The Night Shift(64)

Atticus points to a sign for a church. “Maybe someone’s birthday or some kind of celebration.”

But Ms. McKenzie’s car passes the church. They follow her through the business district, across the railroad tracks to a rougher patch of town, a sea of check-cashing shops, liquor stores, and fast-food joints.

“What the hell?” Atticus says as he watches Ms. McKenzie pull up to a throng of men huddled in front of a bodega. A young man breaks from the group and heads to Ms. McKenzie’s car. He hunches over, says something, then reaches inside the vehicle. There’s an exchange.

“Never judge a book by its cover,” Keller says.

“I get that,” Atticus says. “But the Church Lady doing a drug deal? Damn.”

They follow Ms. McKenzie as she backtracks toward her home. And, sure enough, she stops at the church.

She parks and carries the sheet cake inside.

Keller thinks about going in after her, putting the pressure on, grilling her in front of the congregation. She decides against it. This woman knows more than she’s saying, and she may be a secret drug user, but her daughter was murdered. If anyone deserves a break …

A half hour later, Ms. McKenzie emerges from the church.

Keller climbs out of her car, Atticus following after her.

“Ms. McKenzie,” Keller calls out.

The woman turns, offers a plastic smile. It takes a moment for her to recognize them and the smile disappears.

“My husband already told you that we have nothing to—”

“Does your husband know about your trips over to the bodega?”

Ms. McKenzie swallows hard.

Keller continues, “I’ll bet if we search your car, he won’t like having to bail you out.”

Ms. McKenzie’s head snaps back and forth, looking around the lot. “What do you want?”

“We have a few questions. Answer them, and I’m inclined not to take this further.”

Ms. McKenzie’s lip quivers. She nods for Keller to continue.

“We know about Katie’s pregnancy.”

Ms. McKenzie tears up now. She doesn’t reply. She doesn’t need to.

“I understand why you wanted it kept confidential. I do.”

A car pulls into the lot and two churchgoers get out. They’re holding strings with latex balloons that say CONGRATULATIONS! on them.

Ms. McKenzie’s demeanor changes. She pulls herself together, smiles and waves, like she’s chatting with friends. The couple waves back, the balloons bobbing behind them in the breeze.

“Do you know who the father was?”

Ms. McKenzie shakes her head. In a soft voice she says, “We knew she was seeing someone. She wouldn’t tell us his name. We assumed it was him.”

“Vince Whitaker?”

Ms. McKenzie nods. “We made arrangements for Katie to stay with a family, to give the baby up.”

“The pregnancy isn’t mentioned in the investigation file.”

Ms. McKenzie nods again. “A friend of ours works for Union County.” She looks sadder now, rather than the panic from before. “He helped keep it confidential.”

Detective Grosso was right. “Who’s the friend?”

“My big brother’s best friend from high school. My brother died over in Iraq and his friend kind of took over, you know? He never had kids of his own, and he doted on my Katie.”

“Who, Ms. McKenzie?”

“I don’t want to get him in trouble.”

Keller lets out a breath. “That’s probably better than the alternative.” She glances inside the woman’s car.

Ms. McKenzie remains quiet.

“It won’t take me long to find out on my own,” Keller says. That’s true. HR is pulling the records for Keller; they said they’d have them by the end of the day.

“Joe was just trying to help. To spare our family the—”

“Joe who?” Keller asks, her pulse pounding in her ears.

Ms. McKenzie looks desperately to Atticus, then back at Keller.

Then she says it: “Joe Arpeggio.”





CHAPTER 58





“I say we put Joe Arpeggio’s ass in the box and grill him,” Atticus says, staring at his crime wall back at the office. He’s still amped up from the stakeout. He writes “J.A.” on a Post-it Note and sticks it on the board next to Katie McKenzie’s photograph.

Keller smiles in spite of herself. “We can’t rush. It’s probably nothing more than what we already know: a friend trying to protect a victim’s family from more pain.” She walks up to the crime board. “And if there is something to it, we need to do the legwork. Bulls in china shops get nothing but broken dishes.” Oh god, she sounds like her father.

“What do you need me to do?” Atticus is eager, ready to roll up his sleeves.

“We know Arpeggio’s connection to Katie McKenzie.” Keller puts a finger on the Post-it Note on the crime wall, then traces a line to the photos of the ice cream store victims on the other half of the board. “We need to see if he’s connected to any of the new victims.”

Atticus nods. “On it. We just got the rest of the records from the cell phone companies. I’ll start there.”

“Look for unusual patterns, things out of the ordinary. If he has a connection to one of the vics, it’s not going to be obvious. There’s only one thing sneakier than criminals.”