I hated to report our findings to Royce, but we needed to come up with a different approach. I also wanted to tell him my new idea, and it didn’t have anything to do with a profiler. I planned to give him my opinion of that tactic, too, although as our sergeant, he could do anything he wanted to further the investigation.
Rue and I went together. Courage and strength in numbers, I always said. I gave Royce’s door a light rap since it was partially open.
“Come in, guys.” He pointed his chin at the chairs, and we sat.
“Just wanted to let you know the mall videos didn’t help. We really don’t even know if those two vehicles would be helpful. We didn’t see LeAnn walk to either of them since she was out of camera range before she climbed into a vehicle.”
Royce grunted. “Night images and videos are terrible to begin with.”
“That too,” Rue said.
Royce stared at the printed sheet in my hand. “Whatcha got there?”
“It’s the image of the white van that Tech enhanced for us. Honestly, it isn’t much better, maybe twenty percent at most.”
The sergeant shook his head. “Can’t make a case with that. If it had an identifiable feature to compare to Jacob’s vehicle, then maybe.”
I cleared my throat. “Well…”
Royce’s eyebrows shot up. “Speak up, Cannon.”
“We know the distance that image is from the camera, and it is during the night. I was thinking we can see if Jacob’s van is in the parking lot of his apartment, get about the same distance away from it, and take some pictures at night.”
“You think a cell phone photo is going to compare to an image from a high-quality surveillance camera?”
“The camera quality can’t be that great if you can’t make out shit from a hundred yards away, sir.” I made sure to add “sir” so it didn’t sound like I was being disrespectful.
Royce scratched his chin. “Doesn’t mean he’s going to be home.”
“Then we’ll wait,” Rue added.
I appreciated his support since that was the first time he’d heard my suggestion.
“On your own time?” Royce asked. “You know overtime hasn’t been approved.”
“We know.” I jokingly added my earlier comment to Rue about using a tracker, and Royce chuckled. “If only the law allowed that without just cause, but it doesn’t, so don’t get any ideas.”
“We won’t, Boss.”
“Okay, anything else?”
“About that profiler.”
“Yes, what about him?”
“We already know the killer is brazen and slippery. We know they aren’t afraid of taking risks. We know they’re one of two types of people—the kind who use organs in ceremonies or the kind who use them to make money. What more can an FBI profiler tell us that we don’t already know?”
Royce nodded. It was possible he was seeing my point.
“I’ll give you three days to come up with a real lead or the profiler gets a call.”
There was nothing I could do but thank him. We would get with Lawrence and Bentley and see if they had any more ideas or information to share. After that, Rue and I would head to Jacob Kenney’s apartment.
Lawrence and Bentley told us they hadn’t learned anything new from speaking with LeAnn’s neighbors. Bentley added that they’d asked the neighbors if LeAnn had ever mentioned the name Valerie Dawson. According to Bentley, that name didn’t sound familiar to any of them.
I updated the guys on the fact that LeAnn’s husband was coming in first thing tomorrow to have a sit-down with Royce and the rest of us before identifying LeAnn’s remains.
“Does he know…”
I looked at Lawrence. “That her organs had been removed?”
“Yeah.”
I grimaced. “I’m not quite sure how much Royce told him over the phone. We’ll probably learn more at that meeting in the morning. I’d suggest we keep quiet and only talk when we’re directly asked questions. Royce will likely lead the conversation anyway.”
It was time to call it a day. Rue and I said good night and reminded the guys about overtime. “Royce will tear you a new one if you two don’t leave soon. Tomorrow is another day, and maybe we’ll get new leads after hearing what LeAnn’s husband has to say.”
Rue and I grabbed supper at Rose’s Cantina, and once darkness took over the sky, we headed to Jacob’s apartment complex.
When we arrived, I drove slowly along the parking lot then spotted the van. I pointed through my window. “There it is. Dead center in the lot. How the hell am I going to get a picture of it with vehicles all around it?”
Devon shrugged.
“When we saw it the first time, it was in the spot nearest the street. I assumed that was his assigned space, but seeing where it’s parked now tells me a different story.”
“We’ll have to do the best we can,” Rue said. “There’s no other choice.”
I parked my rental and planned to drop off Rue at the precinct to pick up his vehicle once we were done for the night. Luckily, we wouldn’t have to wait for Jacob to come home from who knew where.
We exited the car and backed up to an area we guessed was about a hundred feet out, then I pointed my phone’s camera at the lot. Irritated, I shook my head.
“This isn’t a good spot. I can’t even see the van. Let’s cross the street and try it from a different angle.”
“No matter what, we aren’t going to get a full side view of it unless we try some other time when the van is out in the open. That would require following him, and if I’m not mistaken, we don’t have permission to work overtime. Royce sure as hell won’t let us follow Jacob around the city during work hours, plus that would defeat the point anyway. It would be broad daylight outside.”
I grumbled. “Come on.”
“Where?”
“To get up close and personal with that van. Maybe there’s something else besides the length and shape we can use to compare the vans.”
I looked both ways then stepped off the curb, crossed the street, and entered the parking lot. As crowded as the lot was, nobody would notice us weaving in and out between cars.
We reached Jacob’s van, where I snapped pictures of all four sides. The vehicles were parked so close to each other I couldn’t even get a full-length picture of the van from either side. We looked for window stickers, scratches, dents, or anything that would set the van apart. It was relatively clean and devoid of stickers. If anything was going to help us, it would have to be something large enough to stand out in that video of the white blur zooming past the camera.
“Hey!”
I rounded the van to the driver’s side, where Rue stood. “What’s up?”
“Notice anything?” He grinned. “Or the lack of?”
I stared at the van, then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I looked through the windshield and confirmed that there was a mirror on the passenger’s side.
“I’ll be damned. The driver’s-side mirror is gone.” I moved in closer and saw where the bolts had once been. “It must have been knocked off at some point and he never replaced it.” I walked to the passenger side and snapped several pictures of the mirror. Luckily, the black trim stood out against the white van and would easily be noticeable on video—if the mirror was there. “Either that van speeding by the camera was Jacob’s, or it wasn’t, and the lack of a mirror on this van will give us that answer.”
We left before somebody saw us and reported us to the police, which would be ironic. I dropped Rue off at his car, and tomorrow, we would compare the video to the pictures I took with my cell phone. It would be hard to wait, but we were off the clock, and I couldn’t change that. One thing I did know was that morning couldn’t come soon enough.