Page 97 of Delusion in Death
“On that.”
Time to fill her in, Eve decided as she muscled onto the packed elevator. On a lot of levels.
Chapter 15
Eve worked the board, running through data, connections, time lines as she added them.
Callaway to Hubbard to MacMillon to Menzini. How many turns, decisions, mistakes made in that chain, she wondered. All of them leading to this.
And how long had Callaway simmered, stewed, planned? How long had some suit whose purpose was to sell products—half of which people didn’t need in the first place—dreamed of murder?
And how long had he known murder was his legacy?
She thought of her recent dreams. Murder and misery could have been her legacy, if she’d reached for it, if she’d opened that door instead of another.
So now she stood here, studying murder—the victims, the killer, the whys, the hows. Another path, another choice, she might have been up on a board like this, with someone else doing the studying, the wondering.
Mira was right, she determined, in reality and dreams. It always came down to choices.
She heard Peabody’s clumping footsteps, then caught the scent of coffee.
“Long night,” Peabody said. “I worked with McNab, and we’ve got everything there is to know on Macie Snyder and Jeni Curve, plus we have deep data on five of the abductees who settled in New York.”
She paused, scanned the new data on the board. “Wow. Long night for you, too.”
“Did you read the data I sent you on Guiseppi Menzini?”
“Twice. Bad guy, chemist, religious crazy—and the primary suspect in two attacks, using the agent we’ve identified was used in our attacks. Captured and erased.”
“Callaway’s linked to Menzini through his mother, an abductee.”
“Callaway.” Peabody’s eyes narrowed on the board. “I took him for a lightweight. I don’t remember any Audrey Hubbard on the list.”
“Because there wasn’t. She was born Karleen MacMillon to Gina MacMillon—Tessa Hubbard’s half sister—and an unknown father. The MacMillons were reported killed during the home invasion. Hubbard recovered the kid, changed her name, got a fresh birth certificate, and moved with her husband to New York.”
Eve grabbed the coffee. “There’s more. I want the images programmed as I’ve outlined while I fill you in.”
She ran it through while Peabody set up the programming.
“I’ve got two men on him. Roarke dug into the mother—Gina MacMillon. There’s more there, but we’ll pass that to Feeney.”
“With all the angles, all the data to sort through, I never thought we’d zero in this fast.” As Eve had, Peabody turned to the victim board. “I went to bed last night thinking we’d have to go into another scene like the bar and the café. I didn’t get a lot of sleep thinking it.”
“We won’t give him a chance to add to this board.”
“I’ll sleep a hell of a lot better tonight then. Are we picking Callaway up this morning?”
“I want to see what he does this morning, where he goes. But yeah, we’ll be talking to him. I want to interview the Hubbards, and I’m damned if I’m going to Arkansas. I figure Teasdale has the pull to bring them here. Maybe enough pull to get a warrant to search their place while they’re out of it.”
“Do you think there’s something there, something with his parents? Jesus, Dallas, do you think they know?”
“I think there’s something there.” Eve stepped back from the board, drinking coffee as she scanned. “I can’t say what they know, but there’s a direct link from Red Horse, Menzini to Lewis Callaway. It’s biological, and there’s nothing here that comes close to proving he knew his own biology, or cared, or has any information on the substance used.”
“Maybe not, but we’ve got a lot of key pieces.”
“Now we need the whole picture. We need that to show means. There’s no clear motive. Was there a specific target—Cattery, Fisher—or were the attacks broad based? If target specific, why Cattery and Fisher? We’ve got opportunity. He was in the bar, and he lives and works within spitting distance of the café, and has admitted to frequenting same.”
She sat on the edge of the conference table, scanning, scanning. “We need more. We need to prove he had knowledge, had access to the formula. We need motive, specific or broad based. To sew him up tight, we need it all.”