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Yet she was gone.
“Cody’s partner, Officer April Dunnigan, noticed that Lucy was feeling poorly and walked her to the vestibule. Lucy said she needed some air and stepped outside. After a couple of minutes, April and another officer went to check on her but she wasn’t outside or anywhere in the church,” Dillon explained. “But a detective thinks he might have seen her getting into a car with a man.”
Dillon led them into the church where a detective was talking on the phone. When he spotted Dillon, he hung up. “I spoke to the chief of police. He’s notifying all state troopers in Maryland and Virginia. We have every cop in D.C. on alert.”
“Thank you. Detective John DeMarco, my wife, FBI Agent Kate Donovan, and Sean Rogan, with Rogan-Caruso-Kincaid.”
DeMarco said, “I saw a woman with long black hair wearing black slacks and a black and white sweater, walking as if intoxicated with a man toward a parked car right where that patrol car is now parked out front. I was coming up the stairs, and I thought if she wasn’t drunk she was extremely upset. It looked like she’d fallen—there was snow covering her clothing. And because she looked a bit Hispanic, I thought she might be one of Officer Lorenzo’s relatives. She didn’t show signs of being in distress, other than needing help to walk.”
“And the man with her?”
“Approximately five foot eight to five foot ten. Lean. He wore black as well—trench coat and hat. Caucasian. No distinguishing marks, but I only glanced at them as I was coming up the stairs.”
“And the car?”
“A late-model black sedan. He laid her down in the backseat. I didn’t register the license number, but I noted it was a current Virginia plate.”
Sean opened his laptop and showed the detective the picture from the florist’s security camera. “Is this the man you saw?”
The detective looked closely. “It could have been. I can’t say definitively, but it’s the same physical build.”
“Is that the stalker?” Dillon asked.
“Yes,” Kate said.
April came over. “Agent Donovan, I’m so sorry. If I had known Lucy was in any danger, I’d never have let her go outside alone. I thought you had Cody’s killer in custody.”
“So did we,” Kate said.
“Detective DeMarco!” An officer stepped in from outside and introduced himself as he approached the group.
Detective DeMarco said, “What did you find?”
The officer held up a string of pearls in a plastic evidence bag. “We found these in the snow at the bottom of the stairs,” he said.
Dillon’s voice was rough when he said, “Those are Lucy’s. They were our mother’s. She gave them to Lucy when she graduated from college.”
“It looks like the clasp broke,” DeMarco said on inspection. “Anything else?”
“Officers Craig Jackson and Lloyd Breck arrived in a taxi at approximately five thirty-five p.m. Both noted the black sedan out front and because it was illegally parked, considered talking to the owner, but a man exited the church and walked to the car. They let it go and came in.”
“Do they have a description?”
“White, five foot nine, wearing a black trench coat.”
“Hat?”
“No, sir. Not that they saw. Hair cut short, brown.”
Dillon said, “He was exiting the church. He would have taken it off inside, or it would have drawn attention.”
“What time did Lucy arrive?”
April said, “Just after the priest stepped behind the altar, when everyone was standing.”
“The processional?” Dillon asked.
“It was at the beginning. I’ve only been to a couple of these things.”
