On a Killer's Trail

by Susan Page Davis

  FIVE

  “Oh, come on. That’s too…” Neil stopped. He and Connor looked at each other. “You know the gun went out the door with the shooter, Connor.”

  “If he went out the door. If he stayed, maybe the gun stayed.”

  “So what do you want me to do?”

  “Go open the gifts.”

  “Oh, come on. We both know Gerald Riley didn’t do it.”

  “I’ll keep wondering about him if you don’t do this. Take another officer with you. I’ll call Brad. Take some tape and seal them up again after. And be very careful with the paper. I’ve got to go do this interview with Kate. Do it now, Neil.” Connor picked up his phone and called downstairs, asking the day patrol sergeant for a uniformed officer to work on the detail.

  Neil knew sputtering would do no good, so he put on his jacket.

  “Kate, let’s go into our interview room,” Connor said. “I’ll get us some coffee, and we—” His phone rang, and he picked it up with a grimace. “Sorry.”

  Kate smiled and shrugged.

  “What?” Connor asked, an urgency creeping into his voice. “Okay. Yeah. Are you all right? I’ll be there in…” He glanced at his watch. “Twenty minutes. Got it.” He hung up. “I’m sorry, Kate, but it looks like we’ll have to reschedule. Adri’s water broke. I’m meeting her at the hospital.”

  Kate’s jaw dropped. “She’s not supposed to go for another three weeks.”

  “I know. Tell that to the baby.” Connor grabbed his coat.

  Kate chased him to the stairway door. “What about Matthew? Should I go home?”

  “No, Adri said the pastor’s wife is picking him up and driving her to the hospital. I’ll call you later.”

  “Should I come with you?”

  “Well, it could take hours. I’ll see you there later.”

  The door shut behind him. Kate turned and looked at Neil. “Now what?”

  Neil wiggled his eyebrows at her. “I don’t suppose you feel like unwrapping gifts?”

  She laughed. “Might as well, if you’re sure I’m allowed.”

  “Well, it’s not officially a crime scene anymore. If the Riley family is at the house, I’ll just ask their permission to look around again.”

  The house was still empty, and Neil felt a little bit like a trespasser as they entered. He opened the first gift with trepidation. A cordless drill. He tried to put the paper back on exactly the way it had been, but he couldn’t make the edges fold right.

  “Hey, why don’t you let me do that?” Kate asked. “You open them, I’ll wrap them up again.”

  “Great idea.”

  An hour later, all of the gifts had been opened, checked and rewrapped for nothing.

  “Sorry.” Kate stared mournfully at the heap of packages. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “That’s okay,” Neil said. “At least we’ve been thorough. Let’s get some lunch.”

  They stopped at a fast food place for burgers. Kate left him to return to the newspaper office afterward, and Neil went back to the station.

  Tony Carlisle was running the ballistics on the Hepburn case. “Neil, can you come look at this?” There was an edge to Tony’s voice.

  Neil went over and stood behind him. “Did you match it to a gun?”

  “No, but it brought up the images from the bullet you ran yesterday. Look.” He toggled between them. “Riley. Hepburn. Riley. Hepburn.”

  “Yikes.” They had the same configuration. The same groove on one side. There wasn’t any doubt. It was a definite match.

  Neil called Connor’s cell phone.

  “The bullets match but we still don’t have a weapon,” he told Connor.

  “No, but we’ll get one. Tell Tony I said good work. At least now we know these two murders were committed with the same gun.”

  “Right,” Neil said. “How’s Adri doing?”

  “Okay. Slow progress.”

  Neil didn’t think he wanted any more details. He hung up and checked on what the other detectives had learned.

  “Do you have a time of death on Hepburn?” he asked Jimmy Cook.

  “Between five and nine p.m. Sunday night.”

  “And Mrs. Riley died between eight and nine a.m. Saturday.” Neil sat down in his chair and leaned back, thinking about that.

  “Tony mentioned there might be a witness,” Jimmy said.

  Tony shook his head. “Some girl saw a guy walk down the street Sunday evening. Nothing, really. She couldn’t describe him, and there was no reason to think it was peculiar. It was about five-thirty, and I suppose it could be significant.”

  Neil nodded. “Harry and Lance are still canvassing the neighborhood, trying to find someone else who saw him.”

  “Was this Hepburn rich?” Jimmy asked.

  “No. Definitely middle-class. His house was appraised at a hundred and thirty thousand, but I think most of that was for the location. It’s not in very good shape. His furniture was run-down, utilitarian stuff. I saw his checkbook. Three-hundred-dollar balance, checks this month for phone and lights, insurance, one credit card. Not a big spender, for sure.”

  “The Rileys were pretty well off,” Tony said.

  Jimmy threw Neil a sympathetic look. “Too bad you had to unwrap all the packages.”

  Tony chuckled. “Yeah, Kate Richards is pretty, but I don’t think she’s so brilliant. Come on, a killer wrapping up a gun in a Christmas present?”

  Neil shrugged. “It’s okay. We should have checked them anyway. And we know for sure now the gun didn’t stay in Riley’s house.” He had a sudden thought that made him want to scream. “Oh, no.”

  “What?” Jimmy asked.

  “What if the shooter stole one of the packages?”

  Tony and Jimmy stared at him for a moment.

  “No,” Tony said. “Kate sent you off on one wild-goose chase. We’re not going down another road to nowhere.”

  “Thank you,” Neil said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I suppose we could ask Mr. Riley if any are missing, just in case.”

  Neil reviewed Mrs. Riley’s medical records and obituary. He opened his notebook and went over the information they’d taken from the family.

  Everyone loved Edna Riley. She attended garden club and volunteered for medical causes and fund-raisers for the Animal Protection Society. She collected money for breast cancer research and walked dogs for the shelter. She’d worked for a few years as a typist in the dean’s office at the college where her husband had taught, but hadn’t worked outside the home in years. Neil felt he was spinning his wheels. She was just a sweet old grandma, and Mr. Hepburn was an old man who liked cats. So who would kill them?

  At eight that evening, Neil laid down his latest Police magazine to answer his ringing cell phone.

  “Hey, Neil, it’s Connor. It’s a girl.”

  “Congratulations!” Neil grinned. “What’s her name?”

  “Hailey. Or Chloe. We can’t decide.”

  “Well, you’ve had nine months.” Neil chuckled. If it were up to Connor, the decision would probably have been made long ago. “How is everybody?”

  “Adri’s fine. The baby’s a little jaundiced. They may keep her an extra day. I think I’ll take tomorrow off and bring Matt in to see his mom. If the baby’s doing better, she can come home, but if not, we’ll just leave her and Adri both here in the hospital another night.”

  Neil gulped. “Okay. What should I be doing?”

  “The same thing you do every day. Just ride herd on the boys and make sure they do their paperwork. Especially Carlisle. He’s got a great mind, but he leans toward lazy sometimes.”

  “Yeah. Uh…is there anything I can do for you and Adri?”

  “I don’t think so,” Connor said. “Kate picked Matthew up from the pastor’s house, and she’s staying with him tonight. I’ll stay here with Adri tonight. I might take the rest of the week off.”

  Neil’s stomach dropped. Taking over a case was
one thing, and being in charge while Connor took an afternoon off hadn’t been so bad. But three more days? He reminded himself that when Connor took vacation this year, he’d have to stand in for the captain. As of Monday, Neil would be the senior detective. Might as well start acting like it.

  “Hey, I think you should.” Did I just say that?

  “Really?”

  “Sure.” Neil cleared his throat. “We’ve got everything under control.”

  “Did you check those packages?”

  “Yeah, nothing suspicious in them. You go ahead and take some time off. You need time with Adri, and when the baby comes home, you’ll be short on sleep anyway.”

  “You sure?”

  “Absolutely.” Neil gritted his teeth. Lord, help me not to regret this.

  Kate sat at her desk Friday, staring with unfocused eyes at her notebook. No matter how many times she went over her notes, nothing new popped out at her. But the city editor wanted another major story on the Riley case by five o’clock.

  On Wednesday, Neil had given her the news that the ballistics tests matched the bullets in the Riley and Hepburn cases. Kate had written up the story and a sidebar in which she explained the IBIS system, courtesy of Neil’s buddy Tony Carlisle. Tony had seemed delighted to give her a demonstration and answer her questions. He’d also asked her for a date, which Kate had declined. Tony seemed like the kind who didn’t take anything seriously outside his job. Not her type, though she’d enjoyed the hour she spent interviewing him.

  Thursday she’d gotten by with a brief update. Nothing new in the Riley and Hepburn murder cases, according to Detective Neil Alexander, chief investigator…. She couldn’t get away with that again today, even though she’d turned in two other stories unrelated to the murders. She felt her stock was falling rapidly at the Press Herald.

  In desperation, she decided to call the president of Edna Riley’s garden club. Maybe some of the club members would share poignant memories of Edna. If that didn’t work, she could try the animal shelter, where Edna had volunteered.

  Kate sighed. It was fluff, and she knew it. Maybe she could call Ted Hepburn’s sister, although she shrank from doing that. Fishing for leads from a woman whose brother had just been murdered seemed a little crass. She wanted a good, meaty article that would give the readers something new and solid. She’d also been assigned to copy the police blotter for the next day’s paper. Ordinarily, she would have put that off until her other stories were finished, but on impulse, she decided to drive to the police station right away and get that chore done. Maybe she could touch base with Neil or Tony in person, get some brilliant new information on the murder cases and watch her stock rise again.

  Neil had worked on the homicides all week, but seemed no closer to solving them. It was Harry Fowler’s last day, and everyone seemed to think they should knock off early for his retirement party.

  “Detective Alexander, Miss Richards is on line one.”

  The secretary’s alert left him a bit annoyed and yet slightly hopeful—annoyed because Kate called frequently, wanting updates on the cases when he wasn’t prepared, and hopeful because she seemed willing to overlook his past indiscretions. A part of him hoped she was calling because she wanted to talk to him.

  Okay, he’d admit it—he missed her. Beyond the intense physical attraction he’d felt when he first met her, he’d seen a sweet determination he admired. He’d made the mistake of treating her like he had a hundred other girls, and expecting her to respond as they would. But Kate was a Christian. She’d enjoyed being with him, that was obvious. She’d seen him nearly every night for two weeks, against her sister’s warnings. But when he’d pushed her to take the relationship beyond her comfort zone, Kate’s faith had kicked in. At the time, he’d laughed and said she was too inhibited. She’d pleaded with him to take it slowly. Why hadn’t he listened? Instead he’d said some cruel things. The blowup that followed shocked him. Not only had Kate walked away in tears and returned to Skowhegan the next day, but Connor had come after him and warned him strongly to keep away from his sister-in-law—this coming from his captain and friend. The pain he’d caused others had brought Neil up short and forced him to reconsider his own lifestyle.

  Connor had witnessed to him dozens of times before, but Neil had laughed it off and told him, “Maybe later, when I’ve had my kicks.” But the month of July was a watershed, when he’d seen himself from God’s perspective.

  He wanted to do things God’s way now that he was saved, but his confidence in the romance department had plummeted. He’d done everything wrong before. How could he learn to do it right?

  He took a deep breath and picked up his phone. “Hi, Kate. How you doing?”

  “Hey, Neil. I’m fine. I’m downstairs at the patrol sergeant’s desk, actually.”

  “Oh?” Neil put his hand to his forehead. How could he get out of inviting her up to the office for a chat? He didn’t need a reporter chat right now, and looking into those huge blue eyes would probably just distract him for the rest of the day.

  “I’ve just been going over the police log for the paper, and I saw something kind of weird. Did you hear about the cat shooting yesterday?”

  Neil sat up straight and lowered his hand. “No. What’s that about?”

  “It seems the dispatcher took a call from a woman who said someone shot at her cat. Two patrol officers responded, and sure enough, there was the woman with her cat. It had a graze on its hind leg. They got a statement from the owner and picked up some empty .22 cases. She gave them a description of the kid who did it and showed them the exact spot of the ‘attempted murder’ as she called it.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Neil scratched his head. It was odd, but he wouldn’t have thought it newsworthy.

  “Yeah. As it happened, one of the responding officers was here when I read it. He told me there was a little blood on the snow, so he dug around and pried a bullet out of the dirt.”

  “The bullet that hit the cat?”

  “Maybe. He said it wasn’t something they would usually follow up on, but…”

  Neil frowned, wondering exactly what Kate wanted of him. “We don’t have time to run something like that on the IBIS system. We’ve got more serious crimes to investigate.” Like the two murders I’m stuck on.

  “I suppose you’re right. I was just thinking that maybe that bullet could be from a gun that was used in another crime. When Tony showed me how the system works the other day, I was very impressed. I guess I got a little carried away with my enthusiasm. Sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”

  “Whoa, wait.” Neil knew it was ridiculous, but for some reason, he felt like a heel. He could almost see Kate’s blue eyes, filled with contrition. “Who’s the officer? I’ll talk to him. Maybe I could find time to just give it a quick run on my lunch hour. And thanks, Kate.

  “Nuts,” he said when he hung up a minute later. “I am absolutely nuts.”

  “What’s up?” Tony asked from across the aisle.

  “Nothing to do with our cases. Just a favor for someone.” Neil asked himself what Connor would do in this situation, and he knew the answer. Forget it! But he’d committed himself to at least ask Patrolman Ray Oliver about it now. Reluctantly, he called the patrol sergeant and asked if Oliver was in. Five minutes later, the patrolman called him on his desk phone.

  “Oh, that girl reporter got to you?” Oliver asked, when Neil inquired about the shooting. “She’s pretty, but this is a low-priority incident.”

  “Where’s the bullet now?” Neil asked, deliberately avoiding his question.

  “In the evidence room. If you guys want to log it out and play with it, well…knock yourself out. I don’t have time to mess with stuff like that.”

  Ten minutes later, Neil had the bullet in the lab and began the test. “I must be bonkers.”

  The screen flashed, and Neil stared at it. He grabbed his phone and dialed Connor’s cell phone.

  “What’s up, Neil?” the captain asked.

/>   “This is crazy, but Kate gave me a tip about a kid shooting at a cat this morning. A patrolman recovered a bullet. Connor, it matches the bullets from the two murders.”

  Connor whistled softly. “Look, I’m on the way home with Adrienne and the baby. I’ll come to the police station as soon as I get her settled.”

  “You don’t need to.”

  “Well, I—” After a short pause, Connor said slowly, “You’re right. I don’t. You can handle this, Neil. You know what to do, don’t you?”

  “Yeah.” It felt good, realizing that he knew exactly how to proceed. “We’ll be fine, Connor.”

  “Great, because I shouldn’t really leave Adri alone today with the baby and Matt. So just…go ahead with the investigation and bring me a full report. I’ll be back at my desk Monday.”

  “Oh, uh…there’s one thing. Since Kate gave me this tip, is it okay if I…?”

  “I guess she earned it.”

  Neil smiled. “Thanks.” He took out his cell phone and suddenly realized it contained a lot of baggage he no longer needed. Sarah Maguire. That was a mistake. Delete. Cyndi Plaisted. She got married, didn’t she? Delete. Carol Zeigler. He couldn’t remember who she was, or what she looked like. Delete.

  When the directory was stripped down to numbers he actually used these days, he felt efficient and lonely. The exercise was a depressing reminder of his old lifestyle. Bringing up the newest number he’d added and remembering his purpose lifted the melancholia a little. When Kate answered with an inviting lilt in her voice, he felt even better.

  “Kate, you’re the best.”

  “What? Neil, is that you?”

  “Yes, and I owe you big-time.”

  “You do?”

  “I sure do. Remember your cat bullet? It matches the bullets from the Riley and Hepburn murders.”

  “Oh, wow! What now?”

  “We’ll be working in the neighborhood where the cat was shot. We need to find the young man who fired that gun.”

  “I’ll go over there,” Kate said quickly.

  “Good. I think you can help us. Maybe I’ll call a press conference, even. The media can help us locate that kid.”