I woke up feeling refreshed and raring to go. I didn’t feel the need to ride the snooze button since I’d had nine hours of uninterrupted sleep and not a single bad guy had entered my dreams. The day was starting out just right. I was out of the house fifteen minutes early because it was Monday, the first workday of most people’s week, and for some unknown reason, the day many of those people forgot how to drive. I was sure that data had been collected about which workday had the most car accidents, and in my few months of driving to St. Francis, I’d found that Mondays were typically the day I walked in late. I vowed to do better and promised Maureen I would. I crossed my fingers and hoped nobody would be texting while driving the freeway to work that morning.
Fifty minutes later, I wore a wide grin as I crossed our parking lot. I got to work in record time, which gave me an extra minute to grab a coffee on my way to the office I shared with Renz. I was sure our newest case would start moving along if we could spot Erik outside yesterday morning, either near his house or in the area where Brandon was found. Even if they went to that alley together, Erik had to find a way home. We would check every exit around the Miller Street alley and look for cameras on apartment buildings, doorbells, or storefronts. Somebody shot Brandon and either walked away or was picked up by an accomplice, but without camera evidence, we were dead in the water.
In the lunchroom, I fed the coffee machine three quarters and waited as the brew poured into a Styrofoam cup. Somebody would start a pot sooner or later, but I wanted to sip hot coffee as I put together my thoughts for our morning meeting. I walked to our office and, after opening the door, was surprised to see that Renz wasn’t there. I checked the time—7:47, still thirteen minutes before our eight o’clock meeting.
Where the hell did he go? He wasn’t in the lunchroom.
I stuck my head out the door and looked from left to right—nobody anywhere.
Hmm… maybe they started the meeting early, but why would they?
With my coffee in hand, I grabbed a notepad and pen and headed to the conference room. I was surprised to see four of my colleagues and Taft gathered around the table and deep in a speakerphone call. Renz looked up, put his finger to his mouth, then pulled out a chair for me. I sat down, remained quiet, and listened to the back-and-forth conversation. Even though I’d come in midway through the call, I picked up on the urgency. Taft was talking to the chief of police from the District 1 State Street station. What I’d walked in on sounded like a desperate plea for help. According to him and the four other police chiefs that he had spoken with during the late-night hours, five more people had been murdered overnight. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing—five more dead bodies. That number had to be relevant to the killers, yet because Milwaukee County had seven police precincts, I wondered if the killers had hit the same ones as before, or were they rotating districts? I was sure to learn more after the call ended, but from what I could piece together, it sounded like the murder victims that time were everyday people, not homeless tent dwellers.
My mind was going a million miles an hour. Were the killers advancing their agenda? Did they even have an agenda, or were they killing purely for the sake of killing? Had they become more daring since it was glaringly obvious that we had no idea who’d killed the five homeless people? Or was I wrong on all fronts and the murders were part of a well-organized plan that would shock all of Milwaukee County? I had no idea, and we had no suspects in custody and not a single motive to work with.
The conference call ended ten minutes later, but during that time, I had jotted down questions as fast as my mind could come up with them.
Maureen let out what sounded like a discouraged sigh. “Okay, only half of the team heard the entire phone call with Chief Barrett.” She checked the time. “Our regular meeting will be starting in a few, so everyone grab a coffee, a notepad, do whatever you need to do, and be back in ten minutes. By then, everyone should be here. There’s no reason to repeat these latest findings more than once.”
We rose from the table, and Fay headed to the back counter and started a pot of coffee. I walked with Renz down the hallway toward the cafeteria, where I was sure he’d grab a morning sweet roll like he did every day.
“I’ll meet you back here in five. I have to use the ladies’ room.”
He nodded and kept going.
Minutes later, we met in the hallway.
“Renz, what the hell is going on?”
He blew out a loud puff. “Nothing good, that’s for damn sure. We’ve got our work cut out for us, Jade, and it has to be a group effort between all the law enforcement agencies. You didn’t hear that part of the phone call, but one of the people killed last night was the mayor’s daughter.”
“Holy shit! Practice on the homeless and then go after the real targets? What’s the mayor’s daughter’s story?”
He shrugged. “I don’t recognize her name, so she couldn’t have been a high-profile person in the city and definitely not a politician.”
“So, we don’t even have a ‘type’ of individual they’re going after?”
“Don’t know. The chief is sending over the police reports from every district that was hit last night, the times, the people killed, and the method of murder. We may end up in the conference room all day trying to put together a profile of the killers and their motive.”
“Yeah, good luck with that. I guess what I hoped we’d be doing today is getting shoved to the back burner.”
Renz nodded as we returned to our seats in the conference room. “Tell me about it later.”
By that time, all eight field agents, along with Taft, were in attendance.
“Okay, everyone, I need your undivided attention,” Maureen said. “I was alerted to a new development less than an hour ago, and it isn’t good. It looks like five more people were brutally murdered overnight. Dave and his assistants are already going from crime scene to crime scene, trying to keep up with the carnage. In less than forty-eight hours, ten people have been murdered by unknown assailants. No group has claimed responsibility, and no witnesses have come forward. This investigation will be an all-hands-on-deck joint effort between every law enforcement agency in the county. The local police for each jurisdiction and their homicide detectives are out in force. They’re interviewing everyone they can find, looking for camera footage, combing the areas for clues, and so on. We need to put together a profile of the perps and figure out their motive if we’re ever going to get ahead of the killing. There’s no indication they’ll continue with the massacre, but there’s also no indication that they’ll stop. And since serial crimes is our unit, whether we’re in a different state or right here in our own community, it’s our expertise, and we need to get ahead of this before the county ends up on lockdown and panic sets in.”
Maureen asked if we had any questions, and I knew that since we wouldn’t have the opportunity to act on my idea, I presented it to our group in hopes that she might suggest the local police take action on it.
“Ma’am?”
“Yes, Jade, go ahead.”
“This idea was something I was going to suggest for today, but in light of these new developments, I agree that our expertise is better used for figuring out who is committing the murders. I believe the local police districts can handle my idea.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“I was going to suggest that since Erik Smalley is the only person of interest so far, we dig deeper into his alibi of being asleep yesterday during the time frame when Brandon Dalton was shot. Whoever killed Brandon exited that alley by either cutting through yards or having a ride out. I think checking footage from every camera the police can find in the area, as well as around Erik’s apartment, may prove useful. If Erik is seen leaving that duplex yesterday morning any time prior to eight a.m., well, that ruins his alibi of being asleep during that time.”
“I agree, and I’ll contact the police chiefs from both of those districts and get them started on that. Great idea, Jade.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” I took a sip of coffee, cleared my throat, and continued. “I also think the number five must be relevant to the killers. There has to be a reason why five people were murdered each time. There also has to be a reason that, except in Brandon’s case, all the victims were killed at night. It could be as simple as darkness giving the killer better cover, so who knows.”
“And less likely for anyone to make a positive ID,” Carl said.
“Good points. So, this isn’t May, the fifth month, and Saturday, when the murders began, wasn’t the fifth day of the month either.”
Renz groaned. “Five could stand for anything like a birthday, an anniversary, or maybe five horrible things happened in the past in those districts.”
Fay spoke up. “Were they the same districts both times?”
“Actually, they weren’t. So that isn’t a factor or at least not a major one,” Taft said.
Charlotte took her turn. “What about the latest victims? Birthdates, addresses? Are they twenty-five or possibly fifty-five years old? Do they have five siblings or five kids? We can speculate forever.”
Maureen held up her hand. “I know, I know. So we’re pretty sure the homeless people, as sad as it sounds, were used as practice for the ones who were murdered last night. Do we all agree on that?” She looked at each of us as we nodded. “Then we need a plan of action and progress from there. First, we’ll tear apart the lives of last night’s victims. I want to know every detail about them down to their favorite vegetable. I don’t know how Mayor Kent wants to handle the news about his daughter, but I’m going to give him a call, offer my condolences, and see where he wants us to go with announcing her death to the public. He may be able to give us insight about her and her lifestyle.” Maureen pushed back her chair and stood. “I’ll be back soon. Meanwhile, learn everything you can about those victims.”