No, who am I kidding? It wasn’t about having strangers taking over their room at all. By now, the word must have gotten around. If they were like any other cops in the world, they looked out for each other, to the very end. I could only imagine how it must have felt that day, with no official bulletin yet but this vague story floating around about ex-troopers and ex-troopers’ kids. Making it twice as bad if you had kids of your own. On top of that, having the FBI taking over the case-because sure, it all started with a U.S. marshal, which made it automatic, and one of the murders happened to take place over state lines. But if this story was true, it was their family.
That’s why the place felt so cold, and I tried not to take it personally. I followed Agent Long past the front desk, back to the room in question. Maven looked up as we walked in. He was never exactly a magazine model on a good day. Today, he badly needed a shave and about ten hours of sleep.
“Come on in,” Agent Fleury said to us. “We were just about to get started.”
“How are you, Chief?” I said.
He looked up at me and shrugged.
When we were all sitting down, Agent Fleury waited approximately a tenth of a second and then dove right in. He had a tall stack of loose paper in front of him, but for now he pushed it aside. The man looked freshly scrubbed and caffeinated-in other words, the exact polar opposite of Chief Maven.
“Okay, gentlemen, Agent Long, here’s our plan of attack. I’ve been working this over and it seems like we’ve got two separate target periods to look at here.”
He stood up, went to the white board, and grabbed one of the markers. He tried to write, got nothing, swore at the pen, tried another, got nothing again, swore again. He hit gold on the third pen and he was off. He drew two separate boxes, his pen squeaking with every line. I looked over at Maven and tried to catch his attention, but the chief was staring at the board with bloodshot eyes.
“Okay,” Fleury said. “If we take it as a given that our suspect has motivation to commit these crimes based on some connection between the victims, then we have to take a look at where those three victims were during each period. I say three men for now, because so far we only know for sure that Razniewski, Steele, and Haggerty were targeted.”
Agent Long took out her pad of paper and started taking notes. I could see her drawing the same boxes. Me, I just sat there and listened.
“So by the time we enter target area one, Donald Steele is already a trooper at the St. Ignace post, Dean Haggerty is a recently promoted sergeant at the same post, and Charles Razniewski is a brand-new recruit at the Lansing post. You with me so far? This is the first day we’ve got all three men on the job. For the next twenty-two months or so, Trooper Razniewski will be frequently partnered with the veteran Sergeant Roy Maven.”
Agent Fleury drew four circles in the first box, and marked them S , H, R, and M.
“This is the almost two-year period in which all four men were on the job. Although I’ve been asking around here at the post and apparently once you’ve completed your first year, you end up spending at least part of the time out on the road, on your own. Would that be fair to say, Chief Maven?”
He cleared his throat and leaned forward.
“Generally, yes,” he said, sounding as dead tired as he looked. “During daytime, at least. But Raz never did care for that part of the job. It’s why he eventually left.”
“But he did spend some time out on the road by himself.”
“Sure, of course. We all did.”
“So then you have to admit, it’s at least theoretically possible that on one of Razniewski’s infrequent solo days, he somehow ran into Steele and Haggerty. Or some third party who might be a link to all three.”
“Yes, but don’t forget,” Maven said. “It’s Lansing and St. Ignace. They’re more than two hundred miles apart.”
“Granted. We’ll get to that. For now, let’s move on to the second target period.”
“Razniewski leaves the force at that point,” Agent Long said. “So what else is there?”
“Good question,” he said, waving the pen at her. “Razniewski is off the force, but Steele and Haggerty are still together in St. Ignace. That will last for approximately three more years, at which point Steele is promoted to sergeant and Haggerty moves to Marquette, where he’ll soon become a lieutenant. But during those three years, where is ex-trooper Razniewski?”
“In Detroit,” Agent Long said, “working for the marshals’ office.”
Fleury drew a line through the middle of the second box. He drew two circles in one half, marking them S and H. Then he drew one circle in the other half, marking it R.
“And where’s Roy Maven during this time?”
He drew the fourth circle outside the box completely, and marked it M.
“He’s out of the picture, on his way up to Sault Ste. Marie to accept the position of chief of police.”
“Are you saying there still could have been a connection between the three men?” Agent Long said. “Even after Razniewski left the force?”
“As a marshal, he has coverage all over the state of Michigan. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t bring him into much contact with the state police, right? But it is possible. We can’t rule it out.”
Fleury sat down again and started to shuffle through the stack of papers. As he did, I finally caught Maven’s eye.
“Agent Fleury is completely on board now,” Maven said to me. “As you can see.”
“I’ve always had an open mind,” Fleury said, “but recent events have made it obvious that you gentleman were onto something from the beginning. I apologize if it seemed to take longer than it should have.”
Emphasis on “seemed,” as if he was way ahead of us. Whatever. The important thing, I realized, was that he was finally committed to the case.
“And I have to say,” he went on, “that the two of you have done an incredible job with this so far, with limited resources. You bring a great deal of credit to your local police force, Chief Maven. I’ll make sure the mayor is aware of that when it’s all done. And Alex? Once a cop, always a cop, right? It’s too bad you don’t have a boss I can send a letter to anymore.”
Wait a minute, I thought. I may be slow, but this is finally starting to make sense…
“Okay, so moving on to the particulars,” Fleury said. “Here’s where we really get down to it.”
“This is a huge case,” I said. “Somebody killing cops? After killing their children? This is the kind of case that if you crack it, you make your career.”
Fleury just looked at me.
“That’s why you’ve suddenly seen the light,” I said. “It’s got nothing to do with your boss talking to you or you suddenly deciding to play nice. You put it all together yourself and what you came up with was the case of a lifetime.”
“Alex, come on.”
“You haven’t even reamed us out for going to talk to Lieutenant Haggerty yet. I figured that would be the first thing on the agenda, but you haven’t even mentioned it.”
“I didn’t think that would-”
“No, I get it now. You can’t treat us like dog crap anymore because it finally dawned on you that you need this. Which means you need us. ”
“Leave the man alone,” Maven said, finally showing some energy. “I don’t care why he did the one-eighty, okay? All I care about is him being on the case, and having the whole bureau behind him. If it makes his career, then good for him. They can throw him a goddamned parade for all I care. As long as he helps us catch this guy.”
An uneasy silence reigned for a few seconds.
“Normally, you wouldn’t have a place at this table,” Fleury finally said. “You’re not an active police officer and you have no official standing in this matter. The only reason you’re here is because Chief Maven wants you to be here, and because maybe you can help us. I’m sure we can all agree that we have to catch this guy before he kills anyone else. Can we start with that, at least?”
“Yes,” I said. “We can start with that.”
The chief is going along with this, I told myself. No reason why I can’t, too.
“No harm done,” Fleury said. “Let’s get back to work.”
He went back to his papers, separating them into three piles.
“The state guys were good enough to print all this out for me. Even though we’re talking about events that
