Page 61 of Crosshairs
When Marisol turned, Trilling noticed bruises around her neck and swelling around her left eye. He felt anger welling up inside him. How could men act like this?
Trilling made a split-second decision. “I know a place you can go where you’ll be safe. Pack a small suitcase. Just the stuff you really need.”
“I’m wearing everything I really need. Can you actually get me out of here?”
Forty-five minutes later, Trilling and Marisol stood in front of a women’s center in Manhattan. Trilling had learned about the center while on patrol his first week with the NYPD.
He stayed with Marisol while she answered a few simple questions from the woman who ran the facility.
As he stood up to leave, Marisol gave him a hug. She whispered, “Thank you,” into his ear.
The director said, “I wish every cop paid attention like you do, Officer Trilling. I’m glad you know to bring women here.”
“One last thing,” Trilling said to Marisol. “Do you by chance have a recent picture of him? The one I have is blurry, and I could really use a better one.”
Marisol fumbled for her cell phone. It took her a minute. “I may have deleted them all.” But then she stopped, turned her phone for Trilling to see finally a clear image of the man he was determined to find.
“Thanks.” He left the center feeling like his head had cleared a little bit. He hoped to find Pershing soon. If for no other reason than to stop him from terrorizing his girlfriends.
CHAPTER 75
I WAS IN the office early again. Despite the great evening with my family, where Mary Catherine and I were pampered like a rich lady’s French poodles, I still had an anchor in my stomach when I thought about Rob Trilling.
As usual, the only other person in the office was Walter Jackson. I gathered my notes and went in to talk to Walter, the walking computer whose ease in finding the smallest detail in a case matched his ability in coming up with puns.
I stood in Walter’s doorway, waiting for him to stop focusing on the computer screen. He looked up and grinned. “When I heard someone else in the office, I knew it had to be you. Are you holding up okay?”
I shrugged and said, “I’m trying to treat this like any other case. Be thorough and fair. That’s what they used to drill into us at the academy.” I tried to get a glimpse of his computer screen tosee what Walter had been focusing on. “What was that you were reading?”
“A story about glass coffins being all the rage, but I don’t know. All I can say is: remains to be seen.” He kept a neutral expression for almost five seconds, then his grin came back. That was also about the time his pun clicked in my brain. I smiled and nodded. It wasn’t bad, but my mind was elsewhere.
Walter picked up that I wasn’t in the mood to joke around. He turned in his chair to fully face me. He said, “Tell me what you found out so far.”
I told him about the victims and their criminal pasts. I said, “It’s not just the NYPD. The Securities and Exchange Commission also sent a referral to the FBI for Adam Glossner. That means whoever’s getting the information is getting it from the FBI.”
“And your boy Trilling had been working at the FBI since around the same time the sniper started shooting people.” Walter paused and looked at me. “I like him personally too. None of the rest of you ever come up with puns for me. But I can’t dismiss him as a suspect because of my personal feelings.”
“Neither can I.”
“Your theory is sound. He’s got the skill, the opportunity, and possibly the motive. I didn’t want to mention it, but he’s wrapped a little tight. He could have a serious vigilante streak in him. Straight arrows like Trilling hate it when people beat the system. Maybe it pushed him over the edge. Call it whatever you like. PTSD, morally driven, or just plain crazy. Look at how pissed he was about the gang leader, Gus Querva, being treated like a saint. I think he’s good for the shootings.”
I said, “I know. It’s a simple theory to follow. Rob Trilling tookexception to people getting away with crimes. I’ve seen it before, but not to this extreme.”
Walter said, “Why does a simple theory make you nervous?”
“Because it is so simple, someone from headquarters could run with it without any follow-up. I think we owe it to Trilling to take it a little more seriously.”
“So, what do you do next? Wait for him to snap and maybe shoot a bunch of people at once?”
That made me stop. All I could think wasHoly shit, what if that really does happen?The thought scared me to my bones.
I hung my head. “I guess I’ve got to go over to the FBI again. That could be messy.”
“Or at least unpleasant. Who can you call over there? That ASAC who has it in for you?”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure. I used to call my friend Emily Parker. She always worked miracles.” It hurt to even think about my dear friend.
Walter mumbled, “She was a smart woman. That was a big loss to us all.”