Master of elusion, p.15
Master of Elusion, page 15
part #2 of MacGregor FBI Series
“So, how was last night?” Nikki asked with eyebrows raised and a silly grin on her face.
Opening her mouth to say: it’s none of your business, she decided to tell Nikki about the number she saw on the brick in her vision last night. “Nikki, can you look up this number and check to see if one of those tattoo parlors has a similar address?”
Nikki smiled nodded before taking the piece of paper, Kelsey held in her hand. “What is this? Did you have another dream last night?”
“Yes, and I think it’s an address on an apartment building our Unsub is stalking. With the sign of the tattoo parlor and this address, maybe we can narrow down the search.” Kelsey watched Nikki take her tablet out and punch in some entries.
“There is DC Ink at twelve-o-three U Street and an apartment building at thirteen-o-one, just down a block. I can try to hack into their residence files, but without some more information to go on, this isn’t going to help us much.”
“But what if…?” Kelsey began, but knew Nikki was right; they needed more to go on to determine if this address was their Unsub’s next target or if it was where he lived.
“Mack, if we could find out more. Maybe a name or even initials.”
Frowning, Kelsey thought about this gift of hers; it didn’t come with a manual on how to control her visions. “Well, it doesn’t work that way. I see what I see, and so far, it’s only been bits and pieces of visions. Although, I did see his face last night.”
“That’s great; you can sit down with a sketch artist so we can generate a photo then we’ll have something better than running around trying to identify a man who wears masks. Maybe we can see if someone recognizes the photo and can put a name to the face.”
“Yeah, only if someone has seen him without a mask. I think our Unsub is wearing a mask every day of his life, not just to look like the women’s boyfriends. The severe scarring of his face, got me thinking that he may use masks every day and have experience making these masks himself. We’ve been looking for places he could have the masks made but what if he’s doing it himself like he is making his drug combination. We can try to track him down by finding places where someone can buy the materials to make masks of the caliber we’re seeing him use. We may get a break and track the materials for the mask and the chemicals used to make his drug.”
“I’m on it, but don’t think I’m not coming back to the real reason I came in here this morning. I want to know how your first home-cooked meal in your suite went and if you have any of those pie leftovers.”
Kelsey chuckled. “It was heavenly, that’s all you need to know, and if you find me a list of places where our Unsub could buy the necessary items, I may have a Scotch pie for your reward.”
Nikki’s body language spoke of her imagining her reward: her eyes closed, her tongue wet her top lip, and then she bit her bottom lip. “You got yourself a deal, give me a few minutes and I’ll not only have you a company name, but I’ll have all the D.C. addresses where they sent their products to and hopefully a possible name of our Unsub.”
“If you can do that, I’ll have Miranda make you Scotch pies every day until we solve this case. I didn’t know I could motivate you or I would have got Nanna to make you her Scotch pies before now.”
“One taste and I’m hooked; if Miranda can cook anything like your Nanna, I’m going to make a run at taking her away from you, my friend.”
Kelsey laughed when Nikki stuck her tongue out and hurried from the room. Quietly she said, “I’d like to see you try, but it’ll be over my dead body.”
***
The rest of the day flew by after Nikki found three companies that sold realistic silicone masks that could fool people even up close. Kelsey spoke to an expert who said that a person with a good grasp of makeup artistry could make the masks, face molds, and make-up that covered the face like a second skin.
Armed with a list of the online sites to look for large volumes of purchases, Nikki found two online companies that sold all the items needed: casting resins, clay to make the face mold, flexible foam, makeup palettes, and other supplies. One company had a large buyer of the supplies located just outside of the city, a new theatre company that on the surface looked legitimate until Nikki dug deeper and found out the company purchased all the supplies to make masks but they never produced any revenue. Searching for the owner of the company proved to be next to impossible, but Nikki promised Kelsey she would find out who it was, Nikki explained she had to dig through a maze of shell corporations and false fronts. This suspicious activity looked promising, and Kelsey left it to her best friend to find the one, proverbial knot, in the mess that would lead them to a name.
Kelsey gave Torres the monumental task of investigating the missing men. Torres talked to the co-workers, family, anyone at all who knew the men and could help them find them. One man, Debbie Griggs’ boyfriend, didn’t have many friends in the area and when Torres dug deeper, she discovered he had family somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Nikki’s searched for family and found James Colburn had a grandmother living south of Mack’s hometown of North Strabane.
Kelsey called the senior woman and learned her grandson was sitting in a Washington County jail awaiting trial on conspiracy to commit fraud.
Nikki did her best to persuade the man’s court-appointed defender to allow someone from the FBI go and question him. The defense lawyer was busy and said his client didn’t need more trouble, and unless they had proof James Colburn was involved in a current FBI case, they would have to get a warrant to speak to him.
Nikki promised she would work on a plan to get to see the man; Kelsey had complete faith in her best friend’s ability to work her magic.
Armed with the possibility of foul play, the FBI issued court orders to exhume the bodies of three of the young women. The FBI pathologist did full toxicology and microscopic analyses on the tissues, looking for any evidence of the same composition of drugs and or signs of sexual assault.
Kelsey hoped to find similarities in the other apparent suicides Nikki found and if the women were also sexually assaulted as Jeanette Willsgate alleged she had been, they knew they had more victims of the same Unsub.
The witnesses said they saw a man, the night of Jeanette’s assault, and described as being Dennis Donovan, Nikki found the last known address for him. When Kelsey spoke to the rental manager, she learned that Mr. Donovan stopped paying his rent and hadn’t been seen for several weeks before the night Jeanette said she had been attacked in her apartment a second time. They could add Dennis Donovan to their growing list of missing men, but at least, Kelsey was hopeful that they had James Colburn alive and well. Once they could speak to him, James Colburn may know something that could help them.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Early Morning, November 8, 2011
Kelsey worked late last night once she arrived back at her suite. Miranda had a small meal ready for them, and they shared their day with each other over a glass of wine, but Miranda wanted to work on her new book, so they went their separate ways after washing the few dishes from their meal.
Although she was a little disappointed, this gave Kelsey more space to do some investigating. She looked over the interview notes from questioning Jeanette Willsgate about her accusation of rape. Kelsey wanted to talk to the woman again because she believed that their Unsub might want to finish what he started, the night he attacked her.
Jeanette’s father had found her another apartment, so that may be why their Unsub had difficulties finding her. Kelsey worried that her visions of seeing him in front of a brick apartment building with the number one thousand, three hundred and one on the side were, in fact, their Unsub watching Jeanette and plotting his next move.
***
“Mack, I’ve hit another roadblock with Edward Willsgate helping us contact his daughter. His assistant told me he wants us to leave her alone and not bother her about her rape. So much for helping us as much as they can.” Nikki leaned against Kelsey’s desk and looked miffed.
Kelsey frowned, she worried that this might happen. Their last talk with Jeanette left the woman quite upset, and she refused to talk more about her rape. When they asked where Jeanette was living, she refused to answer, saying her father’s attorney told her it was for her protection.
Torres offered to follow her to her place, but she lost the young woman when the bodyguard her father hired to drive her around eluded Torres in a busy intersection undergoing construction.
Kelsey swore under her breath. Before saying, “This is more frustrating when the family doesn’t cooperate; I can understand his concerns about his daughter’s safety, but we can’t do our job, protecting Jeanette, if we don’t know where she is.”
Nikki dug deeper into the young woman’s past and found out Jeanette was being counseled by a sexual assault therapist when she was a teenager. Jeanette made allegations that she was sixteen when guy sexually assaulted her during a party. Jeanette’s father’s campaign manager tried to cover it up so that it would not get out Jeanette had been drinking underage at a college fraternity when the incident occurred.
“Maybe he’s afraid the media will learn of Jeanette’s rape; I would have thought our assurance of discretion would persuade him.”
“I’m not surprised they wanted to keep the rape case out of the press while he was running for his Governorship but withholding information from us is only hindering our case. I think we need to step up our pressure on these fathers. We’re hitting one dead-end after another trying to get them to talk.”
Nikki’s brows furrowed. “What do you have in mind? I’m open to doing anything at this juncture, we’re not getting anywhere with the theater company purchasing the mask supplies, and our Unsub must be using underground means to buy his drugs and equipment to make his lethal drug combo. But how do you propose we force them to talk to us?”
“We need them to think we know what our Unsub is doing. We need to bluff them into telling us why this killer is targeting them and their daughters. I don’t think that we have heard it all from what they’ve been through lately. Remember what I said about the dream I had last night?”
“Do you mean about seeing a man in a mask sending a parcel in the mail?”
Kelsey had dreamed about a man putting an SD camera memory card into a small bubble-wrap envelope and saying ‘they’ll see it now.’ She and Nikki theorized their Unsub was sending proof of something to someone and he may be sending one of the victims’ father pictures or videos of that proof. “Yes, if we can make them believe we know the Unsub is blackmailing them, will give us some leverage with them.”
“What if they’re not, and it’s our Unsub sending the SD card to an accomplice or the media?” Nikki asked while tapping her keyboard on her tablet.
Kelsey watched her Nikki’s fingers fly over the touchpad and got an idea. “I think I’ll talk to Frank Montgomery and tell him we have reason to believe our Unsub is plotting to discredit important government and city officials in this city by blackmailing and going to the media. He’ll talk to his buddies, and they’ll be more than happy to talk to us to stop any possible media frenzy or fallout of this threat.”
“Do you think they’ll bite?”
Kelsey thought about this for a moment. “I think they’ll all want to keep their secrets and not want the public to find out what they’re all hiding. I’m thinking the fear of exposure will make them want us to catch this guy faster than just the idea of catching their daughter’s killer or rapist.”
“I sure hope you’re right Mack because we have no way to convince them to talk to us otherwise. If I talk to one more assistant who tells me their boss is busy and he’ll get back to us, I promise I’ll go through the phone and strangle them.”
Chuckling, Kelsey made the call to Frank Montgomery’s office; she knew the US Attorney General could help them with this dilemma.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Afternoon, November 10, 2011
Two days had passed since Kelsey baited their trap for the fathers to talk to them. Today like many other days had started with Kelsey going for a run upon waking in Miranda’s loving arms, and then she returned to the suite to have a shower with the lovely author before heading to her office.
The only difference today was she made a stop on her run to talk to an old informant she had at the coffee shop just around the corner from the Capitol building. Many of the assistants went there to get their bosses morning coffees, and she wanted to know if her informant could give her any information of rumblings in the offices of their government elite.
Three years ago, Kelsey met a chatty barista at a coffee shop on her way back from speaking to a witness. After a short conversation, she determined that Hazel Rodriquez would be of some help in cases that revolved around the people who favored the coffee house for their daily caffeine fix.
This morning Kelsey hoped to see if her informant had heard any rumors that the assistants talked about while waiting for their coffee orders. The elite assistants to the most powerful men and women in their government were chatty in the morning and often talked about mundane things, but they may help Kelsey find that one weak spot that may help during an interview with these men and women. Kelsey kept notes about as many government officials just in case she ever needed them.
Walking into the coffee house, Hazel Rodriquez sent her a broad smile and signaled she would be right with Kelsey after serving an impatient man at the counter. Kelsey waited, and it had been well worth the wait. Hazel heard a few of the assistants talking about their bosses being worried about something and not wanting anyone to find out what they were hiding.
Hazel told Kelsey one of those assistants was a tall, thin man with an annoying habit of blowing his nose at the order counter. The barista overheard him trying to impress a young, pretty legal assistant by saying his boss was none other than the Secretary of Defense. Kelsey perked up because it sounded like Edward Willsgate was worried about someone finding out something, she betted that his buddy Frank Montgomery told him the FBI was closing in a suspect trying to blackmail and discredit men in the city.
It would only be a matter of time before the fathers of these women were calling to speak to them about the one thing Kelsey knew they were hiding.
Kelsey had Nikki search for more evidence that the other women were sexually assaulted as teenagers or before their deaths. They still awaited the FBI forensic pathologists full report on the three exhumed bodies of the women.
Torres called Nikki and told her she had found a man who said he had a security video of a man leaving Emily Carter’s apartment building. The man had his car stolen many times in the past several months and installed a motion-detection activated camera on his car dashboard. Torres explained he heard about the investigation from a neighbor and called the tip line that Torres formed to garner public tips about the case. Nikki asked Torres to get a digital copy from the man, and she would then analyze it.
The other videos they had of their Unsub were of poor quality; all grainy and didn’t show any details. Kelsey hoped that this video could help them find clues about their Unsub. The photos and description were all leading them down the path of not identifying anyone, but a video of good quality may allow them to discern their Unsub’s height, gait, and mannerisms. Once they found a possible suspect, Nikki could then match his physical attributes he couldn’t cover up as efficiently as he did his face.
Kelsey’s visions were still bits and pieces that only gave snippets of clues they used to get closer to identifying their Unsub, but she felt relieved that he didn’t seem to be watching the woman any longer.
Since Kelsey hadn’t had any visions of the man killing a woman or they hadn’t had any reports of new overdose cases, Kelsey knew they still had time to stop the Unsub from murdering another woman.
The Unsub’s demeanor in her dreams was methodical and precise. He worked on a mask Kelsey couldn’t see the features, as a whole, to be able to describe a face, as of yet.
When Kelsey told Nikki, her best friend said maybe he wasn’t going after Jeanette Willsgate but another target.
Kelsey only hoped that they would find out where Jeanette was living so they could set up surveillance of her apartment to thwart their Unsub, in case his next target was the one woman who stopped him from successfully carrying out his plan.
All their calls to reach the woman proved fruitless as she appeared to have turned off or thrown away the phone she had.
Nikki tried without success to find anything on Jeanette’s social media account that would point to where she lived or what places she frequented. The woman was careful, and this buoyed Kelsey’s hopes that their Unsub hadn’t found her and wasn’t targeting her, but if he wasn’t, they had no way of finding out who he was stalking until he took his plan to the next level and attacked the woman he watched.
The building with the address one thousand, three hundred and one on U Street was a high-end condo, and Nikki searched the resident's list. Neither Jeanette Willsgate nor her father’s name was on any of the leases, but there were a couple of shell companies owning rentals; Nikki worked on finding any connection to the Willsgates.
Chapter Thirty
November 11, 2011
Waking from yet another vision made the anxiety level rise in Kelsey’s attempt to solve the case. Her sleep riddled with waking and falling asleep to try and recall images she saw, Kelsey hadn’t slept well.
Kelsey saw a man wearing a recognizable mask, but she couldn’t place where she had seen the man’s face before. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to sleep and she didn’t want to disturb Miranda, Kelsey got out of bed to shower and dress to go into the office early. She wrote a note explaining why she had to leave early.
Arriving at her office, Kelsey called Doc; she hoped he would be able to help her remember the face in her dream through a cognitive interview. Usually, Kelsey recalled essential features and then made notes, but her visions in her dreams were jumbled and the features on the face blurred. It was the familiarity that stuck with her; Kelsey knew she saw that face recently and once she could unlock the image in her brain, she hoped they would know who their Unsub was masquerading as in her visions.
