Velocity (Karen Vail #3)(34)

Dixon shoved the book back onto the shelf. “So he saw his job as a failure?”

Vail pressed on through the house. “That could’ve been a trigger. Frustrated in his ability to capture the position he really wanted, he saw the power and ‘respect’ Mayfield commanded by killing. He began to thirst for that power. Killing was a way for him to achieve that. Posing the body on the steps of the Hall of Justice put him front and center. Bang—he’s got the power.”

“PC?” Dixon asked.

They swiveled, did not see one, then split up and searched the two bedrooms.

“Got a laptop,” Vail said. “It’s unplugged.” As Dixon joined her, she lifted the lid. The screen remained black. “Looks like it’s off. Let’s have Gordon and Mann bring it to the lab for the techies to comb through.”

They moved into the living room. Bodybuilding magazines were stacked on the coffee table—and in the master bathroom, too. Empty MET-Rx canisters sat stacked atop the recycling bin in the garage, near an extra set of dumbbells and a weight bench perched in front of a mirror in the second, empty port. A half-filled Platypus water bottle stood on a chair by the far wall.

Mann appeared in the doorway to the garage. “Anything?”

“Got a laptop for you to take back to the lab.” Vail then told him her developing theory on the trigger behind Cannon’s suspected act of murder.

“We’ll get a deputy posted here in case he returns,” Mann said, “but I doubt he’ll come anywhere near here.”

“Where’s that shed?” Dixon asked.

Mann led them out the backdoor into a medium-size yard. Through a stand of tall bushes and trees was an evergreen-painted structure that blended into the existing flora.

They stood inside, a ceiling mounted fluorescent fixture providing adequate light. Vail knelt and examined the dried, matted blood.

“The CSI took samples,” Mann said, “so don’t worry about messing it up.”

“Did he agree—was it a deer?”

“He said that was a good guess, but you know those guys. They’d rather have facts than spend time debating possibilities.”

They left the shed and stood in the yard.

“He knows we know,” Dixon said. “We’ve set up roadblocks on all roads leading out of the valley, but he’s on an ATV. He could be anywhere. Question is, how far can he get on that thing before he runs out of gas? And how far can he go before he hits a natural barrier he can’t cross?”

“From what you described,” Mann said, “sounds like he could get lost in those woods. Unless he’s a survivalist, sooner or later he’s gonna need food and water.”

“There are plenty of houses to breach,” Dixon said. “I say we go public, put the word out. Make everyone aware he’s out there. We can circulate a photo. Go full blast.”

Vail had to hold her tongue. If they had gone public a couple days ago with the Crush Killer’s murders, John Mayfield might’ve been caught sooner. And Robby might still be— She stopped herself. No sense in looking backward. It was time to move ahead, keep tending the path they had started clearing.

Dixon’s phone buzzed. She lifted it, listened, and said, “Be right over. Have her wait—” Dixon’s eyes rose from their focus on the ground and met Vail’s. “Really. Okay, thanks.”

“What?” Vail asked.

Dixon turned to Burt Gordon, who had just entered the yard. “Finish up here, then meet us back at the department.”

“What’s the deal?” Vail asked.

“Merilynn Lugo. That’s where Brix went. She gave him a DVD for us.”





24


Dixon and Vail burst through the second-floor doors of the Napa County Sheriff’s Department and strode purposefully to the glass window. Dixon swiped her proximity card and the electronic locks clicked open.

They walked briskly down the hall to the task force conference room. Sitting on the table was a black DVD case with a Post-it note stuck on the front: “From Ray.”

“I didn’t say anything because it was a long shot and I didn’t want to get your hopes up, but I made one last attempt with Merilynn. I took her on a little field trip to visit Mayfield in the hospital. He didn’t look so threatening with all the tubes and beeping machines. I told her we’d submitted her WITSEC request and that we needed her to do something for us. Seemed like I was getting through, but I didn’t want to push her. So I gave her a little time to think about it. Her place was on the way back from Herndon, so I stopped by.”

“And she gave you a DVD?”

Brix scooped it up and handed it to Vail.

Vail pried open the lid and stared at the disc, which bore Ray Lugo’s slanted handwriting. Did it hold some secret information that would give her clues as to what happened to Robby? Would it answer the question of what John Mayfield had meant when he taunted them with, “There’s more to this than you know?”

“Karen,” Dixon said softly, “We need to watch this.”

Vail woke from her stupor. “Right.” She plucked the disc from the plastic spindle, then placed the DVD in the laptop tray and watched as Windows Media Player loaded.

Brix, Dixon, Mann, and Vail stood around the computer. Vail felt Dixon shudder when the image of Lugo’s living room filled the screen. Lugo then appeared and sat down on the couch. The angle of the camera and Lugo’s proximity to the lens gave the impression it was filmed on a webcam.