minute.”
“The information that the knife tip was broken off was severely restricted, but Sykes had it this morning. He’s also got the location and objects right for where the messages were left-the books, the painting. What if our reporter is talking to our killer?”
Marsh studied the grass at his feet for a moment, then lifted his head and nodded. “Yes. Sykes is not that good a reporter; we all know it. And he’s been breaking news since that very first story.”
Luke waited, wanting to hear what Marsh thought should be done. His officer smiled. “Put a tail on the reporter. We’re not likely to get wiretaps authorized by any sitting judge I know of, but a discreet tail-there’s enough to warrant it based on that story this morning. We can always argue we were investigating an internal leak of privileged material and the reporter was tangential to an internal probe. Better to put internal inspectors on the tail to back up that argument. Connor and I can do some backtracking with the people the reporter has been quoting in his articles and see who else he’s been mentioning as names for second- and third-confirmation sources to get folks to talk to him. There’s nothing that says we can’t talk to the same people he is.”
Luke studied Marsh and weighed the offer. “You two know these cases backward and forward, and we’re looking for something subtle that was at the scenes but not in internal notes. Give me another twenty-four hours and just see if it’s worth pursuing. The time off still stands for as long as you need it, but I could use a little more time first.”
“It’s an idea, Chief. They’ve been few and far between. We’ll be at the 6 a.m. update with whatever we find,” Marsh promised.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“CHIEF.”
Luke looked up from the phone messages in hand. It was not yet 5 a.m., and the office was as busy as it ever became by midday let alone for a weekend shift. His officers wanted this street shooting solved and were working it 24-7 to make it happen. The district attorney stood in his doorway, and the fact the man had come over rather than calling said a great deal for how this was becoming an all-hands case.
“I’ve got you a warrant on the blood sample Henry sent in for testing. The lab didn’t use it all in that paternity test, and Daniel twisted arms and got some incredibly good lawyers to argue the rest of the submitted sample still frozen at the lab is the possession of the estate. We’ve got the remaining blood sample of Henry’s son being flown from the clinic to our lab. They promise a profile in twenty-four hours, and if there’s a hit in the systems from this guy we’re going to have it by noon tomorrow.”
“An ID on the son takes us one very large step toward a possible killer.”
“I’m not leaving the office in the next forty-eight hours. You get a name, I’ll give you whatever assistance I can on making motive alone enough for a search warrant.”
“I’ll try to bring you something else to dress it up once we have the name. Thanks.”
The district attorney nodded and left.
Luke lifted the phone. “Margaret, are Connor and Marsh in early?”
“They never went home as best I can tell. They’re using the deputy chief’s conference room for whiteboard space.”
“I’ll find them. When the mayor calls, tell him it will be an hour before I can get back to him.”
“Yes, sir.”
Luke pushed the phone messages into his shirt pocket and picked up his jacket. He’d left Connor and Marsh chasing a lead, and when they got something solid they were not the kind of guys to let go of it.
The conference room was littered with folders and binders and the sharp smell of old pizza with anchovies on it.
“The reporter isn’t talking to the people he’s quoting; he’s making large parts of the stories up, Chief,” Marsh said, as Luke pulled out a seat and sat down to listen to what they had. “We worked the phones for hours yesterday, backtracking Sykes’ stories. He has most of his facts right, even the sequence of things that happen are right, but he’s putting that knowledge as coming from people he’s quoting as his sources, and those sources are saying they never talked to him.
“I’ve got confirmation that the medical examiner quoted in the article Friday morning was in a court deposition and not available by phone. Connor has two people quoted in Thursday’s article who were driving back from Florida and insist that they took no calls, let alone talked to a reporter named Sykes. There are four factual items mentioned in the articles we can’t source to reports filed in-house. They are mentioned in private notes filed direct to the deputy chief, and no one accesses his office and his safe but him. So in my opinion the answer is yes, this reporter is trying to make his jump from local daily to national newspaper, and he’s doing it with the help of the killer passing him information.”
“What are we thinking? Phone calls? Meetings? How’s the information getting passed?”
“With any other reporter I would say it would have to be anonymous phone calls or faxes coming in that the reporter is exploiting for these articles, but with Sykes-I wouldn’t put it past the guy to be doing middle-of-the-night, dark-garage meetings with the killer himself. I type him as liking the drama of that kind of danger; Sykes is aggressive, fidgety, everywhere we turn, and wants attention on how great a reporter he is.”
“Sykes was the first to go after Henry’s affair and repeat the Amy murder story in any depth,” Connor added, “and both sounded slanted and sordid in the telling. Marie was really hot about that first one, I remember. So Sykes has enough information on this family to wonder where it all is coming from in such a short research time frame. I put him as having had more than a few conversations with whoever killed the chauffeur and bookkeeper and went after Marie. Does he know he’s talking to the killer? At this point you have to believe he does.”
“What about the story on the street shooting?” Luke asked. “I can buy him talking to our knife killer, but what about the shooting? He knew details on it faster than anyone else did. I’d love to be able to explain that.”
Marsh chewed on his coffee stirrer and nodded. “Sam. He said his place got ruffled and speculated it was our New York guy looking for a lead on Amy as he had done before.”
“Yes.”
“Where else would you go looking for information if you really wanted to be comprehensive about it and had money to spend?”
“The streets, you’d buy it.”
Marsh nodded. “And offer some of that cash to the reporters working the stories. Our New York shooter arrives in town, spreads a little money around, says he’s with a national paper and will pay for a tip and a lead and maybe help with a reference down the line as a thanks for the help, and we’ve suddenly got Sykes calling the shooter when he gets a rumor on where the sisters are going to be, or where they have been and who they have been with. Sykes is probably getting paid to hand over an early copy of his articles before they show up in print the next morning.”
Luke saw Connor beginning to nod. “Yeah, Sykes would be jumping on that kind of opportunity. Cash and a foot in the door to a national paper-he’d cooperate with a guy that he didn’t see as local competition. Info he had in exchange for cash and maybe info the shooter thought worth passing back to him.”
“We need more guys tailing Sykes,” Marsh repeated. “And I don’t care how tough that wiretap warrant is to get; we need it.”
Luke agreed. “Give me your raw notes on everything that can serve as ammunition; then get enough guys together and build me a 24-7 surveillance plan on Sykes. Even if we can’t get the warrant I want to know and have photos of everyone the guy even shares a hello with during the next week.”
“The newspaper office will be a problem.”
“I’ll have an undercover sitting a desk away from Sykes by this time tomorrow. We’ll know who he sees and who he talks to.”
“How?”
“Call it a chief’s persuasion. And the fact the editor in chief owes me a favor the size of this state and has for over a decade. I’d say it’s time to make that account square.” Luke liked the thought of calling in that marker, and it would serve a double purpose this time.
