Wednesday, September 22, 4:05 p.m.
David put his tray on the table Tom had staked at the Deli. “Busy today.”
Tom glanced up from his laptop. “I know. Students are talking about the dead guy found in the dorm, the cops are talking about Kane, and the firefighters are either talking about your partner or… you.”
“Wonderful.” David sat and slid Tom’s sandwich across the table. “Eat.”
Tom frowned at the food, then at David’s lack of it. “Where’s yours?”
“Can’t.”
Tom pushed the plate to the middle of the table. “Neither can I. Eat half.”
He managed to choke down a few bites, watching as Tom plugged his wireless card into his laptop’s slot. “I’m still not sure I get the allure of this place,” David said. “Food’s only okay.”
“It’s better than the dining hall. But most people come here to socialize.” He pointed at all the customers on their laptops. “And because Kirby has free Wi-Fi.”
David looked up at the counter. “Which one’s Kirby?”
“The manager. Not up there right now. He’s the one who chats and says ‘buh-bye.’”
“Oh. Him.”
Tom looked up. “Kirby bothers you?”
David fought the urge to squirm. “He’s just… intense.”
Tom shrugged. “I think the flirtation is an act. He’s not a bad guy. He helped Eve seven months ago when that so-called reporter was following her. Made sure she knew the reporter had been talking to that professor’s secretary, stalking her and her friend.”
David remembered it. “That information helped save Eve’s life so I guess he can make eyes at me. Plus, he always sends coffee to the fire scenes if we’ve been there all night.” Still, there was something about the man that made him uncomfortable.
Tom nodded. “There, I’m in.”
David eyed the card sticking out of Tom’s laptop. “If they have free wireless here, why use your card?”
Tom’s eyes widened in dismay. “Tell me you don’t use free, unsecured Wi-Fi?”
David nodded warily. “Yeah. Why?”
“Just askin’ to be hacked,” Tom muttered. “This card is secure. Nobody can touch my hard drive.” He slid his chair around the table so David could see the screen. “I also put a coating over my screen so you have to be right in front of it to see anything.”
“Trusting soul, aren’t you?” David asked.
“No.” Tom typed Mary’s name and a screen full of links appeared. The first two pages were references to the two dead college students. There were three, David knew, but the police hadn’t released the connection to Joel Fischer yet.
Tom kept paging and frowned. “I get nothing on the name. What else you got?”
“Ethan gave me her social.” David turned the laptop toward him and typed it in from memory.
“I would have started with that,” Tom grumbled. “Results-twenty-three, single. No dependents. No out- standing student loans. One savings, one checking account.”
“That’s the other address Ethan gave me.” David pointed to the screen. “The police checked already. She doesn’t live there and the current residents don’t know her. Can you check who were the previous residents?”
Tom entered the address into a property tax Web site. “Current owners have been there for three years. The previous owner used this as a rental property. Previous owner is Mrs. Annie Walsh, who is still alive and local.”
David was already on his feet. “Let’s go.”
Wednesday, September 22, 4:35 p.m.
Olivia and Noah got out of their car and approached the abandoned green Taurus. They’d been en route to the university to reinterview Mary’s roommate when they’d gotten the call that Phoebe’s car had been sighted on a remote road.
The officer who’d called it in pointed to a man who stood soberly watching them. “He lives a half-mile from here, heard about the victim on the radio.”
“We’ll talk to him in a second, thanks.” Olivia walked around the car, afraid of what she’d see. “No blood. Unlocked.” Her stomach clenched, she popped the trunk. Then sagged in relief when she saw it was empty. “I had a bad picture in my mind.”
“So did I,” Noah said unsteadily.
Olivia walked the shoulder ahead of Phoebe’s car, stopping when a flash of silver caught her eye. With a pen, she dug the chain from the dirt and held it up so the medallion swung. “Noah. It’s a St. Jude medallion. Do you know if Phoebe wore one?”
“I think so. Eve has one just like it.”
She dropped it in a baggie and carefully tucked it in her pocket. For David. Just in case. But she wouldn’t let herself think that way. For David.
“Tire treads,” Olivia noted. “There was another car here.” They crossed the road and introduced themselves to the man who waited. “When did you notice the green car?”
“About a half hour ago. I was coming back from an appointment in town. It wasn’t here on my way in, but another car was. That was two hours ago.”
“Which car was here, sir?” Noah asked.
“A black Lexus.” He rattled off the license plate. “I was going to give them a day to move it before I had it towed. I first noticed it today. It wasn’t there as of ten last night.”
Olivia called in the plate number, then hung up, annoyed with herself. “Thank you, sir. You’ve been a big help.” She hurried back to their car and got on the radio, Noah close behind. “It’s Eric’s car,” she said. “We never checked to see if he had one.”
“We were in a rush to find Albert,” he said after she’d put out a BOLO.
“I know.” But they couldn’t worry about that now. “All right. We know Phoebe was here and not bleeding. That’s good. Let’s check to see if Eric’s Lexus has GPS.”
Wednesday, September 22, 5:05 p.m.
“Goddammit,” Olivia snarled as they pulled in front of Mary’s dorm. “Eric’s road assist was disconnected four days ago. They tried contacting him and got no answer.”
“Then I hope the roommate has some new information for us.”
They found Mary’s roommate, Helen, in the resident advisor’s room, trying to study.
“Helen, earlier you said you met Mary’s dad,” Olivia said. “When was this?”
“After Christmas, last year. He brought her a present and she threw it in his face. Called him Daddy.” Helen mimicked a mocking tone. “Like he was a douche.”
“What did he give her for the present?” Noah asked.
“Ten fifty-dollar bills.” She shrugged. “I was eavesdropping big-time. I’ve roomed with this group of girls for two years now. The others are okay, but Mary kept to herself. Everything was a big mystery. So when the man came up, I was surprised. So was she.”
“She didn’t go down and get him?” Noah asked. “I thought that was the rule.”
Helen shrugged again. “I guess his badge got him through.”
Olivia got another very bad feeling. “What kind of badge?”
“A cop, I think. You can check with security downstairs. They might have a record of it. It was after we came back from winter break. Mid-January. He said something about it being ten years and mending fences. Mary threw the money in his face, told him she never wanted anything from him, and ran to her room, crying.”
“What did Daddy do?” Olivia asked.
“Picked up the money. I was kind of hoping he’d leave it, but he didn’t.”
“What about the doctor brother?” Noah asked.
“I saw her taking a sleeping pill once. Said she’d had trouble sleeping and her brother called it in. I asked if he could call me in a script and she said she’d ask. She never volunteered and I never brought it up again. Like I said, we weren’t close.”
“Thanks,” Olivia said.
Downstairs, they asked the receptionist if she could track the cop’s visit last year based on Mary’s name and the approximate date.
“Of course. We can sort by the form of ID used,” the woman said. She did the search, then turned her screen. “The visitors that week. Only one used a badge.”