'What do you mean?' Tom asked.
Matt set the page aside to reveal another printout showing a photograph of a street, the focus of which was a vacant lot. 'I Google-mapped the address and did a street view. Turns out there's nothing there. At least there wasn't when Google did its run. So I took a drive out there to make sure, and nothing's changed.'
'Maybe it's a mistake,' Andy said. 'Maybe he transposed the numbers on his application.'
'Even if he did, it still doesn't play out. I tried switching them around and found a gas station, a laundromat and a CPD substation.'
'So he lied,' Hutch said.
Matt nodded. 'From the looks of it. But that's not the only red flag I encountered.'
'Oh?'
'There are two more that I think are pretty telling. First, Langer applied for his state ID card about four months before Ronnie was arrested, and it wasn't a renewal. There's no record of any previous applications.'
'He must be new to the state,' Tom said.
'That's what I thought. So the next question I had was, where did he come from? But when I did a database search-and it was a pretty exhaustive one-the second red flag hit me smack in the face. There are several Frederick Langers, but the only one with this guy's birthdate was born in Savannah, Georgia.'
'I don't get it,' Monica said. 'How is that a red flag?'
Matt looked at her. 'On its own, it isn't. But the search also brought up a death certificate. He died when he was six months old.'
It took a moment, then Tom said, 'So the name's a fake. He stole the child's identity.'
'Bingo,' Matt told him, and they all looked at one another in slack-jawed surprise, Hutch now knowing that he was right to trust his gut.
'I've seen this before,' Gus said in disgust, after a long sip of his Double Diamond. 'This kinda nonsense grinds my beans. Guy pays a few dollars to get a birth certificate, then uses it to generate new forms of ID, like a social security number, credit cards, driver's license. Anyone checks him out, he's completely legit.'
'As long as they don't look
'Problem is, nobody does.'
Monica was perplexed. 'But why the fake address? What's the point in that?'
'An extra layer of protection,' Gus told her. 'If anyone comes calling-like a debt collector, or the boys with badges-they trace him straight to a vacant lot.'
They all thought about that, then Tom turned to Matt. 'So what's the third red flag?'
Matt flipped to the next sheet of paper, a photocopy of a credit statement. 'Gus is right about the credit cards. Our guy has racked up quite a few purchases over the last few months.' He gestured to the page. 'These are from his second month here.'
Tom frowned, looking at the photocopy. 'This is confidential information. How did you get it?'
'
'Meaning bribery was involved.'
'Or sexual favors,' Andy said. 'In the right light, with the right amount of booze in you, our boy Matty here is nearly impossible to resist.'
Gus's eyebrows went up. 'You speaking from experience?'
They laughed again, then Monica said to Matt. 'What happened to all your big talk about reporters and ethics?'
'It's an ideal, not a rule. Anyway, if you look at the purchases on this sheet, you'll find one of the biggest red flags of all.'
Hutch reached to the table and grabbed the photocopy, carefully reading the list.
(He was sensing a pattern here…)
Hutch stopped cold when he saw the next item on the list. Felt something wet and slimy slither up his spine, laying eggs along the way. And all at once he knew that his suspicions about Langer were no longer just a hunch, but inching ever closer to a cold, dead certainty.
The others must have seen this reflected in his expression, because more than of one them said, 'What is it? What does it say?' The loudest and most urgent voice came from Ronnie, who had been largely silent until now.
What he saw on the page would seem innocuous to anyone not watching the trial or privy to the discovery files. To them, it might even be comical. But to those in the know-to Hutch and to most of the people in this room-it was nothing short of a bombshell.
'It looks like a tuition payment,' he told them. 'Our boy spent some time getting an education. Which in itself isn't that big of a deal. It's the school in question that raises the flag.'
Andy frowned. 'Jesus, Hutch, spit it out already.'
Hutch tore his gaze from the photocopy and looked at them. 'It's a two thousand dollar payment to the Wyndham Academy of Pet Grooming.'
— 34 -
'Pet grooming?' Gus said with a frown.
Hutch nodded. 'Unless this is some kind of donation, Langer went to pet grooming school.'
Gus turned to Ronnie. 'I don't follow. Is that where you work?'
Ronnie shook her head, but Hutch could see that she was only half listening. She had something else on her mind. 'I work at The Canine Cuttery. Or I used to, until my fat bastard of a boss fired me.'
'Canine Cuttery, that's right. I remember the testimony. But I guess I don't see the significance, other than this boy Langer looking to take up the same line of work. Probably just a coincidence.'
'It's more than that,' Matt said. 'You remember all that talk about the hairs the cops found in Jenny's car? The ones that supposedly place Ronnie at the crime scene?'
Gus shrugged. 'I learned a long time ago not to pay too much attention to pre-trial leaks, but, yeah, I remember something about that.'
'Well, if you read the forensics report, it turns out those hairs didn't come from Ronnie. They came from a dog.'
Gus looked bewildered. 'So that's why Abernathy and Meyer made such a fuss about where she worked?'
Matt nodded.
'Hell,' Gus said, 'that's about as thin as my cousin Gerda's ass. Anyone who sat in that car coulda had dog hairs on him.' He looked at Ronnie again. 'Your attorney'll blow a hole right
'One can hope,' she said absently.
