The Competition

62

I felt like I’d taken a lead sap to the head. Bailey looked just as stunned. We sat in silence for a few moments.

“From all indications, it was suicide,” Harrellson said.

It dimly penetrated the haze of shock that our shrinks had said Logan seemed the suicidal type.

“Ready for more?” Harrellson asked. No, I really wasn’t. I nodded anyway. “According to Dr. Shoe, he’s been dead for days.”

I put my hands on the table. “What?”

“How many days?” Bailey asked.

“At least three. Cause of death is a gunshot wound to the head.”

I stared at the wall. Three days. I slowly absorbed the ramifications. “If Logan’s been dead for three days, then-”

“He couldn’t have done the Cinemark shooting,” Bailey said.

“But there were two assault rifles,” I said.

“Yeah.” Harrellson rubbed his neck. “This is crazy. So now what? We have a third shooter?”

Bailey frowned. “But the kids in the school only saw two.”

“And all the cell phone and video surveillance footage only showed two,” I said. “There’s been no evidence of a third party anywhere.”

“Unless a third party’s been in the background all along,” Harrellson said.

“I don’t know…that just doesn’t feel right.” This wasn’t the Bling Ring, a bunch of idiot teenagers looking to burglarize movie stars for shits and giggles. These were two deranged sickos bent on mass murder. The fact that they’d even managed to find each other stretched the odds, but finding a third? One who could be trusted not to fall apart at the last minute and get them all busted? That stretched the odds to the breaking point. Or, as Nick would say, that dog wouldn’t hunt. And I’d never heard of a school shooting that involved more than two killers.

When pieces don’t fit, it means you’re forcing them. I leaned back and stared at the table. I had to let go of every assumption we’d made about this case. We knew there were two gunmen at Fairmont-we’d seen them on the videotape. We’d assumed the same two gunmen had done the shooting at the Cinemark. But now we knew Logan couldn’t have been one of them. I mentally played out the sequence of events described by Gina. Then did it again. Slowly, an answer began to take shape. “What if there was just one shooter at the Cinemark? Think about it. The projectionist gets stabbed: that’s a one-man job. Then shots are fired into the theater. We found two assault rifles, but one guy could have pulled both triggers-”

Bailey nodded slowly. “And it would only take one guy to kill the manager.”

“He dropped two guns to make us think there were two shooters?” Harrellson asked.

I shrugged. “Why not? The mislead seems to be his MO. He did it with Otis…”

I watched Harrellson play it out for himself. He nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s possible. But one guy or two, we still don’t have ID-on either.”

That pretty much summed up what we didn’t have. So I focused on what we did have. That gave me a lot less to think about. “Evan’s still in the wind-”

“Yep,” Harrellson said. “I’ve got every available officer out there looking for him.”

“What’s it been now,” I asked, “two days?” He nodded. “It’s weird he hasn’t even called his parents. Just to say ‘Hey, I’m okay.’ Don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Bailey said. “My guess is he’s got friends no one knows about. But you’re thinking Evan might be involved-”

“Not necessarily,” I said. “But I’m starting from scratch. Trying to see if we’ve missed anything. Maybe Evan knew more than he told us. And maybe that’s why he ran. Did his story about being in homeroom the day of the school shooting check out?”

“Yeah,” Harrellson said. “From what I remember, his teacher verified.”

“Anyone see him in the gym at the time of the shooting?” I asked.

Harrellson squinted up at the ceiling. “I’m pretty sure I saw that in one of the uni reports. But I’ve been through at least a hundred statements. I’ll go back and make sure.”

I considered another angle. “We should tell Evan’s parents about Logan,” I said.

“You’re thinking if he finds out Logan’s dead, he’ll come home,” Bailey said. I nodded. “The parents haven’t had any contact with him. Unless they’re lying-and I don’t think they are-that won’t work. If we want to make sure he knows the coast is clear, we’ll have to go public with it.”

“Any risk that’ll push your second shooter further away?” Harrellson asked.

“I wish,” I said. “No, that psycho isn’t looking to escape. He’s looking for his next big hit. I don’t see a downside.” I looked at Bailey. “You?”

“No. But I’ll run it by Graden first just to be on the safe side. In the meantime, let’s catch Harrellson up.”

We swore him to secrecy and told him about the letters and our plan to try to smoke out the sender.

“I like it,” he said. He shook his head. “Friggin’ incredible. I always knew they were psychos, but jeez…”

“Just one more thing, Harrellson,” Bailey said. “I hate to do it to you, but I need you to notify the Jarvises. I’d do it myself, but we’re not exactly popular over at that house anymore.”

“You mean, since you told them their son was a mass murderer?”

Bailey sighed.

Harrellson moved toward the door. “That’s why they pay us the below-middling bucks.” He gave a mirthless smile. “I’ll take care of it, but give me enough time to get to them before the chief announces.”

“Make it fast. The press is on full swarm, and they probably already know a body was found in Box Canyon.” Harrellson opened the door. “Oh, and hey, I owe you for this.”

“You sure as hell do.” Harrellson turned to go and wiggled his fingers over his shoulder. “Ta-ta, my rose petals.” He walked out.

Next stop, Lieutenant Graden Hales. Logan’s death hit him hard too. It took him several seconds to recover enough to ask, “Suicide? But I thought Logan was the mastermind.”

“Our shrinkers were always skeptical about that,” I said. “Anyway, mastermind or not, the second shooter’s still out there.”

“And we have no clue who he is.” Graden raked his fingers through his hair and sighed. “What we do know is that he’s getting ready to make up for his failure at the Cinemark.”

Unfortunately true. Bailey and I told Graden our plans.

“With the press buzzing around like crazy, the chief will have to announce Logan’s death in a couple of hours anyway,” Bailey said. “And if you frame it right, he can make it sound like asking the letter mailer to come forward is based on a new lead we’ve developed.”

Graden nodded. “Good idea. I don’t know if it’ll work, but it won’t hurt to try.”

With Graden’s backing, we could count on the chief’s approval. I’d have to tell my office what was going on pretty soon, and I wouldn’t mind having Vanderhorn ask the letter mailer to come forward. The more the merrier. But I didn’t want to give him the chance to steal the chief’s thunder. I waited until it was just fifteen minutes before the press conference to call Eric.

When I finished recapping, Eric gave a low whistle. “All that in just the past two days? That’s insane. But Rachel, Vanderhorn’s going to want you to come in and give him the full report in person. You really can’t avoid it anymore.”

“Yeah, I know. But I’ve got to stick around until the chief does his press conference-”

“Wait, what? The chief’s doing a presser? Get over here now-”

“Oh, wow, Eric, it’s about to start. Gotta go! Call you later.”

I knew I was going to catch hell for this. But there’d be plenty of time for Vanderhorn to have his media moment after the chief made his bid to the letter mailer.

The reporters barely had an hour’s lead time, but even so, the place was packed to capacity a full ten minutes early. I wondered how many speeding tickets got handed out that day. Bailey and I decided to watch on a monitor in Graden’s office. Graden had been drafted to stand next to the chief as backup, and he was all spiffed up in his dress uniform. He always looked hot, but in that uniform, with all those medals…well, words fail me. I got a rare chance to enjoy the view without his knowing and I took full advantage of it.

The chief kept it short and sweet. Vanderhorn could take a few lessons. Not that he ever would. The statement took only five minutes, but the questions came in hot and heavy for half an hour.

Logan’s death was the bombshell of the day. The top of the story was Logan’s suicide, but the question “What was in those letters?” ran a close second. When the chief refused to elaborate, the press quickly moved on to “Who’s been mailing them?” We couldn’t have hoped for better coverage.

“We can wait for a few hours to see if Evan surfaces,” I said. “But I hate-”

“Waiting,” Bailey said.

“The waste of time. It bugs me that no one’s heard from him. Besides, it’s the only thread we’ve got to pull, so let’s work it-”

“I’m on board.” She paused. “But first, I’ve got one other move. It won’t take long.”

There was no such thing as too many moves in my book. “Hit me, I’m all ears.”