by Lisa Regan
“I’ve heard of them,” Josie said.
“We’ve had a task force looking at Cerberus for two years now. They started out loan sharking and as they expanded, they got into gambling rings, prostitution, and now they’re dabbling in drugs. They’ve got their hands in just about everything now as far south as D.C. and as far north as Boston.”
Chitwood said, “We haven’t seen them here until now.”
Drake nodded. “They’re active in Philadelphia. We believe that’s where Miles Tenney came into contact with them.”
Noah said, “The boxes you guys found in Miles Tenney’s bedroom were filled with what we believe are stolen items. Everything from electronics to jewelry to power tools. Anything and everything you’d be able to sell or pawn for money.”
“The pouch behind the fridge,” Josie said. “Were you able to confirm that it belonged to Frankie Cammack?”
Mettner hung up his phone. “I met with Gloria Cammack at her office last night and showed her photos. She confirmed it.”
Josie asked, “Was the dime still in there?”
Noah shook his head. “Nope.”
Gretchen said, “Miles was stealing things from his friends and neighbors and selling them.”
Mettner said, “Looks that way. It’s going to take a long time to track down the owners of the items that were still in his possession and to contact pawn shops to determine if any of the items reported missing were brought in by him.” He pointed to a thick stack of papers on his desk. “This is a list of items that West Denton residents within a fifteen-block radius of the Tenney household told us yesterday had gone missing in the two years prior to the bus crash. Almost none of them had been reported to the police.”
Noah said, “It was the same story again and again—each resident thought they misplaced these things, got rid of them, or loaned them to someone who hadn’t returned them, but no one could remember clearly enough to say yes, the item was definitely stolen. It was usually something they didn’t notice right away or didn’t use that often or never used.”
“Like Gloria’s clutch purse,” Gretchen said. “Or Nathan Cammack’s camping stove.”
“Exactly,” said Noah.
Josie raised a brow. “We now know Miles was taking things. You think he stopped after the crash?”
“No,” Noah said. “Not given all the items in his apartment. He just changed areas. We think he stopped stealing from people he knew and moved on to strangers.”
“I thought Miles Tenney was a successful car salesman. Their house is beautiful, and it has to be worth a fair bit of money,” Josie said.
Mettner said, “I just got off the phone with his old boss. Miles was fired six months after the accident.”
“For stealing?” asked Gretchen.
“For suspicion of stealing. A large amount of money went missing from the dealership’s petty cash. Apparently, several employees’ personal items had been going missing for some time so the owner had additional security cameras installed. They caught Miles going into the safe.”
“And didn’t have him arrested and charged?” Chitwood asked.
“They felt badly because his daughter had just died. They told him if he returned all the money within twenty-four hours, they’d let the whole thing go. They fired him, of course. He returned the money, and that was that.”
“I don’t think his wife knows about any of this,” Josie said.
Noah said, “She doesn’t. We went over to Gloria Cammack’s to talk with her last night. We had to let her know about Miles. The blood at the scene matches his blood type. Someone had to tell her that he’s missing and likely injured. Somehow the press already has wind of it. Technically, they’re still married. Plus, we needed to know if she had any information on where he might be or who could have taken him—other than Cerberus. She knew nothing. Everything was a complete shock to her.”
“Miles was lying to her,” Josie said.
“On a pretty grand scale,” Mettner pointed out. “Evidently, sometime in the last three or four years, Miles Tenney developed a pretty bad gambling problem. He didn’t have very good luck. He ended up in a lot of debt. He’s been trying to pull himself out of it ever since.”
“That’s how he ended up in touch with the Cerberus syndicate,” Drake said.
“Was Miles Tenney already on your radar?” Josie asked.
“No, but the two men you met yesterday? Leon Tartaglia and Joseph Bruno? They were. When they were taken into custody, we were notified.”
“But you’re not here because of Miles Tenney,” said Gretchen.
Drake smiled. “No. I’m hoping to turn one of these guys.”
“So they’re out of our reach now?” Chitwood said.
“We talked to them both this morning,” Drake said. “One is cooperating, the other isn’t.”
“They both survived,” Josie said.
“Yeah,” Noah interjected. “Bruno started shooting when you disarmed Tartaglia and he hit his buddy in the back. Tartaglia spent a few hours in surgery last night but he’s in stable condition.”
“They were looking for Miles,” Gretchen said. “There’s no way that they know where he is. But they were talking about taking his wife.”
Chitwood said, “We’ve had a detail on Dee Tenney, and we’ll keep one on her for the time being.”
Drake said, “Bruno told us that Miles was into Cerberus for over three hundred thousand dollars. He was supposed to deliver cash to a bar in Philadelphia that acts as a Cerberus front a week ago. This wasn’t the first time he failed to show or to pay back what he owed. Bruno and Tartaglia were sent to get him and take him back to their boss. If they didn’t find him, their orders were to take his wife. They were going to hold her to flush Miles out.”
“But Miles is gone,” Josie said. “Either he got away or someone besides Cerberus found him. Dee is still in danger, and I’m not sure we have the resources here to protect her long-term from a syndicate like Cerberus.”
Drake frowned. “I can’t get her witness protection if she didn’t actually witness anything.”
“She’s a sitting duck, Drake. She’s innocent.” She looked around the room, thinking of Heidi and how bonded she had become to Dee Tenney. “We can’t do nothing.”
No one spoke. In the silence, there was only the sound of Amber tapping away at her keyboard. Soon, that stopped as well. Then came Amber’s voice. “If I could make a suggestion?”
All heads turned toward her. She stood up from her desk and leaned her hip against the edge of it. “This crime boss—he only wants Dee Tenney to flush Miles out, right?”
Drake nodded.
“Then if you make him think that Miles is gone, he’ll have no reason to go after Dee.”
“Theoretically, yes,” Drake answered. “But guys like this—like the people running Cerberus—they don’t always operate on the honor system. They could take her anyway and kill her just because they feel like it. Or if they think that Miles ran off, they’ll take her to lure him back in.”
Mettner said, “But we could decrease the chances of that happening if we do what Amber says: take this to the press. Tell them that Miles is missing but he’s believed to be dead.”
“No one has said anything about him being dead,” Gretchen pointed out.
Josie said, “No, but his blood was found at the scene. If nothing else, we know he was injured. He could be dead.”
“How much blood loss?” Noah asked. “Can we make a case that he lost too much blood to have survived?”
Amber said, “I’m not sure you need to. You could just say there was blood found at the scene that matches Miles’ blood type and let the public fill in the rest. We don’t have to lie about what happened to him—we really don’t know and it’s okay to say that. The important thing would be telegraphing to this Cerberus group that he’s gone and that he didn’t go willingly. But if you really want to protect Dee you need to tell the whole story—that he lied to her, left her destitut
e, and she had no idea what he was into.”
Gretchen said, “You want to air her dirty laundry to the whole city?”
Josie said, “It’s the only chance we’ve got of protecting her.” And Heidi, Josie added silently. “If we talk to her, explain the situation, I’m sure we could get her to agree to it.”
Drake said, “I’m willing to talk to her and tell her what we know about Cerberus. Maybe try to drive home the seriousness of what we’re dealing with here. We’ll be taking over the Miles Tenney case from here.”
“Thank you,” Josie said. “But it’s not just protecting Dee that we need to worry about. Did the team catch you up on what’s been happening here?”
“How the parents of the bus crash victims have been turning up dead?” Drake said. “Listen, I know this looks like a pattern, but you have to consider the possibility that whatever happened to Miles had nothing to do with that.”
“You don’t think whatever happened to Miles is related to the murders of the other two parents?” Josie asked.
Mettner said, “There were a lot of documents in Miles Tenney’s apartment. The ERT is still sifting through them and uploading them to the file, but none of it is good. We have to consider the possibility that Cerberus wasn’t the only outfit looking to take out some repayment from Miles in blood.”
Gretchen lifted her chin in Noah’s direction. “You guys find any leads on Miles Tenney? Video? Car? Anything?”
Noah said, “No video. The pawn shop had a camera, but Miles wasn’t on it. We found his car a few blocks away. Nothing. Neighbors all claim they saw nothing, heard nothing.”
“Of course,” Josie muttered. This was a typical response in that area of Denton. It was better to pretend you had seen and heard nothing than to put a target on your own back ratting out criminals. “You didn’t find any candles in his apartment, did you?”
“No,” Mettner answered.
Gretchen said, “We really can’t say for sure that Miles’ disappearance is related to the murders of Krystal Duncan and Faye Palazzo.”
Noah said, “Not unless his body turns up in a day or two with wax in his throat and a name on his arm.”
Chitwood cleared his throat, and everyone startled. Josie had nearly forgotten he was there. “Regardless of whether Miles Tenney’s disappearance is part of the Duncan and Palazzo cases or related to some hot water he got himself into, we have a killer on the loose in this city right now. Someone who is targeting grieving parents. Someone who is clearly trying to send a message of some kind.”
Gretchen said, “So let’s take Miles out of consideration for now and look at the cases.”
“No,” said Josie. “We were meant to talk to Miles. Actually, we were meant to find out his secret.”
“What do you mean?” Mettner asked.
Josie looked up from her coffee cup to see she had everyone’s attention. “Think about this. Krystal’s body led us to Gloria and Nathan Cammack. What were their secrets?”
Gretchen said, “That Nathan was smoking pot with Krystal for years behind his wife’s back. That he slept with Krystal at least once. That on the day of the accident, he canceled his children’s and Bianca Duncan’s orthodontist appointments to meet his wife at home.”
“Those are all the husband’s secrets,” Noah pointed out.
“No,” said Josie. “Gloria’s secret is that she made Nathan come home early and leave the kids at school that day, and they got on the bus.”
“Faye was next,” said Chitwood.
Noah said, “Gail Tenney’s name was written on her arm.”
“Which led us to Dee first,” Josie said. “She didn’t have any secrets, or at least, we haven’t found them out yet.”
“But she did tell us that Faye had been having an affair,” Gretchen pointed out. “Maybe it’s not necessarily their personal secrets but something they knew about one of the other parents.”
“Yes,” said Josie. “That could very well be. But for now, let’s follow the trail this killer has left. The next logical person we would interview would be Miles.”
“His secret is the years of stealing, the gambling debts, getting fired,” said Mettner. “His own wife didn’t know about any of it.”
“You sure about that?” Chitwood asked. “You sure Dee Tenney’s not just lying to save face?”
“According to fourteen-year-old Heidi Byrne who is practically living with Dee right now,” said Gretchen, “Dee had a meltdown the morning Faye was found because her bank account was overdrawn. I think we can assume that Heidi is an independent witness. If Dee was lying, she might put on a show for the police, but I don’t think she would for Heidi. From what Heidi told us, Dee had no idea there were any financial issues. When we talked with Dee yesterday, she said that Miles just deposited money into their bank account and she went about her life.”
Noah said, “But absent the bloody scene at Miles’ apartment and the Cerberus lugheads, how would you have found out about Miles’ big secret? You think he would have just told you?”
In Josie’s mind, two words whispered on a loop. If only, if only.
Gretchen said, “We’ll never know, but he had a secret. If we had dug deeper, we might have uncovered it or if we waited long enough, his web of lies would have reached critical mass like it did last night with those guys coming after him.”
Chitwood said, “You can’t run forever when you’re in that deep. It would have come out sooner or later.”
“But so what?” asked Mettner. “This one canceled doctor’s appointments. This one smoked weed. This one had an affair. This one was in debt to a loan-sharking crime syndicate. What does any of this have to do with the bus crash?”
If only, if only.
Josie said, “If Miles hadn’t been stealing things from his neighbors’ houses for all that time, when Gloria went home to get her planner on the day of the accident, her son’s PlayStation would have been there that day. She wouldn’t have called Nathan at work and demanded that he come home. He wouldn’t have canceled the orthodontist appointments. Instead, he would have picked up the kids—at least three of them—and they’d still be alive.”
Noah said, “You think this is revenge of some kind?”
Gretchen said, “If that’s true, then why kill Krystal or Faye? Why not kill Nathan, Gloria, and Miles?”
Josie said, “Because those aren’t all the secrets. There are more. Plus, Faye did have a secret—her affair with Corey Byrne.”
“Whose kid survived the crash,” Mettner pointed out.
Chitwood gave a frustrated sigh and waved a hand in the air. “We’re not asking the right questions, people. If someone is targeting the parents of the bus crash victims, who has the most to gain from their deaths?”
“No one,” said Noah. “Virgil Lesko was drunk the day of the accident. Toxicology showed that, and he admitted to it. The parents weren’t even due to be witnesses at his trial. Killing these parents does nothing for him. He’s guilty whether they’re alive or dead.”
“But he lied,” Josie said. “He lied about why he had a drink that day. In his initial statement he said he had a drink because his sick mother had been admitted to hospice care that day when in fact, she’d already been in hospice care for at least a month. In the case files there’s a photo of an explanation of benefits for hospice care, which was found in his car. It’s dated a month before that.”
She leaned forward and clicked her computer mouse until she had accessed the Virgil Lesko case file and found the photo again. Enlarging it on her screen, she pointed to two lines. “Patient: Luray Lesko. Billing Period: April 1 through April 30. The bus crash took place on May 18th.”
Gretchen and Mettner got up from their seats and came around to look at her screen. Chitwood walked over as well and peered at it.
Perched on the edge of Josie’s desk, Noah had a good view of it. He said, “Why would he lie? He admitted to drinking. Why lie about the reason?”
Gretchen took a step back
and slid her reading glasses up onto her head. “Because he was well-respected in the community. He took his job seriously, and he would never take a drink before driving a bus full of schoolchildren around. He told me that. He took pride in that.”
“What would be so bad that would make him take a drink that day and then lie about it?” Mettner asked as he too, stepped away from Josie’s computer.
Silence.
Josie said, “We could ask his son, Ted. He was pretty cooperative when we met him at Andrew Bowen’s office.”
Mettner said, “About his son…” He shot a look at Chief Chitwood, sucked in a deep breath, and kept speaking. “I know the Chief thinks that these murders are about gain but what if Noah is right and this isn’t about gain at all but about revenge? The person who would want revenge most against the parents would have to be Ted Lesko, don’t you think?”
They waited a beat for Chitwood to holler, but he remained silent, arms folded over his chest. Gretchen said, “That does make sense, except there is no way that Ted Lesko would know all these intimate things like the nickname the other kids gave Wallace Cammack or the thing about Nathan Cammack canceling the orthodontist appointments and lying to Krystal about it. We should be looking at people who had access to these families, someone who could glean these details.”
“We’re back to the support group, then,” Noah pointed out. “Or someone else in the neighborhood.”
Chitwood clapped his hands, drawing their attention. “All right, all right. Let’s bring in Ted Lesko anyway and see what he’s got to say for himself. Someone else interview Corey Byrne. I know he’s not in the group but maybe he knows something that no one else does. Mettner and Fraley, I know you’ve got leads left to follow up on from yesterday, like Krystal Duncan’s work files and the orthodontist. Squeeze those things in, too. Drake, you can have Amber for the day. Head over to see Dee Tenney and see if you can get some kind of story together for the press to keep the heat off her. Quinn, this business you’re talking about with everyone having a secret—who’s left? Who’s got secrets we don’t know about?”
