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Jenna blew out a sigh. “I have no idea. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him go. I assume he’s at his cabin. He said he’d leave his phone switched on.” She frowned. “Can’t you reach him?”
“Right this moment, no. My call went to voicemail.” Jo held up a hand. “He might be out of range. I’ll try the satellite phone. Oh, and Kalo is back on the job. He’s hunting down a few things for Carter. They spoke after he left your office. I’ll be in touch.” She disconnected.
“She’s not very happy with us.” Kane rolled his eyes skyward. “Yet she’d do the same. Look what happened when Rio was found with a victim. We followed procedure then too. Nobody is above the law.”
Losing Jo and Carter’s friendship would be a disaster, but Jenna had no choice. She looked at Kane and shook her head slowly. “There goes Thanksgiving.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
The library was deserted when Carter walked upstairs and set his laptop on a table next to a window overlooking Main. Hours later and mentally depleted from reading all afternoon, he finished a can of soda, and leaned back in his chair, staring at the computer screen looking for answers. His FBI access codes had gotten him into Jenna’s files. He’d always had access but had expected Jenna to restrict him during the investigation. He read through the autopsy reports. The forensic conclusions Wolfe had supplied had been extremely interesting. Only a stun gun with high amperage could have caused the damage to the victims. From the information Kalo had sent him, the background checks of the suspects didn’t show the electrical engineering attributes required to make electroshock weapons. Not intending to put anything in writing, because he couldn’t trust anyone right now, he called Kalo’s burner. “Is it possible to buy a high amperage stun gun on the dark web?”
“I haven’t found anything you can’t buy on the dark web.” Kalo unscrewed the top of the jar of candy he always had on his desk. It made a familiar spinning sound, and a clatter as the top fell on to the desk. “Do you want one?”
Smiling to himself Carter smothered a yawn. “Nah, I’m just hunting down all possible ways a person could obtain a stun gun capable of killing someone. I’m finding it difficult to believe that either of the suspects in the current case has the intelligence or training to be able to change the amperage on a stun gun. So, I’ll need you to check out if either of them has any skill when it comes to IT. If they’re capable of negotiating the dark web, it opens up a whole can of worms.”
“I don’t have to check that out, I already know. They have intelligence in spades.” Kalo tapped on his keyboard. “The answer to that question is both of them. Holden obtained a scholarship to one of the most prestigious colleges in the state. He was writing software for some of the major companies and making millions until his security program was hacked offshore. He walked away and ended up in Black Rock Falls, carving wood. Strauss had a similar background in IT but his specialty was gaming. From what I could dig up about him, he left the company due to burnout. He was raised on a cattle farm and decided it was time to go back to his roots to get his karma back—I found that info on his social media page.” He paused for a beat. “Where is this line of investigation leading?”
Carter digested the information and ran a hand through his shaggy blond hair. “I’m not sure but I’ll need to go and look at the crime scenes. My movements haven’t been restricted by the local sheriff’s department, so I’ll be calling in where I’m going, just in case anyone asks questions. I don’t want them to believe that it’s the killer returning to the scene of the crime.”
“I’ll add it to my daybook.” Kalo’s voice dropped to just below a whisper. It was obvious that Jo was close by. “I strongly suggest you don’t let anyone see you. The information I’m seeing from the Rattlesnake Creek field office, comes close to implicating you in both murders.”
Stunned, Carter swallowed hard. “How so?”
“To date, Agent Katz’s recognition software has you identified as the blond-haired man who spoke to the victims prior to their death. The times and dates don’t tally with what you told Jenna. There are days of difference between the times. In Jenna’s files, it says you admitted to being one of the last people to see the women alive, and yet the CCTV footage put you in contact with them days prior.”
Rubbing a hand down his face, Carter stared out of the window and along Main. “Then we have a problem. I wasn’t in town prior to when I spoke to them. I was in Snakeskin Gully.”
“There’s another problem.” Kalo’s squeaky footsteps sounded on tile and a door opened and closed. “The flight plan that you filed to travel to Black Rock Falls was not the time that you said you arrived in town.”
Astounded, Carter shook his head. “What? That’s impossible.” He thought for a beat. “Wolfe will remember the time I arrived. My chopper has been parked on his helipad on top of the medical examiner’s office since I arrived.”
“Maybe, but can you prove you didn’t drop the chopper somewhere else beforehand? You need to make sure you have everything in place, because if you didn’t murder those women, someone out there is setting you up. If they have the ability to hack into aviation logs, anything is possible.”
As Carter stared out of the window, he noticed Leona from Aunt Betty’s Café walking toward her pickup truck. Not far behind her, a man who looked remarkably like him went up behind her and struck up a conversation. “Just a minute.” He accessed his phone camera and took a string of rapid shots, capturing the man climbing into Leona’s pickup truck. She drove away and he kept clicking until they mingled into the line of traffic. “I need to send you images of something I’ve just witnessed. How can I do this without anyone hacking the file?”
“Hang on for five.” More footsteps as Kalo returned to the office. The sound of drawers opening in a filing cabinet and plastic ripping. “Okay, send them to this burner, I’ll download them onto a stick and then nuke the phone. I suggest you do the same. Send me your new number. My burner is bouncing off towers around the world. Conversations will be safe but documents might be vulnerable.”
Carter pulled a thumb drive from his pocket and stuck it into his phone and downloaded the files. He sent a copy to Kalo and then pressed the phone to his ear. “Done. I gotta go and buy a new burner. I’ll send the number to the office as an invoice, call me when you get it.” He disconnected and removed the SIM from the phone and scored it with his knife before leaving the library. As he walked along Main, he dropped the SIM and phone down a drain.
Rain had started to fall again and large spots hit his cheeks like tears. Beside him, Zorro shook his head and moved closer to the stores lining the sidewalk. After buying another burner from a convenience store, he headed back to his rental. He opened the door for Zorro and sat in the front seat for a time, thinking through Kalo’s information. Evidence was stacking up against him and every last piece of it was false. Determined to find the real killer, he started the engine and headed out to the first crime scene.
THIRTY-NINE
Kane made the call to Agent Styles and explained his concerns about Eduardo Souza. He found Styles likable and efficient. His military police background showed through. “I understand that you checked Mateo’s prints against the prisoner with his name in jail.”
“I checked them but I didn’t collect them. I asked a local FBI agent in LA I trust to go to the prison and take his prints. I ran them against the copies of Mateo from the previous arrests we had on file. When they didn’t match, I jumped on a plane and went to LA to interview the doppelganger. I forwarded all the information to Jo Wells out at Snakeskin Gully as she is your go-to person.”
Drumming his fingers on the desk, Kane stared into space. “Yeah, she called. Did you by any chance check Eduardo Souza’s prints while you were there?”
“Oh, yeah.” Styles chuckled. “I figured if they tried it with Mateo, they would definitely try it with Souza. I scanned the mug shots of the arrests made that evening and noticed two of the men looked very similar. So I personally took Souza’s prints and ran them through our software when I got home. I can personally guarantee that Souza is in jail awaiting trial.”
Relieved, the tension in Kane’s jaw relaxed. “That’s good to know.”
“I hear that you have Carter as a suspect in your current homicide cases.” Styles cleared his throat. “From what my partner is telling me, the evidence is stacking up against him. I’ve known him for a time, and he sure doesn’t act like any serial killer I’ve met. I hate to play devil’s advocate but I figure we need to get to the bottom of what the heck is happening here.” He blew out a sigh. “Anything you need me to do, I’m there.”
Running a hand down his face, Kane thought for a beat. “It’s pointless searching Carter’s cabin or his apartment at Snakeskin Gully. If he was involved, he’d hide the murder weapon.” He thought for a beat. “I know for a fact that Carter is more than capable of building a high-amperage stun gun. No doubt you could as well. We’re in the process of determining whether or not the two other suspects have the knowledge to do this as well. If one of them does have this ability, then we know to concentrate on him instead of Carter.”
“Beth… ah, Agent Katz, believes there is more to this than meets the eye. Hang on a sec, the coffee’s ready and I’ve been out all day.” Styles’ spoon clinked in his cup as he stirred his coffee. “Beth believes it’s possible the stun gun was purchased on the dark web. She was able to access Carter’s devices and he hasn’t been near the dark web or anywhere else online where he could purchase such an item. The only way we’ll be able to discover if the other two suspects use the dark web for whatever reason, is if Beth gets the hard drives from their media devices. It doesn’t matter how hard they try to delete information from their history. She’ll find it.”
