Page 54 of Crosshairs
I took a deep breath and tried to figure this out. Of course, on a task force like this, he’d always be riding all over the city, looking for fugitives. But I kept going back to the address in Queens.
I tried again to get into the head of the shooter. I’d been trying since the case was first assigned to me. Why were these victims targeted? What was different about them? Was it completely random?
I had copies made of the most relevant reports. The young woman who was assigned to sit with me looked like she wouldn’t care if I told her the case involved the kidnapping of the president. She just filled in the number of each report I had copied and had me sign the bottom of the log.
I needed to bounce a few things off Walter Jackson before he left for the day.
CHAPTER 65
WALTER WAITED FOR me at the office after I texted him. He liked coming in early so he could be home at a decent hour to spend time with his daughters. I know what it’s like to fight for time with your family. I hated taking him away from that. But if ever there was a case that was important to me, it was this one.
As soon as I walked in the door, Walter said, “I don’t need to be home early today. I already gave my wife a present.”
I was confused but managed to ask, “What’d you give her?”
“A little model of Mount Everest.” He paused, and when the smile came over his face, I realized what he was doing. “She asked me if it was to scale. I told her no, it’s just to look at.” His belly laugh lifted my spirits.
I grinned, then quickly got Walter up to speed. I said, “I can’t believe the victims are just random choices. But looking at them, I can’t find a pattern. It’s driving me crazy.”
Walter opened a folder on his computer. I could see it held newspaper and internet articles. Some had been scanned, so I could see the headlines. Others were just electronic files in small fonts.
Walter said, “You know I always keep every media report about a case someone on the squad is working. It helps me keep an open mind about cases. I find that occasionally reporters will see something or interview someone that we didn’t. They may not know the significance of what they saw. Maybe you’d want to look through these files?”
“Have you seen anything that would be of interest?”
“I haven’t had time to do anything but save the articles. But they’re from a wide range of media. From straight-up newspaper reports, like the articles Lois Frang has been writing for theBrooklyn Democrat,to business journalism covering Adam Glossner’s company. There’s a lot in there right now.”
I had Walter email the files to me so I could look through them.
Walter said, “By the headlines, the media is portraying each of the victims as a hero in their own right. A single mother, a firefighter, a family man, and a community activist.”
“The question is, how accurate are those portrayals?”
“You know how the media can twist things to their own narrative. And no one likes to talk badly about crime victims or the dead. Hell, even if someone like O. J. Simpson died, some sports reporter would be talking about what a great running back he was and leave out the double murder and armed robbery. It’s just a way to get readers interested.” Walter added, “Look at Gus Querva. The media’s about to anoint him a saint. But no one’s talked about how he extorted businesses and is a suspect in four different homicides.”
I thanked Walter for his information and for giving me the chance to just run ideas by him. He had a good head on his shoulders, and sometimes that’s all you need to see something more clearly.
I had to find time to read Walter’s media reports. That meant I’d have to steal some time away from my family. Just like most cops.
CHAPTER 66
I GOT HOME late and scrounged a few leftovers. The kids had already dispersed to do homework and other projects. Trent and Ricky tried to make it look like they were studying, but I knew they were on their phones playing a game together. I didn’t have the time or energy to comment.
Mary Catherine knew I had a lot to do and gave me some space. I was looking down at my iPad, which was usually reserved for watching movies or following New York sports teams. Tonight I was using it to read the files Walter Jackson had emailed me.
I saw what he meant about no one wanting to say anything negative about the dead. Each of the victims was painted in the best possible light. The first victim, Marie Ballard, had worked at the Housing Authority for over twenty years. She also had raised two children by herself—Duane Ballard, the young man we spoke to the day Trilling and I went to the house, and hisyounger sister. As far as I could tell, she’d done a good job raising the kids.
The firefighter, Thomas Bannon, had coached Little League baseball on his days off.
TheNew York Postshared four different photographs of Adam Glossner with his wife and kids. Anyone would be moved by those family photos.
Most of the articles about Gus Querva were glowing. Only Lois Frang at theBrooklyn Democratwas brave enough to mention that Querva had done prison time for strong-arm robbery and had beaten his first wife so many times she fled and stayed at various women’s shelters until she could move out of state.
The last thing I read was an older article from a financial journal. It talked about the company Glossner had run, Holbrook Financial. There was a photograph of Glossner at a conference table with six other professionals, but nothing about his family.
Mainly, the article talked about a fine the company had recently paid due to a complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission. There wasn’t much else I picked up from the article other than the attorney’s name at the SEC: Chloe Lewis.
Then someone said, “Hey, Dad, can I talk to you?”