“Now you can see the crowd react to what happens.” All of the people in the food court turned to the man and began running toward him. The detective changed to another view. From that angle Rios could see the man running from the crowd and push an older man over as he tried to block his exit. He clicked another button.
A wide shot of the atrium showed the man running toward a group of women in the department store and then changing direction. A kiosk got knocked over. The man ran out of frame.
In the next shot the man was running down the main corridor as more people started chasing him. The next camera, looking toward the atrium, showed him knocking over displays and throwing things in the path of the people behind him.
“If assaulting a woman and the elderly isn’t enough, check out this one.” He clicked another button. The screen showed the man running toward a group of teenagers and knocking down a young girl to get through them. On the last camera angle, the man ran into the department store and the entire mall followed him in.
“So what caused this panic?” Oliver had a rhetorical tone to his voice. He pressed another button. “How about mob justice?”
On screen they saw video of a furious child screaming at the man and rocking its high chair back and forth.
Oliver turned to the people watching the screens. “Some asshole starts yelling at a kid. The mother comes running and he knocks her down with a chair. He takes off and the rest of the mall decides to catch him. The guy keeps knocking people down and the crowd only gets more angry.” The detective leaned back in the chair with a smug look.
“There’s your devil,” whispered Rios.
Simmons wasn’t convinced. Technically everything the detective said was true, but it just didn’t feel that way. That wasn’t a crowd that wanted to catch somebody. They had blood lust.
She spoke up. “Can you show us the part right before he kicked the chair at the woman?”
Oliver nodded and then pressed a button. Rios looked at the screen and tried to see what Simmons was looking for. All he saw was the man kick the chair at the woman.
“Do you want another angle?” asked Oliver.
Simmons shook her head. “Forget the chair and the woman. Roll it back before she ran. Now look at the screen and tell me at what point the crowd turns on the guy?”
Rios saw it, too. The crowd was already beginning to move toward the man. Throwing the chair at the woman may have tipped them over, but they were already focused on him.
“All right,” said the detective. “They saw him yelling at the kid.” He pressed another button.
For the first time, they got a good look at the man from the front as he sat at the end of the food court. Several tables away, the child was having a fit. To Rios it didn’t look like the crowd even noticed the child. They were just looking at the man.
“Can you go back to when he sat down?” asked Simmons.
Oliver clicked another button. On screen they saw the man hurry into the food court and stare into space. The mother spilled a drink and ran to get napkins. The man looked at his phone but otherwise just sat there. The child started screaming and then the man finally looked over at him but never said anything. He looked away when the mother came running and kicked the chair toward her.
“I don’t see him yelling,” said Simmons.
Brooks spoke up. He was still wearing his blood-stained shirt. “Whether or not he instigated this, he didn’t handle it in an appropriate manner and we need to speak with him.” He paused. “A lot of people were hurt today because of him. And someone has to answer for that.” Brooks turned to the room. “Do we have any leads yet?”
Rios finally spoke up. “His name is Mitchell Roberts. He’s our guy from the assault on the parking officer earlier today.” He reached into his pocket for the photo on his phone he’d gotten off of Rachel’s Facebook. He handed it to Simmons.
Simmons looked at the photo and nodded. “Well, that makes things interesting.”
“Looks like we have a one-man rampage here,” said Oliver.
“Let’s bring him in,” said Brooks. “Assault on an officer and … and now this. Let’s put everyone we can on getting him sooner than later.”
20
It took 20 minutes from the time Detective Brooks said it was a priority they find Mitchell Roberts to when a uniformed police officer walked through the doors of WQXD where he worked. Meanwhile, other uniformed police were showing up at his apartment and back at Rachel’s house.
Unmarked cars were parking farther out from his apartment to see if he came by on foot.
Since it was normal business hours for the station, most of the daytime staff was still there. The station manager, Philip Dunlap, left his office in a hurry to meet the officer at the front desk. The afternoon news producer had already put an item on his desk about a person of interest with the same name as their late-night host. Odd, he thought, he’d always imagined that when the police came for one of his hosts it would be Rookman.
“Mr. Dunlap?” asked the officer.
“What can I do for you?” he answered, although he already had a pretty good idea what this was about.
“We’re trying to locate one of your employees. A Mitchell Franklin Roberts. Does he work here?”
Not anymore, thought Dunlap. One host fighting a cocaine rap was enough. “Yes. He’s our nighttime host on the weekdays. Would you like his home address?”
The officer looked down at his notebook. “Is it 1221 Pass Ave., apartment 32?”
Dunlap turned to the receptionist who was sitting at a desk next to a fake plant. “Kayla, could you check on that?”
The dark-skinned young woman who was listening attentively pulled up Mitchell’s contact information on her computer. “That’s it.”
“Do you have any other contact information for him?”
Dunlap shook his head. “I don’t really know him that well. Let me see who else is here who might know. Kayla, could you page Mike?”
Kayla called for the intern on her desk phone and then offered up, “I know he was apartment hunting a couple weeks ago.”
The officer wrote that down. “Is he friends with anybody here at the station who he might try to go to for help?”
“Like I said, I don’t really know him. To be honest, he’s a bit of a loner,” said Dunlap.
The officer wrote down “loner.”
Dunlap regretted calling Mitchell a loner. He’d written enough news items to know what kind of context people always put that term into.
“He did have a girlfriend,” said Kayla. “Pretty girl.”
The officer referred to his notes. “Yes, it looks like he beat her up pretty bad.”
Kayla made a face. “Mitchell? Are you sure you got the right guy?” she asked with a high-pitched tone.
The officer ignored the question.
Mike the intern walked in, saw the police officer and almost pissed himself.
“Are you Mike?” asked the officer.
“Yes…”
“I just want to ask you a couple questions about Mitchell Roberts. Do you have any idea where he might be?
Mike’s normally blank face went blanker. “His house?”
The officer shook his head. “Besides there. Is there any other place he might go? A friend he trusts? Family that live in the area?”
“Not that I’m aware of. When he broke up with his girlfriend, he didn’t have any place to stay.”
“Do you think he might try to contact you?” asked the officer.
“Gosh, I don’t think so. I don’t know him really well. He’s a nice guy and all.”
The officer pulled some business cards from his chest pocket. “Some detectives will be coming by to ask some more questions. In the meantime, if anything comes to mind, you can call us here”