‘I asked Narcotics for someone to work with you on the Voss angle. I’ll talk to him when I’m finished with you.’
‘Oh.’ That made sense, because the Narcotics umbrella covered prostitution and drugs. They might have information on the apparent prostitution ring at the college. He signed to Hanson that he’d be another fifteen minutes and asked him to wait.
The photo on screen disappeared and the two Chicago detectives were eyeing them with interest. ‘Voss?’ Reagan asked. ‘Who is this?’
‘Broderick Voss,’ Isenberg said. ‘We’ll explain when you’re finished. Apologies for the interruption.’
Mitchell rapidly typed on her phone, then looked up, wide-eyed. ‘Voss, huh?’ She tilted her photo so that her partner could see and he whistled softly.
‘This just got even more interesting,’ he said.
You have no idea, Adam thought grimly.
‘Let’s finish with the crime scene first,’ Trip said. ‘What happened after he slit the mother’s throat?’
Mitchell continued. ‘We believe the killer thought she was dead and went on to the daughter’s room. We found earbuds still plugged into Tiffany’s laptop, so she didn’t hear him. She’d just been texting to her boyfriend’s phone. The texts were actually between Tiffany and her boyfriend’s friend, Shane Baird. He told her that they were “an hour away” and thanked her for the use of her car. Said she couldn’t know what it meant to him.’
‘We’ve talked to Shane Baird and Kyle Davis,’ Isenberg said.
The Chicago cops’ faces registered surprise. ‘When?’
‘Right before we called you,’ Adam said. ‘We were talking to them when we got the text from you. If you could go over the girl’s murder again for Trip first, we’ll fill you in.’
Mitchell looked irritated once again at the delay. ‘Looks like he pushed her to the bed and climbed on top of her. He left bloody boot prints on the bed spread.’
‘The mother’s blood?’ Adam asked tightly, visualizing it.
‘Yeah,’ Reagan confirmed with a nod. ‘It appears that Tiffany fought back, biting his hand in the process. We found a latex glove with faint impressions of teeth that look like hers. They’re the right size anyway. Lab’s checking it.’
This hadn’t been shared in the first version, Adam was certain. ‘So he entered the house wearing gloves, but left without one at least? Did you find any prints?’
Mitchell gave Reagan a side-eyed glance. Reagan shrugged. ‘Go ahead,’ he said. ‘It might end up being nothing.’
Mitchell leaned forward, her eyes sharp. ‘So this is the thing. At some point she bit his hand and his glove got ripped and slung off. Either on purpose or by accident, but it landed across the room. He continued strangling her bare-handed with the one hand.’
Adam sucked in a breath at the same time that Isenberg and Trip did the same. ‘Did you get prints?’ Adam asked again.
Mitchell shrugged. ‘Our CSI leader is working it now. Jack Unger is one of the best, so if it can be done, he’ll do it. We’ll keep you up to speed.’
‘That would be huge,’ Trip said.
Isenberg looked up at Trip, narrow-eyed. ‘Did you find a print on the bomb?’
‘Yes. That’s what the lab wanted to see me about. They found a print, but it belonged to the victim, Andy Gold.’
There was more, Adam thought. The lab could have told him that over the phone.
‘Andy Gold,’ Reagan said. ‘That’s the young man who pulled a gun in that restaurant yesterday. Gold was the friend of Baird’s who died?’
‘Yes,’ Isenberg said. ‘How did you know that?’
‘Tiffany had been texting with her boyfriend, Kyle. He asked to borrow her car because Shane’s friend in Cincinnati had died and they needed to get there ASAP.’
Adam frowned, a detail catching in his mind. ‘Can you show us the photo of Tiffany’s body again?’ Chicago complied and Adam’s gaze lingered on the slash in the woman’s throat for a few seconds before moving to her right hand. Which was missing the forefinger. ‘I assumed you hadn’t found her phone,’ he said. ‘Her killer took her finger.’
Because that would be the way to unlock the girl’s phone and get whatever information he’d come for. Like where her car – carrying Shane and Kyle – had gone.
Reagan gave him a nod. ‘You’re right, her killer did take her phone. But he didn’t take her iPad, which, luckily for us, wasn’t locked down. It was buzzing like crazy in her nightstand drawer.’
‘Thank goodness for iMessage, I guess,’ Isenberg murmured.
Reagan nodded again. ‘She had her messages set to sync up on all her devices, including her laptop, but that was password protected. Kyle kept texting, begging her to call him. And then your office called, Lieutenant, to ask us to check on Tiffany Curtis.’
‘I got confirmation that there had been a 911 call made from the Curtis home tonight,’ Isenberg said.
‘Yes,’ Mitchell said. ‘At one thirty-seven, about two minutes after Tiffany’s final text to Shane.’
Adam thought of the phone in the puddle of the mother’s blood. ‘The mother managed to dial 911?’
A sad nod from both Chicago detectives. ‘She never said a word,’ Mitchell said. ‘But the operator could hear crashes and other noises in the background. The killer must have heard the sirens because he stopped strangling Tiffany, slit her throat, sliced her torso, cut off her finger, took her phone, then exited through the mother’s bedroom window.’
‘After taking a few seconds to rip his knife through the mother’s abdominal cavity,’ Reagan finished, his jaw taut. ‘He was very angry. The ME says the mother was already dead at the time of the final assault.’
‘He has a temper,’ Adam murmured. ‘Might work to our advantage. Since the iPad was unlocked, could you track Tiffany’s phone with the Find-My-Phone app?’
Mitchell’s nod was grim. ‘Yeah. He tossed it in the trash can at a gas station in Indiana. We requested local PD get the phone and the security tapes from the gas station. The phone’s on its way to us, but they’ve already sent us a copy of the video file. Unfortunately, the guy kept his body hunched and his collar up to cover the lower half of his face. Baseball cap hid everything else. He looks big, but we can’t give you a specific description.’
‘He’s headed this way,’ Trip said quietly.
‘Yeah.’ Adam glanced at Isenberg and raised a brow in question. ‘Kyle?’ he asked. She nodded, so he continued. ‘Kyle works the desk at Lamarr dorm at Kiesler University. He said a man came looking for Shane tonight. He was very big and threatening, and Kyle hit the panic button under the desk. The campus police have a photo of this guy from the security cameras.’
‘Give me a minute to call the university police,’ Mitchell said, and rolled her chair out of camera range.
‘What else did Kyle and Shane say?’ Reagan asked, while his partner made the call.
Isenberg quickly relayed most of what Shane had shared, holding back the murder that Andy had committed and that Shane had covered for. ‘There might be a third person, a young woman, who was in their tight little circle of friends. We’ve put her photo out on the wire as a person of interest, possibly missing.’
Mitchell rolled her chair back into view. ‘The university police are sending us their surveillance video. I was listening about the missing girl, so let’s move on. What’s this have to do with Broderick Voss?’
‘Voss has been stalking the target of today’s attack,’ Isenberg told them.
‘And Voss connects to Narcotics?’ Mitchell pushed.
‘Maybe,’ Isenberg said. ‘His wife says she caught him with illegal drugs and barely legal prostitutes in their home, when their six-year-old daughter was present. The wife got slapped around when she confronted him, so she took their daughter and went to live with her sister.’