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“Funny you should bring that up. Memorial weekend 2002, Matt was staying at the Hard Rock Hotel. At 12:45 a.m., Matt goes sailing over the balcony railing and lands in the pool area below. Coincidentally, down the street at the MGM Grand at the same time—five minutes away—his brother, good ol’ Chad, hosted a party for a pop artist he’d signed.”
Brogan took hold of Lucien’s face and stared into his eyes. “You should’ve led with that information first. That’s a significant piece of the puzzle. Pollock could’ve easily snuck out of the party sometime after midnight and reached Matt’s hotel within a few minutes.”
“See? I might not be able to prove he’s responsible for Anna and Mack. But after Frank died, I’m convinced Chad saw an opportunity to eliminate Freida. How do you do that? She conveniently drowns in her pool four months before Anna dies. On the heels of his mother’s death, Anna’s murder gave him the idea that if Matt also died, Chad wouldn’t have to share the estate with anyone. He just had to show some patience and wait for the right opening to present itself. A hotel room in Vegas with a balcony is rare. Only a few hotels offer rooms like that. But if you wait for a penthouse to open up, you suddenly don’t have to rely on Matt drowning in the hot tub. Another drowning might look too suspicious. A clever killer wouldn’t want that. You might even get lucky and have the coroner rule Matt’s death is undetermined. Therefore a possible suicide, doubt overshadowing his death.”
“Okay, I’m suddenly on board with this theory. How about we go see what Brent has for us? Because we could be dealing with two sets of killers—one for Anna and Mack and the other obliterated his entire family.”
“You’re still going with Deming for the Dolworth murders?”
“Yeah. But you’ve convinced me the man who hired us could be a cold-blooded killer.”
The police stationon a Saturday morning seemed dead. Not that unusual for a small town like Pelican Pointe, where crime stayed relatively lower than the national average. The police department consisted of two other officers—Eastlyn Parker and Colt Del Rio—who stayed busy on patrol and took turns handling the front desk. But today, they found Brent Cody top of the command chain, sitting out front.
“I wondered when you two would show up,” Brent said, looking up from his computer.
“We had things to sort out,” Brogan returned. Rattling off new details, she brought the police chief up to speed.
Before Brent could respond, Lucien plopped down in front of the chief. “And with all that, Frank Pollock showed no signs of heart disease before he dropped dead. His autopsy revealed the medical examiner found no abnormalities in his heart. So how did he die from a heart attack?”
Brogan sat down next to Lucien. “You’ll never believe who performed the physical on Frank Pollock six weeks before he died.”
“Let me take a wild guess,” Brent replied. “Aaron Deming.”
“Weird, huh? Now we have a bunch of unbelievable coincidences lining up or a bizarre plot to murder Anna and Mack. Take your pick,” Lucien added.
Impressed with their detective skills, Brent leaned back in his chair. “We know Pollock never left L.A. But Aaron Deming went to ground. It’s him we need to find. I spent the morning sending inquiries all over Canada and Europe to South America and everywhere in between. You do realize that if we find him hiding in the Maldives or Madagascar, we’ll never get him back to the States?”
“Then let’s hope we find him living in a country with an extradition agreement,” Brogan said. “Are those inquiries helpful? I mean, does Interpol and, let’s say, the RCMP read those alerts?”
Brent smiled. “Eventually. But there’s no immediate concern unless the subject is a wanted fugitive.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Just because we’re looking into the Dolworth case doesn’t mean we’re in a position to make an arrest. We’re nowhere near that stage yet. We don’t have proof that would stand up in court.”
Lucien nodded in agreement. “Which is why we need to pick up the additional stuff you learned on your own and start from scratch.”
Brent pushed a black, four-inch binder toward him. “The Dolworth Murder Book. I’ve already gone over the highlights with you. But feel free to make it your featured weekend reading. If you have any questions about what you find in it, call me and ask. I’ll walk you through the details. Sometimes paperwork isn’t my strong suit. If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask.”
Lucien began flipping the pages while Brogan got to her feet to look over his shoulder. “I can already see there are things in here that Pollock didn’t provide in his box.”
“Told you that would be the case,” Brent noted. “Whoever Pollock paid to supply him with details about the case left out some critical information. How do I know that? Two things. First, Rivkin did a piss poor job. Second, whoever took Pollock’s money made sure they gave him the stripped-down version of events.”
“They took Chad’s money and gave him squat,” Brogan said with a laugh. “I like that.”
“Yup. So make sure you read the entire book. Don’t skip over the gritty, gory details. If you don’t have the stomach for all that a murder investigation entails, then get out of the business now. Just saying.”
“Lucien already said that the Dolworth case might be the one that breaks us.”
“Nonsense,” Brent muttered. “Sometimes you have to think like the killer.”
Brogan visibly shuddered at that and sent Brent a flustered look. “If you have it solved, don’t keep it to yourself.”
“With all my experience, I’m no different than you. I have my theories which I’ve shared, but nothing concrete. Deming is my top suspect because he put himself in Santa Cruz. He walked up to the crime scene—a red flag for any good detective worth his salt. Pollock had an alibi. In police work, you go by the facts you have at your disposal. But knowing what I know now, Pollock could’ve been involved in orchestrating it. I’ve never believed it was a random, stranger, home invasion-type double murder. The killer knew where to find Anna and Mack. The killer, whoever it is, involved an innocent bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The toddler wasn’t part of the deal either. Sad all around.”
“Those kids are the reason we got involved,” Brogan admitted. “We took Pollock’s money. Yeah, we did. But what motivated us the most was the disappearance of the kids. For the first few days, we didn’t even focus on the murders, sticking to what had to be a kidnapping involving the children. I guess that wasn’t the smartest move.”
“No need to beat yourself up. You went down the rabbit hole. Keep in mind one thing. There are hundreds of thousands of murders that go unsolved. Only a fraction of those gets a resolution.”
