“You and me both,” she grumbled. “Reid’s apartment is more barren than my old condo. A set of four plates, bowls, and utensils in the kitchen. Two pots and a pan. Some condiments and one leftover Chinese food container that even I wouldn’t eat, and I have a steel-lined stomach. Couch, chair, television—the TV is nice, new, wall-mounted. Queen bed, made. Some clothes and an extra maintenance uniform. Toiletries. But the place is immaculate. He’s been here, but I don’t think he lives here.”
“Talk to the neighbors, see what they say—”
“Done. The place has eight apartments, four up, four down. Made contact with three neighbors, all have talked to him. He helps one of the older women with her trash every week, and the single mom with two kids? Says he’s the nicest guy, didn’t even hit on her but went out of his way to pick up a bunk bed she bought on Facebook Marketplaceandhelped her put it together. Everyone likes him. He’s a good neighbor, works a lot, keeps to himself.”
“Have they seen him with anyone?”
“No men, no women. He told his next-door neighbor that he took the job last fall because he wanted to see if he liked living in Florida, but wasn’t sure he would stay. Didn’t talk about friends or family, but if it got personal he talked about his job and the resort. He signed a year lease on October 3, two days after he was hired. He paid first, last, deposit. That was nearly four thousand upfront. Never been late.”
“Nothing to connect him to even one of the victims?”
“Nope. No diary confessing to a crime, no calendar stating ‘today I’m grabbing a blonde and her husband,’ no ketamine or other drugs anywhere—and we looked deep—and no signs of violence. And there’s no way he could get a body in and out of his apartment, dead or alive, without someone seeing or hearing. These walls aren’t thick.”
“Okay. Stick with the deputies while they finish processing, collect any information we can follow up on. I’ll wait for you here.”
“Roger that, boss.” The line went dead.
They needed an expanded search warrant, and Matt wasn’t certain they would get it with what they had. Though the attempted kidnapping of a federal agent might be enough.
John came back into the room. “Reid’s lawyer didn’t answer—we offered a public defender, but Reid wants his own guy. So we’re on hold until he gets here.”
“Status of the warrant?”
“I’m going before the judge in an hour,” John said.
“We need to find his second location,” Matt reiterated. “That info might be in his credit card statements, gas bill, any speeding or parking tickets, even utilities in his name.”
“I’m working on it.”
“His vehicle?”
“He drives a small pickup truck. I doubt he’d use it to move bodies, but it’s not out of the question. It’s already at the crime lab being processed. Bianca’s team is sweeping every large vehicle on resort property. Vans, box trucks, oversized sedans. Anything that could hide two bodies.” John looked glum, his earlier enthusiasm had flatlined. “This wasn’t how I thought it would go.”
“Me, either,” Matt said. “But we couldn’t let him overpower us or remove us from the property. It was too great a risk to the safety of my team.”
“The plan was solid—I just expected, I don’t know,somethingmore. A secret room in his apartment, walls covered in photos of his victims, a memento from his kills. But there was nothing. His place, his car, so far both are completely clean. The guy lived like a damn ghost.”
Matt exhaled slowly, staring at the wall that held the photos of all six victims. Their driver’s license photos and their wedding pictures. Six people who had celebrated the happiest day of their life... and then were killed.
“We know what he’s capable of,” Matt said. “But without proof, it won’t matter.”
“We need something to fry this guy.”
Matt agreed, but what could he say? Garrett Reid might walk. And if he did, someone else would end up dead.
2
Kara walked around the apartment building to get away from the crowd of cops who were going through every nook and cranny of Garrett Reid’s sparse apartment.
Matt didn’t have to say anything, but she could read between the lines: they didn’t have a good case. Hell, they didn’t even have a bad case. They had nothing against Garrett Reid for murder. They couldn’t even prove he drugged their food.
She had argued with the task force that they needed to allow the suspect to restrain her and Matt, and preferably take them off-site before bringing in the cavalry. The sheriff’s department didn’t want to risk an innocent or team member being injured if the killer suspected a trap, so wanted the takedown contained within a controlled area. Matt concurred.
The plan had been to allow Reid—at the time, their unknown suspect—to restrain one of them, and then the team, who were watching through a hidden camera, would come in both entrances and take him into custody. Matt didn’t like either him or Kara being incapacitated, but it was a good compromise.
Unfortunately, Michael thought he saw a gun when Reid reached into his pockets. Fearing one of them would be shot, he ordered the team to go in.
Reid didn’t have a gun. It was a flashlight. But hedidhave zip ties and duct tape on his person. All victims had evidence of being zip-tied at the wrists and ankles, and one victim had a piece of duct tape in her hair. It was a small piece of evidence they may be able to match to what they found on Reid today.Maybe.Not enough to make the case, and they’d need days for the lab to confirm. Even then, the results could be inconclusive.
