She went into her office and leaned over the desk to pull the sheet of paper from the incoming tray and was surprised to see a copy of Melissa Lowery’s autopsy report.
Annie scanned it quickly, skipping over the sections she deemed inconsequential to cause of death (“… the liver has been removed and upon examination is found to weigh…”) and going straight to the chase.
Cause of death: Exsanguination due to gunshot wound to the chest.
Melissa had been shot and left to bleed to death.
Not something Annie was looking forward to sharing with Grady.
She was still wondering how to handle that when the phone rang.
“Dr. McCall?”
“Yes.”
“Sheriff Brody.”
“Oh, Sheriff. I was just about to call you to thank you for faxing the autopsy report on Melissa Lowery.”
“Told you I would do so. Glad I caught you on your home phone. Your cell phone wasn’t picking up.”
She searched her purse and found the cell at the bottom. She’d turned it off the night before after she spoke with Evan because the battery was running down, the charger was in the car, and she hadn’t felt like going out in the rain to get it.
“So now that we know for certain she did not die a natural death,” he was saying, “you have any thoughts on that?”
“Not just yet.”
“I was just wondering if maybe your reason for coming all the way out here to see her might have something to do with her being murdered.”
“Sheriff, with all due respect, at this time I cannot discuss the reason for my visit.” Annie bit her bottom lip, wishing she’d been able to talk to John before she had to have this conversation with Sheriff Brody. “I’m not trying to be evasive, and I apologize if it sounds as if I am, but my visit had to do with an FBI investigation, and I really can’t discuss that with anyone at this time. Please keep in mind that my position with the Bureau is primarily as a profiler. I try to stay out of the bureaucratic aspects. I can give you the name of the special agent in charge to whom I report, if you’d like to give him a call.”
“I’d appreciate that.” Brody didn’t sound at all surprised to hear that he wouldn’t be getting information from Annie.
She gave him John Mancini’s office number, knowing John would be out of the office for another few days. Having called John on Saturday to bring him up to date on Grady Shields’ involvement with Melissa, and Melissa’s involvement in Dylan’s case, Annie knew John would want to avoid Sheriff Brody for as long as possible.
“Just a few other questions for you, Dr. McCall.”
“I’ll answer what I can, Sheriff.”
“Any thoughts on why an unemployed former FBI agent might have a few hundred thousand dollars stashed away?” Before she could respond, he added, “Ms. Lowery had a savings account with a little over six hundred thousand dollars in it.”
“Wow.”
“That was pretty much my reaction. Lot of money just sitting there, can’t help but wonder where it came from. And this is after some substantial outlays of cash. Seems Ms. Lowery paid cash for that spread she was living on, only eleven acres, not much out here, but still…” He cleared his throat. “Paid cash for that new SUV, cash for a bunch of new furniture. Any idea how she could have done all that?”
“No. None.” Annie hated lying, but now wasn’t the time to tell Brody about the nameless someone who had given Melissa what Grady had described as a lot of cash in exchange for her resignation from the Bureau and her disappearance. “Maybe she had some family money.”
“Her father was a bus driver and her mother retired with a twenty-five-year pin from the local school district. They have no idea where the money came from.”
“I’m sorry, Sheriff, I just can’t help you.”
“You wouldn’t have any thoughts on who this gentleman friend might have been?”
“No, sorry. Did you ask her parents if they knew who she was involved with?”
“They said they thought she had someone special in her life, but she didn’t talk about it. You think that’s strange, not to talk to your mother about your boyfriend?”
“Since my mother died before I was old enough to have boyfriends, I wouldn’t know.”
“Sorry about that, Dr. McCall.”
“And a lot of women just don’t discuss their personal lives, especially if it’s not a serious relationship, you know?”
“Maybe.” He sighed heavily. Annie could tell he was frustrated, that he knew she had information that could help him, but he’d apparently dealt with the Bureau in the past. He didn’t push, and that made her feel that perhaps he’d pushed before and gotten nowhere.
“Oh, one more thing,” he said. “I spoke with the locksmith in town. He said Mariana Gray had come in one day about seven months ago and asked for all new locks, doors and windows. He thought it was unusual at the time-nobody out here locks up like that, there just has never been a cause for it in the past. That could change, in light of this murder. Anyway, the locksmith said he went out to her house, and she had him double-dead-bolt all the doors and put locks on every one of the windows. Said he never saw anyone so worried about her house being broken into.”
“Well, she did live around D.C. for several years. We have our share of crime out east, you know. Maybe her place here was broken into, maybe she’d been the victim of a crime in the past and it made her skittish.”
“Or maybe she was afraid of someone.” He cleared his throat again. “Guess she was right about that, eh?”
“It does look that way, doesn’t it?” she replied, momentarily distracted by the call-waiting signal. She walked to the phone base to check the caller ID. It was an overseas number she didn’t recognize. Connor?
“Well, I guess I’ll give your agent Mancini a call, see if he’ll throw me a bone or two and give me a few leads.”
“If he has any, I’m sure he’ll be more than happy-”
“Please, Dr. McCall. I’ve been down this road with the FBI before. We both know that you know what’s at the bottom of this. I just hope that if you find Melissa Lowery’s killer, you’ll at the very least let me know so that we can stop wasting our time looking for him-or her-out here.”
“Sheriff Brody, you have my word. If we find the killer, you will be the first to know.”
“ ’Preciate that, Dr. McCall. Hope it’s soon. We’ve got some nervous people out here.” He hung up without waiting for any further comment.
Annie immediately placed a call to John, but had to leave voice mail detailing her conversation with Brody. She was relieved that he was away for a few more days. At least he had a legitimate excuse for ducking the sheriff.
Annie started to return the phone to the cradle when she remembered the call that had been coming through while she was speaking with Sheriff Brody. She sat on the end of her desk and listened to the message.
“Hey, Annie, it’s Connor. Sorry I missed you, but I wanted to get back to you about Santa Estela. When you get into the office, ask John to give you clearance to look over a report that would have been written, oh, I guess around the end of 2002, maybe early 2003. It concerns our successful efforts to shut down some traffic. I tried to get in touch with one of the agents involved, but I haven’t heard back. I’m guessing he’s in the field or undercover somewhere and hasn’t gotten the message. I don’t know who was in charge of this at a supervisory level, or who else was involved, but it must have been a fairly big op. If you see the report, you’ll know who the agent is, and you can probably get the green light to talk to him directly. But until you’re cleared, I can’t give you any other information. All I can say at this point is that there is a report, and it should contain names and places. Read the report-you’ll know where to go from there. Sorry I missed you. Get back to me if you have any other questions. See ya.”
Annie listened to the message two or three times before hanging up the phone.
There was a report. The Bureau had a report. Names, places… contacts. Maybe they’d even be able to locate the families of the girls who’d been killed. She practically danced into her room to finish getting dressed. She couldn’t wait to tell Evan, couldn’t wait to see the report.
She put in another call to John, but there was no answer. She pulled on a pair of linen pants and slipped her feet into flat shoes, searched her dresser for earrings, a bracelet, all the while thinking of how wonderful it would be if she could find the evidence that could lead to the resolution of these killings.
She went back into her office, picked up the autopsy report on Melissa Lowery, and tucked it into her briefcase. She tried both John and Evan one more time, but wasn’t able to reach either one of them. No matter, she told herself. She’ll get through to both of them before the day was over.
Buoyed by the turn of events, she turned off the light and headed off to work.
20
“She was my brother’s wife, Luther.”
“She was a loose end. Another of your loose ends,” Luther said calmly.
“She wouldn’t have gone back on the deal.”
“You don’t know that. And with Annie McCall right on her heels, there was too big a risk. She knows how to work a witness. I don’t think Melissa would have had a chance.”
“Melissa didn’t even know I was involved. I was really careful. She had no clue as to which name on her report was the one that wasn’t supposed to be there.”
“All she had to do was give Annie the names of the agents she remembered seeing that night-and we know she would have remembered having seen you-and sooner or later, McCall would have been able to put it together.”
“There were a lot of agents there that night.”
“Only one of whom wasn’t assigned to the op.” Luther spoke as if explaining something tedious to a child. “And let’s not even bother to talk about the fact that you were
