I had to share this. I barreled into the chief's office.
Then I stopped, speechless.
To my shock, seated around the conference table were Tracchio, Special Agents Ruddy and Hull of the FBI, the press flack Carr, and Chief of Detectives Ryan.
I hadn't been invited to the latest task force meeting.
Womans Murder Club 2 - Second Chance
Chapter 76
“THIS IS BULLSHIT,” I said. “It's total crap. What is this - some kind of a men's club?”
Tracchio, Ruddy and Hull from the FBI, Carr, Ryan. Five boys seated around the table - minus me, the woman.
The acting chief stood up. His face was red. “Lindsay we were about to call you up.”
I knew what this meant. What was going on. Tracchio was going to shift control on the case. My case. He and Ryan were going to hand it over to the FBI.
“We're at a critical moment in this case,” Tracchio said.
“You're damn right,” I cut him off. I swept my gaze over the group. “I know who it is.”
Suddenly, all eyes turned my way. The boys were silent.
It was as if the lights had been cranked up, and my skin prickled as if it had been cauterized.
I leveled my eyes back on Tracchio. “You want me to lay it out for you? Or do you want me to leave?”
Seemingly dumbfounded, he pulled out a chair for me.
I didn't sit. I stood. Then I took them through everything, and I enjoyed it. How I had been skeptical at first, but then it began to fit. Chimera, Pelican Bay... Coombs's grudge against the police force. At the sound of Coombs's name, the departmental people's eyes grew wide. I linked the victims, Coombs's qualification as a marksman, how only a marksman could have made those shots.
When I finished, there was silence again. They just stared.
I wanted to pump my arm in victory.
Agent Ruddy cleared his throat. 'So far, I haven't heard a thing that links Coombs directly to any of the crime scenes.
“Give me another day or two and you will,” I said.
“Coombs is the killer.”
Hull, Ruddy's broad-shouldered partner, shrugged optimistically toward the chief. “You want us to follow this up?”
I couldn't believe it. This was my case. My breakthrough. Homicide's. Our people had been murdered.
Tracchio seemed to mull it over. He pursed his thick lips as if he were sucking a last drop through a straw. Then he shook his head at the FBI man.
“That won't be necessary, Special Agent. This has always been a city case. We'll see it through with city personnel.”
Womans Murder Club 2 - Second Chance
Chapter 77
ONLY ONE THING was standing in the way now. We had to find Frank Coombs.
Coombs's prison file mentioned a wife, Ingrid, who had divorced him while he was in prison and remarried. It was a long shot. The PO said he hadn't been in touch. But long shots were coming in right now.
“C'mon, Warren.” I nudged Jacobi. “You're coming with me. It'll be like old times.”
“Aww ain't that sweet.”
Ingrid Thiasson lived on a pleasant middle-class street off of Laguna.
We parked across the street, went up, and rang the bell.
No one answered. We didn't know if Coombs's wife worked, and there was no car in the driveway.
Just as we were about to head back, an old-model Volvo station wagon pulled into the driveway.
Ingrid Thiasson looked about fifty with stringy brown hair; she wore a plain, shapeless blue dress under a heavy gray sweater. She climbed out of the car and opened the rear hatch to unload groceries.
An old cop's wife, she ID'd us the minute we walked up.
“What do you people want with me?” she asked.
