Sixteen
Sean shot a worried glance at Elise, slumped in the leather love seat in the waiting room, her eyes glassy, a grayish pallor to her cheeks.
Curtis was yammering at him. “You figured out the next victim was Courtney Chu from that cryptic note?”
Jacoby slapped Curtis on the back. “Brody’s the best. Get used to it, Curtis.”
“So you got some prints this time?”
Jacoby smiled and patted his bag. “If he was posing as a client and he’d been here before, maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Sean swung around on Melvin, the security guard. “Did you get the video from the cameras?”
“We’re collecting that for you now, Detective Brody.”
“But you didn’t notice the guy coming in tonight?”
“Nope. The only one I saw was the delivery boy from the restaurant.” He pointed at Curtis. “And I gave Detective Curtis the name of the restaurant.”
Curtis held up his hand. “I’m on it. We’re going to bring the kid in for questioning.”
“The killer has to be on camera. I’m hoping we can get a good look at him on those videos.”
Curtis lowered his voice and moved closer to Sean. “Sorry I wasn’t available when you called, and there’s going to be hell to pay for Healy for refusing backup.”
“I don’t know if it would’ve helped. Judging by the—” he slid a glance at Elise, who was sipping some water “—condition of the body, I think we were too late anyway.”
The coroner had arrived and Sean slipped away from the crush of people and crouched in front of Elise, taking her hands.
“How are you doing?”
She raised her blue eyes, flooded with tears. “It’s my fault. I brought him into her life.”
He squeezed her hands. “It’s his fault, Elise. His and no one else’s.”
“She was so full of life. I can’t even imagine her silent forever.” She pressed a hand to her forehead. “Has anyone notified her brother? Has anyone told Oscar yet?”
“They’re working on that.”
A tear crested on her lower lid and rolled down her cheek. “He screwed up, didn’t he? Dan Jacoby told me he got a lot of prints. There has to be video of him coming in and out of the building as a client of Courtney’s. He can’t have come and gone through the emergency door every time he saw her.”
“We’ll get him. I promise you that. There will be justice for Courtney and the other three victims, too. Justice for you.”
She dashed the tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. “How am I going to make it to the last day of school tomorrow? It’s already past one-thirty.”
“Take the day off. Everyone will understand.”
“But the kids.”
“You can see them next year when they’re first-graders. I know you’re a wonderful teacher, but they’ll be so excited for the last day of school they won’t be sad for long that you’re not there.”
“Maybe. I feel so awful. I don’t even know if I can get up from this love seat.”
“Sean!”
He twisted his head around and answered Curtis. “What is it?”
“Lieutenant Healy wants you down at the station—now.”
“Are you kidding me? Don’t tell me he’s mad because I found the Alphabet Killer’s victim.”
“He’s mad about a lot of things. I suggest you head down there.”
Sean rose to his feet and brought Elise with him, tucked against his side. “Technically, I was on a date.”
Curtis cleared his throat. “Technically, you were on a date with a witness, which is another one of his points of contention.”
“I’m not leaving Elise stranded, and I don’t want her going back to my place alone.”
“Your place?” Curtis rolled his eyes. “Yeah, the LT doesn’t even know about that, but he could add it to his list when he chews you out.”
Elise pressed her shoulder against Sean’s. “It’s okay. There are a million cops here, and my guess is they’ll be here for a few more hours. I can just stay here and wait for you.”
Sean glanced at the coroner’s stretcher in the hallway. “I don’t want you hanging out here, Elise. You’re exhausted.”
“I’ll tell you what.” Curtis smiled at Elise. “You go have your confab with the lieutenant, and I’ll take Elise out for coffee to wait for you or back to my place, or we can even go back to your place.”
“Hot chocolate.”
“Huh?”
“Elise likes hot chocolate with whipped cream.” He hugged her close. “Is that okay with you?”
“Yes, of course. I don’t want you to get into any more trouble because of me.” She sniffled. “I don’t want to be the cause of any more trouble for anyone.”
Sean gave her a quick kiss and didn’t care who saw. “Hang in there, kid. I’ll be with you as soon as I can.”
She bobbed her head once and sank back down to the love seat.
“Take care of her, Curtis.” Sean glanced over his shoulder at Elise one more time before leaving the crime scene.
When he got to the station, it looked like one o’clock in the afternoon instead of one o’clock in the morning. And Lieutenant Healy was presiding over all the controlled chaos with a tight rein.
When he saw Sean, he barked, “Brody. In here now.”
Sean sat tight-lipped as the lieutenant dressed him down for consorting with a witness, for conducting an investigation on his own and even for continuing to thrust himself into this case when he’d been removed from it.
At the end of the tirade, he praised Sean for his good detective work and was personally inviting him back on the case.
“I’ll deal with the captain tomorrow. He can’t really believe you don’t have something important to contribute, but—” he held up one crooked finger “—Curtis will still be lead. And if you have a problem...”
“No problem with that, sir.”
“Good. Now let’s head over to the situation room. The security office at the victim’s building turned over the tapes. We have the victim’s phone and appointment book, so we’re going to try to match up some appointment times with the videos.”
“I’m in.”
He and the lieutenant and one of the junior detectives hunched over the laptop and fast-forwarded through people walking in and out of Courtney’s building.
Sean tossed down his pencil in frustration. “There are a lot of offices in that building and a lot of foot traffic. Elise Duran told me there were a few nights this week where the victim saw this new client later in the day. Let’s concentrate on the video for those times when there aren’t so many people.”
When the videos were loaded, Sean peered at the grainy images on the laptop monitor. They stopped the video and captured and printed pictures of every man who came through the door.
When he had a stack, he said, “I’m going to run these by Elise so she can see if any of these guys look familiar.”
He studied in particular a stocky man with a cap pulled low over his face, which he kept turned away from the camera. He could even be wearing