Once we returned to our office, I wasted no time making that call to Margo Dorfman. She hadn’t heard about LeAnn’s death since we’d needed that face-to-face with Mark before anything about LeAnn was released to the public.
Margo sounded shocked yet said she hadn’t noticed a single thing unusual that night, and she hadn’t seen anyone following them out of the building. She drove off like she did every night after she and LeAnn parted ways.
“I can’t believe how stupid I am,” she cried out through the phone.
“How so, ma’am?”
“There’s no reason on earth I couldn’t have driven LeAnn to her car each and every night we walked out together. She always parked so far out for fear of getting her new car dented by somebody’s door.”
“In your defense, Margo, how could you have known what would happen? It sounds like you had the same routine every night, and nothing bad happened before.”
“I know but—”
“But you can’t blame yourself. Blame the person who took her life. Tell me this. Did LeAnn always park in the same spot, and can you meet me there?”
“Yes, she parked within one or two spaces if another car happened to be in her usual one, and of course I’ll meet you there. I don’t work until two o’clock, so I can meet you around one thirty and show you her parking spot.”
I sighed with relief. Maybe we would find a clue there. “That would really be helpful. You’ll see my partner and me standing next to a black cruiser. Appreciate your help, Margo.”
“Detective Cannon?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“How is Mark holding up? He and LeAnn were a match made in heaven according to the way she always gushed about him.”
“He’s in rough shape now, but the PD will do whatever we can to help him get through this tough time, and we’ll apprehend LeAnn’s killer.”
“Thank you, Detective Cannon, and I’ll see you at one thirty. I need some time to process this horrible news.”
I ended the call. It was time to get busy. We needed to check out the white vans in the county, and if nothing panned out, I would stop pursuing that angle, and the investigation would start over.
From my online research, it looked like there could be as many as two hundred white vans in Chatham County, a larger number than I wanted to see, but the information wasn’t necessarily up to date. Hopefully, the DMV could help us with a current list of registered white vans in the county. After that, we’d take it from there. It was worth a shot to find out. I made the call, and after some hemming and hawing, they agreed to provide that list, although they said they couldn’t get to it until late afternoon. I accepted that, thanked them, and hung up.
We had time to kill, and I asked Rue if he wanted to take a walk. I was heading to Tapper’s office now that Mark Morrison had already identified LeAnn and left.
“Why are we going to pay Tapper a visit?”
“I’ve got a few questions for him.”
“Sure. Let’s go.”
At our basement level, I knocked. Tapper called out to come in, then we entered his office.
A solemn look crossed his face. “Man, that never gets easier. The poor guy is completely broken.”
“Yeah, I bet he is. Mind if we sit?”
Tapper pointed at the chairs facing his desk. “What’s on your mind, Mitch?”
“Well, it’s what you said the other day about the organs being removed carefully.”
“Uh-huh.”
“That’s still bouncing around in my head. Were LeAnn’s removed the same way as Valerie’s? Carefully, I mean?”
“Her chest cavity wasn’t butchered if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Is there any way to tell if the same instrument, or knife, if you will, was used?”
“I can only say that the cuts were clean, so I’d say a very sharp knife was used in both cases.”
“And that same knife was used in the kill wounds?”
“Probably. Sharp, deep cuts, but no way to identify the type. The cut pattern wasn’t unique in any way as in having nicks in the blade, and it wasn’t serrated.”
“So a professional butcher knife or even a common hunting knife could have done the trick?”
“Honestly, yes, but the wounds were all about an inch wide if that helps.”
I knuckled the desk and stood. Rue followed suit. “Okay, thanks, Tapper.”
“You bet.”
“So why did we go down there?” Rue asked as we walked the stairs back to our floor.
“Just wondering if we could tell the type of killer we’re dealing with by the knife he used. Apparently not.”
I wondered if calling in that profiler was still on Royce’s mind. I also wondered if that person could actually help.
It was finally time to head to the mall. We stopped in to tell Royce we would be back in an hour. Even though a full day had passed since LeAnn had been abducted, we could get lucky and find something of evidentiary value in the area where she’d normally parked.
We arrived five minutes early, parked near the outer lot, and stood outside the cruiser like I’d told Margo we would. I tipped my chin at the car headed our way.
“That’s got to be her,” I said. “A shopper would park closer to the building.”
The vehicle slowed, and a woman was driving. I waved to ease her mind. She rolled up next to us, lowered her window, and called out. I showed her my badge, then she thanked me and parked.
“You can never be too careful,” she said after exiting her car. Margo extended her hand and shook ours.
I made the introductions and asked if we were in the right area.
“Close. We can just walk if you want to. It’s over there where that tree is by the curb.” Margo pointed about fifty feet away.
We headed in that direction on foot, and I noticed Rue scanning the asphalt as he walked.
“Yeah, right here. LeAnn always parked next to the curbed peninsula so at least one side of her car would never get dinged up. Honestly, I never saw cars parked this far out except at Christmastime. I told LeAnn in the past that her car stood out like a sore thumb just because she parked so far from everyone else.”
That comment made me think. I was sure the killers thought the same thing when they chose the owner of that car as their next victim. I was also sure there had to be two of them. One person working alone couldn’t snatch, subdue, and restrain a victim and still drive away as fast as possible. We were looking for a killing team, and my mind again went to Jacob and Dylan, but I had to let go of that theory. They weren’t good for the murders.
Margo stood silently for a minute, and I could see her wheels turning.
“Detectives, is it safe to work here?”
“I believe it is, and I also believe the only reason LeAnn ended up dead is because of where she parked. She was the lamb that strayed from the flock. As far as everything we can talk about and what we actually know, her death was absolutely a random act of violence.”
Margo’s voice cracked when she spoke. “I guess I better go park my car and get inside.”
I handed Margo my card and thanked her for the help. “If anything else comes to mind, please call.”
With a nod, she returned to her car.
I shielded my eyes and looked toward the building. “What the hell was she thinking? That is a long way to walk alone at night.”
Rue agreed. “It sure is, partner, and LeAnn paid the ultimate price to protect her new car.”
“That’s right, and Valerie paid the ultimate price, too, just to go to the bar Friday night. Look how far away she parked from Sparky’s.”
“Yep, they made themselves easy targets. Come on. Let’s search a hundred feet out in every direction.”
Devon and I spent a half hour searching the area. Other than disintegrating cigarette butts that looked to have been there for months, and two pennies, we didn’t find anything we considered helpful.
Rue muttered under his breath. “Damn it. This is a waste of time. Those killers know how to cover their tracks well. Nothing rushed and nothing left behind.”
“What are you saying?”
He swatted the air. “Thinking out loud, I guess. If the killers are selling the organs, wouldn’t they have to rush? I mean, organs have a short shelf life, and obviously, the killers aren’t the ones transplanting them into patients. They’re the first line of the transaction.”
I wiped away the sweat running down my cheeks. The black asphalt parking lot was intensifying the midday heat and made me feel like I was in a pressure cooker. The lack of shade didn’t help either. I jerked my head toward the cruiser. “Come on. Let’s discuss our theories in the air-conditioned car.”
Back in the cruiser, I turned over the engine and pointed the vents of cold air toward me. Rue did the same on his side.
“Whew, that asphalt is no joke,” I said. “So back to your theory. If the killers are selling organs, I’d agree that they only have a limited amount of time before those organs prove useless. The middleman wouldn’t do business with them, though, if they were selling bad parts, so that means the go-between or end user has to be nearby.”
“One would think so, but the last known cases of organ trafficking, according to the FBI, were in New York and California, and those people were arrested months ago,” Rue said.
“Right, and the last busted ring in the South was in Atlanta in 2007.” I raised a brow at Rue. “With a light plane, you could get to Atlanta in an hour and a half. I wonder if a new group has started up there. We need to find out what happened to those original traffickers and where they are now then have a word with them.”
Devon nodded. “Do you think Royce will go for it?”
I sighed. “I guess we’re going to find out. God knows we don’t have any other leads.”
I pulled out of the parking lot and told Rue to make the call. We needed to know if Royce was in his office and had time to talk to us about a possible trip to Atlanta.