Ruthless (18 page)

CHAPTER 60

“As I mentioned a few minutes ago,” said Alton, “it’s clear that the first two murders—those of Jay Mancini and Louise Sinclair—were meticulously-planned assassinations. Whoever carried them out had an eye for detail, from the lack of fingerprints or other forensic evidence to the untraceable murder weapons. For the moment, we’re going to table these two murders to address the two additional deaths that occurred in the following weeks.

“As I mentioned previously, the details surrounding these two new deaths—those of Monica Shaffer and Miles Worley—led us to doubt the mob’s involvement in them, since the MO of these two new deaths was different from the first two assassinations: the third death has “cause unknown” listed on the death certificate, and the fourth death involved the poisoning of a person that nobody in the Mancini family besides Chelsea knew.

“A couple of new developments caused us to look at an entirely different list of suspects. First, someone with a tech-savvy background sent an e-mail message to Chelsea, warning her that she was in danger. Did the message-sender really have Chelsea’s safety in mind, or was he trying to corral her into a specific location—this apartment—in order to make her the next victim? The warning message was sent with a sophisticated anti-tracking technique, indicating that the sender was probably a Kruptos software designer.

“The second clue that led us to look at new suspects was a bomb that was detonated in my car recently. It was created using state-of-the-art electronic components and software for the remote app and detonator but a rudimentary design for the canister which contained the actual explosives. This curious combination also supports the idea that the bomber could be a Kruptos person who is proficient in electronics and software design but not familiar with bomb-making in general.

“Only two Kruptos people were both aware of Chelsea’s association with the recent murder victims and in possession of the necessary skills to send the untraceable message: Brent Tanaka, Chelsea’s former boyfriend, and Winston Lewis, her manager.”

Lewis puffed himself out with indignation. “Now look, I already covered this with Agent Wilson—”

“You did, but you didn’t provide an alibi for the nights of any of the murders,” replied Alton.

“I didn’t realize I had to. If you give me some time, I can look back at my calendar to see what I was doing on those nights. If I was with someone, I’m sure they could vouch for my whereabouts. But you haven’t addressed the broader question. Why would I possibly want to harm Chelsea? She’s one of my top software designers. I’d be up the creek without her.”

Prior to the night’s gathering, Alton and Mallory had agreed on the impropriety of Alton conducting too vigorous an interrogation of a fellow Kruptos manager, so Mallory spoke up. “Mr. Lewis, I understand you’ve been trying to take personal credit for the software-design work performed by members of your project team.”

“Where did you hear that?”

Mallory stared at him unblinkingly. “Mr. Lewis, if a fact is true, knowing the source of that fact doesn’t make it any less true. If you must know, though, I heard this from your boss, Nelson Lattimore. He said you produce good results but frequently take undue personal credit for your team’s results. He’s a software designer himself, you know. He reviews the daily updates to the online project files and sees who is producing specific results. And it’s not you.”

“I understand what you’re saying,” said Lewis, “but as the team’s manager, I simply want to ensure I’m recognized for the team’s results. I’m sorry if Mr. Lattimore has any misperception about this. Nonetheless, I don’t see how the amount of credit I receive—whether merited or not—explains why I’d want to hurt Chelsea.”

“Isn’t your Aegis project about to wrap up?” asked Mallory. “And if it’s successful, wouldn’t the key players from this project have substantial promotional opportunities? And if one of those key players were to object to Mr. Lattimore about your taking credit for her work—again—wouldn’t that hurt your chances for promotion to VP?”

“I suppose it would, but it wouldn’t drive me to murder. That’s preposterous.”

“Normally I’d agree with you, but the fact remains that Miles Worley is dead, and an attempt was made on Chelsea Mancini’s life via the bomb in Alton, uh…Mr. Blackwell’s car.”

“You’ve explained why I’d theoretically want to harm Chelsea, but why would I want to kill Miles Worley?” protested Lewis. “The guy wasn’t on my project team. He wasn’t even a programmer.”

“Perhaps as a prelude to killing Miss Mancini,” replied Mallory, “to dissociate your connection to her murder. The police would consider the notion that the same person killed both Worley and Miss Mancini. If Worley died first, his murder would serve as a useful decoy for your true plan to eliminate Chelsea Mancini.”

“Chelsea is a valuable member of my team,” insisted Lewis. “I wouldn’t hurt her, and I didn’t have anything to do with Miles Worley’s death. Just a moment…” He scanned through the calendar app on his cell phone. “Worley died the evening of the sixteenth, right? Mr. Hines, our CEO, held a project milestone meeting with all the department heads that evening. His admin always takes minutes, including a roll call of attendees. Check with her and she can verify I was in that blasted meeting until late.”

“How late?” asked Mallory.

“I don’t recall specifically. Those meetings are supposed to end at seven, but I remember that one running over by quite a bit, at least an hour or two.”

Alton and Mallory exchanged knowing glances. Lewis’s statement confirmed their theory of the guilty party. As expected, Lewis had established a solid, easily-verified alibi that pointed to his innocence.

“If the meeting minutes and other attendees confirm you were there as late as you claim,” said Mallory, “that should absolve you of the suspicion of harming Miles Worley. What about the evening of the twenty-first, the night the bomb was planted in Mr. Blackwell’s car?”

Lewis shook his head in frustration. “No, there’s nothing in my calendar for that evening. Most nights, I usually either go by O’Malley’s Bar or head home. Sometimes I stop by the grocery store if I need something.”

“I researched your credit card purchase records from that evening and didn’t see anything,” said Mallory, “but let’s not forget that there is another Kruptos employee who had a means and potential motive for harming Worley: Brent Tanaka.”

CHAPTER 61

The gentle Brent Tanaka nodded his head, seeming to accept the inevitability of his name being raised at some point during the evening. “I understand how I could be suspected based on my programming skills, but I don’t see what my motive would be. Why would I want to harm Worley?”

“The same reason we suspected Victor Durov,” said Mallory, “so you could move back into Chelsea’s life.”

“I admit that I’d like that,” said Brent, “but what would be the point of killing Worley? The decision to reunite is Chelsea’s, not his. If she wanted to get back together with me, she would do so whether Worley liked it or not. If she
didn’t
want to get back together, how would killing Worley make her any more attracted to me?”

Alton’s respect for his Kruptos colleague grew
,
realizing that even in affairs of the heart, Brent applied a rare, programmer-like level of rationality.

“Besides Winston Lewis,” asked Mallory, “what other software designers at Kruptos are aware of Chelsea’s family association with the other murders and therefore the future danger she could be facing?”

“No one, to my knowledge, but I don’t know for a fact that she didn’t tell anyone else.”

“Mr. Tanaka,” said Mallory, looking perplexed, “you don’t seem to be very concerned about potentially incriminating yourself.”

Brent paused to gather his thoughts. “I don’t see how telling anything but the truth is good for me in the long run. I know I’m not guilty, and I have to trust that the true facts surrounding Worley’s murder will emerge and consequently exonerate me. Being duplicitous will only slow down the process of discovering the truth.”

Alton admired the man for his simple yet profound perspective. He noticed Chelsea gazing upon Brent with a smile. Was she experiencing a renewed appreciation of Brent’s qualities? Was she now beginning to value his integrity at its full worth?

“I checked your activity for the night of Worley’s poisoning,” said Mallory, “and you’re in luck. Your MasterCard transaction records show you purchased admission to the Fernbank Science Museum at ten past five that afternoon. It’s a good thirty to forty-five minute drive from Kruptos to the museum, so your being there would provide an alibi during the window of time in which Worley was poisoned. Of course, you could have given your credit card to someone else, which a man of your intellect might have done if contemplating a murder. However, the museum’s video surveillance footage shows you entering the museum at four ten and not leaving until nine o’clock, so I can definitely state that you didn’t poison Worley.”

“Ah, yes,” exclaimed Brent, “I remember that day. I went to see Fernbank’s new Charles Darwin exhibit. Did you know he traveled on the HMS Beagle for almost five years nonstop?” The animation on his countenance seemed to be derived more from the recollection of the exhibit’s fascination than from the fact he had just been cleared of a murder charge. Alton snickered to himself while admitting that he probably would have found the exhibit fascinating, too.

“And when you were rummaging through Miss Mancini’s desk a few weeks ago?” asked Mallory.

Brent hung his head in embarrassment. “I was looking for a photo of me and Chelsea, one we took at the top of Stone Mountain. She used to keep it on her desk. I was hoping to make a copy of it before she came into work that day.”

Mallory turned to her fellow FBI agents, particularly Agent Wiggins, who had not attended the morning’s conference. “We don’t have any evidence that Lewis and Tanaka were involved in either of the first two homicides. They also have no motive for those crimes. Neither of them knew the victims or had any reason to do them harm. Since they’ve been exonerated from the murder of Miles Worley, Mr. Blackwell and I recommend they be removed from the list of suspects.”

“As long as Lewis’s alibi holds up, I’d agree with you,” said Agent McElroy.

“Agent Wilson, Mr. Blackwell,” said Agent Wiggins, “I admire the work you’ve done. It’s very thorough and has cleared a number of suspects, but I don’t see how we’re any closer to solving the homicide cases. If none of the people gathered here today committed those crimes, where do we go from here to discover who
is
guilty?”

“There is one more suspect we haven’t discussed,” said Alton, “a person who is present in this room.”

CHAPTER 62

As Alton finished his statement, the room fell into utter silence.

“What is the common thread in all four deaths?” asked Alton. “The answer is that all four of the victims knew Chelsea Mancini. That’s the only reason we investigated all four of them at the same time, even though the first two seem so different from the last two.

“We’ve examined who had the motive, skill, and opportunity to commit each of these crimes. Let’s think about those three elements one more time but from a different perspective. What are the possible motives for killing a person? One possible motive is greed, as in a hired assassin or someone who stands to inherit money or property. If greed isn’t the motive, the other choice is some other kind of strong emotion, such as hate, fear, or jealousy. We’ve discussed a couple of theories of romantic jealousy tonight, but what about other types of jealousy? What about the desire to have a friend all to oneself…to not be forced to share that friend with others?” Alton sat to rest his throbbing leg. With a grimace, he nodded at Mallory to continue.

“Now, for most of us, sharing our friends’ time with others is natural,” said Mallory. “But some people have a difficult time forming friendships. When someone like that
does
form a close friendship, they might become jealous of the time their new friend spends with other people. They might want to eliminate those other people who compete for their new friend’s time and attention. Isn’t that right, Pam?”

All heads in the room swiveled simultaneously to stare at Pam Edwards. She looked at Mallory with a puzzled but unafraid gaze.

“I’m not sure what you’re saying,” said Pam.

“Let me explain myself, then,” replied Mallory. “When you first moved from Birmingham to Atlanta, you didn’t know anyone, did you? You told Alton several weeks ago that Chelsea befriended you on the job and eventually invited you to share this apartment to split costs. But Chelsea wasn’t just a new friend. She was your first real friend as an adult, wasn’t she? The first person who didn’t judge you for being so timid…the first person to accept you as you are.

“After a while, though, you saw what a social butterfly Chelsea is, and you began to worry. She was spending so much time with other people, wasn’t she? And you wanted her all to yourself. You didn’t want to compete with anyone else for Chelsea’s affections, so you decided to eliminate the competition. You had me fooled for a while, seeming so terrified of all the murder and mayhem, but that was just a cover, wasn’t it?”

Pam shook her head. “Do you know how…crazy that sounds?”

Mallory continued in an even voice. “Do you want to know what first clued me in? It was a comment you made last week in this very room. Alton and I were examining the evidence files. You supposedly couldn’t endure the conversation and said, ‘I don’t want to hear about gunshots
or arsenic
or people dying in their sleep anymore.’ We never told you or Chelsea what kind of poison was used to kill Worley. That information was specifically withheld from the public in the hopes that the culprit wouldn’t be tipped off to get rid of their remaining arsenic. How could you know it was used?

“At first, I couldn’t conceive how or why you could be Worley’s murderer. It didn’t make sense. But I couldn’t ignore the arsenic comment. So I thought, if you truly were his murderer, what would be your motive, and how could you have killed him?

“I’ve already touched on the motive. Worley and the other three people who died had one characteristic in common: they all spent a lot of time with Chelsea, time that took her away from you.

“Of course, I didn’t know your motive at first, so after your arsenic comment, I asked Alton to tell me everything he knew about you. Since you don’t talk much, that was actually pretty easy. Alton told me that when he informed you of his plan to visit his family in Tifton, you mentioned that you had been close to your mom but not your dad. I checked your family background and spoke with a Doctor Phillips in Birmingham. At first, he said he couldn’t violate doctor-patient confidentiality, but once I explained that several murders had already been committed and more lives were at stake, he agreed…a bit reluctantly, I might add.

“Doctor Phillips told me your dad was not only a violent alcoholic but also did…things to you. One night, he came home in a drunken rage and accused your mom of cheating on him. After killing her, he turned the shotgun on himself. You lost both parents in one night. After that, Doctor Phillips treated you for a long time. He described your condition as a kind of PTSD, similar to soldiers returning from combat, a result of both long-term sexual abuse and the horror of your parents’ murder-suicide.

“Doctor Phillips said that after your parents died, you became emotionally detached from the rest of the world, unable to form emotional bonds. But when Chelsea reached out to you, something connected inside…for the first time in a long time. What was it about her? Did she remind you of your mom?”

Pam remained silent, and Mallory continued. “As I researched your job at Kruptos and your personal life, I quickly saw that you have no other friends besides Chelsea. When you told us you were staying with your friend ‘Meg’ over the last few weeks, you were actually staying at the La Quinta Inn off of I-85. I have your credit card charges to prove it.

“I then started thinking about the other deaths besides Worley’s. My next step was to search for proof of your involvement in them. There wasn’t much evidence left at the first two homicides, so I started with the death of Monica Shaffer, who mysteriously died in her sleep. Alton remembered another fact from his conversations with you. You told him you were familiar with his home town of Tifton because you passed through there on the way to a Scout camping trip when you were a kid. I was in the Scouts too, and one of the lessons they teach you is never to use a portable gas camping stove in a tent. The stove emits deadly carbon monoxide when it burns and can asphyxiate someone in a closed area.

“You knew that Monica Shaffer took sleeping pills regularly. Since you haven’t been spending nights in this apartment recently, no one would know if you secretly entered Monica’s unit. And since Monica took sleeping pills, you knew you wouldn’t accidentally awaken her once inside. You brought your old camping stove to Monica’s bedroom and burned it for several hours in her bedroom with the door closed. After confirming she was dead, you cracked the window so the deadly gas would escape before her body was detected.”

“Like I said, this is crazy,” protested Pam. “Just because you can dream up these accusations doesn’t mean I actually did any of it.”

“You’re right,” replied Mallory evenly. “Words alone don’t prove anything. Last week, I ran this theory by a doctor at the CDC, and he confirmed that a gas stove in a ten by eleven room—the dimensions of Monica’s bedroom—would emit lethal levels of carbon monoxide.

“I then obtained a search warrant for your on-site storage locker here at Eagle Crest and for your financial and online records. In the storage locker, I found an old camping stove with a brand-new canister of propane attached. Using your credit card records and your frequent-shopper number at Dick’s Sporting Goods, I was able to confirm that you purchased
two
canisters of propane the day before Monica died. Presumably it took more than one canister to kill her, since only one canister—the one attached to the stove—was in your storage locker. I then asked the coroner’s office to test Monica’s body for carbon monoxide poisoning, a test they had had no reason to run previously, and they confirmed it was the cause of death.”

Pam remained silent, nervously biting her fingernails.

“Monica Shaffer saw Chelsea a lot,” said Mallory, “both on and off the tennis court. Now that I understand your motive, I can see why you wanted to eliminate Monica. Of course, Chelsea saw her Uncle Jay all the time, too. Louise Sinclair, Chelsea’s friend and former neighbor, had announced on TV her intention to return back to this apartment complex. Both Jay and Louise represented more people who took Miss Mancini away from you, and you couldn’t have that.”

His leg rested, Alton once again stood up, and Mallory looked for him to pick up the remaining explanation.

“There’s also the question of the anonymous warning note Miss Mancini received and the bomb in my car,” said Alton. “Agent Wilson and I wondered who could have sent the note and why they sent it. We always assumed that it was sent either as a legitimate warning to Miss Mancini or as a means to harm her. It turns out it was neither. We were on the right track when we hypothesized that the note-sender might want to keep Miss Mancini at home so she’d be an easier target. You did want to keep her at home for a malicious reason, Miss Edwards, not to harm
her
but rather to get rid of
me
, the person who has been spending far more time with Chelsea than anyone else.

“We were also on the right track in suspecting that the note-sender and bomber was a software designer at Kruptos. We knew the note-sender used advanced techniques for avoiding detection, and you’re a one of the most talented members of the Aegis project team, a group specifically formed to create countermeasures for decryption and tracking programs. Who is more qualified than you to send an e-mail that can’t be traced?

“And then there was the bomb in my car. When you came for your normal weekend visit on the morning of the car bombing, it was easy to stop by my car and plant the bomb in it before entering the apartment. Since you were in the apartment with us that morning, you could detonate the bomb with confidence, knowing that your precious Chelsea wasn’t in the vehicle with me. That’s why you didn’t need a remote camera on the bomb to confirm who was in my car.”

“How could I have gotten into Monica Shaffer’s apartment or your car?” protested Pam. “Wouldn’t they both be locked?”

“Frankly, I don’t know how you entered Monica’s apartment—,” began Alton.

“The spare key,” said Chelsea, her eyes wide with the agony of a horrid epiphany. “You used the spare key Monica gave me.” The dismay in her eyes forced Pam to look away.

“And I’ve let you borrow my Explorer several times over the last few weeks when your car was in the shop,” said Alton, “first to take David and Fahima to the State Department, and then for a few ‘personal errands,’ as you called them. It was simple to run up to the dealership to have a duplicate key made, wasn’t it? In fact, the Templeton Ford dealership on Georgia Four Hundred shows that a duplicate key for my car was made four days before you planted the car bomb. The dealership recorded the VIN as part of the duplicate key order. The key was definitely made for my car.

“Once Mallory connected you to Monica Shaffer’s murder, we reexamined the other homicides. No one knows of your whereabouts on the night Miles Worley was poisoned. Supposedly you were at ‘Meg’s house,’ but we know that’s a lie, don’t we? We
do
know that you purchased Pi Shuang
,
a traditional Chinese medicine that contains arsenic trioxide, over the internet a few weeks ago. That’s the exact form of arsenic found in Worley’s sweet tea cup. It would be easy to make up an excuse to visit Worley at his place, wouldn’t it? Perhaps you told him you had a message from Miss Mancini. It wouldn’t matter what you told him since he wouldn’t be alive long enough to repeat your lies to anyone else.

“So now the only homicides that need explaining are the first two: those of Jay Mancini and Louise Sinclair. The only hard forensic evidence left behind at either crime scene was a few transfer fibers on Louise Sinclair’s shirt. They’re made of a common, gray sweatshirt material, so they weren’t helpful in identifying the killer. However, every garment contains a slightly different blend of fiber types. If we have a suspected killer, we can compare fibers from that person’s garments to the fibers recovered from Sinclair’s crime scene. So, if we search your clothes, will we find any gray sweatshirts or jackets made of sweatshirt material?”

Pam rocked back and forth. “I didn’t do it,” she murmured repeatedly, apparently in a vain hope that simply denying responsibility would erase the mountain of evidence condemning her.

“Once we were on to you,” said Mallory, “I obtained a search warrant to track your internet activity. Yes, I know you used a Kruptos program to avoid using your real identity at the web sites you visited. I’ve used those programs myself in the past. But who do you suppose helped us monitor your internet activity?” She nodded towards Alton. “We know every online search you’ve made in the last couple of weeks.”

Mallory glanced at Alton’s laptop on the dining room table. “Pam, there’s Alton’s computer. Would you mind turning it on?” 

Pam made no movement. Fahima, who had remained silent throughout the exposition, jumped out of her seat. “No, Alton! I remember now. Do not…do not use that computer!”

Alton held up a palm in acknowledgement and turned back to Pam. “No? Why not? Could it be because it’s booby-trapped to deliver a potentially lethal shock to whoever activates it?”

While Fahima breathed an audible sigh of relief, Pam’s countenance betrayed a growing inner turmoil as her eyes darted between Mallory, Alton, and Chelsea.

“Considering how much thought you obviously put into these crimes,” said Mallory, “I’m surprised you allowed yourself to be caught. The murders were almost perfectly planned and executed. All your hours and days of meticulous planning were undone with a simple slip of the tongue in a careless moment.”