“But we also can’t forget about everything else on our docket,” Colby said. “These guys are shitty. I agree. But we also have a killer out there.”
“We have more than one this team is working on,” Owen said. “We need to keep focused on what’s hot and move when we can. This is a great sideline and something that we all really want to work on, but just because these guys are shits doesn’t mean they get to take our priority and divert our attention.”
Colby shook his head. “Don’t forget that we have Reese and two assistants.” He raised a hand before he heard the usual comments. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’re shorthanded. We all need more help. Keep your priorities, people.”
It was a hard truth, but one that Kate had to listen to nonetheless, because they were right. Only so much anybody could do at any one time, and, although she had intimated that these guys may have killed someone with their bullying, she didn’t have any proof. And that was bothersome in itself. She didn’t want these guys to get away with anything—rich daddies and rich attorneys notwithstanding—but she didn’t have anything on them at this point that would do anything but get their knuckles rapped.
Kate looked over at the others and nodded. “What I don’t want is to see Brandon’s group just get a suspension for a few days. It should be much more serious than that, or it’s not worth doing.”
“She’s right,” Rodney said. “A slap on the wrist will just empower entitled assholes like this. We’ll have to work that angle as we can.”
Kate agreed. “Let me get back to the accident on the corner.”
“Accident?” Rodney asked, with a wry smile.
She frowned. “I don’t know why I keep thinking of it that way.”
“Maybe it is an accident, as far as the auto collision is concerned. But did somebodyaccidentallyshoot her in the head?” he asked. “Unless somebody was out shooting for fun, not intending to hit anyone, in that case, it’s possible that it could have been an accident.”
She frowned. “Let’s wait until we get the forensics for that.”
He said, “It doesn’t feel like an accident to me.”
“No, but it doesn’t really feel like a regular murder either.” She frowned, thought more about that, then shook her head. “I don’t even know what I’m saying at this point. Right now there’s too much going on in my head.”
“Focus.” Rodney dropped off the report that he had printed for her. “This has the police histories on all the people on the scene. Take a look, and see if anything pops for you.”
She sat here with her coffee and perused the reports. Like Rodney had said, a few small hits but nothing major, nothing that even showed any older trauma that could account for this. That didn’t mean that one of these bullies didn’t have something else going on in their world or that they hadn’t waited all this time to get back at somebody, but nothing really got her attention. She kept reading and noted there wasn’t a report on the victim herself. With that, she turned on her computer and brought it up.
Sally Hardgens had lived in Vancouver for over twenty-one years.Wow, Kate thought.Either college kids look five years younger than their age or maybe this was a sign that Kate was growing ever older. She shook her head at that. Sally was in the first year of her master’s program in chemistry, and she apparently wanted to be a biochemist. At that, Kate gave a silent whistle, thinking, what a shame she was killed because anybody with the brains to pursue that field could really do some good in the world. And this woman was in the prime of her life.
Checking further, Kate couldn’t find any campus records to indicate any black marks against Sally. Everything indicated she was a model student. Of course being a model student came with its own perils too because not everybody was a fan.
Of course killing them wasn’t exactly the most common way of snubbing them.
Kate kept going through everything she had on the victim, then tossed the report on her desk in disgust. “Nothing on our victim to speak of either. At least nothing that’s showing up.”
“Good,” Rodney acknowledged. “I mean, it’s not good in the sense that random killings are much harder to solve. But what if somebody was just going after anybody who happened to be at that corner?”
“So, wrong time, wrong place. Not about the victim but about the location. If so, then we go back to the history of that particular spot.” With that, she brought up all the reports on the other accidents in the area. “Here are those other four cases you mentioned.”
“But they weren’t all in the same block,” Rodney said. “So does our killer think it would be okay to move it to a new location?”
“I don’t know. Somebody is doing something here, and we just haven’t figured out how or why… just yet.”
“No.”
“But we have to consider these other cases”—Kate tapped her monitor—“because at least this one was very similar.”
“Which one? In what way?” Owen asked.
“Listen to this, from an earlier death in that area. According to observers, this woman just collapsed in front of the car. The driver wasn’t charged because there was absolutely no evidence that his vehicle caused mortal injuries, and it was anundeterminedcause of death. She died at the scene—no signs of obvious trauma. It was initially thought the car itself had been the weapon, but no forensic evidence was found there. No hair. No blood. No skin cells. No nothing. The coroner also said that, due to the circumstances, he couldn’t confirm natural causes either. In the end, he had no way to say how she died. He did run a tox screen, and it came back negative. No drugs. No alcohol.”
The others looked at Kate, and she shrugged.
Andy returned to the bullpen, with a hot cup of coffee, catching the last part. “That makes no sense. If they’re connected, how did she die?”
“That’s the thing.” Lilliana frowned, looking over Kate’s shoulder at this earlier report. “Her heart just stopped, or it was stopped for her, and we don’t know how. They examined her on scene and ran a tox screen, but no autopsy was done.”