Before Sloan, Jane and Aidan had dropped into bed for their few hours, they’d discussed the current situation. Jillian would probably be out on bail, despite the fact that the chloroform meant she’d be arraigned. Still, a good lawyer could point out plenty to suggest that there was reasonable doubt as to her guilt.
“Not to mention,” Jane observed, “that Jillian Durfey is a tiny little thing. Even with the assistance of chloroform, was she big enough to have done this? Or strong enough, I should say.”
“There had to be two people involved,” Aidan said. “According to J.J., he and his mother had parked and gotten out of the car—and they were both attacked from behind. Based on what he said, they were knocked out almost instantly and it sounded like some kind of bag or hood or even just a cloth was thrown over his head.”
“If that’s the case, you think it was one of the others?” Logan had asked Aidan.
“It’s certainly possible,” was Aidan’s reply. “They were all here—and they all alibi one another. By the way, there’s someone who should be interviewed again, although I know the police already questioned her, and that’s the woman who works for the convention center—Bari Macaby.
“She, Jillian and Taylor Branch were the last people to admit they saw Richard alive. I have a timetable in my notes, and there’s a gap when Richard was supposedly in the greenroom alone. That’s when he disappeared.
“I think we can safely say he was targeted. I don’t believe that we’re looking for a psychopath who’s choosing victims at random, no matter how sensationally and bizarrely the corpses were displayed. Wendy Appleby was targeted, too. Whoever took her didn’t want to murder a child—but didn’t mind leaving him locked in a vault to die.”
Still thinking about that conversation, Aidan quickly showered and dressed, then headed down the hall to the room Logan Raintree had taken. Will was there on his own; he’d set up a complex set of computer screens that showed the entry to the hotel, the delivery area, the parking lot, hallways and elevators.
“Impressive,” Aidan said.
“We’re lucky. We have first-class equipment,” Will told him.
“You got it set up so fast.”
“It’s like anything,” Will said with a shrug. “You do it often enough, you get good at it. Anyway, we’ve got this covered. We’ve also got everyone assigned. Logan follows Taylor Branch, Jane’s got Muscles, Sloan follows Mischief and I wind up with Magic. We always keep in contact if we’re out. Logan’s already down at the courthouse, doing surveillance on Taylor Branch. I assume Taylor’s working on bail for Jillian. That means she’ll be out, but you and Logan have established solid connections with the detectives here. We’ll have an officer on call if for some reason the five of them all go in different directions at the same time. That leaves you free to be where you feel you need to be when you feel you need to be there.”
“I don’t think they’ll stay in the area, and we can’t legally hold them here,” Aidan said.
Will shook his head. “I bet they’ll stay awhile. Branch is still claiming that he’ll find the real killer and clear them all.” He smiled. “The media has been carrying the news about Jillian Durfey’s being charged and arraigned—and about J. J. Appleby being found alive.
“At our request, they’ve given out as little information as possible, but people around here know that Maureen Deauville and her dog, Rollo, are often called in on such cases. So right now there’s not much talk about anything else. Naturally, the public is doing the same thing we are—wondering if a small woman like Jillian Durfey could have carried out these acts. Is she innocent or, if not, does she have an accomplice?”
Aidan thanked Will for the update and told him he was on his way to the convention center for an interview with Bari Macaby. “I’ve got you on speed dial,” he added.
At the center, Aidan walked around the parking lot for a while. The problem with a convention center was that it had dozens of entrances and exits. There’d been guards on every door the day Richard was scheduled to speak; they’d all been interviewed and they’d all sworn they hadn’t seen Richard leave the building.
The delivery trucks for food service came around the back. If Richard had been snatched from the greenroom, he’d likely been spirited out through the back doors. There, with the trucks’ frequent arrivals and departures, it was possible the guards had grown lazy and not noticed that the man of the hour had been coerced or persuaded to leave through a delivery door. Or he’d been dragged out...
But that left the problem of two different places, if Richard had been taken out via the back entrance and Wendy and J. J. Appleby had been kidnapped from the parking lot. Timing could be an issue there, as well. He made a mental note to ask Van Camp and Voorhaven to check all the delivery vehicles that had arrived on the day planned for Richard’s speech.