Part 19 (1/2)
She started to tremble and even felt a scream rising up in her throat. If she let out as much as a tiny moan, he'd know she was alive and then...well, she didn't know what would happen.
So she closed her eyes and played dead, the darkness behind her eyes much more favorable than his weird actions. But as hard as she tried, she could not help herself; she had to open her eyes a bit to see what was going on.
Time and time again, her eyes were drawn back to that golden urn sitting on the edge of the desk. Having heard the man speak of burning while holding an urn was bad enough. But having an almost supernatural certainty of what was inside the urn was what truly made Sarah's heart thunder and her mind tremble with the certainty that she would not be pretending to be dead much longer.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
When Avery arrived back at the A1, the conference room and just about every office in Homicide was alive with a flurry of activity. People who had looked confident and almost bored the day before were now bouncing from the walls with excitement and energy. The moment Connelly spotted her hurrying toward her own office, he cut her off in the hallway.
”See,” he said with a smirk. ”It's things like this that make you both very frustrating to work with and a prime candidate for a sergeant position. There's so much excitement around here that O'Malley isn't even all that mad at you for going against his orders again.”
”So where are we?” she asked.
”I'm not so sure myself. We keep getting reports coming in on both avenues-the victims having cremated loved ones in the recent past as well as possible locations for a Roosevelt Toms. We've even got a few FBI a.n.a.lysts helping remotely. Duggan is also back in the A1. The FBI really is being generous with this one...handing us resources without trying to take it away from us...yet.”
They walked as they talked, making it to the conference room where they both knew O'Malley would be doing his best to rein things in. When they entered, she saw that O'Malley was scribbling something on the room's whiteboard. One of the data guys was tapping something into a laptop while Finley was busy trying to connect a Skype call through his laptop and onto the projector screen on the wall opposite the white board. She also spotted Ramirez as she found a seat at the table. He gave her a nod of acknowledgment and nothing more.
Avery caught bits and pieces of conversations here and there and they all seemed to wrap up with the same point: there were still no definitive answers. The one thing she did hear that was on the positive side of things was that Phillip Bailey had been released to a psychiatric doctor and he was no longer being considered a suspect.
When the room was crammed with about fifteen people, O'Malley cleared his throat and yelled for order. He then looked to Officer Finley and asked: ”We good?”
”Yes, sir. We're up.”
With that, Finley projected a Skype window onto the screen on the far wall. A man Avery had never seen was on the screen, looking just as excited as everyone in the room with her.
”You're on, Agent Lewis,” Finley said.
”Okay,” Lewis said. ”I'm Agent Don Lewis with the FBI out of the Boston office. I'm leading up the data and a.n.a.lysis team, trying to find Roosevelt Toms. We've got five other agents on this and so far, after about two hours, we have nothing. We have a ton of dead ends, but there is no definitive address to be found on record. It's almost like the man disappeared.”
”And how is that possible?” O'Malley asked from the head of the conference table.
”Well, he could be dead, for one. I know that leads your team to a dead end but it's an avenue we have to consider. There's also the chance that he's now living under an alias. Given his past record, I think that might be a safe bet. And if that's the case we can still track him down, but it would be tricky as h.e.l.l. We do have one picture of him-it's about five years old, but should do the trick.”
Lewis flashed a color printout of what looked like a candid Facebook profile picture to the conference room. Avery stared at it, committing the face to memory. ”From what we can tell, this was a picture provided years ago, taken candidly by someone he once worked with when he was being investigated.”
”Rest a.s.sured,” O'Malley said, ”we've got a team of officers and detectives on this thing here, too. Anything you need from us, just let us know.”
”We will,” Lewis said. ”The bureau is taking this case very seriously. If there's no arrest made within the next few hours I'd fully expect at least one more agent to show on the scene down there. I a.s.sume Agent Duggan has been of some value?”
”Some,” O'Malley said, and left it at that.
”Yes...well...just let us know what we can do to help.”
”Sounds good,” O'Malley said. Avery smirked because she knew the last thing O'Malley would want was another FBI agent in the midst of things. ”Thanks, Agent Lewis.”
With that, Finley ended the call and all eyes were back on O'Malley. ”Well, you heard the man,” O'Malley said. ”We're basically looking for a ghost when it comes to Roosevelt Toms. Beyond that, we can now confirm that the three cremations we were looking into from the victims' families were not done at the same crematorium, knocking out that possible link and motive.”
”What about landlords or renters?” Avery asked.
”We've got details on two and they all give us an address in Texas that leads to a dead end,” O'Malley said. ”If Roosevelt Toms is out there, he covered his tracks well. I hate to say it, but at this point it a snipe hunt. We have to beat the streets, make calls that are going to probably come up with dead ends, and hope to get lucky. Black, do you have anything to add?”
She was aware that all eyes were on her. It was a feeling she did not mind at all but could not seem to get used to. There was respect in most of the faces that looked at her and maybe even a little bit of anxiousness and antic.i.p.ation. It made her feel like the case hinged on what she chose to do next-and that was fine with her.
I guess it's my show now, she thought. Maybe this is like some messed up test from O'Malley to see if he's right about wanting me for a sergeant position.
”It might be a good idea to send some cars by the previous sites where the remains were found,” Avery said. ”If he's using fire as some symbolic device and has an arsonist's mentality, there's a good chance he might revisit the scene for some sick sort of motivation or nostalgia.”
”I'll get two cars out on that right now,” he said. ”Anyone else?”
Silence around the table was the only answer. O'Malley waited less than two seconds before giving a thunderous clap of his hands. ”That's it, then. Every single one of you will be notified when something new comes to us. For now, get out there and hunt this b.a.s.t.a.r.d down.”
Everyone filed out of the room quickly, like they were in a fire drill. Avery noticed that Ramirez was hanging back, slowly making his way over to her. He did so confidently and she admired him for that. It seemed that he was remaining professional and trying to forget how she had treated him in terms of their romantic relations.h.i.+p. It had to take some serious fort.i.tude on his part.
He came over to her and stood close. He held eye contact with her and she felt something tug at her heart. I trust this man, she thought. I trust this man with my life and I'm pretty d.a.m.n lucky that he wants anything to do with me outside of work.
”Where do you need me on this?” he asked.
She wondered if this was his way of asking her if she needed him to be by her side. She nearly said exactly that but then put the job before her heart-the same thing that had caused her to lash out at him on two occasions in the last two days. But in this regard, she was pretty sure he appreciated it.
”Honestly, I don't even know. It's all research right now and I hate to waste your talents on that.”
”Look. Put me where you need me. I'm fine with it.”
”I wonder if we need to dig deeper into these three cremations. Maybe there's something else about the families that links them-not only to one another but to the killer.”
”So you want me to talk to extended family members.”
”I think it might be a good idea. It might even-”
”Detective Black?” someone said from behind her.
She turned and saw Agent Duggan coming quickly into the room through the last of the officers to file out. He was holding his phone in his hand and pointing it toward her.
”Agent Duggan,” she said. ”What is it?”
”I got this e-mail two minutes ago,” he said. ”It's a thin lead, but it's a lead. I had someone try to get in touch with the girlfriend that was living with Toms when he threatened suicide. That led to a dead end but it also led to the name and location of the man that lived with him as a roommate for six months. That roommate, by the way...arrested in 2009 on minor arson charges.”
”Is he still local?” Avery asked.
”According to his electric and internet bills. But the weird thing is that he has some missing s.p.a.ces in his history, too.”
”That's fine; it's still a great lead. Can you shoot me over his information?”