The phone call I’d been waiting for finally came. I yanked the receiver toward me and answered. “Cannon here.”
“Mitch, I talked to Lorenzo DeLeon. What he told me didn’t help much.”
I let out an involuntary sigh, and my shoulders slumped. “So, what did he say?”
“He said there were active cases in several states throughout the US but that he and Jade weren’t working them. The bureaus in LA and New York handled those two known investigations because they remained within the state. If anything has crossed state lines or become part of the organized crime syndicate, he hasn’t been made privy to it yet.”
“Hmm. Well, that’s no help to us. So there has been organ trafficking going on in New York and California, and was that recent?”
“He said in the last eight months. The people involved in both states are sitting in jail, and if it’s still going on or has spread to other locations, they haven’t caught wind of it yet.”
“Okay, but that sounds like the door has been left open for that possibility.”
“It does sound that way. For now, both of you go home. Tell Bentley and Lawrence to do the same. We’re going to have a multidepartment brainstorming session in the morning.”
“Roger that. Night, Boss.”
“Good night, Mitch.”
I placed the receiver back on the base. I was sure a look of disappointment had spread across my face, and Rue obviously noticed.
“So nothing helpful?”
“Nope, and we can’t just sit on Dylan and Jacob’s houses since we don’t have evidence of either of them committing a crime.” I grabbed my sport jacket off the wall hook. “Come on over for a bit. I’m sure we can both use a beer.”
“Sure. You don’t have to ask me twice.”
Rue and I left for my house. I gave Marie a quick call to let her know he was coming over. She said he was more than welcome to stay for supper. There was plenty of spaghetti to go around.
Once we arrived home, I let Devon know what was on the menu and asked if he wanted to stay. His grin was all the answer I needed.
“Just an FYI, we’ll talk about the case after supper while we enjoy that beer out on the deck. No shop talk in front of the kids.”
Rue chuckled. “No worries. My mouth will be preoccupied with eating anyway.”
Our supper conversation was mostly centered on what the girls had been doing during their summer break. Rue also made sure to ask Mom what she had been doing to entertain herself. She was happy to report that she and Marie were making pebble art on a daily basis but also that they’d been doing a lot of baking.
I rubbed my belly as if I’d been regularly enjoying too many sweets, and Mom offered to send Rue home later with a container of chocolate chip cookies.
“I guess I can’t refuse that,” Rue said. “It would be rude.”
The girls giggled then helped Marie clear the table.
With a head tip toward the deck and two cold bottles of beer in hand, I led the way outside. Rue and I would talk shop for a bit before calling it a night.
I dropped down on one of the four Adirondack chairs and placed my beer on the wide arm.
“How are we going to figure this out, Rue? There isn’t an actual video of Valerie being abducted or showing where they kept her for a full day or where she was killed. All we know is that she disappeared after the bars closed early Saturday morning and was discovered dead out in the marsh on Sunday. The time in between is a blank.”
Rue groaned. “I don’t even want to imagine what she likely went through, but if it was a cult sacrifice, it must have taken place late Saturday night. That’s the only way Tapper’s TOD timeline would make sense. They killed her, did their crazy sacrifice thing, and then dumped her body before daylight broke.”
“Right, or the exact same scenario took place except the cult ritual didn’t happen. Whoever gutted her sold off her organs within hours of killing her and then dumped her remains the same way. It literally could go either way.”
“And that means we have to figure out which one it was in order to pursue the people involved,” Rue said.
I took a gulp of beer. “And that isn’t going to be easy.”
After we’d had an hour of discussing the case and a second beer, Rue left. Tomorrow was another workday, and it was nearly nine o’clock.
I returned to the house and saw that the girls had gone upstairs, and Mom and Marie were watching TV. I sat with them and mindlessly watched the program they seemed to be enjoying. The news would come on next, and that made me wonder if there was anything we could air to help the case. I planned to discuss that possibility at our brainstorming meeting in the morning.