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“You’ve been spending too much time with that therapist,” Arnett mumbled under his breath.
Jo chose to ignore him. “So. Why would someone send texts to a journalist alerting them to the crime scenes?”
Arnett pulled up the screenshots Jo had forwarded to him. “In Sandra’s case, the gunshot was reported around six fifty-five, and this text was sent at eight that morning. In Judge Sakurai’s case, she was found at eight fifteen, and Bernard received the relevant text at nine oh five. So each within about an hour of when the crimes were discovered.”
“Long enough for the killer to be safely away from the crime scene,” Jo said.
Lopez said, “Judge Sakurai’s husband confirmed she was alive at six thirty that morning?”
“Not only that,” Arnett said. “He had security camera footage that showed him kissing her goodbye when she left at six thirty, him coming out half an hour later to pick up the paper, then leaving just after eight to go to the gym.”
“Always good to be able to rule out the significant other,” Lopez ran a hand down her long ponytail. “Maybe they wanted to make sure the press was on top of it.”
Jo shook her head. “We all know the press are going to show up sooner rather than later, so what’s the benefit for half an hour earlier? They sent the first text before Bob and I had even reached the scene. No, I think the countdown is the crucial part.”
“Why not just notify us?” Arnett said.
Jo shook her head. “Maybe they hoped the press would be stupid enough to report the countdown and get the public in an uproar?”
Lopez pulled her legs up under her. “What if it’s someone close to the killer who’s trying to alert us without putting themselves in danger?”
“That’s interesting.” Jo’s brows popped up over the coffee she was sipping. “But people don’t keep a stash of burner phones around without a pre-existing reason.”
Arnett shrugged. “If they’re involved with someone doing something illegal, it’s not far-fetched they’re doing something illegal themselves.”
Lopez pointed her Rockstar at him. “That. And maybe that’s why they didn’t want to reach out to law enforcement directly.”
Jo wrapped her fingers around the diamond at her neck. “Fair enough. So then why Bernard? She’s new to the paper. If you were going to risk passing information to the press, wouldn’t it be to someone you knew and trusted?”
“We need to know more about her,” Arnett said.
Jo nodded and tapped her pen on her notepad. “The good news is, we should be able to knock two-thirds of the suspects off our case-files list since we’ll only be looking at cases Judge Sakurai presided over.”
“I’ll start in on Sakurai’s emails and phone records,” Lopez said.
Jo gave a sharp nod. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Fortified with large coffee refills, Jo and Arnett dove into the surveillance videos from Burkefeld Gardens. Because of the early hour, there wasn’t much to see; only four other people entered the park before Sakurai had been found, and six more entered after. Because of the darkness, even the clearest screenshots they were able to take showed only human shapes with little distinguishing detail.
Once they’d worked through their suspect lists, they came back together.
“So,” Jo said, “I’ve got two possible suspects that involve both Sandra and Judge Sakurai and have situations extenuating enough they might be harboring a grudge.”
“I only have one,” Arnett said.
Jo gave a not-bad smirk. “Sounds like we’re making progress. Hit me with yours first.”
“Dantay Brown. Twenty-seven-year-old male in state prison for felony homicide while operating a motor vehicle under the influence. Killed two people and was tried for both, ended up with a total of fifteen years. His wife gave birth to a baby girl just a couple of months before the accident, and has gone on record with the press that she feels it’s a miscarriage of justice. She argues that he hadn’t had that much to drink that night and there must have been an error with the blood alcohol test, and that since her husband never had any prior incident he should have been given a far lighter sentence.”
“I’d be willing to bet the families of the two people he killed don’t agree,” Jo said.
Arnett tapped his nose. “They’ve made it pretty clear they don’t. I tried calling her listed number, but she’s not picking up. I didn’t leave a message, because I suspect she’s not interested in talking to us. We’ll need to pay her a visit. How about yours?”
“My first is David Wheedan. He was involved in a road-rage incident at a McDonald’s drive-thru with someone who purportedly cut him off. He tried to bait the other driver into getting out and fighting, and when he didn’t, Wheedan rammed the car multiple times. The man exited his vehicle at that point, and Wheedan ran him over. The man survived, but will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.”
“Sounds pretty clear-cut?” Arnett said.
