Her Broken Wings by D.K. Hood
Forty
Mind reeling from all the information, theories, and ideas from her team, Jenna closed her eyes for a few seconds to think before taking a moment to look at the whiteboard. “Let’s just take a minute to consider the suspects in this case. Kyler Hall and Cliff Young are persons of interest because they tie in with Lucas Robinson and the Stanton Forest murders. We’ve interviewed both men and they lawyered up. The evidence we have on them is circumstantial at best. I’ll need more to tie them into the mass murder.” She looked at Rowley. “Find out where they were on Thursday night. Check out any witnesses to their whereabouts.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Rowley nodded. “As they’ve lawyered up, I won’t be able to ask them direct.”
Jenna rubbed her temples. “Go talk to their neighbors, call the manager of the construction site, find out where they hang out and ask around.”
“Oh, sure.” Rowley scribbled in his notebook.
“This leads us back to Lucas Robinson’s murder.” Jenna sighed. “We have no other suspects, and it will take a ton of grunt work to chase down all his enemies. He wasn’t liked.” She looked at Wolfe. “Have you released his body yet?”
“Yeah, I’ve sent Lucas Robinson’s remains to the funeral parlor as we needed the space.” Wolfe cleared his throat. “Is Mrs. Robinson well enough to make the arrangements?”
Jenna made more notes. “Walters, I want you to follow up with her, please. Carol Robinson seems fine to me; I visited her with Jo yesterday.” She lifted her eyes to her deputies. “I’m convinced she’s involved somehow. Yeah, I know she’s been locked up since her husband’s death, but there’s something about her that sends up warning signals.”
“Makes perfect sense to me.” Carter barked a laugh. “I’ve read the file. Carol Robinson discovers her husband is having an affair and hires a hitman. This is how our killer arrived in town. Maybe he was heading out after the job and something happened on the highway. Road rage maybe, he runs the men’s truck off the road and gets out his vehicle packing for bear. He guns them down and leaves.”
“So why return and kill Ruby and the men at the Old Mitcham Ranch?” Jenna stood and stretched her back and then went to the coffee machine. “What would trigger him to go crazy?” She poured a cup and went back to her desk.
“A memory.” Jo looked at Jenna. “Something as simple as a scent can cause an episode. If he is suffering from dissociative identity disorder, it can trigger like PTSD. Some people have blackouts, do terrible things and don’t remember. Others remember it as if someone else committed the atrocities, or they see it in flashbacks.”
“Yeah.” Kane looked at her. “It’s like another personality takes over for a time. The problem we have here is if it’s one of our suspects, the other one would be aware of the sudden changes in his friend. He might be covering up for him.” He sighed. “Proving it would be difficult.”
A cold shiver trickled down Jenna’s spine as her mind went back to her encounter with Atohi. She swallowed hard, not wanting to place the facts in order in her mind. If her assumptions were correct, it would mean her friend Atohi was lying to her, and she trusted him. She lifted her gaze from her notes. “I met Atohi and Brad Kelly yesterday. We talked about the remains of Kelly’s mother, as I’ve mentioned. I remember he had a scratch on his jaw, which could tie in with Ruby’s murder. He’d asked her out, so she’d know him and not be afraid if she ran into him. He had an abusive childhood, watched his mother and brother murdered. He arrived in town just before the killings started. We have no idea what he was doing from the time he left the res until a week ago.”
“And if Carol Robinson hired him to kill her husband, when he killed the two men in Stanton Forest, it triggered the memory of his father killing his family.” Kane nodded slowly. “Cold, calculating Brad steps out, and angry, murderous, out-for-revenge-on-the-world Brad comes to the front.”
Jenna turned to Carter. “Is this enough to obtain a warrant for Mrs. Robinson’s bank statements? The judge denied our last request. If she hired a hitman, she’d need a substantial amount of money.”
“Leave that to me.” Carter pushed back his Stetson with one finger. “It’s only probablecause and I figure we have that in spades.”
An FBI agent requesting a warrant from their local judge would carry more weight. Jenna couldn’t believe her luck. “Okay, I’ll leave you to handle the paperwork.”
“Sure.” Carter pushed another toothpick into his mouth. “When I’m done, I’ll go by the other crime scenes to get a feel for this killer.”
Jenna looked at the group before her. “Yes, take a look now because I need to get out a press release about the murders. As soon as it’s made public, the ghouls will be out sightseeing. Once I’ve called it in, I’ll go with Kane to speak to Atohi and see if we can find out Brad Kelly’s whereabouts at the times of the murders.”
“I think I’d like to sit in on the autopsies.” Jo collected her things from the desk. “I’m interested to confirm the sequence of events at the Old Mitcham Ranch. It will give me a clearer picture of the killer.”
Jenna closed her notebook. “Okay, we’ll meet back here at five and we’ll go over our findings.” She glanced at Wolfe. “I know the autopsies will take a considerable amount of time. Jo will bring me up to speed if you’re busy.”
“I’ll be working on the victims all day, so we won’t be able to make it, but I’ll call if I find anything significant.” Wolfe tapped on her desk. “Catch you later. Jo, I’ll wait for you in the van.” He left the room with Emily and Webber close behind.
“I’ll be right there.” Jo stood.
There was a scraping of chairs as the rest of the group got to their feet, and Rowley and Walters headed out the door.
“You know something?” Jo looked at Carter. “All this is like déjà vu. Do you remember the Chameleon Killer case out of Baltimore? He left a black feather too and we had no suspects because everyone saw a different man.”
“I know about the case but only read up on it last night.” Carter sighed. “It’s very similar to what we have now and likely the same man.”
Intrigued, Jenna turned to Jo. “How come you didn’t catch the killer?”
“In the end, I came to the conclusion we were either dealing with a master of disguise or a killer with multiple personalities.” Jo tapped the file. “I agree with Carter. This could be the same man. He might not be aware he’s dressing differently or using his left or right hand because he sees himself as whatever personality emerges. He might work for a cartel as a hitman, hence the clean kills, but then crazy Brad breaks out and goes on a killing spree as Kane described. If so, this personality is unpredictable and he can’t control it. We had boots on the ground, a huge taskforce, and we couldn’t catch him. If this is Brad Kelly and he’s exhibiting yet a different personality, this latest one is far more dangerous than all the others put together.”