“She knows what I like. I hope you don’t mind me taking the liberty of getting a few things for you.”
She raised the two stuffed bags of new clothes she was carrying. “I can only wear one outfit at a time, you know.”
He shrugged. “I wanted you to have a choice.”
“We could have gotten something from my condo.”
“This way we can hit the ground running. And I wanted to whisk you out of here before Homeland Security could make an appearance this morning. That head nurse was bristling with disapproval when we decided to return to the hospital last night.”
“Well, thank you. Good old Lynch. High impact as always.”
“I wouldn’t want to disappoint you. Though your referring to me as old does not please me.” He motioned toward the doors. “Shall we go? I take it that you’ve been officially dismissed, and they won’t put a bounty on us? Want to go see if the techs at the FBI garage have found anything?”
“Maybe later.”
He raised a brow. “Got a better idea?”
“I just got my phone back, and there was an interesting text waiting for me.” She went ahead of him through the doors. “We need to go see Jessie Mercado.”
*
LYNCH PULLED INTO THE beach parking lot in Carlsbad just twenty minutes north of the city. Kendra climbed out of the car and glanced around.
“Any sign of her?” Lynch said.
Kendra pointed to the Harley-Davidson parked at the end of the lot. “Well, that’s her motorcycle. And if I know Jessie, she’d try not to park it anywhere she couldn’t keep an eye on it.”
Lynch grimaced. “I still don’t know why we had to meet her here.”
“She said she had a special reason.” Kendra pointed to a beachside café where Jessie, seated at an outdoor table, was waving at them.
They walked across a strip of sand to the café where Jessie motioned for them to sit. Her short dark hair was windblown and she wore a pair of John Lennon-style sunglasses with small round lenses.
“Why did it take you so long to answer my messages and texts?” she asked, annoyed.
“Long story,” Kendra said.
“I like long stories.”
“Another time. But I will tell you that we both spent the night in the hospital and that my phone was being disinfected. Hopefully that passes for a decent excuse.”
Jessie slid her sunglasses down to the end of her nose and peered over them. “You aren’t joking.”
“Nope.”
“Intriguing.” She slid her sunglasses back up. “I guess that works. I still want that story sometime.”
“You’ll get it. Right now I want your story.”
Jessie nodded. “I’m much more interested in me now anyway. I find everything I am and do riveting. Has the name Schuyler Hagstrom come up in your investigation?”
“As a possible suspect?”
“Or even just as a person of interest. Anything.”
Kendra thought. “No, I’m sure I would have remembered that name.”
“And I’m positive I didn’t see that name in any of the case files,” Lynch said.
Kendra leaned forward. “Who is he?”
“He may be your killer.” She waved at the waitress. “Would you guys like to order something?”
Kendra stared at her in disbelief. “No. I believe I’d rather hear about our killer.”
“Suit yourself.” Jessie asked for a refill of her iced tea and turned back to Kendra and Lynch. “Remember, it was totally your idea, Kendra, looking at military personnel who happened to be in each of those cities while the murders took place.”
“You told me there weren’t any.”
“There aren’t. But I had my source broaden the net to look at civilian support personnel. A fair amount of people who work on these bases aren’t military at all. It took a lot more digging, but he came up with a name.”
“Schuyler Hagstrom,” Kendra said.
“Yes. He’s a data network specialist. Civilian contractor. He’s worked in each of those bases you asked me to check at time spans that matched each of the murder cases.”
Kendra gave Lynch a hopeful glance before turning back to Jessie. “So what do we know about him?”
“Not a lot. I haven’t had time to do an in-depth background check. I didn’t even know the guy existed until late last night.” She reached inside her leather jacket and pulled out a sheaf of papers folded length-wise. “But here’s some general background: Schuyler Keith Hagstrom, age thirty-eight. He was born in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. His parents never married, and his mother died when he was in his late teens. He went to a vocational school in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Soon after that, he started working for Allied Systems, which is one of several companies charged with upgrading and maintaining network infrastructure in U.S. military bases. His job took him to Connecticut, Florida, Virginia, Ventura County, Northern California, and finally here.”
Lynch picked up the sheaf of papers and scanned them. “Impressive for just a few hours’ work.”
Jessie shrugged. “It’s what I do.”
“Does he have a wife? Kids?”
“No, never married.”
“I don’t suppose you can tell us what kind of car he drives.”
“A Chevy Suburban.”
Kendra took a deep breath. “What color?”
“White.”
Lynch leaned back. “Promising.”
“Is it?” Jessie asked.
Kendra nodded. “We’ve had some indication that Zachary may drive a white SUV.”
Jessie nodded toward the street. “Like that one over there?”
Kendra and Lynch turned. A white Chevy Suburban was parked about half a block down from the café.
Kendra turned back. “Are you telling me…?”
“It’s his. I’ve already checked the license plate. He lives in that tan stucco condo at the end of the block.” She nodded at the sheaf of papers. “You’re holding the address in your hands.” Her dark eyes glinted with mischief. “Does it feel hot to the touch?”
“Maybe.” Kendra smiled. “So that’s why we’re here.”
“He’s home now. I’m not sure what you want to do with that information.”
Lynch glanced over at the apartment building. “Even if that is his car, how are you sure that he’s home?”
“Because I’ve seen him.”
“When?” Kendra asked.
Jessie took a swig of her iced tea. “He left his condo about forty-five minutes ago. He bought some pastry from that bakery on the corner, got a manual of some kind from his car, then went back into his condo. He looked like he was dressed for work, so I’d expect him to be on the move soon.”
Kendra consulted the papers in front of her. “On the move to NAB Coronado?”
“That’s where he works. But if he’s who we think he is, I’m not comfortable letting him out of my sight for even a minute.”
Kendra nodded. “That makes two of us.”
“I’ll tail him and make sure he goes to his job. That’ll give you and the Feds time to figure out how you want to handle him. I don’t have a lot experience with this sort of thing, but I imagine there is some advantage to just watching him for a while.”
“Especially since we can’t hold him,” Kendra said. “It’s not enough that he lived in close proximity to these murders, but it does give us a good start.”