Through the glass doors, I saw Todd working at a bank of computers. I entered the tech department and headed his way. He spun his roller stool around to see who had come in.
“Jesse, what can I do for you?”
I set the laptop on the table at his side. “This belongs to the college girl we found nearly decapitated this morning.”
Todd grimaced. “Jeez, that’s terrible.”
“It sure is. Anyway, I haven’t opened it and don’t know if it’s password protected, but we need all the help we can get. Her social media pages might give us a better indication of her plans last night other than just going to a party at the Regency condos.”
“Sure thing. I’ll get right on it.”
“Thanks, man.”
I continued to the stairs, and as I passed Lutz’s office on our floor, he called out to me. “Jesse, I need an update.”
I stepped inside and took a seat. “We’re not making a lot of progress yet. I have a few names to follow up with, and I spoke with the university police. They said Callie never filed a complaint with them.”
Lutz rubbed his right eyebrow. “Humph. Henry and Shawn are still looking at the security footage from the Red Line, but they haven’t identified Callie as a rider yet.”
“Yeah, and it doesn’t help that the train dumps off passengers all night long. I did ask the roommates, and nobody knew if she rode the train last night or caught a ride to the party she was at. Maybe we should determine that before Henry and Shawn waste more time with the terminal video.”
Lutz waved off my comment. “Nah, that wouldn’t make sense. If she rode with a friend, they would have dropped her off at home. She had to have taken the train.”
“True enough. I’ll cross that off my list of things to check into. Did you get through to her parents?”
Lutz let out a deep sigh. “Yep, and it wasn’t good. She was their only child.”
“Jesus. That’s never easy. Are they on their way?”
“Yeah, they should arrive by noon. I told Don to hold off with the autopsy for the time being. It’s obvious how Callie died, so I don’t even know if one is necessary, and I want her available for the parents to ID.”
“Sure.” I stood up. “Anything else before I contact her best friend? There’s a chance she was at that party last night, and if anyone would know if somebody was paying Callie too much attention, it would be Danielle.”
Lutz pointed at the door with his chin. “Go ahead. For all we know, it could have been a robbery and nothing personal at all. A crime of opportunity.”
I winced. “The perp could have robbed her while wearing a mask. Why butcher someone like that if all they wanted was her purse and phone?”
Lutz answered with a shrug. “You and nine other detectives need to figure that out.”
“No pressure, right?” I slapped the doorframe then continued on.
Frank had arrived while I was in Lutz’s office, and he glanced my way when I walked into the bullpen.
“Whatcha doing?” I dropped down on my chair.
“Working on a probable timeline of events. We need to know when Callie left that party and who she hung out with while she was there.”
I had to agree. “That’s why I’m about to call Danielle. We need names of the people who attended that party. Maybe somebody rode the train back with her.”
“Meaning they could be a suspect.”
“Damn straight they could.” I picked up the phone and dialed her number. As luck would have it, she picked up right away.
“Hello.”
“Danielle Hughes?”
“Yep. Who’s this, and why are you blocking your number?”
She was outspoken, and I appreciated that. “This is Detective Jesse McCord from the Chicago Police Department. I have questions to ask you about Callie Conway.”
She laughed. “Callie is an angel, so if you think she did something illegal, you’ve got the wrong person.”
“Danielle, we know Callie went to a party last night at the Regency condos. Did you happen to be at that party too?”
“Yeah, but I thought this was about Callie. Why are you asking if I was there?”
“We’re trying to establish a timeline of events. Did you ride the train into the city together?”
“Of course. We do everything together. We did get separated at the party for an hour or so, but we connected again before we left.”
“Good, and what time was that?”
She chuckled. “We were pretty drunk, Detective, so—” The line went quiet, then she spoke up again. “Shit, I didn’t mean to say we were drunk.”
“That isn’t important right now, Danielle. What is important is the time you boarded the train to come home, which station you got on at, and where you got off.”
“Okay, let me think. Everyone was getting shooed out of the condo at the same time, so I guess the party ended around two or so. Lindsay would know for sure since it was her party.”
I wrote down to call Lindsay. “But two o’clock is your best estimate?”
“Uh-huh, and then we walked to the station, which took about ten minutes. Oh yeah.” She chuckled. “I almost forgot that Brandy Andrews was with us. We boarded the train as soon as it got there.”
“Good. Where did Brandy get off at?”
“Um, let me think. Brandy lives north of us. That’s right, she exited at Garfield, and I got off at the Eighty-Seventh Street stop since I live on Eighty-Eighth and Wabash. I told Callie to call or text me if she wanted to go out for lunch today, but I haven’t heard from her yet.”
“So after that, she was alone?”
Danielle smirked. “Yeah, other than the rest of the drunks on the train.”
“Right. Did anyone come on to you girls as you rode home?”
“Not that I remember.”
“Okay.” I looked over the notes I’d taken. “Do you know Brandy’s phone number?”
“Yep.”
I took down the number as she read it off to me.
“Detective McCord, why did you call? You started by saying you had questions about Callie.”
I steeled myself to break the news to Danielle. It was never easy, especially when telling family members or a best friend that their loved one was dead, and saying they had been murdered was the worst news of all.
“Danielle, there’s no easy way to tell you this, but Callie was found dead this morning.”
“What! How? Why? She was fine when I got off the train. Her stop was the next one, and then all she had to do was walk home. What do you mean she was found dead? In bed or what?”
I heard panic in Danielle’s voice, then the sobs began—uncontrolled, gut-wrenching sobs.
“We’ve been friends since high school. She can’t be dead!”
“I’m so sorry, but it’s true, and unfortunately, I can’t go into the details with you. Take down my name and number, and if you can think of anything that’ll help our investigation, please don’t hesitate to call.” I gave her my contact information and hung up. As I rubbed my forehead, I added the times in my mind—two o’clock, plus a ten-minute walk, the wait for the next train, then a half-hour ride. I logged onto the CTA website to get the times the trains reached the Ninety-Fifth Street terminal. I stopped before I went any further since I needed to confirm with Lindsay Grant what time the party had ended before I would know definitively which train Callie had been on. The time had to be in the ballpark of what Danielle had told me.
Frank walked over to my desk and took a seat on my guest chair. “Let me handle some of the calls. Who’s next?”
I rolled my kinked neck and appreciated his offer to help. “We need to know exactly when the party ended. That’ll tell us which train Henry and Shawn should focus on. Don’s TOD window says Callie died between one thirty and three thirty a.m., give or take a little on either end. We have to know which train she rode back, or they’ll be watching videos all day long.” I dialed the number for Lindsay Grant and handed the receiver to Frank, then I slid a clean sheet of paper and a pen to him.
He nodded when she answered the phone. “Lindsay Grant?”
“Speaking. Who’s this?”
Frank tapped Speakerphone and continued. “This is Detective Mills calling from the Chicago PD.”
“Crap. Did someone call in with a noise complaint from last night? I swear we weren’t that loud.”
“No, there wasn’t a complaint, but we do know there was underage drinking going on.”
Lindsay didn’t respond.
“Miss Grant?”
“Yes?”
“I need to know when the party ended, and I don’t mean a rough estimate. I want the time everyone left, especially Callie, Danielle, and Brandy.”
“I mean, um, probably around two, two thirty or so.”
“Those aren’t exact times, but what I can do is interrupt your parents’ vacation and have them question you if that’s more to your liking.”
“How do you—”
“I’m a cop, now give me a better answer. I’m sure somebody that stuck around to help clean up the mess glanced at a clock.”
“Okay, let me think. I did check the time when the last person walked out. It was two fifteen. I’m positive of it.”
“So Callie and her buddies walked out before the last person?”
“Yes, they left about ten minutes earlier. I know that as a fact.”
“Okay, thanks for your time. I guess your parents can enjoy their vacation after all.” Frank hung up and gave me a grin. “Sometimes idle threats go a long way.”
Now with the timeframes matching, I felt confident in searching the train schedules. I would add the ten-minute walk to the Red Line station, a few minutes spent waiting for the train to arrive, and then the half-hour ride to the end of the Red Line. That would give me a good idea of the train the girls were on. I included the trains before and immediately after that one, but those few trains were better than searching camera footage for every one during that one-thirty-to-three-thirty timeline.
I passed that information on to Lutz, and he said he would contact Henry right away. Hopefully, they’d locate the right train and see Callie exiting, then check to see if anyone followed her.