“Who did you think was a violent adult when you were a boy growing up here? Who do you still think today is violent? Who on that list has moved away? A domestic disturbance call, a drug arrest, a bar fight, an assault complaint that involved someone on your list. Cops have bumped into the violent ones who live in Carin. Because the case is twelve years ago, you’ll need your father to contribute a list too. Violence often runs in families-the father may be on his list, the son on yours.”
Gabriel nodded at the reasoning behind her request. “It will take some time, but I can do that. After we get our lists together, we’ll see which ones have alibis for that Thursday evening, Friday morning.”
“We could do that. But I was thinking more along the lines of asking those people who they think is capable of killing the Florist family. If you want to find a particular kind of violent man, Gabriel, you ask violent ones who know him. This person could appear controlled but have that snap to his fury. People around him will know that about him. It won’t necessarily be the hothead your deputy might have worried about on sight, though it might be someone who’s related. The person we want is violent, likely told someone a detail or two, or had a partner. There’s a rumor out there. Someone knows something useful. I’d like you to focus on finding that rumor or name. That’s your strong suit. You know this county and its residents. Start there.”
Gabriel could see merit to that strategy. “Okay, while I focus on violent citizens around Carin County, what’s your target?”
“Motive. Were the deputy and family a chance encounter or were they targeted? If it’s random, there’s nothing for me to find. But if it’s this family specifically, either one or all three of them, then something happened that made the person we’re looking for say, ‘I’m going to harm the Florist family.’ I want to find the trigger event. You find the person who could do this. I’ll find the reason he did.”
Gabriel looked over the boxes stacked behind her, filled with interviews, reports, notes. She was trying to recreate something fresh from the information, a new way of looking at the data. “I understand where you’re coming from-if you find a motive, it moves this case a leap forward. But you’ve given yourself a hard assignment.” He glanced at the crime wall, the questions listed there. “What about the idea they hit a deer?”
She shrugged. “I’ll multitask. I assume someone in the county picks up dead animals by the side of the road. A deer is probably going to get a mention in a daily report. You have an archive of that kind of paperwork?”
“We throw stuff away only when we run out of room to store it, so yes, that paperwork is probably still buried in the archives. Stop by the office and I’ll point you in the right direction.”
“Thanks. If there’s a violent man who works nights at a garage on the route they would have traveled, put a red circle around him.”
Gabriel smiled. “You really think there’s a way to reexamine this case, put it together differently, and find an answer?”
“Yes. I do. It’s all about context, Gabriel. How many cases actually remain unsolved because of lack of evidence? You said it yourself-the bodies could be buried on land the person owns, the vehicles under a tarp in a barn on the property. I think the evidence no one has found thus far-the vehicles, the bodies-is still sitting out there and waiting to be discovered.
“Give me names of violent people in Carin County capable of murdering three people, one a kid, and give me who on that list owns property. If they killed twelve years ago, it’s probable they killed someone else in the years before or after that. Think about the person who could have done this and see if their behavior over the last dozen years raises flags. Cases solve when you can get a thumbnail under a corner of the answer and peel it back.”
“Optimism is your middle name, Evie.”
She nodded. “Gabriel, think about this. You see these intervening years as an obstacle to solving the case. I see it as an opportunity. The person who did the crime has had all this time to show us his true colors. Maybe it wasn’t obvious at the time, but now, looking at him today? I bet it’s obvious he’s got a violent streak. There’s that Bible verse about things in the dark not staying hidden. A person’s true colors show over time. Take advantage of the extra information the last twelve years have created. His friends back then are probably not his friends anymore. Someone knows him, can tell us, ‘I think Jerry did it.’ The more years pass, the more some people get annoyed with each other, drift apart, find old tensions simmering. The former friend who will now give him up is a powerful investigative tool.”
She tilted her head slightly. “It’s not simply this crime, you know-you can find him by a general pattern he leaves in his wake. Violence rarely limits itself to a single type of assault. Who was showing up at school with bruises? What woman has shown up at the hospital or clinic with signs of being hit? Who was self-medicating with alcohol? If he’s in the community, others are brushing up against him every day. Who were people afraid of back then? Who are people afraid of today? Sometimes that question points to the right direction.”
Gabriel found himself making mental notes as he listened to Evie, not so much about the case itself but about how she was thinking. He let himself relax. Maybe they would end up after these weeks with no results, but she was right. They could work on the ones around the person they wanted to identify. “Thanks for the fresh perspective. It’s useful. I’ll look for a name of someone who might have done this. You look for a motive. One of us might get lucky.”
“Luck is mostly perspiration.” She nodded again at the boxes. “As helpful as those files will be, it’s not likely going to be enough to find my motive. I’m going to need some time in the archives. I want to understand what was happening in the town and around the county in the weeks and months leading up to the family’s disappearance.”
“You’re not a woman of small ambitions. Or maybe it’s better stated you’re a small woman of large ambitions?”
She grinned. “I like either one. I could use that stenciled on a sign in my office. Seriously, Gabriel, if this wasn’t random, then something happened before their disappearance to trigger a decision to harm the Florist family. I’m not going to find that something in the notes about the search, though maybe an item in an interview will point back to it. More likely it’s in a separate police report filed in the months or even years before the family disappeared.”
“You’re welcome to browse through the archives,” he repeated. He nodded to her left. “Hand me that pad of paper. I can start listing names of violent people from memory. Would a phone call bother you? I’d like to give my father a call and have him start doing the same.”
“Go ahead. For the rest of this evening I’m reading until I can’t see straight.”
He glanced at the other wall. “You want to talk about the Dayton girl’s disappearance?”
“Tuesday will be soon enough, when Ann is back in town.”
He nodded and dialed a number. “Dad, I have a question for you.” He pushed away from the table and walked across the room as he explained what he needed.
Evie Blackwell
Gabriel got called away by dispatch, and shortly thereafter two deputies came over carrying more boxes. Evie got up to let them in, pointed where to stack them. “Could I ask you a question?” she asked when they’d made their deliveries.
“Sure,” the nearest deputy replied.
“You know what’s in the boxes. What do you think about the State Police coming in to look into the Florist case?”
“Meaning you, ma’am?” He looked at the wall, the timeline she was creating of the crime, then at his partner, then back at her. “Way we heard it from Marissa, who heard it from Iris, the boss decided to say okay, told them to pull out the boxes, copy every piece of paper, including any dust bunnies that might be hiding in a box corner. He wanted you to have it all, so I’m guessing he’s going to join in on that review himself and help you out. Only way it can be gone through in a reasonable amount of time.”