See No Evil

knows, though the killer most certainly knows we have pegged Wishlist as part of the investigation. The e-mails have virtually dried up, according to e-crimes. Someone in that group knows Emily personally. Otherwise the information she gave online wouldn’t have drawn the killers to her.”

“Maybe someone had access to Bowen’s records,” Dillon said thoughtfully.

“Can they be hacked into?”

“Not easily,” Will said. “How would they know if Emily was a Bowen client unless it was someone inside?”

“Because her sentencing was public record,” Julia said.

“So anyone could find out that Garrett Bowen was her shrink,” Will said. Glancing at Dillon, he added, “No offense.”

Dillon shrugged it off with a half smile. “We need to follow up with Jason Ridge’s parents. I can do that tomorrow morning.”

“I need you at the hospital,” Will said. “To approve Emily’s discharge.”

“I’ll talk to Stephanie Ridge,” Julia offered. “She’ll be more forthcoming than her husband. I sensed that at the fund-raiser the other night. And I want to find out what Michelle O’Dell knows. She was friends with both Shannon and Jason.”

“What’s getting me is motive,” Connor said, changing the subject. “What is this group of killers getting out of their game?”

“The thrill of the kill,” Dillon said.

“Too simplistic.”

“Is it? Some people kill simply because they enjoy hurting people. Some kill because they don’t want to be left out. Remember what we talked about the other night? You get a group of seemingly normal kids together and they start committing crimes? Usually vandalism, petty theft, carjackings. Add a dynamic and homicidal leader to the group, and it’s not a huge leap into murder. It’s how cults work, it’s mob mentality and how a group of normal people can band together to kill in extraordinary circumstances.”

“But there’s a pattern here,” Julia said. “Outside of Paul Judson, these aren’t random murders.” She stood, looked at the timeline she and Connor had drawn out. “It all goes back to Jason Ridge.”

Hooper was skeptical. “So what’s the connection between Montgomery and Ridge? Montgomery doesn’t fit,” Hooper said.

“Yes he does.” Connor held up a single piece of paper. “Victor Montgomery handed over a list of cases to Vernon Small when Montgomery went on vacation two years ago. One of them was 5CAG44563JV. We don’t have the file because it was expunged, but we do know that was Jason Ridge’s case number.”

“Where’d you find that?” Julia hurried over to her desk and its towering stacks of paper.

“When you said there was a pattern, I started thinking about how Montgomery fit into the puzzle, so I flipped through the reports. It just jumped out at me, now that I know about the case.”

“You mean because Montgomery handed Jason’s case over to Small, he got killed?” Dillon said. “Because Montgomery went on vacation?”

“You could argue that if he hadn’t gone on vacation, Ridge wouldn’t have gotten off so easy. Victor had a reputation for giving first offenders jail time, but Vernon Small was notorious for leniency with first-time sex offenders.” Julia sat at her computer and brought up the judicial contributor reports on the screen. “What if there’s another connection between Montgomery and Ridge? A financial connection?”

“Montgomery was up for reelection three years ago,” Will said.

“I was looking at these when Tom Chase called, and never finished going through them.” Julia sat back at the computer.

Silence fell on the group until ten minutes later Julia said, “Bingo! James and Stephanie Ridge gave Victor Montgomery ten thousand dollars. And it wasn’t in the election year, it was the following year. After Montgomery passed on their son’s case to Judge Small. If the killer knew that, they might think it was a payoff.”

“Well done, Counselor,” Will said. “You should have been a cop.”

“Who has motive?” she asked.

“Shannon Chase’s parents,” Dillon said. “They lost their daughter. The system didn’t work for them.”

“Tom Chase lives in Maine,” Julia said. “I called him there.”

“But,” Connor reminded her, “he returned your call. What if he retrieved his messages from elsewhere?”

“That’s easy to determine,” Will said. “I’ll contact authorities in Maine and have them pay Mr. Chase a visit.”

“What about Mrs. Chase?”

“I haven’t been able to find her,” Julia said. “Her last known address was in San Diego, the house where Shannon killed herself. The Chases sold it over a year ago and the father moved to Maine. Laura Chase didn’t.”

“I’ll work on that one,” Will said.

“What if there was another victim?” Connor suggested. “Someone else Jason attacked, after Shannon?”

Dillon nodded. “And because Shannon had been ostracized at school, the victim didn’t come forward. Decided to take justice into her own hands.”

“One person couldn’t commit all these crimes,” Will said.

“No,” Dillon concurred, “we’re looking for a killing team. And they’re even more dangerous than we imagined, because they think their motives are pure.”

“Or they just want to make it seem that way,” Connor said thoughtfully.

“Then my plan is definitely going to bring them out,” Will said.

“What plan?” Julia asked.

“We take Emily to the courthouse tomorrow. She goes into a judge’s chambers. We have the press all over the place. She comes out and there’s no comment. Chief Causey makes a report that she’s a material witness and in protective custody.”

Julia jumped up, almost knocking over her chair. “Absolutely not. You’re making my niece a target for a killer.”

“She’ll be in protective custody. No one will know where she is.”

“She’s a child. You can’t use her like that. I’m her guardian,” said Julia. “I won’t allow it.”

“Julia, listen.” Connor forced her to look at him. “We have to find a way to draw the killers out, to make them think they screwed up somewhere. We don’t know that they don’t have others on their ‘wish list.’ Bowen may not be the last.”

“They’re empowered,” Dillon agreed. “They’ve gotten away with murder. They may feel they can expand the scope of their actions. Enact more of their brand of justice.”

Connor said pointedly to Julia, “Someone tried to kill you. They think you know something.”

“Exactly! And they’ll try to kill Emily, too!”

“She’ll be long gone before we ever make the announcement to the press,” Will said.

“You can’t possibly agree to this!” Julia spun around, feeling like everyone was jeopardizing her niece. The people she trusted most. “What if someone wanted to use your little sister Lucy as bait?”

“Emily won’t be bait,” Connor said. “She’ll be safe. We can get a policewoman to be bait in a known safe house. I would never jeopardize Emily’s life.”

Julia was torn. Her head saw the value in the plan, but anything that even suggested harm to Emily deeply disturbed her.

“Where would she be?”

“How about Montana?” Dillon offered. “Carina is still up there. We can have a deputy fly her up tomorrow and she can stay until we have this locked down.”

Connor agreed. “Julia, Carina is with Nick, another cop. They would never let anything happen to her. She’d be out of the area, completely safe. I wouldn’t agree to the idea if I thought there was even a chance we couldn’t keep her safe.” He touched her cheek. “You know that, right?”

Julia found herself nodding, but she didn’t like it. Not one bit. But the thought that someone was going to get away with Victor’s murder and let Emily take the blame made her physically ill.

Will stood. “I’ll set it up. We’ll bring Emily downtown and then drive her out of the garage in a windowless