Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Tony and River settled down to go over the seven cases mentioned on April's podcast.

"I've combined information from the podcast and April's notebook into my notes," she told Tony. "So, I'll just read from my own notebook."

"Sounds good," Tony said. "Go ahead."

"Let's start with the case of the Convenience Store Carnage. Five years ago, in January, a man walked into a convenience store in Chicago. There were two women working there, both in their twenties, and another woman, fifty-three, who was paying for gas. The man pulled a gun on the women, turned the Open sign to Closed , and then forced one of the employees to open the register and give him the money. He only got around forty dollars. Then he made all the women go into the back room, where he shot and killed every single one of them. There was a camera in the store, but the killer wore a ski mask. He also wore gloves, so no fingerprints. He left on foot. Police believe he had a car somewhere close by, but no one reported seeing him."

"How busy was this store usually?" Tony asked.

"Not busy at all. It was on the outskirts of the city. Just a small operation owned by a large chain that didn't seem to care how profitable it was."

Tony frowned at her. "So why rob this place for such a small take? And if you're wearing a ski mask, why kill everyone?"

"Exactly the questions April asked in her notes."

"So, the police never arrested anyone?"

River shook her head. "Nothing to go on. From what I gather, they looked into the lives of all of the women, which they should have, but they didn't go very deep. They believed it was a violent robbery and basically wrote it off."

"So did April come up with anything?"

River read down a little farther. She'd gone through all of April's notes, but she'd been so busy copying them, she hadn't memorized everything. She was a little surprised by what she found.

"Seems she got quite a few tips, but she only took one seriously. One of the women who worked there, a Michelle Matisse, was supposedly having an affair with a married man. One of her friends said Michelle had given the man an ultimatum. The friend wondered if the man had killed everyone, trying to make it look like a robbery, so he could get rid of Michelle. Seems his wife had money. Maybe he was afraid of losing his golden goose."

Tony sighed. "When will people learn that betrayal and lies only lead to sorrow?"

River looked over at him. "Too many won't until lives are destroyed. If anyone understands that, it's me."

Tony's eyes widened. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking..."

"Don't be sorry. It's nice that you understand. I hate that people can be so selfish. I know the Bible says the devil is the one behind the evil in the world, but it's hard not to be angry with people who choose to hurt others."

"I know how much you were wounded, River," Tony said gently. "But we don't forgive people because they didn't do anything wrong. I think we all have the ability to deceive ourselves. Some more than others."

River sighed. "I'm sure you're right. This forgiveness stuff is tough." She met his gaze. "If I let my father come to visit, could you be there?"

"Are you sure?" Tony asked. "I mean, I'm not family."

"You are to me."

Tony looked away for a moment. Had she just made him uncomfortable?

Finally, he turned back and smiled. "Of course, if that's what you want."

She nodded. "Thank you, Tony. Now back to the case." River looked down at her notes again. "Anyway, the friend suggested that the man Michelle was seeing was the shooter." She looked back up at Tony. "I think this is a good tip, don't you?"

"What did April do with it?"

"Says here she contacted the Chicago PD, was transferred to a detective Amato. No notes after that. Looks like she talked to him shortly before she disappeared."

"That's interesting," Tony said. He started typing on his laptop. "You said the woman having the affair was named Michelle Matisse?"

"Yes." River spelled the name.

A few minutes later, Tony smiled at her. "Looks like April was right. The man, Barry Davis, was arrested and charged with the killings. He's serving life in prison."

"Wow. When did his happen?"

"This article was written two months ago."

"So, April never knew she'd helped solve this awful crime."

"Probably not," Tony said. "That's sad."

"Yes, it is." River was finding all these cold cases sad. All this death. All this grief.

"Next time I talk to Arnie, I'll tell him about this. It might make him even more determined to help us find April. Seems she knew what she was doing."

"We really are blessed that you and Arnie are such good friends," River said. "You told me that you two met at the academy, right?"

Tony smiled. "Yeah, we bonded there. He left before you joined. We worked hard, but we had fun. Arnie pushed it a little too far sometimes."

"I can't imagine that."

"You remember Hogan's Alley?" Tony asked.

Hogan's Alley was a training location on the FBI Academy's grounds, set up to look like a small town. Gunfights and robberies were staged there to help the agents in training learn how to handle real-life emergencies.

"Of course."

"One of our instructors was named Jared Newcum. Arnie took a picture of him and had it made into something that looked like the front page from a newspaper. Newcum's picture was on it, along with an article saying he was wanted by the police for cruelty and the harassment of trainees. When we met at Hogan's one morning, the page was up on the window of the post office. We thought it was hysterical. Newcum, not so much."

"Did Arnie get in trouble?" River asked.

"No. Newcum tried to find out who did it, but no one would turn him in. We all had to run around the training track until we were ready to drop. Still, no one ratted Arnie out. I think Newcum was actually rather impressed."

River laughed, but something Tony said stuck in her mind. A newspaper.

"What's the matter?" Tony said. "You look like you've just seen a ghost. My story wasn't that disturbing, was it?"

"No, that's not it." River stared at him for a moment. Then she grabbed April's notebook and pulled out the copies of the articles written about both of the Casanova killings. When she was done, she looked over at Tony. "Look, I may be way off here, but I think you need to ask Arnie to check on something. Remember when we said that the Casanova killer probably didn't kill the other teenagers four years earlier since it didn't seem like he was seeking attention?"

He nodded. "Sure, what are you thinking?"

"What if he was getting attention, but just not the way we assumed? What if he didn't need to see his name in the news as the killer because his name was already associated with the murders. Already in the media?"

"You've lost me."

"It's been staring me in the face all this time. Brent Wilkins is the reporter who came up with the name Castlewood Casanova. When I was reading through the newspaper articles about both of the murders, I kept thinking they sounded the same. I just checked. The reporter who wrote about both cases? Brent Wilkins. He covered the story in Illinois, where the first murders took place. And then here, in Missouri."

"Where he gave the killer a nickname," Tony said slowly. He shook his head. "It makes sense, but it's flimsy. Still, the police need to look into it. Check out this Wilkins guy." He wrote something down on the pad of paper on his desk. He smiled at her. "Now that would be something, huh? If we were able to help April solve this case?"