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“Not even close,” Trent said. He’d requested to take the lead this go around. Prior to that, they had discussed their approach. Time of death ruled out Lowell for the woman’s murder. He had been behind bars, but he didn’t have to know every detail if holding some back would get him to talk. Otherwise, Trent had been rather introspective on the drive, which Amanda attributed to the abuse the woman had suffered.
They both sat across from Lowell. Trent wasted no time pulling out the photo Blair had sent of Jane Doe. “Look close.” Trent pushed it under Lowell’s nose.
“Don’t know her, like I told you before. Just in this picture, she looks a little deader.” Lowell licked his lips as he stared at the photo as if deriving some sick pleasure from it.
“Do you think this is some freaking joke?” Trent asked. “That it’s funny? Well, neither of us is laughing or even amused. She was shot to the back of her head with a nine mil. We think you’re caught up in that.”
“It wasn’t me.”
“I never said you pulled the trigger, but this is on you.” Trent thrust a pointed finger toward the picture. “She was stuffed into the trunk of Katherine Graves’s Mercedes, the one your goons stole when they abducted her. She’s been beaten for weeks.”
“My goons? You’ve got nothing on me. Let me go or the next time there will be a lawyer present.”
“A lawyer? Really?” Amanda said. “That’s starting to feel like your fallback. But for someone who claims their innocence, you seem to find pleasure in what you’re seeing.” She’d shared her observation for shock factor and to net a reaction.
Lowell smiled. “It makes me think of how Nancy looked after…”
Nancy was the mother of his son, who he’d murdered and served prison time for. Apparently, the sentence hadn’t been long enough to make him reflect on his crime and regret what he had done. Then again, rehabilitation may just be the delusion of humanitarians.
“What about this? Does his voice sound familiar?” Trent played a segment of the ransom request.
Lowell was grinning the entire time.
“You proud of your cohort’s initiative?” Trent put out there. “I wouldn’t be. He’s leaving a trail that is going to lead us straight to you.”
“It hasn’t worked yet.”
They showed him Barry Holden’s picture and the plates, but neither netted a reaction.
Amanda stood and Trent followed, slowly gathering up the photos.
In the hall, Trent said, “He’s shady as shit. He’s stringing us along, wasting time.”
“I agree, but we can’t make him talk. We need to build our case against him. His gun’s already being tested to see if it’s a match to the bullets that killed Leah Bernard. Obviously, it wouldn’t match Jane Doe as his weapon is with us. But we’ll get a warrant for his phone records, see if we can prove he commissioned Katherine’s abduction.”
“And if we’re barking up the wrong tree with Lowell?”
“We’re nowhere.” She didn’t even want to think about that.
FORTY-FIVE
Katherine had been drifting in and out of consciousness but had bolted awake when the man and woman returned. He was screaming at her, and things were being thrown and crashing into walls.
“How stupid can you be?” he hurled at the woman.
“I—”
The sound of a hand hitting flesh. “You left the cash behind.”
He’d struck the woman again, her cries penetrated Katherine’s skull, and there was nothing she could do about it tied to this blasted chair. That had taken place a while ago. Hours maybe, and Katherine hadn’t heard the woman since. But shortly after their altercation, they’d left, and Katherine breathed some relief. She’d be alive for at least a little longer.
It had already been two full days. She’d seen the sun set and rise through the one window in the room that wasn’t boarded. All they had provided her with was the odd protein bar and sips of bottled water. Bathroom breaks were infrequent and accompanied. The man stood over her at gunpoint while she evacuated her bladder and bowels. It was humiliating and demoralizing.
If only he’d entrusted the task to the woman. Then Katherine might have found some way to turn her against the man. There was obvious tension between the two, him always bossing her around and hitting her. But she was quite sure the woman wouldn’t be coming back.
It was obvious that things had gone sideways with the ransom exchange. She was surprised she hadn’t received a bullet to the head. Poor, sweet May, who had welcomed her with open arms. She’d never thrown the past in her face once, that her mother and May had been estranged for years. Katherine only wished there had been time for the sisters to reconcile.
Heavy footsteps stomped down the hallway toward the room that Katherine was in. When he entered, she got her first real look at him. Her vision was clear enough, and with sunlight streaming in, she racked her brain trying to place him, but she couldn’t.
