“Just checking your memory.”
“The hell you are,” he said belligerently. “I have a damn good memory when someone’s not trying to trick me. Ask anyone.” He pushed back his chair. “I’m not answering any more questions. Talk to my lawyer.”
She nodded to the guard. “I hope you’ll change your mind. I wasn’t trying to trick or hurt you in any way.” She got to her feet. “Think about those faces, will you? It might be important.” She left the interview room.
“Who did he recognize?” Lynch asked as he joined her in the corridor.
“Trey Suber and Richard Gale.” She grimaced. “But you can hardly call it recognition. It was a maybe at best. If he’d allowed himself to look longer at the other photos, he might have said the same thing. Or perhaps given me a valid identification on one of them.”
“But a maybe is a maybe,” Lynch said. “And it gives us something to work on. Tell me you’re a little encouraged.”
“Perhaps a little.” She smiled. “It could be that I’ll feel more than a little after we check backgrounds.”
“Then let’s go out, get a bite of lunch, and then come back and start research. I don’t think you want to go down to the cafeteria and risk running into any of the dream team.”
“That could be awkward.” Awkward wasn’t the word. She could imagine the outrage and incredulity if she was proved wrong. And that was a definite possibility. She was skating on thin and very dangerous ice. “By all means, let’s not go down to the cafeteria.”
7:40 P.M.
“This is ridiculous.” Kendra rubbed her stinging eyes with her fists. “There’s always at least one murder that would be impossible to have been committed by any of the dream team. We’ve gone over every one of the deaths and tried to match them. We keep coming up short.”
“It could mean that one of these murders wasn’t Zachary’s. Or that one of the dream team is more clever in hiding his presence near the kill or better at concocting an alibi.” He looked down at the photos. “Suber came up closest.”
“And he has a callousness toward death that’s very obvious.” She gazed down at Suber’s face. “And could be phony as hell.”
“True. So do we go back through them again?”
“I guess we do. Maybe we missed something.” She shook her head. “No, let’s go back to talk to Hagstrom again. Maybe we can get him to take another look at those photos. I don’t believe it’s Suber.”
He smiled. “Because you’d rather it be Richard Gale?”
“Maybe. I can’t claim any professionalism right now. I’m not thinking straight.” She got to her feet. “Let’s go talk to Hagstrom. Something’s bothering me.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. Something…”
“Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to talk to him tomorrow. I saw him going down the hall toward the elevator with his lawyer about two hours ago.”
“What?” Her eyes widened with shock. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were busy. I thought you were through with him. Why are you this upset?”
She wasn’t sure, but she couldn’t deny that she was. “You should have told me.”
“Sorry. Would you care to tell me why you’re acting as if that’s a crime?”
“Because he shouldn’t be going home, dammit.”
“Why not?” He met her eyes. “Talk to me. Because he’s Zachary?”
“No.” He was right, she was behaving completely erratically, and there was no sense to it. Why had she suddenly been thrown into a tailspin? “He’s not Zachary.”
“You said something was bothering you. You think he knows who Zachary is?”
Think.
Concentrate.
And then it all came together.
She reached out and grabbed his arm. “No, he doesn’t know who Zachary is. Not right now. But Zachary knows who he is. And there’s a good possibility someday Hagstrom might be able to recognize him if he was shown the right photo. Or if we jogged the right memory of an old co-worker, girlfriend’s brother, or personal trainer. Remember earlier today Hagstrom said everyone knew he had a good memory? Even if he’s covered his tracks, Zachary wouldn’t take a chance on Hagstrom remembering him. Zachary never leaves loose ends. He used Hagstrom, but now he has to get rid of him. And he can’t wait too long to do it. He’ll have to guess we’ll be showing him photos, examining every person he’s ever been in contact with, especially in Washington where the murders began. Every day, every minute, will count.”
Lynch’s eyes were narrowed on the intentness of her expression, a faint smile on his lips. “And that’s what’s bothering you?”
“Yes.” She could feel excitement heat her cheeks. “Because it’s our chance, Lynch. Zachary’s not going to go after me or anyone I care about next. Not yet. He’s going to go after Hagstrom.” She got to her feet and headed for the door. “And we know where we can find Hagstrom.” Her voice was shaking. “And that means we can find Zachary.”
“Yes, it does. And that brings up all kinds of interesting scenarios, doesn’t it?” He was grinning recklessly as he caught up with her. “Tell me. Ever been on a stakeout, Kendra?”
CHAPTER
15
10:05 P.M.
“I DON’T LIKE THIS,” Kendra said flatly. “And it doesn’t make sense. I can see sitting out here on the street if we were staking out some criminal, but it would be far more comfortable and efficient going inside Hagstrom’s house and camping out there. After all, we’re trying to keep him from being butchered. We could explain that to him and get permission to—”
“Very reasonable,” Lynch said as he leaned back on his seat. “But may I remind you that Hagstrom didn’t appear to be at all reasonable and is belligerent as hell. He would either kick us out or call his lawyer to get a warrant for trespassing.”
“Perhaps we could persuade him.”
“If you really want this, I’ll go and make the attempt.” He tilted his head consideringly. “I could always hog-tie him and then we wouldn’t have to worry about having to argue with him.”
She sighed. It would be dangerous to even keep discussing this. There was no telling where Lynch’s twisted humor might take them. “Never mind. I’m just getting restless. You’re sure that Hagstrom is inside?”
He nodded. “You watched me go check out the grounds and all the doors and windows forty minutes ago. I saw Hagstrom drinking beer and watching TV in the living room. Porn. Very kinky.”
“I didn’t have to know that.”
“I wanted to give you a complete report. You appear to be a little on edge.”
“I wonder why.” She drew a deep breath. “I want this to happen, Lynch. He has to come.”
“I know you do,” he said quietly. “Zachary might not show tonight, you know. That’s why we decided to wait to contact Griffin until we saw if Hagstrom was actually being targeted.”
“But he might show, he’ll want to tie up that loose end.” She looked at him. “You think so too, don’t you?”