Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Lunch was great, but Tony had been nervous the entire time. Although River felt the need for some freedom, she knew his concern was valid. Although they'd believed the person who'd threatened Nathan wasn't actually planning to kill him, Kevin's death forced them to rethink their assumption. River glanced over at Tony, who was sitting at his desk, downloading the files he'd copied from April and Nathan's laptops. She couldn't help but wonder if they were in danger from whoever killed Kevin. Frankly, the killer's actions didn't make sense. It was almost like there were two different people involved. Was that possible? She didn't want to make the same error they'd made with the Strangler. They'd profiled him as someone acting alone. If there was more than one person watching Nathan, that made it much more dangerous. It was easier to predict the actions of one unknown subject than it was two. A second unknown subject, or UNSUB, might decide to color outside the lines. Even though Nathan was keeping his interaction with Tony and her secret, River was certain whoever had threatened him knew he'd been visiting them. Sure, the picture had only shown him coming out of the building and was taken from the parking lot. But whoever had threatened him and killed Kevin wouldn't be upset if he was visiting an insurance office or some other kind of business. They were the only private investigative agency in the complex.

River watched as Tony finished the downloads. Then he picked up the information Arnie had sent about the murder. This was now a police investigation. Arnie could have told them to back off, but he hadn't. Arnie had confidence in Tony and was convinced he wouldn't cross the line between their investigation into the murder of Kevin Bittner and the search for April.

The most important thing they could do now was to find out exactly why someone was so concerned about Nathan coming to see them. River's gut reaction was that the answer could be found in one of April's cold cases. With April missing, the cases were really cold. Nathan's visit might make them worry that new eyes were looking them over. It seemed to River that someone was determined to keep that from happening. She started to bring up Hot Coffee and Cold Cases. She'd gone through all of the cases as thoroughly as she could in one night, but she wanted to listen to everything with April's notebook at hand. But at the last second, she decided to check out April's Facebook page first to see if there were any new messages.

There was one from a woman named Mary who was concerned about April, but nothing else. No new messages from Lamont Cranston.

"Tony," she said, "I just thought of something."

He stopped what he was doing and looked over at her.

"We need to tell Arnie about our man in the shadows, Lamont Cranston. Nathan said he wasn't able to find out anything about him, but maybe Arnie can find a way to do a more thorough search."

"Good idea," he said.

"Anything interesting in the information Arnie sent?"

"Kevin was killed with one shot to the back of the head," Tony said.

"We were right," River said. "This was an execution."

Tony leaned back in his chair. "Kevin saw them. They don't want to be identified so Kevin had to go."

"He had a family," River said. Anger at the killer boiled inside her. Killing Kevin was cruel and unnecessary. They could have found another way to deliver a message to Nathan. Something occurred to her. "Why not just call Nathan?" she asked Tony. "Why deliver an envelope to someone they'll have to eliminate? Seems ... sloppy."

"What else could they do? If they'd called Nathan, their number could have been traced. Of course, they could have used a burner phone—except most of them now have GPS tracking. Not like the old burner phones."

"True, and maybe they felt they had to move quickly." River shrugged. "Of course, they wouldn't have gotten through to him last night since we had his phone. But he didn't receive any calls, so it's clear they didn't even try."

"Maybe they didn't have his number."

"That's possible," River said. "I hope they were captured by the camera at the guard station, although most professional killers would think about that."

"I don't know. I'm sure the police have gotten the footage." He picked up his phone. "I'm going to text Arnie about Lamont Cranston and ask him about the camera footage. He may not want to share it with me. I just want to know if they got a good image. I need to be careful and not push him too much. Friends or not, Kevin's murder isn't our case, and Arnie is really busy."

"He's never acted like you were bothering him," River said.

"Still, I don't want to take advantage of our friendship."

River watched as he entered his text and then sent it. Hopefully, the camera would yield something the police could use to catch the UNSUB. Once he was finished, River said, "Ready to go through April's cases now? The key to our killer could be here somewhere. However, I have to admit that, so far, I'm not seeing it. Four of these cases are in other states. My first reaction is that the man who committed this murder is close by. He moved on Kevin quickly."

"I tend to agree with you, but it's still not impossible that Kevin's murder is tied to a case from out of town," Tony said. "April's podcast is listened to by people all over the country. Maybe he hired a local professional to handle things."

"I'm still wondering how someone knew why Nathan visited us. Either Nathan told someone or ... could his apartment have been bugged?"

"I don't know, but the police need to check that out." Tony frowned at her. "We certainly know it happens."

Tony was about to say something else when his phone buzzed. A text. He picked up his phone. "Arnie," he said. He read the text. He picked up a pen and made some notes.

"He gave me the number of the lead detective on the case. Arnie isn't directly involved, and like I figured, he's swamped with other things. He mentioned the other day that he's dealing with a lot of pressure from city hall. He needs more officers and funds, but the mayor is trying to please his voters who think defunding the police is a good idea. I wouldn't want Arnie's job."

"Me neither."

"One thing he did say—the camera at the guard house didn't give them anything helpful. The person who left the envelope was wearing a cap and he kept his face down the entire time. He knew where the camera was. The car he was driving was found not long after he left the apartment complex. It was stolen a few hours earlier. They don't have much hope of getting fingerprints since the video showed the man wearing gloves. Arnie said he's passing the Lamont Cranston info on to the lead detective, Armbruster. They've actually been going through Nathan's apartment. They had the same thought we did, but so far, they haven't found any bugs. They're going to keep looking though. Nathan's phone is clean. At least we know no one was listening in." Tony stood up and stretched. Then he said, "Okay, so let's start going through these cases. But first let me get a cup of coffee. I think I'm going to need it." He walked over to their coffee maker. "You want anything?" he asked.

"I'll take pumpkin spice."

Tony's eyebrow shot up. "Pumpkin spice? That's new. I know it came in that big collection of flavors my parents gave us for Christmas, but I figured it would sit in the drawer and turn to dust."

River shrugged. "I'm feeling a little sad now that the holidays are over. I really enjoyed being with your parents, even though we didn't actually spend Christmas Day with them. Your mother made it seem like Christmas every day we were there. It was perfect. The best Christmas I've ever had, in fact. Well, except for the crazed serial killer part."

Tony's loud laugh made her smile.

"I can understand that," he said, still chuckling. "Maybe this year we can celebrate the holidays without the threat of death."

"That would definitely be a holiday miracle."

"Something to shoot for, forgive the pun."

"My arm is still sore from the last encounter, thank you."

While at Tony's parents' house, River had been shot in the arm, trying to protect Tony. Thankfully, it was more of a grazing wound than a penetrating one. Although it was still healing, the pain had lessened considerably.

He brewed her coffee and brought it to her. It smelled so good. Just like Mrs. Weyland's pumpkin pie. It was the best she'd ever tasted. River had even eaten a slice for breakfast until it was all gone. She wondered if asking the elderly woman to bake another pie would be out of line. She'd already made several.

"You're thinking about that pie Mrs. Weyland makes, aren't you?" Tony asked suddenly.

River's mouth dropped open. "Quit reading my mind. It's disturbing."

"If you don't stop asking her to make more pies, we'll need to get you a larger desk chair."

River stuck her tongue out at him. "I haven't gained an ounce. I know how to keep my servings small."

"I'm just teasing you. My mother's a great baker, but I have to admit, Mrs. Weyland's pumpkin pie is the best I've ever had." He pointed at her. "If you talk her into another one, you've got to bring me some, okay?"

"We'll see. If you help me come up with whoever killed Kevin Bittner, I'll get Mrs. Weyland to bake you your very own pie."

Tony finished brewing his own cup of coffee and carried it to his desk. Then he pulled up a chair. "You just made me an offer I can't refuse. Let's get busy."

River punched a key on her keyboard to bring up the image of April's site. At first, she thought she'd made a mistake.

"Is something wrong?" Tony asked.

"Wait just a second," she said, clicking the keys underneath her fingertips. Finally, she stopped. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Or rather, what she wasn't seeing. She turned to meet Tony's eyes. "It's gone," she said. "All of the episodes on April's podcast are gone."