Teddy moved to the jury table and sat down. “But what if we’re wrong?” he said. “What if Darlene Lewis fought back? What if Holmes cut himself during the struggle?”
“It’s possible, but not likely. The science is starting to come in. The results are piling up against Holmes. I imagine that will continue. You better get used to it, Teddy. We’re looking for someone who’s taken great pains to cover his tracks.”
“But even Holmes thinks he did it. How can you be so sure he didn’t?”
Nash picked up his cigar and crossed the room. As he walked past the row of pictures tacked to the wall, the girl’s faces seemed as if they were staring at him again. Nash stopped at the very last one, removing it from the wall and placing it on the table before Teddy.
Nash had posted the bulletins in chronological order. Teddy looked down at the flyer, expecting to see Valerie Kram’s picture. Instead, he found himself gazing at someone new. Another missing persons bulletin off the FBI’s national computer database.
“This only became official last night,” Nash said. “Her name’s Rosemary Gibb. Holmes has been in prison for four days. Rosemary’s been missing for two.”
Teddy stared at the photograph. Gibb was another obvious Darlene Lewis look-alike. Another missing twin.
“Powell didn’t mention it,” he said to Nash.
“She probably doesn’t even know about it.”
“But they’re looking for the other victims.”
Nash smiled. “Do you really think so? Let’s assume they’re not. You tell me why.”
Teddy got up and started pacing. At first he wondered if Nash wasn’t enjoying his role as a teacher and playing a mind game. But as he thought it over, he saw the man’s point. Andrews had said at his press conference last night that they’d isolated ten missing persons and would be meeting with their families to brief them. It could’ve been a political move to buy time. He may have said it for show.
Teddy turned and found Nash studying him as he figured it out.
“It’s because of the evidence,” Teddy said. “Andrews will concentrate on the Darlene Lewis murder because he’s got Holmes in a cell and that’s where all the evidence is.”
“Keep going,” Nash said.
“Assuming Andrews thinks Holmes is guilty, if he gets him for one murder then that’s just as good as getting him for all twelve. Holmes is locked up and out of the way, and that would be the DA’s only concern. Even if he could bring the others in during trial, he wouldn’t because that might weaken his case against Holmes for the Darlene Lewis murder. He wouldn’t take the chance. You wouldn’t either. No one would. If someone in the jury didn’t think Holmes murdered one or all of the victims, Holmes could be acquitted and walk.”
“Then you’re telling me Andrews was lying at his press conference,” Nash said. “Andrews doesn’t have any intention of looking for the others. They’re still missing. Still forgotten.”
Nash was pushing him as he did the night before last. Forcing Teddy to reject the apparent and see what lay on the other side.
“No,” Teddy said, glancing back at the pictures tacked to the wall. “Andrews wasn’t lying, but that doesn’t mean these victims still aren’t forgotten. He’ll work on them after he’s finished with the Darlene Lewis case. Until then, he’ll do enough to get by. He probably asked the families for DNA samples in order to match the six samples on the knife. But spreading out his resources by wasting staff time to look for them could jeopardize the Lewis case as well.”
“You’re doing great, Teddy. Now tell me why Rosemary Gibb will never even come up.”
“Because everything we’ve talked about depends on Holmes’s guilt. Like you said, Holmes has been locked up for four days. Rosemary Gibb has been missing for two.”
Nash had known it all along, guiding Teddy through the maze until he saw it as well. Rosemary Gibb would slip through the cracks. The DA’s office would have no interest in locating her because they had the killer and there was no reason for them to think otherwise. Andrews had followed the evidence to Holmes and was certain that he had his man. Now the murders were connected by DNA, the scientific results indisputable. The likelihood that Andrews would look beyond the evidence and admit that he’d made another mistake was nil. Even more troubling, the FBI wouldn’t be called in to assist because everyone involved thought the case was over. Why spend time and money on an investigation when the serial killer was already awaiting trial behind bars?
“Andrews is running out line,” Nash said. “He hasn’t caught his mistake, and he’s in too deep to make a change now. The man’s got blinders on. He always has.”
Teddy wasn’t thinking about Andrews anymore, or even ADA Powell for that matter. His mind was riveted on Rosemary Gibb. Without Nash and himself, she was in the weeds.
“The killer’s doing something to the bodies for a reason,” Teddy said. “Valerie Kram was taken away and worn down, then hidden in the water when he was through with her. Darlene Lewis was murdered on the spot. Maybe it was because Holmes interrupted him, but maybe it’s more than that. It’s almost as if he got to Darlene Lewis and rejected her for some reason.”
Nash turned to him and smiled like he hadn’t thought of it before. It was a look of genuine surprise. Another step down the road.
“That’s a good point,” Nash said, lighting his cigar. “And with a decent profile of the man and a little luck, that’s just how we’ll find him.”
THIRTY-TWO
She was in the bathroom. It had been two days and she was still in there. But Eddie Trisco was patient. Tired of waiting maybe, but patient.
At least the screaming had stopped. All the crying. She’d quieted down at some point last night after he ran an important errand and ditched her car in the long-term parking lot at the airport. When he returned and checked the lock, he knew she was still alive because she kicked the door and moaned.
He could drag her out, of course. He could do it any time he wanted. But she had to be willing. That was the key to the whole thing. They had to want to come out. They had to want to be with him. And in the end, everyone of them always did. Even if it took time and a little training from their master.
The truth was that he’d let her run into the bathroom the same way he’d done it with the others. It was part of the plan. Once he’d helped her down to the basement, he gave her the tour. And like the rest, she’d fled into the bathroom and slammed the door. There were no windows and the light switch was outside the door. Two or three days in solitary without light usually brought them around.
Eddie checked the water pipes, making certain the valve to the bathroom was shut off. He’d examined the valve five or six times in the last hour. A creature of habit, he told himself. When the toilet bowl was empty, they got thirsty and opened the fucking door.
The basement was as large as a two-bedroom apartment and offered just as many rooms, including a greenhouse off the main workroom just through the door. Eddie used the basement for his experiments, his work. Even though the house was large and there were plenty of rooms upstairs, he spent most of his time down here. It was safer in the basement. More comfortable. There were too many windows upstairs, and every time he looked outside he could feel his neighbors watching him.