Unlucky 13

Chapter 32

Cindy was at her desk at the Chron, rereading her old Randy Fish files, straining them for any missed morsel of information that could lead to Morales. By 10:00 a.m. she had put down three cups of coffee and two churros, the only food groups that appealed to her in her current mood.

Apparently her body was telling her what she needed.

Henry Tyler was in Washington today, meaning Cindy had a reprieve from a humiliating meeting where she would have to inform him that her story had gotten away from her and she wouldn’t be nominated for the Pulitzer anytime soon.

It was a conversation she really didn’t want to have.

Just then, a gaggle of her coworkers who were raving about a new reality dating show parked themselves in the hallway outside her office. Cindy got up and shut the door, and when she returned to her desk, an e-mail had arrived from Capt.Lawrence@CWPD.com.

Hope sprang, leapt around, did a pirouette and a curtsy.

Hi Cindy,

Morales’s prints were found in the house, but they were dusty. So give yourself a gold star for figuring that out, anyway. Fyi, if you don’t know, there was a bank robbery in Chicago on Monday and the perp was tentatively id’d as our friend Mac. According to what I got from our cop network, she shot and killed two people and got away with about a thousand dollars. Disappeared in plain sight, right outside of the bank. So maybe Morales was last seen in Chicago. Or maybe it was someone who looked like her.

All the best,

Pat

The few short lines felt to Cindy like bright sunshine breaking through the cloud cover after forty days and nights of torrential rain. She’d been right that Morales had used the Fish house as a hideout.

And now here came a fresh lead.

Morales had staged a bank holdup and she had killed two people—both a measure of her psychopathy and of her desperation.

No question in Cindy’s mind, Morales was going to need money again soon and she would resurface.

Cindy went online, searched for “bank robbery, Chicago” and spent the next hour reading about it in the Chicago papers. Mackie Morales wasn’t mentioned by name. Law enforcement was no doubt working according to the same principle as when Cindy had found out that the Fish house was wired with explosives.

Namely, they had to keep Morales out of the press so that she wouldn’t know that she’d been exposed.

Cindy located the videos from the Chicago news broadcasts. Customers who had fled the bank right after the shootings had been interviewed by the local press.

Cindy noted the names, and she sent out an e-mail to the staff writers at the Chron, asking if anyone had contacts in the Chicago PD.

Then Cindy wrote to Henry Tyler:

To: H. Tyler

From: C. Thomas

Subject: Update Morales

Henry, Morales may have held up a bank in Chicago and killed two people. Her name has not been released. I’m following up, digging in. More TK as I get info. Cindy.

Then Cindy wrote to Captain Lawrence, thanking him for the lead. Next, she booked a flight to Chicago.