He opened a fresh bottle of Jack Daniel’s and sat on the porch. It was cold, even now in April, but he didn’t care. And after a few shots of booze, he wouldn’t feel a thing.
TWENTY-THREE
“You’re secure,” Patrick Kincaid told her after he checked out her security system. “It’s a good system, though I improved it, of course.” He blew air on his fingers and wiped them on his T-shirt.
Connor hit him in the arm. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, don’t let your head get too big. Your hat won’t fit.”
“The system automatically dials your alarm service company when there’s a break-in, but I now have it dialing the police department as well. Your address should already be flagged in the system since you’re a DDA, but I’ll double-check tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks, Patrick, I appreciate your help,” Julia told him.
Her doorbell rang-again. “I don’t think I’ve ever had this many visitors at once,” she said, joking, but the sad realization of her solitary life made the joke fall flat on her ears.
She let Dillon in.
“Julia, you were right to be suspicious about Judge Small’s death,” he said.
“He was murdered? Why didn’t we hear about it?”
“It was ruled an accident. It was three in the morning and the police report suggests he fell asleep at the wheel. Nothing indicated foul play to them. But why was he out driving at three o’clock in the morning? He drove his car right off the Coronado Bridge.”
“That wouldn’t be easy,” Patrick said.
“If he fell asleep and his foot was on the gas pedal, he could hit the edge and flip over,” Connor said.
“They would have done an autopsy report to determine if he’d been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
“Yes, and all the standard tox screens were clear,” Dillon said. “The autopsy revealed an arrhythmia, essentially a minor heart attack. It could have caused him to panic, or perhaps render him unconscious.”
“So why isn’t this an accident?” Julia asked.
“Because it’s the same type of arrhythmia found during Jason Ridge’s autopsy. I compared the reports. No doubt in my mind.”
“Do you want to exhume the body?” Connor asked, marking Small’s death on the timeline he and Julia had created.
Julia said, “I don’t see Stanton going for it. We don’t have enough at this point. Especially since we haven’t even a suspect.”
“I agree,” Dillon said. “But it makes me wonder if perhaps both Ridge and Small were given drugs to induce heart failure. In Ridge, the steroids would have been a contributing cause, not the primary cause, and in Small he went off a bridge. Died instantly of trauma.”
“Do you know what drugs would cause an arrhythmia?” Julia asked.
“Several, but I’m not well versed in that area. If we can prove Jason Ridge was in fact murdered, I think Stanton will agree to exhume both bodies.”
Dillon continued. “I have some other news about Bowen’s murder. It turns out he was hit with a Taser gun.”
“They don’t leave physical evidence,” Connor said.
“Not usually, but when fired they release microparticles with the gun’s serial number etched in them. These particles were collected by the crime scene unit on both Bowen’s body and the second floor hallway.”
“And where did it lead?”
“The Taser was registered to Victor Montgomery.”
He saw the first flaw in his plan.
He didn’t expect anyone to connect Jason Ridge to Shannon Chase, yet Julia Chandler had made the connection. How? How did she even know Jason Ridge’s name? What had led her down that path?
He would adapt. It saddened him that he would have to execute the contingency plan, but what choice did he have? If Robbie hadn’t screwed up the hit-and-run, Julia Chandler would never have talked to Tom Chase.
After, they would disappear. He’d planned to stay in town, but it wouldn’t be wise. He had a few loose ends to clean up, appearances to make, but in forty-eight hours he and Faye would be on an airplane for Brazil.
From there, they could go anywhere in the world.
Will Hooper knocked on Julia’s door late that night. She almost laughed. “You just missed Patrick Kincaid,” she said. “He upgraded my security system.”
“Can I come in?”
“What’s wrong?” Julia tensed. Connor stood behind her, put his hands on her shoulders.
“Let’s sit down.”
Julia didn’t like the secrecy.
“Emily’s being released tomorrow morning,” Will said.
Dillon frowned. “I thought we talked about that. You agreed we could keep her in the hospital for her protection.”
“Stanton and Chief Causey have another idea.”
“You can’t arrest her!” Julia jumped up. “You told me you believed her!”
“I do,” Will said. “We all do. But this is what we know. We know that three or more people killed Victor Montgomery. We know that Garrett Bowen’s online list was used to incite people into planning, and likely executing, murders. I thought Bowen was behind it all, I was ready to serve him a warrant today, then he turned up dead.
“But as e-crimes proved, Bowen wasn’t the one inciting people to talk about their killing fantasies. Someone else on the list is responsible-the same person who text-messaged Emily three months ago about meeting at Starbucks.”
Julia shivered. “The killer knows who Emily is. They know how to get to her.”
Will said, “What the prompts suggest is that someone was fishing for information. Someone was encouraging Emily and others to reveal as much information as they could. They wanted a
“But where does Judson fit in?” Dillon asked. “There is no connection between Paul Judson and Emily-he didn’t teach at the same school-no evidence that he knew Montgomery or Bowen or Jason Ridge.”
“No one prompted Billy to share the information about Judson. He did it on his own. There were other similar e-mails and there may or may not be murders associated with them-we don’t have enough information at this point. But as far as Victor Montgomery was concerned, someone was pushing Emily for information.”
“So you’re saying that maybe he was the target all along?”
“It was well planned and well executed, but I think Judge Montgomery’s killers didn’t expect Emily to come home when she did. What if they were already inside when Emily came home early?”
Dillon interrupted. “Judson was a red herring. Or a test.”
Connor nodded. “This is a group of killers who maybe needed to initiate someone into the group, or it was a test to see if Billy Thompson would be arrested. Or to watch the police investigation and see if Wishlist was shut down. Whatever their reason, he’s not connected with Montgomery.”
“The only connection between all the victims-if Jason Ridge was in fact a victim-is Garrett Bowen,” Julia said.
“And now Bowen’s dead.”
“We’re back where we started,” Julia complained.
Connor said to Will, “You said you had an idea.”
“We have a plan to draw out someone in the group. Emily has been under wraps. No one knows what she
