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“Your academy scores are impressive as hell, Ellison. Top marks in shooting and crime scene psychology, and top of the class in interrogation techniques.” She whistled and shook her head. “Damn impressive.”
“Thank you.” I was surprised she’d taken the time to look up my academy record, and I decided to give Agent Beck the benefit of the doubt, until she gave me a reason to doubt her. “Is the crime scene still intact?”
Beck nodded. “The bodies are gone for autopsy, of course, but everything else is still as it was. The hotel is throwing a shit fit, as businesses tend to do, but when the federal government is involved, they bitch a lot quieter about the impact to their business.”
She rolled her eyes and abruptly parked on a slant before jumping out. It seemed this woman didn’t do anything slowly. “Besides, who wants to rent a room after a double murder?”
“Good point.”
We skipped the elevator in the hotel and took the stairs to the seventh floor because Beck was certain the shooter took the route with the fewest cameras. “The lobby is covered with CC recorders from just about every angle and so are the elevators. Even the halls just outside the elevator have cameras, see?” She pointed them out when we arrived on the seventh floor.
“Take the stairs and you can bypass them all.”
I nodded and took in the impressive surveillance. “But there was no reason for the killer to assume the stair exit wasn’t right beside the elevator like it normally is. Right?”
“Excellent point,” she said and flashed a smile. “The room is down this way.”
We stepped inside the room and the stench of stale blood, gunpowder, and death permeated the air.
“What are you thinking, Agent Beck? Was the killer here when Mueller and Bonnie arrived or were they let inside?” The door wasn’t kicked in and showed no signs of forced entry, so what were the options? How’d they get in?
Beck took in the room and sighed. “If they were ambushed it would be…I don’t know…neater.”
I saw what she meant. The report stated the priest was found with a gun in his hand, which supported the theory he let the killer or killers in after he and Bonnie arrived, together or separately.
“So, the killer or killers enter the room and shoot Bonnie first. Why?”
“They didn’t want her to hear whatever they needed to discuss with Mueller. That’s my theory so far.” Beck looked under the bed and then up at me. “Why do you think Bonnie was killed first?”
“Crime scene photos showed her blood was darker and indicated some of her blood was on Mueller’s clothes.”
Her smile spread slowly. “You don’t miss a beat, huh, Ellison?”
“I’m trying not to,” I told her honestly. “The report says the gun in Mueller’s hand was the one that killed Bonnie. Any word on fingerprints? Ballistics?
“Still waiting,” she said, distracted. “It doesn’t make sense that he would kill her, though.”
“Agreed.” Then another thought occurred to me. “What if Mueller lured her here thinking she knew something about the priest murders over the past few years? The cops did accuse her at one time.”
Beck rolled her eyes. “That was just shitty police work. Feds wanted a patsy, but it didn’t work out like they’d planned.”
“So you don’t think Bonnie was involved in those murders?”
Beck laughed, and once she realized I was serious, she shook her head. “No. But maybe Mueller believed it and didn’t realize there’s a far better suspect for those crimes than Bonnie. I think she was just a disgruntled housewife.”
“Disgruntled? Why do you think she was disgruntled?”
“You read her bio?”
I nodded, and Beck gave me the story anyway.
“Before the Ashby’s she was a good girl who went to church and only partied when her college roommate—your cousin, I believe—pulled her out of her shell. It was only after her arrest and then getting mixed up with the Ashby family that her life went to shit, and then ended altogether.”
I couldn’t be sure, but there was a hint of venom in her voice when she spoke of the Ashbys. I’d have to look into that.
“I knew she’d been arrested, and that nothing had come of it, but that’s about it.”
Beck turned to me. Her eyes serious. “Aren’t you worried about your cousin though?”
“Nope. Maisie’s a big girl, and she’s married into the Ashby family now, so I have to assume Virgil will keep her safe.”
Beck pursed her lips and opened them with a ‘pop’.
“Calvin probably thought he could keep Bonnie safe as well. But he’s a computer geek, not a real criminal like the rest of the family, which brings me back to the disgruntled housewife angle.”
It was complicated but I understood Beck’s reasoning. “You want me to do more digging into Bonnie?”
She nodded. “Top priority is looking into Dietrich Mueller, but I’m curious why Bonnie Ashby was meeting with him. I’m looking into it, but you might have better luck getting answers.”
