run into?”
“When you talked to her on the phone, is that what happened?” Benton asked. “You said something about Marino?”
“To my knowledge, she doesn’t know about him. Yet. Because no. I didn’t mention him. I was too busy worrying about this woman who was murdered last night and what might be on her laptops and what Lucy could do to help. I was too busy thinking about the last time I saw Lucy in my own apartment after she’d come back from Poland, and you and I both know what she did over there. Brilliant, brash. A vigilante with no respect for boundaries. Now she’s started this forensic computer investigation company. Connextions. Interesting name, I thought, as in connections and What’s next? And we all know, whatever’s next, Lucy will be there first. And what a relief. It didn’t sound like the Lucy I once knew. Showed less of a need to overpower and impress, more thoughtful, more reflective. She used to be into all these acronyms, remember? When she was the wunderkind doing a summer internship at Quantico. CAIN. Criminal Artificial Intelligence Network. She designs a system like that when she’s, what, still in high school? No bloody wonder she was so obnoxious, such a renegade, so out of bounds. And friendless. But maybe she’s changed. When I talked to her—granted, over the phone, not in person—she sounded mature, not so grandiose and self-absorbed, and she appreciated my reaching out to her first. Certainly not the old Lucy.”
Benton was rather stunned that she remembered so much about the old Lucy or seemed so fascinated by the new one.
“These were the things going through my mind when she was telling me that the programming she did way back when’s now as obsolete as Noah’s ark, and I’d be amazed by what’s possible now,” Berger said. “No. I didn’t mention Marino. I don’t think she has a clue he’s currently assigned to my sex crimes unit and actively working the same case I just asked her to work. Obviously not. Or she would have reacted, said something. Well, she’s about to know. I’m going to have to tell her.”
“And that’s still a good idea? Getting her involved?”
“Probably not. But I’m in a bit of a quandary, if I’ve not made that perfectly plain. I don’t intend to un- invite her at this precise moment because, frankly, if her abilities are what they’re cracked up to be, I need her. Internet crime is one of our biggest problems, and it’s beating us. We’re up against a world of invisible criminals who in many instances don’t seem to leave evidence, or if they do, it’s deliberately misleading. I’m not going to let Marino or a gossip column or your insecurities and marital issues derail what I’ve got in the works. I will do what’s best for this case. Period.”
“I know Lucy’s capabilities. Frankly, you’d be foolish not to take advantage of her,” Benton said.
“That’s about the long and short of it. I’ll have to take advantage of her. A city government budget can’t afford someone like her.”
“She’d probably do it for free. She doesn’t need the money.”
“Nothing’s free, Benton.”
“And it’s true. She’s changed. Not the same person you knew last time you saw her, when you could have had her brought up on—”
“Let’s don’t talk about what I could have done. Whatever she confessed to me that night five or so years ago, I don’t remember. The rest of it, she never told me. As far as I’m concerned, she never went to Poland. However, I’m trusting there won’t be a repeat of that sort of thing. And I sure as hell don’t need another FBI, ATF situation.”
Early in her career, Lucy basically had been fired by both.
“You’ll get the laptops to her when?” Benton asked.
“Soon. I have the search warrant to go through the contents, all my ducks in a row.”
“I’m a little surprised you didn’t get on this right away, last night,” he said. “Whatever’s in her laptops may tell us what we need to know.”
“Simple answer. We didn’t have them last night. They weren’t found on the first search. Marino came across them during a second one late this morning.”
“News to me. I didn’t realize Marino was that involved.”
“And I didn’t realize Oscar was the same person Marino talked to last month until Morales had already cleared the scene last night. Once I connected the dots, I called Marino. I said I wanted him involved because he’s already involved.”
“And because you need him to cover your ass,” Benton said. “Perception will be that Oscar called your office for help a month ago and you dropped the ball. Marino dropped the ball. No one will work harder to cover your ass than a person who needs to cover his own. That’s the cynical solution. But you’re lucky. He also doesn’t miss much. In fact, he’s probably the best person you’ve got in your whole damn squad. You just haven’t figured it out yet because he’s easy to underestimate, and now you’re biased. Let me guess. He took it upon himself to take a look at the scene, and he found what might be the most important piece of evidence. Her laptops. Where the hell were they? Under the floorboards?”
“Packed inside a piece of luggage in her closet. Obviously, something she planned to carry on the plane she was to take to Phoenix this morning. That and another packed suitcase,” Berger replied.
“Who found out she was planning on flying to Phoenix this morning?”
“Oscar said nothing about it to you last night?”
“He didn’t say anything to me about anything last night. He cooperated with the evaluation, and that’s it, as I’ve said. So her travel plans weren’t known last night? If not, who found out about them and how?”
“Well, that would be Marino, who’s a good investigator and doesn’t quit once he starts. All true. And he’s a lone ranger because he’s been out there long enough to know you don’t divulge information just because the other person’s a cop or even a prosecutor or a judge. People in criminal justice are the worst gossips and the least likely to keep their mouths shut when they should. You’re right about him, and it’s going to make him some enemies. I can see it coming, which is all the more reason what’s surfaced about him is so unfortunate. Apparently, he tracked down Terri’s parents in Scottsdale before anybody else—including Morales—did, and delivered the death notification. They mentioned she was planning to fly home to spend several days with them. That’s what prompted him to go to her apartment.”
“Let me guess,” Benton said. “No plane ticket lying around that might have given the cops a heads-up last night. Because these days everything’s done electronically.”
“Right.”
“That explains why I didn’t see any luggage in the crime scene photos Morales gave me.”
“Those photographs are from his search—the first search. I can see why the carry-on was missed last night. Not saying it’s good that it was, but I can see it.”
“You suspect it was deliberately hidden?”
“You mean, by someone like Oscar?”
“Wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.” Benton thought about it. “If he’s worried about her computers, why didn’t he remove them from the scene? Why hide them in her closet?”
“People do a lot of things that don’t make sense, no matter how meticulously they plan a crime.”
“Then he’s pretty disorganized. If he’s the killer,” Benton said. “But one thing Terri wasn’t was disorganized, based on the photos of her apartment I’ve seen. She was extremely neat. A possible theory? She might have finished packing for her trip and put the luggage out of sight herself, because she was having company. I think it imprudent to assume Oscar planned any crime. I’m not ready to assume he killed her.”
“You know the old saying, Benton. Don’t search for unicorns. Start with the ponies. Oscar’s the first pony on my list. The most obvious. Problem is, we have no evidence. Nothing yet.”
“At least Oscar can’t beat you to the draw when it comes to whatever’s on Terri’s computers. He doesn’t have them, and he doesn’t have access to the Internet on the ward,” Benton said.
“And that was his choice. He doesn’t have to be up there. And that continues to strike me as extremely suspicious and cause me great concern about his mental stability. Whether we found the laptops or not, he must know we’d gain access to her e-mail once we determined her username or usernames, her provider. And that would lead us to his e-mail, because I can’t imagine he and Terri didn’t e-mail each other regularly. Yet he doesn’t seem to care. Were he not up here in isolation, he might have had a chance to rush home and start tampering. But he didn’t try that. Why?”
“He may not feel it’s necessary because he didn’t do anything wrong. Or maybe he’s not computer-savvy
