Field of Graves(83)

“How recently?”

“Six months ago.”

“So what’s with the Granny White address?”

“Hell if I know,” Taylor said. “He had multiple addresses—one listed for the school, one for the doc, and one for the state.”

“How does a professor, on a professor’s salary, end up owning three houses?”

“An excellent question. Family money, maybe. Who needs three houses in one town?”

Price twisted the ends of his mustache, thinking. “One to live in, one to kill in, and one to hold his victims?”

Taylor was on her feet. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter what he’s doing with his finances. We need to get teams to all three of these houses. Can you call in Officer Bob Miller and Officer Keith Wills? They’re SWAT trained, so they can take Granny White. Fitz and Marcus can take West End, and Baldwin and I will hit Hillsboro.”

“Good plan. Let me make the calls. A little privacy, if you please?” The team went back to the bullpen.

“Damn, this just couldn’t be easy, could it?” Taylor said. “Oh, wait a second. Marcus, call the pharmacy in Bellevue. Confirm what address he has on his prescription, and see if they’ll tell you what it’s for.”

Marcus grabbed the phone and called information for the number. They sat and watched while he dialed. Taylor was tapping her foot nervously against the corner of her desk drawer. Lincoln noticed and reached over, touched her knee and stilled the shakes. “We’re cool, T. We’ve got him. We just need to find out where he is, and we’ve got three places to look. Relax.”

She gave him a grateful smile and winked. He was right—they had him. Now all they needed was Sam’s DNA match and the right address, and maybe, God willing, they would find Jill Gates alive. She looked over her shoulder. Where the hell was Baldwin?

Marcus hung up the phone and nodded. “The pharmacy has the Hillsboro address, and he’s taking injectable morphine. They filled the prescription for the drugs and syringes a few weeks ago.”

Fitz strolled in. “Got us a real live suspect?”

Taylor smiled and raised her eyebrows. “Think so. He has three addresses, but one of them, a house on Hillsboro, has come up twice. Marcus here earned his pay and threatened to arrest a doctor at Vandy if he wouldn’t give up the info.”

Marcus sat with a Cheshire cat grin. Fitz looked at him and couldn’t help but laugh. “Good job, son. There’s more good news, if you want to call it that.”

“What?” Taylor asked, shoving her chair over to make room for Fitz.

“Three things. Arrested the father of your seventeen-year-old suicide. Though as you suspected, he wasn’t a suicide.”

Taylor’s mouth fell open. “You’re kidding? What happened?”

“Guy waltzed in here this afternoon and announced he did it. It was just like you thought, LT. They were fighting, he was drunk, and when the kid got up to leave, he grabbed the gun and shot him. The guilt finally got to him. Got him down in night court being booked right now, and he’s got company.”

“Who?”

“Little Man Graft. Big bad Little Man. Your kid gave a statement. His mama found a job out of state, so they packed up all their stuff and stopped by the station on their way out of town. Kid gave me the whole story. He saw Little Man shoot Lashon Hall, no question about it. I videotaped a statement and let his mom take him to their new home. She gave me a cell phone number where I can reach her if we need him again. Then the planets aligned. Central sector called to say they’d picked up Terrence Norton after they’d gotten reports he was involved in a shooting on Charlotte Pike. Seems he took a shot at one of the homeless guys who’ve been breaking into cars down by the Exxon station.

“He was singing my name the moment they cuffed him, asking to talk to me before they booked him. They brought him in, and I sat down with him. Lo and behold, Terrence suddenly remembered that Little Man shot Lashon Hall, just like we thought. We have Little Man sitting in a cell, and we’ll get him for this one, what with two witness statements and all. I promised to drop the accessory charge on Terrence in exchange for his testimony.”

“Well done, Fitz. Thank you.”

“It gets better. The homeless guy, God rest his soul, died on the way to the hospital. Central has the gun Terrence was carrying when they picked him up. If the ballistics match we finally have Terrence dead to rights for murder.”

Taylor pumped her arm in the air. “Yes! Get both those thugs off the street in one fell swoop.” She got up and gave him a huge hug.

He hugged her back. “Ah, it was nothing. Anything for you, love. There’s one more thing, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Your dad’s in the lobby.”





70



Taylor rolled her eyes and sank back in her chair. “What the hell does he want?”

“I don’t know, honey, but you’d better get out there and find out so we can go arrest Gabriel Lucas.”

Taylor sat for a moment, trying to gather herself. Of all the times to come barging into her life. How dare he?

“Fine. Fine, I’ll go talk to him. But you’re coming with me.”

Fitz hesitated for a moment. “I think you’d—”