"Are you?Because from where I'm standing, it looks like my sister's husband got himself killed by sneaking around with some model in a hotel room.Maybe this is just karma."
"This wasn't karma," Miles said."This was murder.Premeditated and deliberate.”
"Bu for what reason?"
"We're still working that out."He didn’t see the point in letting her know that he was the victim of a national case—of a case the majority of the country had seen or heard about on the news or online.
Leanne opened the door."Well, work it out somewhere else.Fiona doesn't need any more questions today."
They stepped outside and the door closed firmly behind them.Miles and Vic walked back to the car in silence.The street was quieter now, the evening settling in with that particular quality of urban twilight where the city seemed to hold its breath before the night truly began.
"That was a waste," Vic said once they were in the car.
"Not entirely.We confirmed Williams had the wedding band plated in platinum.That's another connection.And she mentioned he'd been more nervous lately."
"Because of the affair, probably"
"Maybe.Or maybe he noticed something.Maybe he realized something was going on.Maybe his nerves were because he’d started to suspect he was being followed or spied on in some way."
Vic buckled her seatbelt."If he did, he never reported it.No police report, nothing."
Miles started the car and pulled away from the curb."The disciples are patient.They watch their victims for weeks sometimes, learning routines and patterns.Williams might have felt like something was off without knowing why."
"And Rothschild?"
"Same thing probably.A vague sense of unease that she couldn't pin down."He sighed and said, “Of course, there’s no way to know for sure now.”
They drove in silence for a few blocks.Miles kept thinking about Fiona Williams sitting on that couch, grieving a husband who had betrayed her while also being murdered—the warring of emotions, back and forth.The duality of that pain seemed almost unbearable.She couldn't even mourn cleanly because the affair complicated everything.
"The wedding band," Vic said suddenly."If Williams had it plated in platinum, that's another piece of jewelry we need to account for.Was it on his body?"
Miles tried to remember the crime scene.Williams had been positioned on the bed with his hands folded.Had there been a ring?He couldn't recall seeing one.“You know, I don’t think so.We'll need to check with the ME.If the killer took the wedding band along with the watch, that changes the staging."
"Or maybe Williams stopped wearing it.Some men take their rings off when they're having affairs."
"Maybe.But Fiona said he had it plated to match the watch.A man that concerned with coordination probably kept wearing it."
“I’ll text Linhart and see if her or the ME can get an answer for us,” Vic said.
Miles nodded.They needed to know about the wedding band.If it was missing, that was significant.If it was on the body, that was significant, too.Either way, it was another piece of platinum jewelry connecting Williams to the killer's methodology.
Miles merged onto a wider avenue, heading back toward Rothschild's building where they had set up their makeshift operations center.The jeweler list was waiting for them there, along with all the tedious background work that might eventually lead them to a name, a face, a location.
"Kim should have background on Williams by now," Vic said after her text was sent."Financial records, work history, everything.Maybe there's another link to Rothschild we're not seeing."
"There has to be," Miles said."The killer chose them both for a reason beyond just the platinum they wore.There's a pattern here we're missing."
He thought about the jewelry laid out at Rothschild's scene and the watch sitting on Williams's bathroom counter.Two different presentations of the same message.Wealth displayed through platinum.Status bought with incorruptible metal.The killer was making a statement about society, about inequality, about the gap between those who could afford platinum and those who couldn't.
It was classic Kane philosophy.Use the element as both symbol and weapon.Turn what the victim valued into the instrument of their death.
Miles just hoped they could decode the pattern before the next victim wore their platinum for the last time.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
By 9:30 that night, they had relocated to the FBI field office in Lower Manhattan.The conference room they'd been assigned was larger than the makeshift space at Rothschild's building, with actual desks and whiteboards and decent internet connectivity.Miles had the jeweler list spread across one desk while Vic worked her laptop at another.Agent Kim had joined via Zoom forty minutes ago and was doing her best to help as well.
"All right," Miles said, looking at the names Marshall had provided."Eleven jewelers who made pieces for Rothschild's collection.Let's start cross-referencing them against Williams."
