couldn't say what. It's just a feeling."

"Did you know Nancy's friend, Peta?"

"The missing girl? Yes, I did. She bought books here and I let her teach an art history class one evening when Nancy still worked here. Really sweet girl. So sad what happened to her, and right after Nancy too. Why?"

"No reason," I said. "Just wondered about the two of them."

"If that's all, I have to get back to my customers," Abigail said, rising. "I'm sorry I couldn't help."

"You've been plenty of help," said Solomon, passing her his card. "We'd appreciate a call if you think of anything else."

"Actually, there is something. Leo attended Peta's art history class. Didn't seem the art appreciation type, but he was fascinated all night, and unusually interested," said Abigail. "But now, I think it was just creepy the way he stared at her."

~

I lay on top of the covers while Solomon brushed his teeth in the small bathroom. I could see him through the open door with his back to me and a towel around his waist. He smelled of mint and the bathroom was steamy. Parts of my brain were steamy too, but I was trying to ignore them. Instead, I texted with Lily.

“
So, Maddox's headboard is how far from your headboard?”
she texted.

Ten inches at a guess,
I replied.

“
Ten inches. Uh-huh.”

Ten inches of sheetrock and two headboards,
I typed back.

“
It's practically a threesome.”

I sighed and closed my eyes as Solomon dropped onto the bed. "What is Lily texting? All I saw was the word
‘threesome’ and I now I wish I hadn't asked."

"Don't ask," I told him.

"Is it anything to do with your pro bono case? Any breaks?"

"The robberies? Lily is still watching Kyle
, but no dice. He just hangs out at home and does normal things."

"Like what?"

"Grocery shopping or has a friend over."

"Even thieves have to eat. Come here." Solomon held his arm out for me to snuggle into him
. The phone got lost somewhere in the covers, and we both shuffled down in the bed. Solomon was warm, a little damp, and smelled good enough to eat. Since I wasn't a cannibal, I settled for a good sniff. "Are you sniffing me?" he asked.

"Yesh," I
admitted, my mouth muffled against his chest.

"Not going to ask. Just going to enjoy it."

"Do you think Lily has the wrong guy?" I inquired, lifting my head to repeat the question since my first attempt sounded like "Dush ye feenk Lily hazh ong gee?"

"I have no idea. I haven't looked into the case since they ruined date night."

"It's all on a hunch. Just like Nancy and Peta. You had a hunch about Leo, and it looks like it’s paying off."

"You had a hunch about Peta stealing Nancy's identity," Solomon reminded me.

"And a helluva break when I saw Peta's photo in Maddox's case file. I feel like I'm failing as a private investigator. All of my breaks were lucky ones."

"Sometimes
, that's how they happen, but in this case, you made your own luck by talking to people. Look at Maddox. Peta only made it into his case file because of a detective who thought it was tied to the missing persons radius. And those cases only merged because someone else started piecing them together before they got noticed by other PD. That’s often how cases work. We get lucky and just follow the trail until we make connections. Undeniable connections."

"I guess."

"I know," emphasized Solomon. "You've done a great job getting the case this far. We've discovered the secret of the fake Nancy Grant. We might even solve the question of the real Nancy's death. Peta could get reunited with her family, or at least emerge from hiding. And Leo..."

"And Leo?"

"If he's guilty, we can get him too, and before he claims his next victim."

"If everything we think has happened is true, I think Peta was his next victim. He figured out she
took Nancy's identity. He knew all along we were looking for Peta, not Nancy. He played us."

Solomon hugged me a little closer. "Yes
, he did."

"So now
, all we need to do is find Leo and Peta."

"Two needles. One very big haystack. Our people are on it. MPD and the local FBI are on the hunt for Leo. He's
too sure of himself, and thinks he's got us where he wants us. He'll surface soon."

"What if he
got wind of what's going on?"

"Let's hope he
didn't, but if he did, I still don't think he'll go anywhere without Peta. He's spent this much time tracking her. He must want her pretty badly."

"What if he found her already?"

"Don't worry about this tonight. Leo can't make a move without someone spotting him. I have the whole risk management division looking for him. Lucas is running facial recognition across every camera hooked up in Montgomery, and I have his photo with every source. There's a hefty price on his head."

"Wow. Remind me to never try
to hide from you."

"Unless it's
playing hide and seek..." Solomon trailed his fingers down my side, causing me to shiver. "Would you hide from me?"

I worked my way under the covers and pulled them over my head. "Yep," I said. "Now find me."

All I can say about that is, an excellent private investigator, Solomon found me really fast.

Chapter Seventeen

We arrived back in Montgomery late the next afternoon, each one of us with a burning urge to find Peta Hanson and Leo Chandler.

Once
back in the office, I decided I would write up my report for the file that I would certainly never hand over to Leo now that I contemplated how strange it all was. Leo didn't look like a serial killer to me, but then again, I'd been fooled before. Who hadn't? How many people only realized after a terrible deed was committed that their loved one was suffering in silence at the hands of someone who appeared outwardly charming and wonderful? There had to be countless occurrences.

Right now, there were two people I needed to get some answers
from. One was Leo, but I felt pretty sure he would lawyer up the moment the evidence pointed to him, and even then, until we could tie him to a crime, our evidence was all circumstantial.

Nancy's
corpse would be exhumed within the next couple of days, but despite the coroner's sloppy work, she could still have suffered an accidental death. Leo might have sent those gifts to Peta, but he could have had an innocent explanation. His attentions could have been misguided, but there was no law against pursuing a woman, even if you were dating her best friend. Sure, breaking into her car might take some explaining, but perhaps she left it unlocked. He could explain the teddy bear away as him being thoughtful enough not to leave the gift where it could be stolen or weather-damaged. He might even claim that Peta was encouraging him. It was hard to know what went through Leo's mind, but I had plenty of doubt he was as innocent as he first appeared.

"We still need to tie Leo to the locations
of the other murders and missing persons," I said, breaking the silence as Solomon navigated the streets towards Maddox's office.

"I've been thinking about that too," said Solomon.

"That makes three of us," said Maddox. "I only have circumstantial evidence. I don't think it's enough to get a warrant to search Chandler's financials."

"What if we had them?" I asked, knowing that Solomon had already combed them. "Lucas hacked..."

"I didn't hear that," said Maddox. "But theoretically, if someone else took a look and happened to confirm his presence at those locations on those dates, I wouldn't be unhappy about it."

"Gee, I wish we had some way of finding out that information," I said, as Solomon gave me an amused look. "Such a shame."

"How can we help you get a warrant?" asked Solomon.

"Find me anything that links Chandler to a crime. Heck, can you even find out if that's his real name?" replied Maddox.

"Lexi and I will get on that at the office. All my other manpower is out looking for Chandler, Peta and her friend, Joelle."

Maddox nodded. "I'm putting in a warrant request for a tap and location on Joelle's phone."

"Why?" I asked.

"Thanks to you, we can definitely link her to Peta. Peta is now a major player in my investigation a
nd I need to know if she's connected to the other victims. If she is, she probably could ID our killer. Your guys can do the physical searching, but my guys can pick her up electronically. If Joelle's phone is switched on, we can find her. Speaking of the investigation, I need to take those gifts Peta received. I'm sure I've seen one of them somewhere before. I might be able to tie one to another victim."

"That's creepy," I said
, "and frugal. Was the killer regifting? Are serial killers affected by the economy too?"

"Not exactly." Maddox gave me a rueful smile
, but Solomon laughed, lightening the atmosphere in the car. "I wish I could recall exactly what I thought I saw. I'll call you as soon as I remember."

"We'd appreciate that, Special Agent Maddox," said Solomon.

"I still can't get used to hearing that. Thought I'd be a detective until the day I died."

"You're still a detective," I told him, "you just got a cooler title and
now you wear suits."

"I look pretty snappy, don't I?"

I agreed he did and Solomon pulled over, not because he was annoyed, but because we'd reached the FBI office. We all got out and Maddox grabbed his small, wheeled suitcase and the creepy gifts from the trunk.

"I could just call Leo," I said
. "I'm sure he'd answer my call. I could get him to come to the office."

Maddox set down his things on the sidewalk and placed a hand on each of my shoulders. "Promise me, you won't do that. Promise me you'll stay the hell away from Leo Chandler until we've got all this figured out."

"Fine, I promise," I said, crossing only one pair of fingers.

"And you'll call as soon as you can find a connection to any of the victims?"

"You'll be the first to know," I said.

"Right after me," said Solomon, shaking Maddox's hand. "We'll nail this guy together."

"I wish you'd all think about what you're saying." I sighed. I gave Maddox a quick hug and got into the front passenger seat. From the side mirror, I could see Solomon and Maddox having a quick exchange before they parted. Maddox headed for the office, and Solomon returned to the car. "What was that about?" I asked.

"Just a reminder to not let you try and trap Leo into a meeting. I agree that he would probably pick up for you, but until we have all the information
, you need to stay as far away from him as possible. There is something else..."

"What?"

"I don't like how Leo keeps bumping into you."

"Coincidences. We're looking for evidence and we're finding it?"

"Maybe." Solomon didn't look convinced.

"You really think I'm in danger?"

"No, but I think if Leo is our killer, and right now Maddox is right, it's still circumstantial, so we need to play it cool. I don't want to put you in harm's way."

"Let's go get some evidence," I said,
leaning forwards like I just cracked a whip over our horses. Or horse power, given the SUV I pointed at.

"You know the office is behind us, right?" said Solomon.

"Sure, but that would have required an awkward twist of my body, and have you seen how tight my dress is?"

Solomon gave me a long look, his eyes smoldering. "I hadn't noticed," he said, his voice like gravel. "I didn't notice how short it was either. Damn." He looked away, sh
aking himself as he turned the car around, pointing it in the direction I wasn't pointing.

With every
available person on the hunt for Leo Chandler, the Solomon Agency was even quieter than normal. The detectives' floor was entirely empty as we passed by, going upstairs in search of Lucas. We found him on the empty risk management floor, sitting amidst his computing equipment. Lucas didn't look unhappy about it. He had rock music blasting over the speakers and was happily drumming a pair of pencils on the desk.

"Boss," he said as we approached. The music snapped off abruptly. "Colleague," he said to me. "One of you looks pretty today
, but you're going to have to duke it out as to which one."

"We both know it's me," deadpanned Solomon. "It's my eyes. I've got a job for you."

"Above and beyond searching every network camera in the city for Nancy?"

"Newsflash. Nancy isn't Nancy anymore," I told him, moderately pleased that I knew something Lucas didn't know. Since he was the nosiest hacker I'd ever met
— and the only hacker I'd ever met — that was saying something.

"Then who is she?" he
asked.

Solomon took over, handing him a slip of paper. "Her real name is Peta Hanson
, but we're still looking for the same face. Keep your programs tracking her. Find this cell phone number. I'm certain it's been dead since she went into hiding, but track it anyway. Find out if Nancy or Peta took out any other phone plans. Track Joelle Brennan's phone and..."

Lucas held one hand up while he furiously scribbled with the other. "Hold on. I'm writing. Okay, go."

"Find Joelle. We need to get to Peta ASAP."

"I thought Maddox was tracking Joelle's phone," I chimed in. Solomon simply shrugged.

"Got it. Working on it." Lucas swiveled in his chair and hit a key on his keyboard, alerting another monitor to power on.

"I'm not done. Are you still running facial recognition for Leo Chandler?"

"Yep, started as soon as you called it in."

"Good. I need you to hack
into his finances again. Go back ten years and print out two copies."

"Why so many
years?" asked Lucas as he made further notes.

"We need to tie his movements to
the crimes. Don't just look for current finances either. If he has canceled accounts, or canceled credit cards, I want those records too."

"Easy," said Lucas. "I'll have them
to you in an hour."

"What if we can't link Leo to anything?" I asked as we left the floor
in a loud blast of music. Solomon’s wince was barely perceptible as he pulled the door shut, allowing it to automatically lock with a click.

"We're going to look for several things on Leo's records," Solomon told me. "One, we're going to look for evidence
placing him at the locations for the days up to and beyond our victims’ disappearances. Second, because he's not stupid, we're going to look for absence of evidence."

"Absence
of evidence?"

"Think about what we're looking for. Now assume that a serial killer does not want to be linked to a
particular area. He would not want anything linking him to that area. Maybe he'd turn off his cell phone so there were no cell tower pings in a particular location. Or he'd only spend cash so his credit card wouldn’t show him buying gas two miles from his next victim's dump site."

"So, we're looking for financial dead zones?"

"That," Solomon confirmed, "and maybe a larger cash withdrawal during the days before. If he's traveling out of his home area, he needs to eat, buy gas, get coffee, maybe somewhere to stay. He'd pay for those in cash."

"What do we do until Lucas brings the records? Make out in your office?" It was a deeply unprofessional comment, of course, but when your boss
was as hot as Solomon, and you spent several nights a week with him, it wasn’t exactly inappropriate.

Solomon stopped, turn
ing before stepping closer and making out with me in the stairwell. "Satisfied?" he asked.

"No. Ugh, you're an awful kisser. Would you like more practice?"

Solomon laughed, ruffled my hair, then wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Every day, working with you is a joy for me."

"You knew it would be when you hired me."

"True."

We took up positions in the boardroom, each of us
on one side of the long table, spreading the case files between us. There was one for Nancy when we thought Peta was she. There were slim ones for the real Nancy and Peta, plus Leo, and the client file he initially filled out. The large stack of files had a copy of every missing and murdered woman linked to the potential serial killer.

The day before
, I drew a not particularly artistic map of all the towns where the victims were reported missing, placing Greenacre in the middle. It was one of the few pieces of evidence I couldn't call circumstantial. After a brief search in my purse, I pulled it out triumphantly and smoothed it on the table. "These are our locations," I said. "The blue crosses are the victims’ hometowns. The red ones are the dump sites that we know about."

"The crosses only have small distances in between. See here
—" Solomon placed his finger against one cross, then moved it to the closest red cross "—is this the same victim?"

I consulted my notes, wishing I could answer the question faster, but when I did, it was affirmative.

"How long between each abduction and discovery?"

"I wish I'd made more notes."

"You will next time."

I looked up. "No. I want the missing puppy case next time. Or a nice theft case. The next potential serial killer we get is yours."

"This was supposed to be a missing person," Solomon reminded me. "And when you want in on the next serial killer case, I'm going to remind you of your request."

I had just completed making notes for dates of the kidnaps, discoveries, times in between, and locations, transferring it all to the big whiteboard that spanned the end of the boardroom when Lucas walked in
. Carrying a stack of paper in his arms, he dumped them on the table.

"I got everything. There were several canceled credit cards in operation from a few months to a couple of years and they're all stacked
in order according to year. His checking account has been open since he was twenty, and I couldn't find another. It doesn't mean he doesn't have other identities, which I'm investigating also," Lucas reported.

"Good thinking, Lucas. Any hits on facial recognition?"