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“Lorraine, please make sure Detective Klein and his associate have everything they need.”
“Sir?”
“Just do it.” His voice held a twinge of annoyance now. “Any records they need to see, make sure they see them. And then make sure someone sees them out.”
“Yes, sir.”
Wickham brushed by David without so much as looking him in the eye. As he turned to shut the door, Cassie couldn’t help herself.
“
And don’t forget to smile, darlin’.”
Wickham slammed the door shut with such ferocity his secretary jumped.
A few seconds later, Cassie heard him talking to someone on the phone, and she wondered whether he was getting his affairs in order in case David didn’t stay true to his word.
33
Lorraine was a thin young woman in a dress and cardigan. She wore large, round glasses and had her hair twisted up into a tight knot. She had trouble looking both David and Cassie in the eye, and whenever either of them talked to her, she’d blush so deeply, her ears would turn pink. A light scent of vanilla hung in the air around her.
But what Lorraine lacked in social adeptness, she made up for in her talents on the computer. As soon as David started describing the parameters for their search of the prison’s records, her fingers flew over the keyboard. The cadence of her typing soothed Cassie.
“There are over fifty employees who fit that description.” Lorraine’s voice was quiet, but clear. She had a thick southern accent that told Cassie she enjoyed horseback riding, over-sweetened lemonade, and helping her mama bake pies on Sundays. “Male. Worked between the years 1990 and 2000. Regularly oversaw prisoners recovering from an addiction.”
Cassie looked over at David. “That is a pretty wide search parameter. And we can’t even guarantee those aspects apply to our guy.”
“We walk in one direction and we either hit a gold mine or a dead end. We’ll figure out which it is eventually, and we’ll adjust course when it happens.” David pointed to the open space next to Lorraine. “Do you mind if we—?”
“Not at all.” She moved over, and David and Cassie grabbed the two waiting room chairs and scooted in next to her. It was tight, but once Lorraine turned her computer monitor, Cassie could see exactly what they were looking at. And it was a lot of names.
“What else can we do to narrow this down?” Lorraine asked.
David scratched his chin. “Can you search for incident reports?”
Lorraine nodded. “Keywords?”
“Excessive force.” David stopped her before she could start typing. “But not against him. Filed against one of the other guards.”
Lorraine hesitated for only a fraction of a second before she followed David’s instructions. The list narrowed to thirteen.
“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.” David leaned closer. “Our guy killed Shapiro in the same way Shapiro killed his victims, so he cared enough about the victims to avenge their deaths. This was personal. There’s got to be a reason.”
“We know he wasn’t related to any of the victims,” Cassie offered. “Otherwise, he would’ve come up in our searches. Maybe he had a personal relationship with one of them, either as a friend or something deeper?”
David snapped his fingers. “How many of these guys got in trouble for having relations with inmates?”
Lorraine made a few keystrokes, but the computer only produced an error message. “Nothing.”
David cursed and watched as she brought the previous thirteen names back to the screen. “What else could make it so personal for him?”
“Former addict?” Cassie suggested. “Or someone in his family is an addict?”
Lorraine hit a button, but the same error message popped up. “I can search for incidents where an officer was reported for substance abuse, like drinking on the job or getting caught taking illegal substances, but I can’t search for their family members.”
David sat up straight. “You guys have a psychologist, don’t you? For just the inmates or the officers, too?”
“Both. Dr. Yang. She’s mostly for the inmates, but all the officers are encouraged to talk to her, too.”
