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December 2022
Tuesday — 6:41pm
“Oldersiblingsarethemost patient.”
“My sister would agree with you,” Bit said as he ate a sour patch candy. Saliva instantly pooled in Brook’s mouth at watching him chew, and she had to switch her focus onto one of the monitors in front of them. “Can you believe that I once threw a steak knife at her?”
Sylvie’s sour patch candy must have gotten caught in her throat. She was going to have to learn not to eat around Bit anymore.
“I wanted to be like those magicians who could throw knives and hit the apple on someone’s head.” Bit shrugged, as if every brother threw knives at their sisters. “The only reason that I wasn’t arrested for murder was because Paula held up her hand just in time. She needed sixteen stitches. That sucker got stuck right in the middle of her palm.”
Brook, Sylvie, and Bit had returned to his office so that they could pull up Millie Gwinn’s hospital schedule for the past three years. Brook didn’t believe for a second that their client was the unsub, and facts backed up her belief. Millie had been on a family vacation when Margo Urie had gone missing subsequent to her death.
“I think what Brook is saying is that she believes Catherine Kolsby might be our unsub,” Sylvie clarified with her hand on her chest. She’d gotten her coughing fit under control and was ready to get down to business. “If Catherine is killing these women, then you might be right. Brett would be the one who transported the bodies, dug the graves, and buried the evidence.”
Brook still held her stylus as she recalled Stephen Averill standing near Kyle at one of the bar stations. He’d also been seen talking to a young brunette before getting into an argument with Catherine as Dr. Kolsby was giving his speech at last night’s fundraiser.
“Or her fiancé,” Brook suggested as she began to clip the loose threads. “What if that is Catherine’s motive? What if Stephen Averill has a roaming eye? What if he even went farther and had affairs with each of those women?”
“Catherine would have protected what was hers,” Sylvie added as Bit rolled closer to his keyboard. He began to try and confirm the timeline using her schedule. “Stephen and Catherine live together, so maybe Stephen had sex with the victims at his house. Catherine found out, poisoned them, and her husband helped bury the bodies as a way to make amends for his poor behavior.”
Brook had crafted the profile doing her best to focus only on the evidence provided at the crime scene and revolving around the victims. Still, it was like being thrown in the middle of a movie without knowing the characters, the setting, and the overall plot.
“The victims had no phone calls or texts from Averill,” Bit said as he pulled up the phone records of the victims. “Not from Averill or any of the Kolsbys. Now that we know what we’re looking for, let me pull up some footage of the other fundraisers and charity events. The ones attended by the victims were for the high-net-worth donors. A lot of the hospital personnel attended those, and…”
Brook left Bit and Sylvie to try and find some shred of evidence that Catherine or Stephen could be connected to the victims. Averill hadn’t come across as someone who could easily be pulled into being an accessory to murder. It wasn’t that he didn’t love his fiancé, but transporting and burying the bodies for someone else took a lot of dedication.
Dedication usually reserved for siblings, not murderous spouses.
Brett Kolsby.
Could Brett and Catherine be working together?
Brook bypassed the conference room. By the time that she’d walked into her office, she’d formulated a plan. It didn’t include the other police departments. Hadley had bowed under the pressure of former Senator Ponzio, and Detective Raines would want to follow the law down to the letter.
With what Brook had planned, there needed to be a bit of leeway.
She picked up her cell phone and accessed her speed dial list. Thankfully, Theo picked up on the first ring.
“Are you with Hadley right now?” Brook had been direct, but she wasn’t oblivious to how Theo might have taken her inquiry. “I need you to do something, and I don’t want her to know.”
“I’m just leaving Devin Cranston’s apartment. You mentioned earlier today that he’d driven over to Nolan’s apartment last night. Given that Nolan was at his father’s residence, I thought that it might benefit us to know what was going on.”
“And?”
“Apparently, Devin was supposed to meet up with Nolan.” Theo paused, but Brook couldn’t get the sense of what he might be doing. “When I asked why they had agreed to meet, Devin said that Nolan had called him earlier yesterday to say that he might have figured out who killed Andrea Firth.”
“Do I want to know why Devin shared this information with you?” Brook asked warily as she spotted Sylvie in the doorway. “He hasn’t been very forthcoming thus far with the police.”
“You have nothing to worry about,” Theo assured her over what sounded like a scraping noise. He was also a little bit out of breath. “I think he’s concerned, because Brett has been ignoring Devin’s calls regarding Nolan’s so-called disappearance. I didn’t let on that we knew Nolan was at the family estate. Anyway, the two of them used to be close friends, and now Brett won’t give him the time of day.”
“I think I might know why,” Brook said guardedly before going into more detail about the theories the rest of the team had been floating around the past hour. “I was hoping that you would stop by Catherine and Stephen’s residence. Not without backup, of course. Sylvie will meet you there.”
Sylvie nodded that she understood the assignment, but she didn’t leave Brook’s office to go and retrieve her coat. She motioned that she had something to add to the conversation.
“The two of you haven’t been watching the weather, have you?” Theo asked through what sounded like a chatter. “The storm arrived a little earlier than expected, and there’s already two inches on the ground.”
“Hold on a second,” Brook advised Theo, pulling the phone away from her chin to address Sylvie. “Go ahead.”
