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?“To make sure my prints ended up on it.”
?“So as far as getting us on board,” DeStadler told us, “your lady friend here came to the station with printouts she’d made from looking this guy up and highlighted information from the financial records—”
?“Which is why you needed to rent the use of a computer and printer,” Mark deduced.
?“Exactly!” I announced. “I realized we had cast too wide a net and we needed to focus on the details.”
?“Once I saw the evidence, and that cameo from Ms. Cunningham, Elvis and I were willing to back her up,” DeStadler said. “I got Elvis to cover the outside of the hotel with the SWAT team, in case anyone made a break for it.”
?Mark considered this for a moment. “Besides the name, was there anything else, Sheryl?”
?“I had seen the forensic photos of Jon Kane, when Louie and I got you out. I realized from the blood spatter that it was a left-handed person with a lot of strength. Yet, because of his height and the damage done to him, I was sure it had to be someone shorter than our shooter. It had to be a team—a team that did not include Jon Kane.”
?“So,” DeStadler agreed, “we reviewed the videotape of the elevator from the night of the murder. This Hypno broad went upstairs about the same time as Jon Kane. Candy arrived a few minutes later. Then we noticed that John Stewart showed up about fifteen minutes before Candy was shot, carrying a shopping bag—”
? I interrupted, “Which we deduced contained the pillow, as well as your pistol.”
?“We had also expanded our search of the surveillance footage of the back stairs of the hotel. With this new information, we took a look at the night of the murder. About 3:55, Hypno walked down with the same bag as Stewart, but with less in it. That’s when we think she returned the gun to your apartment.”
?“After John shot Candy,” I said.
?Mark seemed to process the information. “So she returned my gun while Stewart—or Yeolde—wrote the fake email.”
?“Since she didn’t steal the gun from your apartment, she didn’t know to leave the magazine separate,” I pointed out.
?“And then with Jon Kane,” Mark said, “Hypno already knew where my apartment was, and Yeolde told Jon to go out the fire escape and meet in the back alley.”
?“Yeah,” DeStadler agreed. “We think he took the bat for protection, and she got it from him and killed him.”
?“Wow!” Mark marveled.
?DeStadler continued. “Once Ms. Homes brought us the information about Ms. Norris being on the cleaning crew at Randall’s offices, we tracked down arrests for both fraud and prostitution in her past.”
?Mark considered this. “Probably why Yeolde thought she’d be the perfect partner.”
?“Probably,” DeStadler mused. “But the coupe de grace was the pipe Jon Kane had that you turned over to us.”
?“Remember,” I recalled, “when he pulled it from his pocket, the stem was loose from the shank?”
?“Yeah, and there were wires that you said might be pipe cleaners,” Mark recalled.
?“I had our computer crime guys go over it,” DeStadler said. “They found the GPS chip with a small power supply.”
?“Which is why you thought there was the same thing in the smaller pipe I had,” Mark acknowledged.
?“It was the only way I could deduce the mugger—who we now know was Hypno—could find us,” I told him. “So, between what I’d found—”
?“And what we’d found,” DeStadler added, “we got a much clearer vision of who actually orchestrated the murders.”
?Mark shook his head, as he tried to absorb it all. “So, you let Sheryl question the suspects to get Hypno to show her hand?”
?DeStadler shrugged. “It wasn’t regulation, but I figured you two deserved a break after all you’d been through. I also had Elvis clear everybody out of the Marketplace, in case there was trouble.”
?“Right,” I added. “That explains why there was no one in there when we arrived.”
?DeStadler nodded. “Elvis saw Stewart head out—we know now to get the car—and he quickly cleared the place. We didn’t know he had a gun.”
?He stood up from the chair and straightened his tie. “But you both handled yourselves well. I mean it. When you get out of here, come by the station and give us your statement.”
