The Lawyer's Lawyer

CHAPTER Eight



Danni didn’t get good news when she walked into the morning meeting on Wednesday.

“We’ve got another body,” Captain Jeffries told the group although most of them knew already. “A junior at the university; they found her on the north side of town. She’d been lying dead in her apartment for three days. Throat was cut. Can you imagine that? She was living in an apartment complex and nobody even noticed the smell. It’s like people these days live in cocoons or something.”

Danni was already making the connection. Three days ago was Sunday, the day she was at Whiskey River Springs. She didn’t say anything to the captain until the meeting was over.

His door was open when she walked in the office, but she knocked anyway. Captain Sam Jeffries looked up from the paperwork on his desk and smiled. He was a big man with broad shoulders and a gut to match, but he was a good leader and everybody on the task force respected him, including the FBI guys who had a tendency to respect nobody but their own.

“Good to have you back, Danni. Did you get everything taken care of?”

“Yeah, thanks. I appreciate your giving me the time off.”

“No problem. Family comes first. I know you’ve probably lost some sleep worrying about your daughter and all. What’s up?”

Danni and Sam Jeffries had worked on many cases together over the years and she considered him a friend. Danni had an idea and she needed his help. She hoped those years of friendship would come into play in their ensuing conversation.

“It’s about that murder, Captain. When did it happen exactly?”

“Sunday, late in the afternoon, about the time we were chasing around Whiskey Springs looking for our killer.”

“So he set us up.”

“Looks like it.”

“Why didn’t you tell everybody at the morning meeting? You weren’t trying to protect me, were you? I mean, I was the one who got everybody out there.”

“No, you weren’t, Danni; he was. He got us out there. And he could have used anybody to do it. It must have just slipped my mind at the meeting. The forensics from this recent murder don’t add anything to what we already know anyway.”

“She was a college student at the University of North Central Florida, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah. Just like all the rest.”

“Don’t you find it intriguing, Captain, that the murders are happening all over the city, including areas not necessarily associated with the college, yet only women who are students at the University of North Central Florida are the victims?”

“That’s pretty obvious. What’s the point?”

“These aren’t just random campus killings. The killer is setting out to kill just students from this university.”

“Okay?”

“Maybe there’s a further connection, a common class, a major, or a minor or something like that.”

“The FBI has looked into that. No pattern has emerged yet.” At least she was thinking outside the box. Besides, even though he was ten years her senior, Jeffries still enjoyed watching Danni pace back and forth in his office, her hands on her hips, her body bouncing with every step. It was more fun by a long shot than looking at the paperwork on his desk.

“Maybe it’s about him. Maybe he was a student, maybe he is a student, and some coed rejected him.”

Jeffries stood up at that point.

“The FBI has profilers looking into that type of stuff, Danni. We have to concentrate on good old-fashioned police work and find some hard evidence. Let them work on the theories.”

“We need a search warrant to get the proof.”

“What are you talking about? A search warrant for what?”

“Thomas Felton’s apartment,” Danni replied.

“Thomas Felton? Refresh my recollection. Do we have a file on him?”

“I do.”

“Get it.”

The file was on top of her desk. Danni had figured he might want to see it when she brought up the issue. She returned moments later and handed it to him.

“He’s the law student who was in Utah during the serial killings there, and he’s now here.”

“Didn’t we already check him out?” Jeffries asked.

“We spoke to him a couple of times but that was it.”

“Well, it says here that he went to undergraduate school in Utah and came here to go to law school. He came a year ago to establish residency because the tuition is cheaper here for in-state students than it is in Utah. Danni, you verified that his story was true. Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah.”

“So what would be our basis for a search warrant?”

“He fits a portion of the eyewitness description, at least that portion that could not be disguised.”

“And that is?”

“He’s tall, thin, and he’s got fine features—a straight nose, thin lips.”

“That’s it? How do we know the killer was in disguise when he tried to kill that young girl? What was her name?”

“Stacey Kincaid. We don’t know for sure, but we have enough evidence to make the assumption.”

“What’s that?”

“He eventually killed Stacey in St. Petersburg at a party. If you recall, he stabbed her twice at close range.”

“Okay,” Jeffries said.

“He had to be confident that he could get that close to her at a party without her recognizing him.”

Captain Jeffries folded his arms and scratched his chin with his right hand. It was an obvious conclusion, but nobody had even brought it up before Danni mentioned it. So much for all the sophisticated equipment; it never replaced good police work.

“Okay, let’s assume he was disguised. What else do you have?”

“I found a very rare knife in his apartment. It was long and thin with a black pearl handle. I’d never seen a knife like that before.”

“I’m not following you, Danni. Was that knife or one like it used in any of the murders that we know of?”

“Stacey Kincaid said the murderer tried to kill her with a very unique knife. The description was something like a bowie knife with a gargoyle carved on the handle.”

“A bowie knife isn’t thin—it’s broad. Makes a wide cut. Where’s the connection?”

“Maybe he’s a knife collector. Maybe he’s got a collection of knives in that second bedroom we didn’t see and he wouldn’t let us into.”

She lost him there. She could see it in his face.

Jeffries didn’t comment on that theory directly. He knew Danni had been through a lot in the last forty-eight hours, and it was understandable that she wanted to get this guy as soon as possible. He didn’t want to tell her she was grasping at straws so he waited a few moments.

“We won’t get a search warrant with that evidence, Danni. It’s not probable cause.”

“Probable cause is what the judge says it is. Who knows? We might get Judge Reed. He pretty much signs anything that comes across his desk.”

“I don’t think so. Not even Judge Reed would sign this one once he knows all the facts. Look, I know this is personal now and you want to get this guy, but you’re targeting someone without evidence. It’s what we tend to do when we get antsy.”

“I’m not antsy, Sam. I think we need to try for this search warrant. If we’re wrong, we’re disrupting this guy’s day for a few hours. If we’re right, we might save somebody’s life. We need to do something.”

“All right, Danni, you prepare an affidavit and copy this file and I’ll ship it over to the state attorney’s office. If they think it’s worth it, they’ll go to the judge for a warrant.”

“That’s not good enough, Sam. Jane Pelicano is the assistant state attorney assigned to work with us on this case. You need to talk to her and convince her to go get that warrant for us.”

“Look, Danni, I’m the head of this task force. I don’t mind going out on a limb and trying new ideas, but I can’t start lobbying on your behalf for something I don’t believe is going to work.

“Having said that, you write a memo along with your affidavit stating every reason you can think of to justify getting a warrant and I’ll send it along. If you want to talk to Jane yourself after that, I have no problem with it.”

Danni knew that was the best deal she was going to get.

“Thanks, Captain.”

“No problem. Keep thinking, keep pushing. We’ll nail this guy.”