74
9:25 a.m.
7 hours until the gloaming
I found Corsica, Lyrie, and Gabriele in the conference room.
The other task force members were either out following up on leads or hadn’t made it to the office yet. Thompson had called in asking what kind of doughnuts people wanted-he was going to “pick up a few for the crew on the way in.”
I told the three people who were here what Calvin and I had been thinking. “We’ll need to make some calls to airports, check flight manifests, and I want someone to go through the suspect list and tip list looking for people who live in that area near Franklin Heights. Also, let’s find out what we can about Miriam Flandry’s death-if there were any indications of foul play. Oh, and consulting firms in the cities under question, businesses that do business with businesses.”
We split up the assignments and set to work.
The more attached you get to people before they die, the more you’ll ache after they’re gone.
So, really, the Maneater could think of no good reason to put yourself through any of that, to form any sort of emotional attachments with the people around you. After all, since you’ll be leaving them eventually, or they’ll be leaving you, why cause more grief in the world by extending or receiving love in the first place?
Now, this morning, he didn’t find it difficult at all to get the person he’d decided to abduct into his car. She was a petite woman and he was strong for his size.
He carried her into the slaughterhouse and set her in one of the walk-in freezers that was now without power, but quite soundproof and secure. She was still unconscious when he locked the freezer door.
He would come back and visit her later, then take her to the place in the building where he’d taken Celeste last night.
A test? Maybe. You could call it that. But the Maneater wanted to know how serious Joshua really was about all of this.
If he did carry out something memorable at dusk, as he claimed he was going to do, they would meet up tonight and the Maneater would reward him with this woman.
And they would share their first meal together.
75
10:25 a.m.
6 hours until the gloaming
In light of our current projects, the ten o’clock meeting had been cancelled. It seemed more prudent to pursue our leads than to sit around a table talking about them.
While we were working, Ellen showed up and told us she’d interviewed the two waste management workers who drove the truck of Dahmer’s things. Both claimed they didn’t know Griffin or anything about him, but Strickland did know Detective Browning and went deer hunting with him.
It was a link.
Links form a chain.
Chains form a case.
She went on. “When I asked him if he might have mentioned to Browning where Dahmer’s possessions had been deposited, his memory seemed to become a bit fuzzy.”
Yes, so information could’ve easily been passed from Strickland to Browning to Griffin, if the links were connected.
As she was finishing up, Radar walked in and informed us that he’d just spoken with Colleen Hayes downstairs. “She was brought over here to see Vincent-he’s still in custody. Anyway, I thought we could finally get some answers from her about those cuffs. I pressed her about why she’d purchased a pair that had been used in the Oswalds’ arrest. It took some prodding, but she told me that a guy at work had thrown out a catalog. She saw it in the trash, flipped through it, saw the cuffs. She thought it would be…well, discreet to order them through there.”
That was a little disappointing. “So she didn’t ask specifically for the ones involved in the Oswalds’ arrest?” I said.
“It didn’t sound like it, no.”
So, the killer could have found out about the cuffs from Griffin’s records and chosen Colleen that way. The connection between Adele and Colleen might not be the breakthrough clue we were hoping it would be after all.
“Does she know who threw out the catalog?”
He shook his head. “No, and she said she didn’t know who the guy was she ordered them from either, that it was all done through a post office box. The cuffs were shipped to her house.”
Another corner of the labyrinth closed off, moving us inexorably in another direction.
As far as the rest of our progress, Miriam Flandry’s stroke hadn’t seemed in any way suspicious and no autopsy had been done. The search for consulting firms had come up dry, but Lyrie had found that four people on the suspect list and tip list did live in the Franklin Heights area.
I turned to Thompson who’d arrived during our recap and had, as promised, brought plenty of chocolate cream-filled and glazed doughnuts for everyone. “Don’t you go to church in that area?” I asked him. “Over near Franklin Heights?”
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t you follow up on those names. See what you can dig up.”
“Right.” He grabbed three doughnuts and left again. Didn’t even get a chance to sit down.
The rest of us went back to work.
It took a little while, but all three airlines that flew out of General Mitchell Airport and serviced the cities we were looking at faxed us the flight manifests we’d requested and we took our time inspecting them. In the end, however, we didn’t come up with any names that matched.
It was possible this whole airline idea was off base.
I rubbed my head, then studied the maps on the corkboard again, thought about what Calvin had said about consulting firms, businesses that do businesses with other businesses.
“Hang on,” I said. “Chartered flights. Private jets. And let’s take a closer look not just at consulting firms but at any businesses that have satellite offices in those cities.”
Agreement from the team.
We pulled out phone books and began to make some calls.
76
11:25 a.m.
5 hours until the gloaming
Ellen struck gold.
She found one company, High Profile Charter Service, based out of Milwaukee, that made regular chartered
