Where the Blame Lies(62)

Zach glanced at Josie again and she looked back at him, blinked. “Yeah.”

“Okay, if he did a convincing impression of Landish now, could he have done a convincing impression of him then?”

“Wait, wait.” Zach shook his head. Jimmy was a good detective, one of the best, but this? This was far-fetched. “Josie only heard the guy this morning on the phone.” He glanced at her, gave her a small, reassuring smile. She obviously knew he was talking to Jimmy. Obviously knew they were discussing her case. The fact was, she might be able to help them with many aspects of this investigation. She might be able to provide some missing piece she didn’t even know she had. “She knew Landish as much more than just a voice.”

Zach saw Josie’s shoulders draw upward a fraction. Jimmy sighed. “Yeah, I know, but he never took his mask off, right?”

“From what I understand.”

“I’ve been looking at Landish’s suicide. And there are a few . . . questions.”

Zach’s nerves pinched. “Such as?”

“Like, for example, they never found a mask at his apartment.”

“He probably ditched it in some garbage can.”

“Possibly. There was also zero DNA belonging to Landish in that warehouse room. There were, however, a few hairs found stuck to that mattress that did not belong to Josie Stratton.”

Zach rubbed at his eye. “I thought it was presumed that mattress was bought used and those hairs probably belonged to the previous owner.”

“Yes. Possibly. The other thing of note is that there were no fingerprints in that room either. Not on the doorknob or anywhere else. It’s almost as if he wiped that room down before police got there.”

“Could Landish have realized Josie was missing very soon after she escaped and took the time to wipe the room down?”

“And then went home and killed himself? What was the point then?”

“Maybe that part wasn’t planned.”

“Hmm,” Jimmy hummed. Zach heard pages rustling in the background. “That doesn’t quite work because when Landish was found, it appeared he’d been dead for several hours at least. Although it was apparently hot in his apartment, which made pinpointing a time of death more difficult.”

What the hell? Zach thought for a minute. “Were rattraps taken into evidence?”

There was a short pause before Jimmy said, “No. No traps.”

So he’d taken the rattraps Josie had mentioned? In essence, he’d wiped down and cleaned the place up. Taken anything that wasn’t easily cleaned of fingerprints perhaps? But how was that possible if he was already dead? And even if the time of death was inaccurate, he’d have to have snuck into that room the moment Josie had escaped, and then run home and shot himself. Police had been all over both the warehouse room and Landish’s apartment within the hour.

“I’m still reading through all the forensics,” Jimmy went on as Zach’s mind roamed. “But listen, apparently there’s a sister who insists her brother didn’t commit this crime, that it just wasn’t in his nature.”

“I saw that, but, man, how many people do we arrest whose family members insist they didn’t do it, because it just wasn’t in their nature?”

“A hell of a lot.”

“The guy committed suicide.”

“A murder can be made to look like suicide.” Jimmy paused. “Listen, I’m just exploring all avenues here. I could be totally off base.”

Exploring all avenues was what they did, what solved cases. Lots of times they started going down a path that turned out to be misguided, but what made them thorough—and what made their solve rate so high—was that they never ignored any possibilities in their investigations, no matter how unlikely.

“What I can’t get my head around is how this new guy made the connection to Professor Merrick. He not only chose UC students, like Josie Stratton, but he chose UC students who had had an affair with the professor.”

That’s what was still bugging Zach too. If they were going with the presumption that a completely different person committed the recent murders—a copycat killer—how had this person known that aspect? He’d have to have chosen them for that reason, otherwise it was just too coincidental. Had it been someone who knew Landish and picked up where he left off to fulfill some mission that was personal to both of them? Or could Jimmy’s questions have merit? Could this “copycat” actually be the person who abducted Josie and kept himself hidden beneath a mask? “Keep reading that report and I’ll talk to Josie. I’ll text you when we get to the location.”

“One other thing,” Jimmy said. “We got the video surveillance from that grocery store. It was the cousin who hung those articles next to Josie’s flyer. I looked up his picture on his website and compared it to the video footage. No doubt.”

“Shit,” Zach muttered. “I guess I’m not surprised.”

“Nah. Real douche move meant to humiliate her, but no real crime. She could sue him civilly, I guess.” Zach took a hand off the wheel and scrubbed at his jaw, doubting Josie had the funds to sue anyone. Would she even want to waste the time if she did? So the cousin had hung the posters, and some psycho had broken into her home and left a mutilated rat behind. His jaw clenched. He was even more glad they were headed out of town right about now.