What Have You Done(72)
“Why would they? I’m the target. I’m the conviction. I know how it works. You bring me in, perp walk me, and the media rests. Until then, I’m the lead on every broadcast. The mayor needs this to go away ASAP.”
The wind cut through the alley. Don pulled his jacket tight. “It turns out Teddy went down to the navy yard a few days ago and showed some of the guys pictures of the knots we found in the extension cord at the Tiger. One is called a Prusik knot, which secured the cord around the pipe that Kerri was hanged from, and the other was a slipknot tied in a figure eight. According to the navy guys, these are technical knots mostly used in mountain climbing and boating. Something Sean would need to know to get his boating license.”
Liam blew into his hands. It was getting colder by the second. “How do you know I didn’t take the boat those nights? Or borrow Sean’s truck the night Kerri was killed?”
“I’ve seen you near water. You’re terrified.”
“Could’ve been faking it.”
“You can’t fake that kind of fear. Besides, we saw the video stream from the chopper that was following you when you took his boat. You clearly had no idea what you were doing. The trips Sean took to kill these other girls took hours and were in the dark. They needed precision maritime navigation, even with the GPS. It’s not you.”
“Are you going to turn all this evidence in to IA? Talk to Phillips?”
“Yes, but not yet. Not until I have this thing airtight.”
“What more do you need?”
“Something concrete. The foam from the seat is a match, but it’s also likely to be the same foam used in thousands of other cars. Your picture of Kerri at Boathouse Row wouldn’t do us any good in court, and the medical records and police report would only do so much. The information I obtained from Kerri’s computer about the GPS tracking was taken without a warrant, and I’m not even assigned to this case. The photos she took prove an affair, but that’s not against the law. We have a lot of evidence, but most of it is either circumstantial or inadmissible. I want to dig deeper into these other murders. If we take him down, it’s gotta be flawless.”
“I don’t think we have time for flawless,” Liam said. “This needs to be exposed now.”
“That’s why I’m here. I have an idea. They found hairs at your house when they were doing their sweep. They were Kerri’s. There were traces of oil on the hairs, and Jane matched it to Olin gun oil. Sean uses Olin.”
“So do I,” Liam replied. “So does half the department.”
“I’m guessing he’s keeping the hair he took when he shaved her head, and the heads of the other vics, in his gun-cleaning kit or close enough to get the oil on them. If you had enough time to search his house, you might be able to find something.”
“He cleans his gun in the basement. I know where he keeps the kit. You get him out of the house, and I’ll go in and see what I can find.”
“Exactly.”
A few more people made their way onto the boardwalk and walked toward the ocean. Don watched them as they passed.
“This ends now,” Liam whispered.
Don began to make his way out of the alley. “Come on, I’ll give you a ride back into Philly, and we’ll figure out our next steps. Where can you hide?”
Liam thought for a moment. “South Street Mission. Father Brennan will help. I just saw him the other day.”
“Good. You hide there until I contact you. When I get Sean out of his house, you go in.”
“How was all this happening without us knowing?” Liam asked. His eyelids were heavy. He was so tired. “He killed those girls, and we never suspected a thing.”
Don kept walking, head down, fighting the wind coming off the ocean. “He’s always had the charisma of a leader. With that comes a trust you put in him. We’re all victims of his manipulation. None of us saw this.”
“But he’s my brother. He’s the only family I ever really knew.”
“He’s not the man you thought he was. He’s not the man any of us thought he was.”
55
As morning turned to afternoon, then on to dusk, Don sat alone in his bedroom, sipping a cup of coffee and staring at the white envelope on his nightstand. Everything he’d thought he’d known was crumbling in his fingers, creating a new reality he wasn’t sure he was ready to acknowledge. So many signs had been right in front of him for so long, yet he’d been blind. Now things needed to be fixed. There was no other way.
He’d dropped Liam off at the South Street Mission and then headed home. Joyce was downstairs, preparing dinner. She had no idea what he was dealing with.
The ringing of his phone snapped him from his thoughts. He answered before it could ring again.
“Hello?”
“Ah, so you are alive. I’ve been calling you all day. Glad to hear you’re still breathing.”
Don’s stomach tightened at the sound of Sean’s voice. He’d been avoiding him as he tried to figure out his next move. Hearing him now brought everything to the present and reminded him he could not run from this issue no matter how desperately he wanted to.
“Hello?” Sean said. “You still there?”
“I’m here,” Don replied. “I thought Joyce was calling me.” He tried to lighten his tone. “I checked in at the station house this morning and then took a quick run back up to my mom’s to make sure she was still okay.”