by C. M. Sutter
Mike had his doubts that Naomi would ever be discovered. Becca and Daphne’s deaths could very well be blamed on food poisoning and an accidental drug overdose. Neither could be proven as murder. And Naomi? She had disappeared without a trace. The cops had nothing.
I’ll get away with this just like I got away with Isabelle’s death. Not a trace of evidence led back to me. I outsmarted the cops then, and I will again. Anyone can be a cop, but it takes real intelligence to be a chemist and a killer.
Chapter 46
“You may not realize this, but I can read your mind.”
I gave Amber my best eye-roll. “Really? So what am I thinking right now?”
“You’re thinking about Mike Morton and how the second we get in the house, you’re going to power up your laptop and do an internet search on him.”
“Humph.” I looked out the window so she wouldn’t see my smile.
“Nothing to say?”
I shrugged. “I just want to eliminate him from our suspect pool.”
“We don’t have a suspect pool.” Amber turned in to the driveway and pressed the remote. The overhead lifted, and she pulled in next to Jade’s bright orange Mustang.
“Whatever, let’s just say I’m being proactive.” Inside the house, Spaz was immediately under my feet. I gave him a quick petting, ran down to my basement bedroom, and grabbed my laptop. Back upstairs, I settled in at the kitchen table with a notepad and pen at my side.
Jade opened the slider and came in from the deck. “I thought I heard you guys in here.” She glanced at the clock. “Another long day and now you’re on the computer? You’re like a dog with a bone, Kate.” She took a seat next to me. “What are you looking up?”
Amber piped in. “She’s trying to turn a real estate investor—who just happened to be a witness when Becca crashed her car—into the university student killer.”
“Is that what you guys gave him as a moniker?”
“No, it’s just what I called him in the moment. To be honest, we don’t know anything for sure.”
I reminded Amber of the unusual lack of groceries and empty containers in Becca’s apartment. “Somebody removed those items, Amber. There’s no denying that.”
“True but let me play devil’s advocate for a second. What if Becca bought those groceries for somebody who was less fortunate? Maybe they weren’t for her at all.”
Jade looked at me. “Amber does have a point, you know.”
“Whatever. I’m still going to do an internet search on Mike Morton.” I typed his name into the search bar and got thousands of results. I groaned. “I think I better narrow this down to Wisconsin only.” I changed my search parameters and checked again. “Now there’s twice as many names as there were in the DMV database.”
Amber poured three glasses of iced tea and set two of them in front of Jade and me. “That’s because not everyone in Wisconsin named Mike Morton has a car.”
I let out an irritated sigh and typed “Mike Morton real estate investor” into the search bar. Nothing came up. I deleted that search and typed in his name with his address—the results showed only the last time that property was sold. My frustration grew quickly. “Why doesn’t anything come up other than his driver’s license information?”
“Who knows? What do you guys want for dinner?” Amber walked into the kitchen and pulled open the freezer door. “How about a pizza? It’s getting too late to make something from scratch.”
I nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
“So why are you checking out this guy in particular?” Jade asked.
“Because I saw him walk out of the university earlier.”
“So?”
“So, it’s odd for a real estate investor—as he claims to be—to walk out of the university and climb into an SUV that was parked in the faculty lot.”
“Then search his name and add UWWC next to it.”
“Yeah, good idea.” I tapped away at the keys and hit Enter. “Holy shit! His name came up as a professor at the university.”
“No way!” Amber jammed her face in front of the screen and blocked my view. “What courses?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see the screen.” I pushed her away and clicked the link to the “Rate my professor” website. Dozens of student reviews for both botany and chemistry classes popped up. I grabbed my phone. “Oh my God, it has to be him.”
“What are you doing?” Amber asked.
“Calling Clayton. Why didn’t he or Billings mention the professor’s name? Both Daphne and Becca took chemistry classes.”
“Wait a sec. Let’s think this through before we jump the gun.”
I reluctantly hung up my phone.
“Mike Morton’s name never came up when we were all together. Donnelly interviewed him at the scene as a witness to Becca’s accident, you and I interviewed him later at the restaurant along with those other witnesses, and Clayton and Billings interviewed him as a professor at the university. All of our notes are in different files.”
My mind went back to Lena’s comment after the tox report showed Becca had died of botulism poisoning. I looked at Amber. “Do you remember what Lena said to us when we were going to check out Becca’s apartment?”
“Something to the effect that if we didn’t find any expired foods, she would lean more toward Becca’s death being a deliberate act.”
“Yeah, and she also said it would take a very knowledgeable person, likely with a degree in chemistry, to make that toxin, and I bet Mike Morton has that knowledge.”
“You’re absolutely right, but what about the fentanyl?” Amber asked.
“Who knows what his credentials are? Maybe he’s able to order it online.”
Jade added her opinion. “So you have a chemistry professor named Mike and two dead college students. I still don’t see the connection, and neither will the district attorney. In America, you can’t arrest somebody based on mere suspicion. Without probable cause or substantial evidence, the DA will never let this go to court.”
I objected. “But he’s capable of making the botulism toxin.”
“How do you know that, Kate? He’s a chemistry professor, not a mad scientist. You need proof.”
I ground my fists into my eyes. “And how do we get that?”
“Was there DNA or prints at either scene?”
“Nothing that was in the system,” I said.
“Did Lena print both girls?”
Amber pulled the pizza out of the oven and sliced it. She brought it to the table along with plates and a stack of napkins. “She said she did.”
“Most cunning criminals wear gloves. It’s the rage killers who don’t plan ahead. If Daphne and Becca were really murdered—”
I began to interrupt, but Jade held up her hand. “Just hear me out. It’s likely that the killer’s prints won’t be found anywhere if those deaths were planned. If you really feel this professor is your guy, you’re going to have to come up with a valid reason why he’d do such an act.”
“He did seem like a jerk when we interviewed him.”
Jade smiled. “Being a jerk doesn’t make somebody a killer. You need to dig into his background. Maybe he has a criminal record. Interview his neighbors, his associates at the college, that type of thing. Get into his head. You won’t have a case unless you do. Just keep in mind to tread lightly. Without a shred of evidence, the county could be looking at a lawsuit for ruining a man’s career.”
I backed off for the moment. Jade was right, and we’d discuss it with Jack tomorrow. God knew he needed a night without drama. We had to play it smart since we were dealing with an educated man, not a two-bit street thug. I didn’t know how we’d prove Mike Morton was our man, but my gut told me my instincts were right, and so far, it had never steered me wrong.
I powered down my computer but not my brain. I knew I had a restless night of sleep ahead of me. We dug into the pizza without saying much, and I was sure our minds were full of questions, but at that point, we had no answers.
Chapter 47
I shook three ibuprofen tablets into my hand and gulped them down with a glass of water. I wasn’t about to let that throbbing headache ruin my day. I couldn’t get to work soon enough, and my to-do list was growing exponentially. A quick cup of coffee and an English muffin would hold me over until lunch. I yelled down the hallway toward Amber’s bedroom as I popped a muffin in the toaster for her. “Are you ready to go?”
“Jeez, where’s the fire? I need something to eat first.”
“There’s an English muffin in the toaster for you, and I’ve already poured your coffee.”
Amber sat at the breakfast bar and waited for the muffin to pop up. “You really are like a dog with a bone.”
A plate sat on the counter, and I grasped the knife that already has a slab of butter balanced on the tip. I stared at the toaster, waiting for the muffin to pop up. “It’s him, Amber. I can feel it.”
“Did you dream about him?”
“Maybe, and whatever I dreamt gave me a pounding headache. I just don’t remember the details.”
“You had a headache when we interviewed him at the restaurant too.”
I remembered. “It could be that transference thing again.”
“But why a headache?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know yet, but it will come together. It has to.” I slid the plate across the breakfast bar. “Hurry and eat so we can go.”
It was my turn to drive, and I was sure I exceeded the speed limit by ten miles an hour. I couldn’t help myself, and I saw Amber’s side-eyed glance.
“Looking for a speeding ticket?”
“No.” I let off the gas. “Sorry, but this case needs to be solved before another student dies.”
Amber patted my shoulder. “Tomorrow is the last day of finals before the summer break. We’ll get the perp, whether he’s a professor, a student, or neither. I’m confident in our ability to solve cases and we’ve proved ourselves time after time. This is a really tough one since we don’t know without a doubt that the cause of death was murder. Lena still hasn’t filled in that box on the death reports.”
I knew we had our work cut out for us. “Should I tell Jack my theory first, or should we go through the list of students’ names?”
“Jack definitely needs to know that Mike Morton, the witness, and Mike Morton, the professor, are one and the same.”
“Damn it, I just thought of something else.” I jerked my head toward the back seat floor. “Grab my purse and pull out my list. I want you to add something before it slips my mind.”
Amber opened my purse and flattened the list out on the dash. “Okay, go ahead.”
“Write down the fact that Mr. Morton was behind Becca on her way to school that morning. The question is why? He doesn’t live anywhere near Kewaskum. Was he following her? Was he waiting to see if she’d crash? And if he was, he had to know she was going to. Donnelly’s account of Morton’s witness statement said he acted detached and indifferent about the whole thing when he was interviewed.”
“That’s right, it did. Way to go, girl. That’s what I call thinking like a top-notch detective.”
I felt a sense of relief. We might get the evidence we needed after all. “Also, we have to check out whether there are any video cameras near Becca’s apartment. If he was lying in wait, we might catch his vehicle in the area.”
“You’re absolutely right, and Pizza Pie was only a block from her apartment. They might have cameras. I’ll write that down too, and if he came from North Bend, he’d have to pass the pizza parlor on his way to her apartment.”
I inhaled deeply and let it out gradually. “But it’s all circumstantial. We’re trying to make a case out of something that might be nothing more than a crazy coincidence. Just like Jade said, we still need proof.”
“And as soon as we rally our team together and narrow down the students named Mike who had classes with Becca and eliminate them, we can focus on Morton. We’ll get the proof we need, one way or another.”
We arrived at work at seven fifty. I needed to catch Jack right away before our day began to fill with unplanned events. We entered the bull pen, and my eyes shot toward his office immediately. I was thankful Jack was inside and sitting alone at his desk.
I headed toward his door. “I’m going to suggest we go into the conference room for this powwow.”
Amber stashed her purse in the bottom desk drawer and headed toward the coffeemaker.
I rapped on Jack’s half-closed door.
“Yeah?”
I pushed the door open wider and peeked in. “I need to speak with you, Boss. Is this a good time?”
Jack minimized the screen on his laptop and gave me his attention. “Better now than later. There’s always the chance of a shit storm heading our way, you know.”
“I know that all too well. I have a theory on the UWWC case that I’d like to share with everyone. I think it holds merit.”
Jack looked surprised. “Really? Then I say let’s get to it.” He tipped his wrist. “Give me five minutes, then we’ll meet in the conference room. I just need to close out a few things.”
“Sure thing, thanks.” I closed Jack’s door and gave Amber a nod.
Clayton grinned. “Got a covert operation in the works?”
“Nope, you’re both expected to sit in. Conference room in five.”
Clayton and Billings grabbed their notepads, pens, and coffee cups then took off. I carried Amber’s cup and my own, and she took the carafe and the tray containing creamer, stirring sticks, napkins, and the sugar packets. With each of us seated at the long oval table, we waited for Jack to arrive.
Chapter 48
Jack coughed into his fist then took a sip of water from the plastic cup in front of him. “First off, Amber, thanks for making a decent pot of coffee.” He glanced at Adam. “Sorry, Billings, but your coffee could put hair on a woman’s chest.” We laughed, and Jack turned to me. “Okay, all joking aside, Kate has something important to share with us about the UWWC case, so let’s give her our full attention.”
Clayton rearranged himself in his chair to face me and opened his notepad. He was ready to go.
I began with everyone’s eyes focused on me. “What I saw yesterday when Amber and I left the university is what started the ball rolling. I guess you’d say the timing couldn’t have been better. I walked out of the building with the list of freshmen’s names when I glanced over to the faculty parking lot with thoughts of Daphne on my mind. Seconds later, I saw Mr. Morton climb into a white Explorer, which absolutely threw me for a loop.”
Billings frowned. “You mean Professor Morton?”
“Yes, but we didn’t know he was a professor. It’s the same Mr. Morton that Donnelly interviewed from the crash site and the same man Amber and I interviewed at the restaurant. He told us he was a real estate investor.”
Jack spoke up. “Why does that surprise you? He could be both.”
I looked at Chad. “Go ahead, Clayton. Tell Jack what kind of professor he is—and by the way, his first name is Mike.”
Chad looked at Billings and shook his head. “He’s a chemistry and botany professor, but we didn’t know he was a witness at the crash site since nobody mentioned the witnesses’ names to us. Kate, you and Amber took over that side of the investigation while we focused on the school. That seems really coincidental.”
“Too coincidental for my liking,” I said. “Remember Lena telling us it would take somebody with a chemistry degree to make clostridium botulinum?”
“Damn it.” Jack rubbed his brow. “She did say that, didn’t she?”
“Oh my God, I just thought of something else, and it explains the next thing I was about to say.”
Jack locked eyes with me and took a sip of coffee. “Go on.”
“While we were driving to work this morning, it occurred to me that Mr. Morton doesn’t live anywhere near Kewaskum.”
Jack raised a curious brow. “And you know that how?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “Kate, how many times have I told you two that Jade doesn’t work with us anymore.”
“I know, but we live together, and she’s super smart. She gave us good advice.”
“Which was?” Adam asked.
“To do a search for his name with UWWC after it. That’s when it came up that he was a professor at the college. Anyway, back to my original story, I wondered why he was at the accident scene when he lives in North Bend. The fact that he stuck around tells me he wanted to witness the devastation and see if Becca was dead.”
“Good point,” Chad said.
Amber added her two cents. “We asked him what he was doing that morning and where he was going. His response was that he was just driving around.”
“Right—an insomniac who likes to hang out at fatal car accidents,” Clayton said.
I smirked in agreement. “My theory is he wanted to see if she would crash her car. Meaning, he’s the one who took those items out of her apartment because he didn’t want them found. He tainted the milk, the creamer, the water, and the three-bean salad. He knew she didn’t have long to live, and maybe he was even surprised that she made it through the night. That’s why he followed her down the highway.”
Jack set down his pen and scratched his cheek. “So he was sitting on the sidelines and watching from his car to see if she would leave for school or not.”
“Exactly! He has the capability and intelligence to make the botulism toxin. He put it in her food when she was at school then took the containers away later. There’s no other explanation.”
“But there weren’t any signs of forced entry.”
I let out a sigh. “Well, he got in somehow. I think we should check the area for video cameras. Maybe we’ll catch his vehicle near her apartment.”
