It was nearing sunrise Wednesday morning by the time I climbed into my car. Lutz had insisted that I go home, grab a few hours of sleep, and come back to the station at ten. He wanted Frank and me to return to Leslie’s apartment and show Gina that ring and purse as a way to confirm that Manny Aragon and Bradley Risack had indeed murdered Leslie. After that, we’d make a surprise visit to RailGears and slap that warrant on Mr. Aragon’s desk. Although Manny was dead and couldn’t be convicted of a crime, he could have been in a holding cell instead of a refrigerated box in our morgue if Mr. Aragon had been truthful with us yesterday. We would arrest the human resources manager for lying to police and interfering with a criminal investigation, and I doubted that their shared last name was a coincidence.
At home, I crawled into bed and dropped my head on the pillow. I was beat, and setting my phone’s alarm was the smart thing to do. Otherwise, I was sure I’d sleep until noon. With a few spins, Bandit rearranged himself and settled in—likely returning to his dog dreams of chasing squirrels.
I was out within seconds.
Waking up to my blaring alarm at nine o’clock was annoying, but it gave me time to shower, have a few cups of coffee, and play with Bandit for ten minutes before I headed out. Thankfully, Dean offered to take my pup to his house for a doggy play date with Jackson.
Arriving at work at 9:50, I gulped down the rest of my coffee, left the travel mug in my car, and headed inside. I entered to find the bullpen buzzing with activity.
“What the hell is going on? Can’t maintain control if I’m not here?”
Henry spun in his chair. “There’s been another stabbing, Jesse.”
“What! You’ve got to be shitting me!”
“Sorry, pal, but it’s true,” Frank said. “Lutz, Don, the forensic boys, and a handful of officers have been at the scene for a few hours. Lutz told us in no uncertain terms to leave you alone until you got to work.”
“What about him? That man never sleeps.”
Tony chimed in. “He said he’ll sleep when he retires.”
I huffed. “I’ve heard that before, and the problem is, Lutz won’t ever retire. So, what do we know about this latest stabbing?”
Henry took over. “Not sure when it happened yet—no word from Don—but the call came in early this morning. A man leaving for work saw a woman’s blood-soaked body on the sidewalk and called it in right away. Lutz, Don, Mike, and Danny were still at the Sangamon Street scene and couldn’t get over there until a few hours ago. Patrol blocked off the street to through traffic, covered the body, and waited there for the guys to show up.”
Frank shook his head. “Lutz has been going nonstop for damn near twenty-four hours.”
I nodded. “And that’s worrisome. We need to relieve him.”
Frank stood and waved the warrant in front of me. “No can do, partner. Lutz said we have to go to RailGears first, shove this warrant in Mr. Aragon’s face and haul him back here, and then pay Gina a visit.”
I rubbed my forehead. “Yeah, that’s right. I almost forgot.” I turned toward the door. “Then let’s go. There’s no time like the present.”
We left the precinct with Frank behind the wheel. My mind was going a mile a minute.
“Pretty quiet, bud. Whatcha thinking about?”
I groaned. “It feels like we’re spinning our wheels. We thought Manny and Brad were the guys who killed not only Leslie but Callie too. Turns out, they were just low-life thugs and thieves who were looking for easy prey to rob. Most hookers, as long as they aren’t harmed, will turn a blind eye.”
Frank agreed. “So, even though they’re pissed that they were robbed, they don’t want to end up in jail themselves for prostitution.”
“Exactly. Two different killers with different agendas. The subway killer, if you will, killed Brad and Manny probably because he thought they were moving in on his turf. In reality, they were nothing but thieves who used the subway system as a cheap means of transportation.”
“Then what’s the subway killer’s motivation since we know Callie wasn’t a hooker?”
“Plain and simple—he enjoys murdering people.”
That reality gave me a sense of urgency in finding and apprehending the man. Our problem was that the only witnesses who could give us an idea of what he looked like were dead. He was always one step ahead of us.
I turned to Frank. “This afternoon, we’ll have to sit down as a group, draw out the timeline and locations of everyone he killed, and go over the subway routes and train schedules. If we have to use the entire department to go undercover and drag that killer away from the subway line, where he feels safe, then that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
Frank slowed at the yellow light then stopped. He pointed at the red light camera, and I was sure we were thinking the same thing.
“There are plenty of cameras at every train station that could spot the same man coming and going all day and all night long. We have to review all the footage again.”
We reached RailGears at eleven o’clock and walked up to the woman who’d sat behind the counter yesterday.
I took the lead. “We have a warrant to serve on Mr. Aragon. You don’t need to call him. We know the way.”
“Sir! Detective McCord, you can’t—”
I held up the warrant and waved it over my head as Frank and I took off in the direction of the human resources department. “This piece of paper says I can.”
Beyond the HR doors and behind the glass walls of his office, Mr. Aragon was sitting at his desk. He looked up with an expression of shock on his face.
“What is the meaning of this?” He stood when we entered his office.
“I told you we’d be back today with a warrant. Did you think I was blowing smoke?” I slapped the document on his desk. “How many criminals work here? Or was it just Manny Aragon, a relative of yours, that you didn’t recognize in the photograph I showed you yesterday?”
“Um, I, I can explain.”
“Get every employee folder, starting with Manny’s, right now.”
“But we have over two hundred employees!”
“Yep, and we have plenty of boxes. Those folders are coming with us, and so are you. You can explain everything until you’re green in the face once you’re at the station.”
Frank held up his hand to Mr. Aragon’s protest. “You can come willingly, or we can cuff you—your choice. No matter what, you lied to us yesterday, and now Manny Aragon and another man are dead. That’s directly on you.”
“My nephew is dead? What? How?”
Frank jerked his head toward the desk. “Get the files and then sit your ass down while we fill the boxes. After that, you’re leaving with us.”
With our trunk loaded with boxed files, we walked Carlos Aragon out to our cruiser and placed him in the back seat. He could sit in a holding cell while our guys looked through Manny’s application. Chances were, the names he listed as references could be other men in their robbery gang. We had no idea if it was a gang of two or a gang of ten. Later, Frank and I would question Mr. Aragon and see how many names he’d share.
Back at the precinct a half hour later, we handed Carlos off to Billy, our daytime jail officer.
“Find him a comfortable cell. He may be sitting there for some time before we get to him.”
“You bet, Jesse.”
I called upstairs and told Henry to send down several guys. We needed their help carrying up the boxes of files. They would be stacked in the bullpen, and we’d go through the names to see if we could find any other convicted criminal who might have information to share.
Several minutes later, and with the six boxes in the corner, I asked for everyone’s attention.
“Frank and I have to meet with Leslie Adams’s little sister. Meanwhile, plug every employee name from RailGears into the criminal database to see if we have more criminals. Print out the rap sheets you find, and we’ll go through them later. We need to put together a profile of the killer too. He seems to prefer killing females, which was evident from Callie’s death and also that of the woman who was discovered this morning. In my opinion, he only killed Brad and Manny out of necessity. He rides the subway and looks for potential victims along the stops. We need to apprehend him as soon as humanly possible since it’s apparent he kills out of pure enjoyment.” I knuckled my desk. “Okay. Get busy, guys, and we’ll be back as soon as we can.”