Master of elusion, p.16
Master of Elusion, page 16
part #2 of MacGregor FBI Series
It was early, but Kelsey remembered Doc telling her he woke up by six every morning, so she wasn’t surprised when he answered his phone on the first ring.
“Mack, I’m glad you called; I’ve been worried about you since I heard about the DRB’s verdict and spoke to Nikki. You should have called me; I would have come to help.” Doc said in his usual low, monotone voice.
Kelsey knew she should have called Doc sooner, but he had been on a special assignment with another FBI Behavioral Unit, and she didn’t want to bother him. “Well, I need your help now Doc. It would seem my visions are coming fast and furiously and I’m starting to get bogged down trying to recall specifics. I know Nikki or Torres could conduct a CI, but they’re busy with investigating other leads. Could you come and help?”
“Of course, I can; I’ve just finished up with this consulting case so I can be there later today.”
“Thanks, Doc. I should have got you involved earlier but we were trying to keep this case on the down-low, and then you were involved with that shooting at the high school and…well, I’m glad you can help us. We’re set up on the Sixth Floor; you’ll see where when you get here.”
They said their goodbyes and Kelsey was about to open the email waiting for her from Nikki when a knock sounded on her door.
Torres stood poised to knock again when she nodded for the tall, dark woman to enter her office.
“What’s up, Torres, do you have an update?”
“I went looking for Red to tell you both this, but she’s not at her computer. Have you heard from her this morning?” Torres said as she sat in the chair across from Kelsey.
“I got this email…but come to think of it she always calls or texts me.” Let me check this email.”
Kelsey opened the email and scanned the contents. “Nikki wrote she was up all night searching databases for fires where someone survived with extensive burns to the face and came up with nothing that could help them. The men and women who lived were either dead now or were likely not their Unsub because of geographical locations and age.”
Torres shook her head and frowned. “So, no good news; anything else?”
“Nikki said she would be unreachable until nine ‘o’clock because she would be turning off her phone and getting more than two hours sleep. I’m glad”, Kelsey added.
“Yeah, Red has been burning the candle at both ends for weeks.”
Smiling because she liked Torres’s nickname for Nikki, it suited her diminutive best friend, Kelsey said, “looks like we’re on our own for …” Kelsey looked at her watch. “about an hour. We’ll update Nikki when she gets in besides I have some things we can look into ourselves while Nikki gets her much-needed rest. What do you have?”
Torres handed Kelsey a file.
“I found this on Red’s desk. The pathologist, Dr. Tufts finished her report. We were right, and it’s worse than we thought. Two of the three bodies exhumed did have evidence of extensive vaginal bruising that appeared to have been inflicted just a couple of weeks before they died. Both Debbie Griggs and Olivia Cutter of evidence of rape before their deaths, and Debbie Griggs had extensive scarring on her right upper thigh that leads Dr. Tufts to theorize she cut herself regularly.”
“Jesus, those women were victimized by our Unsub not once but multiple times. How about the drugs, could they find the same drugs?” Kelsey raked her hands through her curls. A sour taste in her mouth threatened to make her gag.
“Yes and no. Dr. Tufts found small minute amounts of the same drugs in Olivia Cutter as were in Emily Carter and Charlene Varner, but she couldn’t give a definitive answer, so she did some checking on her own. Dr. Tufts took it upon herself to request the hospitals’ records on the other women’s deaths the nights they came in. The hospital staff took blood samples of the women when they arrived in case there would be an investigation into the cause of their deaths. It’s emergency room protocol to cover the hospitals’ asses in the event of a wrongful death suit. Dr. Tufts’ investigative skills paid off, and we now have proof that Emily Carter, Charlene Varner, Olivia Cutter, Jennifer Dempsey, Debbie Griggs, and Bonita Clayton were all killed with the exact lethal dose of heroin, fentanyl, and ketamine. The drug signatures were a match to each other, so it’s official we’re looking at six deaths, and an attempted attack on Jeanette Willsgate.”
Kelsey felt the force of the reality hit her; she hadn’t wanted their theories to be correct because it meant that their Unsub had gone about killing these women without reprisal. When Nikki found the other heroin overdoses she hoped they were just suicides of troubled women, but now they knew for a fact they were looking for a demented individual who preyed on vulnerable women to fulfill his need to exact a punishment on their fathers. But why? What did our Unsub hope to do by punishing these men? They needed, more than ever, to talk to these men and find out what they were hiding. Kelsey’s phone rang, as if, on cue; the photo of Nikki kissing her cheek came up on the screen. The time display was eight-fifteen, Kelsey knew her best friend had something important to tell them to call earlier than she planned.
“Looks like they took the bait, we have appointments to speak to Secretary of Defense, Edward Willsgate and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, William Varner today,” Nikki said brightly as soon as Kelsey answered her phone.
“And not a moment too soon, I may add. Torres just told me Dr. Tufts came through and we do have six murders as well as the attack on Jeanette. We need to know our Unsub’s motive for going after these women, and I believe their fathers have the answers we need.”
Nikki said she would see Kelsey downstairs in twenty minutes because their first appointment was to meet with Edward Willsgate at his office at the Pentagon.
***
Speaking to Edward Willsgate wasn’t the treasure trove of revelations Kelsey had hoped it would be. The Secretary of Defense had many enemies recently but couldn’t think of anyone who would want to hurt him as well as other influential men in D.C., and the government.
Kelsey believed their Unsub targeted these men because they were men of power not because of anything they had done. Kelsey explained to Mr. Willsgate that his daughter could be in imminent danger. He told them that after the attack on Jeanette he hired the bodyguard they had met during their last questioning of his daughter and he also rented her a new apartment in an upscale, security building. The address of that condo was 1301 U Street NW, Unit 333, the same number Kelsey saw in her visions and the one that’s down the street from the neon sign on the tattoo parlor.
Walking down the hall from the Secretary of Defense’s office, Nikki blew out a long, audible breath. “Wow.”
Kelsey took out her phone and nodded. “We now know the number I saw is the address for Jeanette’s apartment. We should get Torres over there to check on her, and I’ll try calling that new number, Mr. Willsgate gave us; maybe we can talk to Jeanette and finally surveil her apartment. I hope we’re not too late.”
“Me too, Mack. I’ll call Torres and have her go to Jeanette’s new place and look around. We have twenty minutes to get to our appointment to speak to William Varner.”
They were meeting the Associate Justice at his apartment near the Capitol. On the drive over, Kelsey thought about the face she saw in her dreams. Who was the face depicted on the mask their Unsub was finishing and trying on for size? Did he have something to do with Jeanette or was their Unsub stalking someone else?
***
Kelsey and Nikki were able to find out that William Varner had received several emails, and SD cards describing his daughter’s involvement in questionable sexual activities in visual accuracy. He explained that after his daughter’s death he first had a call from a disguised voice saying Charlene killed herself because of her extreme guilt in having sexual relations with strangers. The voice taunted him, and Mr. Varner stopped answering his phone and let it go to voicemail. He gave them the recordings for them to listen to and then he said the first SD card had arrived with videos of his daughter having sex with a man.
The man’s features weren’t discernible in some of the frames, but Nikki was sure she would be able to clean up pixilation to enhance the resolution.
Torres had called to say she arrived at Jeanette’s apartment and the woman wasn’t home.
Kelsey told Torres to sit and wait for further instructions, or until Jeanette returned home, at which time Torres was to call Nikki or herself.
Kelsey’s call to Jeanette’s new phone proved fruitless as the woman didn’t answer. Frustrated, Kelsey asked Nikki to go search for where the emails, William Varner had received had originated and clean up the videos to see if they could find any clues to their Unsub’s identity.
After freshening up, Kelsey went to meet Doc in her office so he could help her with recalling the images of the mask she saw in her dreams.
Walking in, Kelsey saw Doc and the sketch artist waiting for her.
Kelsey sat on the sofa across from Doc and greeted both he and Larry, the sketch artist. “How do you want to do this Doc?”
“Mack, we should begin with you closing your eyes and concentrate on the face you saw before you saw the mask.” Doc’s voice was low and reassuring.
Kelsey closed her eyes and thought about the face of the man in her dreams. The scars covered almost the whole left side of his face. The skin was smooth and red; the eyes were piercing in their intensity.
“Now tell me what you see, what color are his eyes?”
“Blue, his eyes are a deep, dark blue.”
“Great, now when he puts on the mask what color are the eyes?”
“Brown. No, they’re more greenish.”
“Okay, Mack what about the mouth; what do the lips look like?”
“The lips are thin; the upper lip looks bowed with a small scar,” she said seeing the lips in her mind’s eye.
The session progressed with Kelsey describing each feature for the sketch artist with minute details. When Doc ended the cognitive interview, and Kelsey opened her eyes, the face looking back at her was that of Jeanette Willsgate’s assigned bodyguard, Steven Rice. “Jesus, I have to call Torres and Nikki, he IS going after Jeanette.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Torres answered her phone on the first ring. “Mack, what is so important you’ve called me four times in the last few minutes? Sorry, I’ve been canvassing the neighbors in Jeanette’s new apartment building and had my phone on vibrate.”
Kelsey was running to her rental car as she said, “Our Unsub is planning on disguising himself as Jeanette’s bodyguard, Nikki should be there in ten, I’ll be there as soon as I can get through this traffic, we cannot reach Jeanette by phone. Find someone to let you inside that apartment.” She didn’t wait for a reply.
Punching the end call icon, Kelsey tried to call Edward Willsgate to find out if he had heard from his daughter. Kelsey left yet another voicemail, doesn’t anyone answer their phone today? Feeling her blood pressure rising and the tightness in her chest increase, Kelsey knew they didn’t have much time. Their Unsub had a mask made that would make him look like Jeanette’s bodyguard, it was only a matter of time before he would use it to get to her.
Only two blocks from the U Street Corridor, Kelsey’s phone buzzed and she hit her Bluetooth button on the steering wheel. “Mack, I’m here at Jeanette’s apartment and she’s not here. I’ve spoken to the front desk attendee, and she said Jeanette and her bodyguard left here two hours ago. Any luck getting Edward Willsgate to reach his daughter?” Nikki said as soon as the call was connected.
“Nothing on my end Nikki, I’ll try to reach him again. Call Torres. I sent her in search of a building super to let her into the apartment. When you get in there look for anything that may give us a clue to where Jeanette may have gone, or any sign of a struggle. Our Unsub may have Jeanette, and she thinks she’s perfectly safe with a bodyguard her dad hired for her. I’m going to use Frank Montgomery to reach Edward Willsgate. When Montgomery answered Kelsey’s call she told he needed to call his buddy Edward Willsgate and have him call her, without delay, it was an emergency.
Waiting for someone to call her back, Kelsey drove to Jeanette’s old apartment because of a gut feeling she had as soon as she heard Nikki say that Jeanette wasn’t at her new one. Pulling into the visitor parking space, Kelsey answered her ringing phone. “Mr. Willsgate, we don’t have much time. Have you reached your daughter?” Only stopping to hear Mr. Willsgate’s reply that Jeanette wasn’t answering her phone, Kelsey finished with: “Keep trying to call her, if she answers tell her to get to a police station and stay there and not to go anywhere with her bodyguard. Kelsey then told Mr. Willsgate to stay close to his phone and answer it as soon as it rings, and that they had reason to believe the bodyguard he hired is in danger, and so is Jeanette.”
Kelsey explained to Willsgate that their Unsub was targeting Jeanette and there was a possibility he would be disguising himself as her bodyguard after he took the real man out of the picture. Minutes clicked by but felt like hours as Kelsey arrived at Jeanette’s old apartment unit with the building super; the unit hadn’t been rented and was still vacant. “Stay here, I need to clear it for your safety,” Kelsey whispered to the man, drawing her gun.
Walking into the darkened hallway inside the door, Kelsey allowed her eyes to adjust to the decreased visibility before proceeding. The furnished apartment sat quiet, and nothing looked out of place for a vacant unit. Making her way to the bedroom down the hallway, she said a silent prayer.
Opening the door, Kelsey found a woman lying on the bed. Rushing to the bedside, she saw Jeanette Willsgate, barely breathing with a needle sticking out her left arm. She yelled at the building super, “Call 9-1-1 and then stay outside to wait for them; this is a crime scene.”
Kelsey had some latex gloves jammed in the front pocket of her jeans, putting a pair on, she checked for a pulse. She felt the weak movement of blood pumping in Jeanette’s throat. “Thank God,” she muttered under her breath.
The ambulance sirens drew closer giving Kelsey hope they would get there before it was too late. “Come on, Jeanette; stay with me.”
Waiting for the ambulance to arrive, Kelsey did what she could to preserve as much of Jeanette for evidence collecting as she could. She found another pair of gloves and put them on the woman’s hands; she needed to make sure if there were anything under her fingernails they could retrieve it undisturbed. She also took out the syringe and turned the glove inside out to keep any fingerprints or DNA safe from contaminations.
When the EMT’s arrived, Kelsey informed them she was FBI and had them give a double dose of Narcan immediately and to start a full fluid drip to flush out the drug combo; she was sure theirUnsub gave Jeanette.
Once the paramedics gave the reversal and inserted an IV, Kelsey ordered them to get Jeanette to George Washington University Hospital, immediately. She also had them inform the hospital emergency this was an FBI case, and they were to do all they could to preserve evidence.
Kelsey then called Torres informing her of Jeanette’s condition and asked her to get to the hospital to ensure they could collect any evidence on the woman’s body. She also requested Torres tell Nikki to get over to join her in gathering any evidence they could find left behind by their Unsub.
Kelsey went down to her car to collect her Crime Scene Kit. She knew that time was of the essence if they wanted to gather viable evidence at the scene.
Nikki arrived just before a full FBI Crime Scene Unit did to cordoned off the apartment.
“Jesus, Mack. How did you know to check here? In your visions, you saw the new apartment…” Nikki shook her head.
Kelsey couldn’t explain it, but when she learned that Jeanette and her bodyguard were seen leaving the new apartment, she thought their Unsub might have disguised himself as Steven Rice and could be taking Jeanette somewhere he could kill her in private. “I don’t know, but I’m glad I followed my gut this time.”
Nikki nodded. “Thank God you did, because if you hadn’t, we would never have…how was she?”
“She was unconscious but still breathing on her own when I found her. This syringe was sticking out of her arm. I had the paramedics give her a double dose of Narcan and open IV fluids to try and flush the drugs out as soon as possible. I can only hope it was enough.”
“I hope so too. I called Edward Willsgate, and he’s on his way to the hospital. He also informed me that Steven Rice had a hotel room at the Washington Hilton when he arrived in town.”
“Well, the CSU’s can handle gathering what they can find here, I think we should go and have a look at that hotel room. , If our Unsub got Jeanette, we need to find Steven Rice.”
***
An hour and a half later, Nikki, Kelsey, and Torres sat in the war room and went over the day’s events. On the visit to the bodyguard’s hotel suite, Kelsey and Nikki discovered the nude body of the man in his bed. They found the corpse tied to the bedpost with a leather mask on his face and a syringe sticking out of his arm. Without delay, they had a forensic team there to process the scene. The hotel staff had been told to leave him alone for a few days and not clean the place until they saw the ‘do not disturb’ sign removed from the doorknob. The witnesses said the man who requested the room to remain undisturbed was the man who stayed in the room, Steven Rice. The fingerprints of the dead man in the room were that of Steven Rice, the man Edward Willsgate hired to protect his daughter.
“We now know our Unsub has most likely killed the other men. James Colburn is our only living potential victim, and we need to talk to him. Any luck getting him here, Nikki? Kelsey asked through a clenched jaw. Kelsey sighed, laboriously and cursed when her best friend shook her head.
