Instead of answering his question, I ask him, “How many killers did you think you had?”
He looks at me shocked, so I continue. “When we looked at the scene yesterday, we weren’t sure if we had one killer or two. If the female had been killed first, why did the male not fight? If the male had been killed first, the female would have screamed, alerting the other passengers, so the question was, how were they killed? Could one person have done it? That’s why I needed the toxicology report. Now we know, by this,” I say, holding up the report, “That one person could have done it, paralyzing the male first, killing the female, then killing the male.”
McGuire and Riley look pale, and then she speaks. “We never considered there could be more than one suspect.”
Mcguire runs his hands down his face, “No, we didn’t. We were always working on the theory that it was one, and never once took into consideration the variables of the situation.”
He looks a bit humbled right now, but I don’t gloat, since both of the Detectives look like they haven’t gotten much sleep in months.
“How many homicide cases are you both working?” I ask softly.
“Twenty,” Riley tells us.
“Then don’t beat yourself up for not thinking to question a scene when your mind is also on the other seventeen cases that don’t involve a train,” I tell them.
I open my laptop to see if I received a response from Frankie about my inquiries, so far nothing yet.
“Want to tell them your other theory?” Heath asks.
I sigh heavily before saying, “I have asked a colleague of ours to go to the companies in Largo that these men were supposedly at either for a meeting or conference and find out if there was such an event.”
“Why?” Mcguire asks.
“Because they both took their very young and pretty secretaries, and they both had their ring fingers cut off, but nothing in the reports tell me anything about their wedding rings. So the question is, were they having an affair with the secretaries?” I ask.
“The question had crossed our minds, especially since this last victim's wife confirmed yesterday that he had multiple affairs with his secretaries in the past, and she was sure he was sleeping with this one as well,” Mcguire admitted.
“Then our pool of suspects just got larger,” I say.
“How so?” Riley asks.
“Normally most serial killers are men, however in some cases, they can be female, and here we have a drug that’s injected, which speaks female, but the slice of the neck and finger with no hesitation marks, speak male. You could be looking for anyone at this point, but whoever they are, they must have some medical background in order to know what they need and not be afraid to use a knife or scalpel,” I tell them all.
“I was going to go to the hospital to talk with the director about the drugs, would you like to come along and assess the doctors?” Detective Mcguire asks me, and for a moment, I’m in shock.
“Sure, I can do that,” I finally answer. “Heath, would you and Detective Riley mind going to visit the offices of the victims and see what you can find out about the two.”
“We’ve already talked to the first set of victim’s co-workers, they had nothing but wonderful things to say about each victim.”
“Oh honey, no, no, no. People find out one or two of their co-workers died, they won’t say anything bad or tell the truth. Especially to law enforcement, as they don’t want to be the one to make the company look bad. Stick with me Hunny, I promise before the day is over, I will have all the tea,” Heath says. “We are just going to need to change your outfit, you look a little out of place.”
“Huh?” she asks, but Heath is pushing her out of the conference room, and I can’t help the small chuckle that escapes my lips.
I look up to see Detective Mcguire looking at me. “What?” I ask, feeling self-conscious again.
“You have a nice laugh,” he says, sounding shocked that he’s admitting that out loud.
“Thanks,” I say, feeling my cheeks heat up from the compliment, as I gather all the files and reports together.
“Are you ready to go to the hospital?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say, and follow him out of the conference room.
Chapter Nine
SHANE
I lead Agent Morgan out to the car, my head reeling with how smart she really is. I didn’t expect her to catch on to the paralyzing drug as quickly as she did, then her theory on possibly two killers instead of one. The thought never crossed my mind.
I was only operating on one killer, but she asked some good questions that I never even considered, and looking at it, I can’t believe I didn’t question how only one killer could have killed them both.
When she softly laughed at her partner and his antics, I was awestruck by the sound. She has a beautiful, soft laugh, and it makes me want to hear her full laugh.
Her phone rings, and she answers, placing the phone on speaker so I can hear as well, “Hey Frankie, do you have something for me?”
“I see you were working late last night,” he says.
“Yeah, I was going over the case files, so did you find anything at the companies?”
“Both had a meeting on the respective Saturday’s, but they didn’t go past 1400, so they could have caught the train back to Boston on Saturday instead of Sunday.”
“I see,” she says.
“What are you thinking?”
“Did they both take their secretaries to those meetings?”
