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“Dr. Kolsby and his children,” Theo answered before gesturing toward the kitchen. “Kate put your sub on the counter in the breakroom.”
“Thanks.” Sylvie was still wearing her cream-colored dress coat, matching scarf, and earmuffs, minus the gloves. Her hands were tucked into the pockets. “My lunch might have to wait.”
“What name?” Brook asked, wanting to get back to Sylvie’s previous desire to tack on a name to the warrant that Detective Soerig had already put in front of a judge. “And will this individual be at the fundraiser tonight?”
“Fundraiser?” Sylvie pulled her right hand out of the pocket to hold it up in warning. “Stop. I’m confused. What’s going on?”
Brook quickly filled Sylvie in on the plans for the evening while Theo vacated the conference room to gather his belongings. There was a good chance that he wouldn’t be returning to the office today.
“Now it’s your turn,” Brook said as she tossed her napkin onto the plate. She leaned back in her chair, sensing that Sylvie had come across something in her interviews today. “Who did you want to try and add to the warrant?”
“A man by the name of Gary Heinsel. He is one of Dr. Kolsby’s patients, and he is the man who tried to jump off the roof of the hospital.” Sylvie removed her earmuffs. “Care to guess why he was going to jump?”
“No idea whatsoever,” Brook said, knowing that the reasons for such a decision were too many to count. “Let’s have it.”
“Gary Heinsel was due to go to trial for murder the day after he tried to commit suicide. Get this,” Sylvie said as she tucked a loose strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. “Gary stood accused of murdering a twenty-six-year-old woman who just so happened to be a brunette with the same basic description as our victims.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Brooklyn Sloane
December 2022
Monday — 3:46pm
Brookopenedherofficedoor to the sound of holiday music. If she heard Jingle Bells one more time today, she wasn’t going to be responsible for her actions. The cheerful tunes had been the reason that she’d closed her door in the first place. It wasn’t that she begrudged anyone their sense of Christmas spirit, but it was rather difficult when her father had been assigned a hospice nurse, her psychotic brother was still in the wind, and there were two cases that were looking more and more likely that they wouldn’t be solved before the new year.
“Brook, the accountant had this envelope couriered over about an hour ago,” Kate said as she pushed a yellow envelope toward the edge of her desk. “Your door was closed, and I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“Thanks, Kate.” Brook was glad that she’d chosen to hole herself up in her office instead of snapping at Kate over the music coming from the overhead speakers. Granted, it wasn’t like they had guests in the lobby throughout the day, but the tunes made the rest of the team happy. She wouldn’t dampen their holiday spirits. “How are you doing on the Rastini case?”
“Good,” Kate responded as she flashed Brook a smile. “Great, in fact. I think I might have narrowed down the list of people who could be responsible for Kyle’s death. I still have to put together some timelines, but your profile has been amazing when weeding through the vast array of people in his life.”
Brook paused as she picked up the envelope. While Kate’s words should have been a compliment, all Brook could focus on was the way that Kate had personalized the victim. She’d done that over the past week, which indicated that she was getting too close to the case. Brook had learned long ago to contain her emotions. Otherwise, she would have burnt out a long time ago.
It wasn’t that Brook didn’t immerse herself in each of her cases. Far from it, because she’d come to find that she was very possessive when it came to the victims and the unsub. Still, she was able to put up a professional barrier that kept her from being swallowed whole.
“Kyle’s timeline doesn’t necessarily match up with what his parents gave us originally. I caught the mistake when I was speaking with a friend of his, who mentioned that Kyle actually left town three hours later than what we were initially told. It’s hard to confirm, but I think those missing few hours could be key.”
Brook decided to postpone discussing the boundaries needed in their profession. It would do nothing right now except impede the investigation. Kate had the ability to use the intel that the team had gathered, the interviews that they had conducted, and the profile that had been crafted on the unsub to see the case through to the final stages.
“I’ll be in the conference room if you need me.”
Brook retreated to her office briefly so that she could lock the envelope in her desk. The accountant had sent an email stating that the year-end bonuses would be couriered over this afternoon. Graham’s suggestion of a New Year gathering for the team and the firm’s partners was a wise one. At least, she had convinced herself that it would benefit the firm from a business standpoint.
Brook had also recognized that the team deserved something a little more personal, so she was having lunch brought in next Friday before the three-day weekend. She would hand out the bonuses that afternoon, as well as have the gift exchange that they were all excited to conduct. The stress of having to figure out what to get everyone was heavy, which was why she was going to add it to her official procrastination list.
By the time that she’d joined Sylvie in the conference room, the electronic murder board had the most recent and pertinent information displayed for all to see. Bit had joined them, though she still hadn’t informed him that he would get to use the van in real time.
“What have you found?” Brook asked as she picked up a bottle of water off the entry table before pulling out her usual chair. She turned it sideways so that she could get a better look at the screen. “Gary Heinsel, forty-six years of age, and…”
Brook let her voice trail off as she digested the bullet points underneath the man’s picture. The sentiment went against what Sylvie had insinuated earlier this morning.
“Heinsel isn’t currently serving time in prison for murder?”
“No,” Sylvie responded as she picked up the remote. She scrolled down to a newspaper article. “This is why Dr. Kolsby’s actions turned out to be quite heroic the day that he talked Heinsel out of jumping off the hospital roof. While the man was admitted for a psych evaluation right after his attempt to commit suicide, his lawyer was somehow able to get the case tossed out on a technicality. The media took that as a sign of the man’s innocence, which was why the following articles hailed Dr. Kolsby as a hero.”
“What did you find out about the victim?”
