Back at the precinct, I headed for the conference room to check on the progress our detectives had made with John’s contacts. The short version I’d gotten from Rue, Bentley, and Lawrence was that according to the people they had spoken with so far, John had a hot temper, and he often got into yelling matches, even with total strangers.
“Great. That just opened up the floodgates for a number of people who may have had it out for him.”
Rue scratched his cheek as he agreed. “Yeah, and that could easily bog down our investigation into the pawnshop couple’s murder and Kim’s.”
“Anyone hear word on the sunglasses guy? Is he still in the wind?”
They all shrugged.
“We haven’t left this room since you headed out,” Lawrence said. “If he’d been caught, I’d think Royce would have told us.”
I pulled out a chair and sat down. “How many people do we still need to talk to?”
Each detective counted the names still on their list.
“I have seven,” Rue said.
Lawrence took his turn. “I’ve got nine.”
“And I have five,” Bentley said.
I raised my brows. “You’re really pounding through them.”
Bentley swatted the air. “Nah, six didn’t answer their phones.”
I chuckled. “Okay, pass some over. Let’s get this done and checked off.”
An hour later, we had finished speaking with every person on John’s contact list who had answered their phone. We would pass along the numbers of the unanswered calls to the night shift.
As he leaned back in his chair, Rue stared at the ceiling. “Now what? We have a killer who’s in the wind with a fake name, living at a fake address, and we have no idea if he’s scored another car or not. We can’t put out a BOLO on any vehicle at all.”
“And he obviously got through the blockade Patrol set up earlier. Maybe Savannah has become too hot for him and he’s already skipped town,” Bentley said.
Lawrence added his two cents. “Still, I think it would be smart to alert all means of travel, give them his photo, and get his face on TV.”
“Yep, and I believe Royce is taking care of the news stations. The man’s face, sans the sunglasses, should be on every news outlet by tonight. He’ll either be caught, flee the area, or change his appearance,” I said.
Rue huffed. “But there’s one thing he can’t change, and that’s his height.”
“Good point.” I drummed the table with my fingertips. “I have a question we can work on.”
Rue let out a heavy breath and gave me the shit eye. “Is that question going to cause us to work overtime tonight? I have a cold beer calling my name and wrestling to watch on TV when I get home.”
I waved off his comment. “Okay, we all know the sunglasses man came to my house under the ruse of being a college friend. To me, that means he checks out the victims before he makes his move.”
“Geez, Cannon, do you really think he’s after you? And why?” Bentley asked.
“Who knows, but Patrol is keeping a close eye on my house, and I have cameras and an alarm system. The point I’m making is where was he going when the crash happened? I doubt that he just drives aimlessly around Savannah wasting gas, especially with the prices at the pump lately.”
I noticed three other heads nodding, plus a few choice curse words were spoken.
“True enough,” Devon said. “The accident happened at the intersection of Morris Brown Drive and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Other than fast-food restaurants, what’s there?”
I groaned. “Maybe nothing important. The guy probably just ate at one of those places then took off when he literally ran into Brandon Ellis.”
“Did Brandon say where he was going?” Bentley asked.
I shrugged. “Doubt if he was asked that question.” I pointed at Bentley’s laptop. “Pull up the hotels around there and see what we have.”
We waited several minutes while Curt checked. He shook his head.
“Not sure about the nearby hotel theory. If the killer is an out-of-towner, then I don’t think he would pay the downtown Savannah hotel prices for weeks on end. They’re all two hundred bucks a day or more.”
“Damn it. Where the hell was he going, and where did he come from?”
“He still could be a local who’s trying to throw us off by renting a car out of state,” Rue said.
“I know, but would you go four hundred miles out of your way just to rent a car when you could get one anywhere?”
“Maybe if I was a hired killer and wanted to avoid getting caught.”
“Wait a minute. A hired killer? Could that be the missing link?” Bentley asked.
Lawrence added his take. “We’ve been thinking of a killer who just wants to kill for the pleasure of it, but why stick around Savannah if that’s his angle? He can keep moving on and kill in any city. It would make finding him a lot harder, but if he’s a hired killer, then it makes sense that he’s sticking around.”
I couldn’t wrap my head around that. Our victims had nothing in common, and as far as we knew, they didn’t know each other either.
“I don’t know, guys. We may be getting off track here. The only ones who were shot were Mr. and Mrs. Grimes and Kim. We’ve already established that they didn’t know each other, and so far, we have no one as a possible suspect in John’s death. We may be getting ahead of ourselves.”
“But Forensics was pretty sure that the bullets in both murders matched,” Bentley said.
“Okay, so let’s say that the sunglasses man is good for both. The pawnshop killing makes a certain amount of sense in that it was only a robbery with collateral damage—two deaths. Kim’s murder, I can’t explain. There’s no rhyme or reason for it.”
Rue huffed. “And to empty his gun on her. That sounds like rage to me. Maybe he met her, put moves on her, and was shot down. It may have pissed him off enough that he followed her home, sneaked in at night, and killed her.”
I rubbed my temples. “I guess anything is possible, including multiple people who may have disliked John enough to kill him too.”
“And don’t forget there’s a reason the mystery man came to your house, Mitch, and it’s up to us to figure out why.”
“As if I have time to focus on myself. We find him and I won’t have anything to worry about. If he’s without a car and roaming the streets, he should be noticed soon enough.” I grabbed the conference room phone and called Royce. “Hey, Boss, we’re in the conference room banging our heads against the wall. Since the mystery man slipped through the five-block net Patrol set up, he’s either without a car, already snagged one somehow, or is working with an accomplice. His photo needs to be passed out to all rideshares, taxis, buses, car rental agencies, and the airport as soon as possible, especially since his face is going to be plastered all over the news in less than an hour.”
“Okay, you boys get working on that. Did you get anywhere with the phone calls?”
“Only in learning that John had a bad temper, but according to his folks, he was going to anger management classes. They didn’t know anyone who would be mad enough to kill him, though. They did give me the name of a childhood friend that John may have kept in touch with.”
“Then get ahold of him and learn what you can. You and Rue track him down. Tell Bentley and Lawrence to contact the transportation companies, starting with local rental cars.”
“On it.” I hung up and passed on what Royce had said. “Come on, Rue. We have to find Andrew Jones. He’s an old friend of John’s.”