IRENE - BLACKBIRD book 6

7. from here and there

Back to the 101 with the coffee and Brock's tea, she sat down and rubbed her face.

"Talk to me, lads. Let's make sure we're not overlapping or going in circles."

Russell refilled his mug, passed on the bottle and said, "I went back to Kelly Hayes file—the first murder. Turns out there are coincidences between her and Irene, after all: both of them were addicts from out of town, no family in the area, just visiting. So now I'm checking cold cases in this area matching their type."

"You said the place where she was found was out of the Metro PD turf," said Ron.

Brock came back and sat by Gillian without a noise. She struggled to keep looking at her friend when his cologne reached her nose.

"Yeah," Russell replied. "I'm looking into the whole area, no matter the jurisdiction."

"But you said the MO didn't match at all," said Gillian, fighting a fair fight against her impulse to move her chair an inch closer to Brock. An inch at a time.

"What if Kelly was his first kill, and he didn't know what he likes best? He could still be trying to find his right fix," said Ron.

"But what he did to Irene..." said Fred. "It was too clean. He knows his way with wires."

"You should look for reports about injured or electrocuted animals," said Brock. "Over the two weeks between both murders."

"You mean he took his time to experiment and improve his technique on animals?" asked Aldana.

Brock and Russell nodded at the same time.

"Hey, T, I'm gonna need access to..." Russell's tablet beeped and he smiled. "Thanks."

Gillian turned to Ron.

"What about you?"

"Earlier, on our way back from the woods, Fred and I stopped for some fuel," he said. "It was the gas station where Irene was last seen, and the same shift, so we took the chance to talk to the employees."

"All of them but the mechanic," said Fred. "We showed him Irene's picture, he said he didn't remember her and bailed."

"The guy's got a tow truck," said Ron. "It doesn't belong to the gas station, but they let'im take calls during his shift. He keeps the towing fee all to himself, and in return, he takes the cars to the gas station for repairs, so people spend some money there as well."

"So we were still talking to him when he picked up a call and went away with his truck."

"So...?" asked Gillian.

"I took a look at his corner by the minimarket," said Fred. "It's an open space under the station's roof, no walls."

"So...?" asked Aldana.

"Nothing. Everything looked fine."

Ron and Fred scoffed at the faces around the table.

"From there, I saw two security cameras that should record whatever happens at the repair area," said Fred. "But when I checked the feeds they gave us, turns out none of them show that corner."

"Both cameras are oriented in such a way that their images skip the repair corner for inches," said Ron.

"Now you lost me," grunted Russell.

"The man has several thousand dollars in tools there," said Gillian. "Yet he has no surveillance on them while he's away."

"He'd rather risk his tools being stolen than allowing any record of what he does there," said Brock.

"Funny," muttered Aldana.

"So now Fred's checking feeds from cameras around the gas station, to see if any of them shows the repair corner."

"And you?" asked Gillian.

"I'm taking a look at the finances of Irene's family."

"We said we'd focus on her murder, Ron." Gillian was serious now.

"I know, but Hank was watching his sports and I was bored to death at the guest house."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Anything?"

"Nope. Only the regular expenses of a rich family." Ron arched his eyebrows. "That means not an extra dime on health centers."

Brock anticipated Gillian's question. "They didn't pay for the hospital where Irene delivered her child?"

"Nope. Actually, most of the family wasn't even in the country for the Holidays. They were in Europe."

"But Irene was home," argued Tanya. "I have her phone records here. She didn't leave Richmond until last Tuesday."

"Who went to Europe, Ron?" asked Russell.

"Pa, Bro, Sis."

"Only Irene stayed in the States?"

"With Mom."

"I'd really like to talk to that woman," Gillian grunted.

"So Irene's mother stayed home with her, while her father took the rest of the family away," said Aldana.

"Yep."

"No hospital bills over those days?" asked Brock. "No nurse or caregiver either?"

"Nope."

"Then where the hell did she deliver her baby?" asked Aldana.

"Wait," said Gillian. "Maybe Irene's family didn't pay the hospital bill. But somebody had to."

"I'm pulling birth records from Richmond hospitals over December," said Tanya.

"Hold your horses, T," said Gillian. "All of us. We agreed to focus on Irene's murder. Let's do it, and then we can get our fix poking into her life." She gave them a moment to grunt and complain. "T, what're you working on?"

"A crazy search. All the local matches from VICAP are either dead or in jail, and none of them is an exact MO match anyway. So I extended the search to the other southern states, five years back as you told me. I got some closer results. Now I'm pulling the files, so Al can take a look at them."

"What d'you mean, closer?" asked Russell.

"There's this guy who tortured working girls in Louisiana. He used a taser. And there's this Texan guy who electrocuted three men. They're both free nowadays, but the files are available, with their mugshots."

"That's promising. Al?"

"Irene's phone records. I'm trying to see if she made any call to Florida, to find out who's her friend. Nothing so far. Most of her calls and texts are locals, or to DC numbers."

"Dad's company has offices in DC," said Ron. "And the family owns a couple of apartments in town. Dad and Bro spend most of their time there."

"What about you, Reg?" asked Russell.

"Big fat nada. So if T is as kind as to deliver the Interstate feeds..."

"I'll help with that," said Brock, grabbing the spare tablet from the table. "Lawrence, can you send me half of the feeds?"

"Right away, sir!"