“Do they all look familiar, Eddie?” Tori asked in a cool monotone voice as she slowly moved her finger between Sarah Craig and each of the victims, while watching Eddie’s eyes focus on the pictures. She saw the recognition in his eyes, and then shock. What she was having a hard time determining was whether it was shock of seeing his handiwork, of being found out, or something else, like genuine shock at seeing such photos. She glanced to her right to Braddock and she could tell he saw it and was questioning it, too. It was time to dig into that.
“You know them, don’t you, Eddie?”
Eddie shook his head. “No, I…don’t.”
“So, you want to play that game, okay. Let me remind you of their names,” Tori declared, working left to right. “The first one here is Kristin Quales, in Vermillion, South Dakota. This one here is Sierra Brooks, Manhattan, Kansas. This one here is Barbara Korn, East Lansing, Michigan and then last year, Kelsey Zimmer, Green Bay, Wisconsin,” Tori explained. “And then Sarah Craig two nights ago.”
“You know what all of those locations of those murders have in common, Eddie?” Braddock asked.
Eddie didn’t respond verbally, but he nodded almost imperceptibly.
“That’s right, Mannion’s restaurants. In Green Bay and Vermillion, those were Mannion’s locations. In East Lansing, it was an Ansel’s. In Kansas, it was a Victory’s. All of them are part of the Mannion’s family of restaurants.”
Eddie’s mouth opened. “Uh…”
“Eddie!” Westlund growled, “Stay quiet. Don’t respond.” Then to Braddock Westlund declared, “Will, just because these women were murdered in larger towns where a Mannion’s restaurant is located doesn’t mean anything.”
“I’m pretty sure if Eddie thinks on it real hard, looking at the dates on each photo, he’ll understand the significance,” Tori replied, her arms folded. “Because he was there—for each and every one of them.”
Eddie Mannion rubbed his face hard with both of his hands, as if he was trying to wake himself up from the nightmare he was now in.
Tori piled on. “Counselor, all four murders occurred within just a few days of the opening of each restaurant.”
Braddock, taking his partner’s cue, took out a set of newspaper clippings and photos. In each, Eddie Mannion was front and center, cutting the ribbon at the grand openings of the restaurants with various dignitaries behind him clapping and smiling. The dates all corresponded with the four murdered women.
“The. Man. Of. The. Hour,” Tori taunted, slowly waving her hand across the photos. “Quite the array, Edward.”
Westlund spoke up. “I see what you’re trying to do, Agent Hunter. But good luck trying to tie these four women to him just because their deaths occurred coincidentally with the restaurant openings.”
“Oh, these four women aren’t enough for you, Counselor?” Tori asked. “I see. Well then, why don’t we just add more.”
“More?” The lawyer asked stunned.
Tori leaned into both Eddie and Westlund. “Yeah. Nineteen more, in fact.”
Braddock rolled out the map. It had a total of twenty-three dots on it numbered one through twenty-three, including the four women found murdered and then the other nineteen who were missing. “There are another nineteen women who have gone missing and the dates they went missing.” Will then rolled a transparent map over the one on the table. It had the Mannion restaurants listed and the dates they opened. “And guess what?”
Tori glared at Eddie. “You were at every one of them.”
“Including this one here in Brookings,” Braddock pointed on the map. “And who is missing from Brookings?” He placed a picture of Joannie Wells on the table. “Remember her, Eddie?”
“Joanie,” he murmured.
“That’s right, Joanie. I’ve got a witness who says you slept with her two nights before she went missing from Brookings.” Braddock laid another photo on the table. “This photo is from the hotel lobby with you walking her in that night for your little rendezvous.”
“At least you used a bed that time,” Tori tweaked.
“Two nights later, she goes missing. Hasn’t been seen since.”
“And you were still in town,” Tori noted. “That private jet of yours didn’t leave until the day after she disappeared.”
“And of course, there are two more to add to this,” Braddock noted flatly, “because they occurred right here in Manchester. One is Genevieve Lash,” he pointed out, tossing a photo of her in front of Mannion. “You were in town…heck, you were at your own family bar the night she went missing.”
“And then we have the one that started it all,” Tori stated coldly, “Jessie.”
Tori placed a picture of Jessie in front of Eddie Mannion, slowly and repeatedly tapping it with her right index finger.
“Don’t say anything,” Westlund counseled, trying to get Mannion’s attention.
Tori moved around to the side of the table, leaning into Eddie, the photo of Jessie in front of him.
“Look at her Eddie, just look at her,” she demanded in a low, calm tone. Tori gestured to the whole table. “Look at all of them. We know you were in each one of these towns when the women disappeared.” Tori declared. “All twenty-five of them. You. Were. There. Twenty-five for twenty-five. I mean, what are the odds?”
“Twenty-six now when you include Sarah Craig,” Will added. “And while we’re at it, Katy Anderson disappeared two weeks ago, too. Are there any others, Eddie?”
“He’s not answering that or any other questions,” Westlund declared and turned to his client. “Let’s go!”
Eddie looked up from the photos, clippings and the maps, first to Westlund, a blank. stunned look on his face. Then after a moment he turned and looked to Tori.
“Eddie, I’m telling you as your lawyer, don’t say a word.”
“How could you think I would do that?” Eddie said softly to Tori, a look of betrayal on his face. “How could you think I’d do that to…anyone? To Sarah, to Joanie, to any of these poor women…but especially to Jessie, to you. We were friends, Tori. You and Jessie were my friends.”
“Eddie, stop!” Westlund warned.
“I look at Sarah Craig. Katy is missing. Jessie. I’ve seen what you do to friends, Eddie,” Tori replied coldly.
“That’s what you think of me?” Eddie asked, a heartbroken look on his face. “How could you…think I’d do this? I spent days helping search for her.”
“Lots of killers do that, Eddie. They do it to cover their tracks.” Tori replied, standing up and then pacing behind Braddock on the other side of the table. “You know, Eddie, it’s not all your fault. Your father, what he did to you, how he beat you, how my dad had to come out and beat him back to protect you and your mom. Irv was an awful man who left a trail of destruction behind at the end of his pitiful life. He did this to you.”
“Eddie, come on,” Westlund pleaded, pulling at his client’s left arm, trying to get him to stand up and leave.
“Trauma like that damages people,” Tori continued. “It can trigger them to do things, terrible things. It can make them lash out and harm others. It can turn them into monsters.” Tori stopped and looked back to Mannion. “For example, it can turn them into a sexual assaulter when they were a United States Marine.”
Eddie looked at Tori in horror, shocked she knew about that. “That was…that was a mistake…”
“Enough, Agent Hunter!” Westlund exclaimed, trying to get control of things but getting steamrolled as Tori wouldn’t relent.
“Where’s Jessie? Where’s her body, Eddie? Where?” She pounded the table yelling, “Dammit, where?”
“You’re going to ruin me. Ruin my family. Ruin Kyle.”
“No,” Tori answered. “You did that yourself.”
Eddie Mannion didn’t respond, simply looking down and slowly shaking his head, finally disengaging.
“Unless you’re arresting my client, we’re done here,” Westlund declared, standing up and then prodding Eddie to
stand up. “Let’s go, Eddie. Let’s get out of here—now!”
Tori looked to Braddock, who lightly shook his head.
They’d hammered Eddie, showed him what he was in for, but despite all the theatrics at this point Eddie only admitted that he had sex with Sarah Craig, which in and of itself was vital. But there was more work to be done. This was merely round one. There was more to come before they arrested him.
Eddie Mannion and his lawyer stood up, with Westlund leading him by his right arm to the door.
Tori pivoted to watch them leave. Braddock stepped forward and handed three documents to Westlund, who quick scanned them and then looked up to Braddock.
“Now, Mr. Mannion, your attorney is holding search warrants for your home, your cabin and your hunting property. Those searches will be commencing now. A search warrant will also be served on the restaurant division of Mannion Companies by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.”
Eddie looked at the warrants and then he looked over to Tori. “I’m not a perfect man. In fact, I’m a pretty careless one with much of my life.”
“Eddie, come on,” Westlund tugged on his arm.
“How do you think I could do something like that? I didn’t kill those women and I didn’t kill my friend Jessie and you ought to know that. Go think on that. Think about what you’re doing to me, to this town, to your home or…” Eddie snorted, his turn to throw a dagger. “Then again, I guess you left all of us behind a long time ago, didn’t you, Tori? What do you care what you do to us now? After all, you don’t live here. What do you care? You’re just going back to New York anyway.”
Eddie let that hang in the air for a long moment, staring Tori down before he finally turned and left the interrogation room, the door closing behind.
Braddock glanced back to Tori. She simply looked straight ahead, a tear slowly trickling down her cheek.
“Are you two going to go take a look at the parking lot at Cuyuna?” Cal asked.
“After we run by Mannion’s house,” Braddock answered. “The rest of the warrants are being executed. Steak is at Eddie’s house. Corbin Hansen is handling the hunting property. The Lake County sheriff is up at Eddie’s place on Lake Vermillion. Eggleston is up there, too.”
“That was quite the show in there,” Backstrom remarked. “You went a little further than I thought you would.”
“He was talking,” Braddock answered. “It was worth a shot, putting everything in front of him. But look, my sense is that this is a case that’ll fall based on the circumstantial evidence and what we found in the backseat of Sarah Craig’s car. We have a good case on Sarah Craig.” He looked to Backstrom. “If we get a first-degree murder conviction with a life sentence, maybe he opens up and we get answers on all the others, including Jessie.”
“We still have to prove it,” Tori blurted quietly, while staring out the window.
Everyone in the room turned to her.
“What’s on your mind, Victoria?” Cal asked quietly.
“There are some questions that we’re going to need to confront,” Tori replied, still looking out the window. “First, twenty-five women and never a sliver of evidence is left behind?” she asked, turning and looking to Braddock, who nodded, thinking back to their earlier conversation on the topic. “Except for now. Why? Why so careless so close to home? I can’t figure that.”
“You mentioned a couple, what’s the second?” Cal asked.
“Other than Sarah Craig, Jessie, Lash and maybe even Katy, all of the other disappearances tie to one of the restaurant openings.”
“Right, that’s how we tie Mannion to them,” Backstrom replied. “He uses those trips as cover for his killing. I point to Joanie Wells in Brookings as a potential Exhibit A.”
“Yeah, so how does Sarah Craig fit? I know what the physical evidence shows and what the witnesses have said, but how does she fit in? She’s a woman he picked up and had sex with in a car. There’s almost always a several month gap between a disappearance or murders, usually because that’s the gap between openings. Yet here, three weeks after Lash, two weeks after Joanie Wells in Brookings, he strikes again, at home.” She looked to Backstrom. “You’re going to have to answer those questions, right?”
“Yes, Agent Hunter, we’ll have to deal with that, and I’ve already been thinking about it,” Backstrom replied. “As you noted, Genevieve Lash wasn’t tied to a restaurant opening. Nor was Katy Anderson, nor was your sister. So, there are at least three other times where he deviated from his established pattern. As for Joanie Wells, she seems to fit the pattern perfectly.”
“And,” Cal added, “as for him being sloppy, that’s how we usually catch killers. They make a mistake somewhere along the line. Sarah Craig is five-foot-nine, one-hundred forty-five pounds. She’s bigger and stronger than other victims. He might have underestimated her. She fought back? Or maybe he didn’t intend to kill her, but then she presented him the opportunity to do so and then things went awry. Or maybe he’s just so hungry to kill now, the thirst is so strong that he couldn’t fight back the impulse. Genevieve Lash, a week later Joanie Wells, and then Sarah Craig. Maybe Katy Anderson, too. The urge to kill is overtaking him. He’s out of control.”
“Who knows why? Motive—the why to kill—perhaps is weak at the moment, but as you noted, Tori, the physical evidence is not.” Backstrom stated, nonplussed. “I tend to agree with Will. The case on Eddie Mannion on Sarah Craig is solid and what happened in that interrogation room did not hurt that, only strengthened it. And Wilson is already working on a warrant for a DNA sample. We’ll have that soon enough. If we match that, this case can fall.”
The county attorney took a moment, peering over to Tori, his posture and expression softening. In almost a murmur he asked, “Agent Hunter? Tori, if I might,” he sighed, “it has to be…devastating to know your sister was killed by someone you thought was a friend.”
Tori nodded, looking to the floor.
“Yeah, I bet it is,” Backstrom replied quietly. “And you know what? Eddie Mannion knows it, too. You’ve asked a couple of different times, back a few days ago when I didn’t believe you and Will, why did the killer send you the article? Right? You remember asking that?”
Tori nodded.
“Now I think I know why. Because he’s a cold-blooded killer. Eddie Mannion sent you that article to first taunt and then draw you here. Once you were here, he let you hunt for him before he tried to kill you. That didn’t work. So now he’s doing the next best thing. He’s killing you by driving a stake into your heart. He wants you to die a little each day knowing the truth. He knows that every time you think of Jessie, you’ll think of him.”
“He’s been dying to do it for twenty years and he just got to do it, and he’s going to want to continue to do it,” Cal noted quietly. “I just thank God he did it in that interrogation room and not someplace else, know what I mean?”
Tori nodded.
“In that interrogation room he was playing, fronting all kinds of surprise, but then at the end he showed his true colors. At the end, that was him twisting that knife,” Backstrom stated, softly putting his hand on Tori’s shoulder. “Tori. Don’t let him do it. Instead, help me finish proving he did it.”
“Let’s finish this, Tori,” Cal said. “Let’s nail him.”
CHAPTER 31
“TRUST THE EVIDENCE.”
A fter ducking the tipped-off media on the way out of the government center, Westlund immediately called his former associate, Jeff Warner. Warner, who was returning from the Mannion Companies Restaurant Division building, having reviewed the search warrant, had them go immediately up to his offices. The next call was to Kyle Mannion, who now glared aghast at his brother as the family name and company he’d worked tirelessly to build was tied to a murder, perhaps multiple murders.
“Tell me what happened,” Kyle demanded through gritted teeth. “All of it.”
Westlund took them through the interrogation. “Braddock and Hunter started w
ith what happened to Sarah Craig.”
“And what did happen?” Kyle asked, looking to Eddie.
“I had sex with her,” Eddie answered before looking away in embarrassment, mumbling, “in the back seat of her car.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“But that was it,” Eddie pleaded in reply. “I didn’t kill her. I got out of her car and drove away and I’m telling you, just like I told them, she was alive in her car.”
“Cripes, how old are you?” Kyle barked.
Eddie just looked away, muttering. “Oh whatever, Mr. Perfect.”
“Last time I checked I’m not the one looking at life in prison, dumbass,” Kyle shot back.
“Tell me what happened next,” Warner inquired, getting back on task.
“Well, after they covered the Sarah Craig murder, then they launched into Eddie about all of these other dead or missing women. Four who’d been murdered just like Sarah Craig, and then nineteen more that were missing from towns where you have your sports bars and restaurants. And they all went missing or were murdered around the times you opened the places. They had pictures and records of Eddie being at these places when they opened. And then they had a map which showed where each woman went missing and the location of the restaurant, including one from a few weeks ago in Brookings.”
“And what did you think when you saw it?” Warner asked Westlund.
The attorney hesitated.
“Don’t hold back, Ben.”
Westlund grimaced, making a point of avoiding eye contact with Eddie. “It was damning. That, and I realized I was in over my head in there.”
“Ben, I’m not Monday morning quarterbacking, but why didn’t you end it?” Warner asked. “And get him the hell out of there.”
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