Velocity (Karen Vail #3)(36)

Dixon swung a chair from beneath the table and sat down. “You mean, did he know Mayfield was the guy who took his wife and son?”

“I think the question is when he knew it,” Vail said. She slid forward in the chair and leaned back, letting her arms fall free over the chair’s sides. “At some point he figured out that Mayfield was the kidnapper. And if I had to guess, I’d say it was before Roxx, Lugo, and I went to see Guevara.”

Brix walked over to the white board and examined the timeline he had drawn for the prior week, which documented the major breaks in the Crush Killer case. “Maybe, maybe not. I mean, I wasn’t there so I didn’t see the looks Ray and Guevara were giving each other, but Guevara simply might’ve been pissed at Ray for bringing five-o onto his premises. May have nothing to do with Mayfield and the murders. Maybe he’s cheating on his taxes. Whatever it is, good bet it’s illegal—but it’s not the answer to our problems.”

“No,” Vail said. “Hold up a minute. Ray thinks Guevara’s involved in some way with the kidnapper—who turns out to be Mayfield—because right after Ray goes to Guevara and starts asking questions, the kidnapper flips out and goes off on Ray for not leaving ‘it’ alone. That’s a pretty irrefutable connection.”

“But we don’t know what Ray asked Guevara. I guess we might assume it’s got to do with him, with Mayfield.” Dixon nodded at the laptop. “But Ray didn’t say. Seems to me we’ve got lots of holes and only a few facts, and we’re trying to fill in the holes with assumptions. That’s a recipe for a failed investigation. At best.”

“I agree,” Mann said.

Vail held up her hands in surrender. “Fine. I’ll give you that. But we can’t ignore the connection. There’s no obvious reason for Guevara to even know the kidnapper unless they were affiliated somehow. Guevara’s involved in this. On some level.”

“I got Guevara’s LUDs and cell logs earlier this afternoon,” Gordon said, moving to a stack of papers at the far end of the conference table. “Haven’t had a chance to go through them yet.” He licked his index finger and thumbed through the pile. He stopped, glanced around the room, then snuck a pair of reading glasses from his shirt pocket. “Here.” He yanked a sheaf of pages free and tossed the first aside.

“Just so you all know,” Vail said. “I’m on a flight out of here in a few hours. I leave for SFO at 4:00 AM.”

Brix ground his molars. As he looked at Vail, his stress and frustration were evident for all to see.

“My boss is gonna have agents from the San Francisco field office pick up the investigation.”

Dixon shook her head in disapproval.

“Any chance I can get him to reconsider?” Brix asked.

“Beyond our control,” Vail said. “I tried. But the unit’s shorthanded and they caught a big case.”

“Got something,” Gordon said, his stubby finger poking at a spot on the phone logs. “Calls from Guevara to Ray. Ray’s cell. Starting two days ago with a text message, followed by a three-minute call.”

Vail gathered herself and rose slowly from her seat. She moved beside Gordon and looked over his shoulder. “That was after we’d met with Guevara, which makes sense. Guevara was pissed.”

“At some point,” Mann said, “Ray knew Mayfield was the kidnapper.”

“He could’ve suspected it all along,” Vail said, “but didn’t get positive confirmation until yesterday. Maybe it was something in the interview. ’Cause that’s when he pulled his gun and shot Mayfield.”

Dixon shook her head. “He purposely left his backup piece in its holster when we all stowed our side arms in the lockers. So he either knew or strongly suspected.”

“Or he needed us to find Mayfield so he could kill him. Payback,” Vail said.

Dixon stood and began to pace. “Not payback. Security. He said he tried finding the kidnapper, but he couldn’t. And when he did try, Mayfield was all over him, with more threats. He’d already proved he could operate at will, so Ray couldn’t chance it. What if he had an accomplice? Friends on the outside who’d take care of business for him? When Ray put two and two together, and realized that his kidnapper was our serial killer, he knew the opportunity would come for him to get the guy out of his life—and keep his family safe—when we caught him.”

“If we caught him,” Gordon said.

“Well, we did catch him. And soon as we did, Ray shot him.”

“We’re missing an important point,” Vail said. “We got a vital piece of information from Ray’s video.”

Brix kicked at the chair in front of him. “Really? Might as well share it with us, because I didn’t fucking see anything that’ll help us.”

“Mayfield’s in a coma and who knows when he’ll come to or what he’ll tell us. Ray’s dead. Cannon’s in the wind. But we’ve got someone who’s tied into this somehow right in our backyard.”

“Guevara,” Dixon said.

Mann nodded slowly. “Guevara.”

Vail glanced at the clock again. Running out of time. “Seems to me, makes more sense to lean on Guevara and see what he knows.”

“So . . . what?” Brix asked. “Bring him in, sweat him?”