Read Online Random Victim by Michael A. Black - Free Book Online Page B

but we need to explore motives and figure out how they mesh with the facts we got.”
    “What about the husband?” Leal asked. “I remember something about them having a bad marriage.”
    Ryan wrote that down on his pad.
    “It’s definitely something we should check out,” he said. “But he also supposedly donated half the insurance money, didn’t
     he?”
    Leal nodded. “Who was originally assigned to the case?”
    “Roberts and Murphy,” Ryan said. “Roberts is out with a heart attack and Murphy’s been transferred to the State’s Attorney’s
     investigation section.”
    “We should talk to them,” Leal said. “See what ground they already covered. Figure out what we might want to look at again.”
    “Yeah, I’ll do that,” Ryan said, bringing the cigarette up to his lips again. “You got any more ideas on this, Frank?”
    Leal noticed that Hart was leaning way back, as if the cigarette smoke were killing her. He thought momentarily about telling
     Ryan to put it out, but then remembered he shouldn’t be fighting any battles for her. He set his coffee cup down.
    “It’s been my experience that we’d have a lot more evidence if she was a random victim. Those types of crimes are usually
     based on opportunity, and a lot of unexpected things always go wrong. They throw the offender off his game. Cause him to make
     mistakes, drop the ball.” Leal held up his hand and made a chopping action. “But this one’s almost too neat. The car disappearing,
     the body being placed in a trunk, the trunk being dumped in a pond…It shows planning, not quick scrambling.”
    “You’re right,” Ryan said. “It’s too nice a package.” He blew twin plumes of smoke from his nostrils. “I was thinking along
     those lines myself.”
    Leal noticed both Hart and Smith looking at him. He continued. “And most of these planned things are engineered by somebody
     who knew the victim. Somebody had a reason, either monetary or emotional or both to kill her.” Leal paused. “You always hurt
     the one you love.”
    Ryan drew deeply on his cigarette and blew the cloud of smoke up toward the ceiling.
    “So you think it was the husband?”
    “Alibi,” Smith interjected. He smiled sheepishly when everybody looked at him. “Sorry, Sarge. But what I mean is, don’t the
     file say he was at some kind of dinner or something?”
    “A meeting for his fraternity reunion,” Leal said. “But what I’m getting at is, what did he stand to gain from his wife’s
     death?”
    “He gave away half the insurance settlement to her abused women group, didn’t he?” Ryan said.
    “Supposedly,” said Leal. “Anybody verify that? And the reason might not have been financial, either. We can’t afford to rule
     anything out at this point.”
    “In other words he could have had ulterior motives and hired someone to do it,” Hart said.
    “Whoa, Iron Maiden,” Ryan said. “Before we go jumping to conclusions, let’s huddle. One thing’s for sure, if we’re gonna be
     taking on some executive with a law degree, we’d better be sure we’ve got all our bases covered. I’d better run it by Brice,
     too.”
    “And shouldn’t we rule out the random victim theory first?” Hart asked. “I mean, if we can definitely eliminate it…”
    “Then it’ll point to a suspect familiar with the victim,” Ryan said. His voice had an almost petulant edge to it. He took
     one more drag on his cigarette, then dropped it in his paper coffee cup and swirled it around. “Got to remember to get an
     ashtray for in here tomorrow. Everybody bring your own coffee cup, too.” He tossed the cup into the trash can. “Okay, here’s
     what we’ll do. Joe, you run downtown and check out all the victim’s associates, other judges, clerks, deputies, secretaries
     …anybody who remembers anything about her, especially how she was acting right before she disappeared. Write it all down,
     get names and phone numbers in case we have to follow up.