Love me to death

TWENTY-SIX

Abigail hailed Noah as soon as he turned down the aisle of their squad’s cubicles early Tuesday morning. “I got the GPS data.”

“We were supposed to have it yesterday.”

“Yeah, and I harassed the poor CEO mercilessly all day even though there is no immediate risk to life or limb for this data.”

“Sorry.” Noah rubbed his eyes. “Kate and I split Morton’s emails. I still have a headache.”

“Learn anything?”

“Quite a bit. Our victim from Saturday, Robert Ralston?”

“I remember.”

“If I’m reading these messages right, he’s the one who first contacted Morton. Morton got out of prison, sent a few emails letting people know he was around, and then nothing-until the first week of August, when Ralston sends Morton a message.”

Noah put down his files and pulled the summary he’d typed out at home. “August sixth, Ralston asks Morton if he’s interested in a new game plan, that Ralston wants to retire to Florida but doesn’t have any money. Morton responds that he’s broke, too, and he hates being a mechanic. Ralston says he’ll see what he hears, but he’s not a techie.”

“Morton bought his computer a few weeks later.”

“I think that was incidental-he needed to earn the money to buy it, and after seven weeks working he had the funds. He immediately started going to all the online porn sites. Possibly doing research on how the technology and offerings changed.”

“Or maybe he was just a horny bastard after spending six years in prison.”

Noah shrugged. “Then Morton contacts Ralston in late September and says he has a new game plan-same phrase Ralston used-and would be ready in a few months. That’s about the time he started collecting porn and archiving it on his computer. A lot of the tapes and disks were older. I don’t know what his plan was-nothing in the messages give any details. But he had a lot of webcam films and our techs say it’s obvious one or both participants didn’t know they were being filmed.”

“Blackmail, maybe?”

“Possibly. And he would need money for equipment, setup, planning, and then of course the blackmail angle, if that’s what he was doing. Or, he could simply have been creating a voyeur site. I don’t know if we’ll ever learn the truth, considering both Ralston and Morton are dead.”

“Until whoever killed them launches the venture.”

Noah nodded. “We don’t have Ralston’s emails, but he must have been doing some work for Morton, because he gets back to Morton in late November and says he found a ‘game-player.’ ”

“Why didn’t Morton come out here then?”

“I don’t know. I can’t find any other messages from Ralston until late December. I’m wondering if they might have talked on the phone, and Guardino in Denver is going through Morton’s records. There were no 202 or 703 calls, but in this day and age disposable phones could have any number of area codes, Morton could even have had one we didn’t find. Our analysts are going through Ralston’s phone records. Something is going to match up but it’s going to take time.”

“So in December Ralston says what?”

“Pick a time and place. But get this-Morton didn’t tell Ralston when and where. There are no more communications from them.”

“Then you’ll love what I have here.” Abigail grinned like the Cheshire Cat and spread a greater D.C. map on his desk. “I mapped out everywhere Morton went in the rental car from the moment he drove out of the Dulles Airport parking lot. And two of his stops? Ralston’s apartment.”

Noah followed Abigail’s finger as she traced her pencil mark. “He was busy those two days.”

“Yes, he was.”

Noah scanned it. In addition to Ralston’s apartment, it included the Washington Marina where he was killed. He arrived there at 11:23 p.m. He died at approximately midnight. His body hadn’t been moved. At 11:59 p.m. the car left. “He went to the meeting-possibly to hook up with the money people for his new ‘game plan’-and they killed him. Took his car and went back to his motel-why?”

“If we’re going with the blackmail angle, maybe that was how he was going to fund his new project-and he blackmailed the wrong person.”

Noah considered. “He doesn’t bring the incriminating evidence, so the killer goes to his motel to look for it. Then drives the car to within blocks of Dulles Airport.”

“No-the car went one other place.” She put her finger down.

Noah’s mouth almost dropped open. “Back to Ralston’s apartment?”

“You know what I think? I think the killer was looking for something.”

“That would support the blackmail theory.”

“Morton didn’t have it on him. It wasn’t in his car, it wasn’t in his motel-”

“So they went to Ralston.”

Abigail nodded. “And killed him. Then they left the car in the warehouse near Dulles at four-thirty in the morning.”

Blackmail. It could pay enough to fund Morton’s “game plan.”

“How did the killer get to the marina if he drove away in Morton’s car?” Noah pondered.

“He came with Morton?”

“Unlikely. Unless they were meeting someone else.”

“So the killer has a partner. Or took public transportation.”

Noah considered. “Or, Ralston went with Morton.”

Abigail frowned. “But if Ralston and Morton were working together as closely as they appeared, why go back to Morton’s motel after he was killed? The manager’s description, though vague, doesn’t come close to fitting Ralston. If the killer wanted both of them dead, why take Ralston back to his apartment?”

“Maybe Ralston was scared, trying to buy time.”

“It’s possible.”

But something was missing. It seemed too convoluted a plan, but until they knew who Morton was meeting and what Morton was supposed to exchange for the money he expected to get, they wouldn’t know.

“Did you check taxi and limo companies?”

“No licensed driver took anyone out to the marina that night.”

Noah tapped his finger on a mark in Somerset, Maryland. “What’s this? It looks residential.”

“I haven’t checked it out yet; I just got this an hour ago.”

“He drove there Thursday night.”

His computer beeped, telling him he had a new email. He glanced at it, then did a double-take. “Here’s something new,” Noah said.

As he opened up the message, Abigail looked over his shoulder. It was from one of their analysts.

Agent Armstrong,

Per your instructions, I retraced Roger Morton’s steps prior to his arrival at Dulles. Under his name, there was no travel. Under his cousin’s name Cliff Skinner there was only the ticket from Denver to DIA. However, there was a charge to Skinner’s credit card for a round-trip ticket from Dulles to Seattle on January third, returning on January fourth, under the name Robert Ralston. I contacted the airlines and they confirmed that the ticket was issued and used.

Let me know if you need anything else.

— Sandy Young, Analyst II

“Ralston went to Seattle? What for?” Abigail asked.

Noah didn’t respond. Morton paid for the ticket, but Ralston did the travel. One day, overnight, why? What was Morton’s connection to Seattle?

He replied to Sandy:

Thanks Sandy. See what you can find on Ralston in Seattle. If he got a rental car, hotel, under his name or Skinner. Noah.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” Abigail said.

Noah agreed. “Let’s go check out the location in Somerset.” He started walking, then stopped so abruptly that Abigail nearly ran into him.

“I see a flash of brilliance,” she said.

“Seattle. It was in the files Stockton gave me. It’s where Adam Scott and Morton took Lucy Kincaid after they kidnapped her.”

“You think it’s connected?”

“I doubt it’s a coincidence.”

Noah turned around and went back to his computer. He quickly sent a message to Assistant Director Rick Stockton and Hans Vigo, who would be able to get answers faster.