First thing the next morning, Rigg walked.
He walked a full block in each direction from Glet’s bungalow, looking for security cameras that might have captured an image of his visitor. He saw none. He wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t that kind of neighborhood. The neighbors felt safe enough on their blocks or they didn’t figure they had anything worth stealing. He was just a hundred yards from getting back to his car when a dark sedan pulled up alongside him and the driver’s window powered down.
‘Looking for security cameras?’ Corky Feldott asked.
Rigg nodded, stepping into the street.
‘I already checked, Mr Rigg. There aren’t any. Hop in.’
Rigg went around to the passenger’s side. ‘So, what are you doing here, Cornelius?’
‘Hoping the sight of Glet’s house will incite clarity.’
‘About what?’
‘About everything, about anything. But first, how did I do yesterday afternoon?’
‘You projected confidence and control, probably just what the M.E.’s department needs at this moment.’ It came out as pabulum, but it was probably true.
‘I held back ninety percent of what I know or suspect,’ Feldott said. ‘I’m becoming a real pol.’
‘Have you heard from Lehman?’
‘Not a peep.’
‘He should be enraged at your encroachment on his turf.’
‘Then he should be getting angrier. I’ve gotten approval to hire two investigators. Regular investigators – former cops.’
‘The Citizens’ Investigation Bureau is funding?’
‘For six months, but that’s off the record. On another note, I talked to Sheriff Olsen this morning. Because McGarry’s estate is so vast, he’s going to wait for the snow to melt before looking for recently disturbed ground.’
‘I suppose that’s good,’ Rigg said.
‘Why so unenthusiastic? You still think Sheriff Lehman took Richie Fernandez away?’
‘It would be prudent to remove any evidence the corpse might provide,’ Rigg said.
‘Sheriff Olsen said the best he can do is hourly drive-bys.’
‘If I’m wrong, if Lehman reburied Fernandez on the estate, he can find him in the dark. As soon as any sheriff’s headlights go away, he can haul him out of there.’
‘I already thought of that,’ Feldott said. ‘The CIB has also approved my request to hire a private security firm. They’ll be driving by more frequently.’
‘It’s wise.’
‘I’ll tell you what else seems wise. I’m beginning to share your belief that Richie Fernandez is the key to Deputy Glet’s fireworks.’
‘You want to see if Glet was worried that Fernandez’s DNA was substituted for Bobby Stemec’s foreign DNA in your freezer.’
‘Yes. I think Deputy Glet saw Sheriff Lehman and Mr McGarry building a frame on Richie Fernandez, probably after they accidentally killed him,’ Feldott said.
‘Perhaps not accidentally,’ Rigg said.
Feldott turned on the seat, startled. ‘They killed Fernandez on purpose?’
‘Lehman had no suspect for the girls and he saw the cases cooling, like Stemec Henderson. He must have been frantic, seeing himself being driven out of office by the likes of the CIB and you, Cornelius. And then he got tipped to Fernandez, living in a flophouse, a guy who was identified as being with the Graves girls by the owners of a diner. He enlisted McGarry to help in the arrest because he wanted to use his estate to sweat Fernandez with no interruptions. He must have realized almost right away Fernandez was no killer. Maybe he didn’t mean to kill him, maybe he did, but he saw Fernandez would do just fine as a patsy, especially dead.’
‘And, around that time, you reported back to Deputy Glet that Sheriff Lehman and Mr McGarry had arrested, but not booked, Richie Fernandez,’ Feldott said. ‘It’s no wonder Deputy Glet snuck into our lab. He wanted to grab one of the Stemec Henderson samples for safekeeping before Mr McGarry could switch the foreign DNA.’
‘Not for safekeeping, because he knew he’d be destroying its chain of custody and therefore its admissibility in court. Glet wanted its reassurance. He wanted to be sure he had the right guy, Kevin Wilcox, under wraps at ATF. It was a desperate move.’
‘Sheriff Lehman didn’t know about Wilcox at that point?’ Feldott asked.
‘No, and Glet wasn’t yet ready to tell him. He wanted to know for sure that Wilcox did the boys.’
‘And, once he began to suspect what Lehman and McGarry were up to – arresting but not booking Fernandez, likely to use his DNA – he saw his fireworks. Pretty amazing.’
‘He must have foreseen Lehman saying he was about to book Fernandez when Fernandez escaped. Later, of course, Fernandez would be found long dead, well away from McGarry’s estate. But Fernandez’s DNA would be run against the Bobby Stemec foreign DNA sample, and there would be a match, thanks to McGarry. And that would tell the tale: the dead Fernandez had killed the boys. By implication, he’d be tagged for the girls as well.’
‘I can imagine Sheriff Lehman’s and Mr McGarry’s shock and fear at Deputy Glet’s first ATF presser when he announced he was confident Mr Wilcox killed the boys.’
‘Maybe not,’ Rigg said. ‘Lehman and McGarry still controlled the situation. McGarry had to go through the motions of obtaining a swab from Wilcox and sending it out to be compared with Bobby Stemec’s sample. It was no worry, because he knew there would be no match to the doctored Bobby’s slide. Lehman and McGarry could still dismiss Wilcox and put the blame solidly on Richie Fernandez for the Stemec Henderson murders. And they could keep implying that he also did the girls.’
‘What if the Johnny Henderson sample that Glet took showed up?’
‘As I said, Cornelius, when Glet took it, he destroyed its chain of evidence. There could be no telling where the slide had been.’
Feldott stared ahead through the windshield. It was a lot to consider. But then he asked, ‘So, who killed the girls, Mr Rigg?’
‘I don’t know if we’ll ever know. The last of the birthmarks on the yellow card has been accounted for. Maybe that means the spree has been over since last December. But, if our killer does start up again, there’ll be no way of telling if it’s the same perpetrator. As you found, there’ve been no DNA traces on any of the girls.’
‘So, you’re pretty sure Sheriff Lehman got wise to what Deputy Glet was learning about their plans for Fernandez?’ Feldott said.
‘That would explain Lehman, or someone acting on his behalf, murdering Glet. And now, Cornelius, it’s time to tell me what you found in Glet’s bungalow.’
‘Index cards,’ Feldott said. ‘A packet of one hundred yellow index cards. I counted them, with gloves on, of course, when I got back to the office. Three were missing.’
‘Absent the two sent to Carlotta Henderson and one to the Day family? Isn’t that too obvious?’
‘They were wedged behind his desk. At first, I worried they’d disappear if Sheriff Lehman found them. He wouldn’t want that stain on his department. The fingerprints of all sheriff’s employees are in our databases. I had one of our technicians run the comparison.’
‘They were Glet’s prints?’
‘Of course, and it seemed so obvious – too obvious. You kept saying the GSR on Deputy Glet was manipulated. So, too, could have been his fingerprints. Someone could have pressed the deputy’s fingertips on to the card packet.’
‘Any thoughts as to who killed him?’ Rigg asked.
‘As you suggest, it could have been any of a number of thugs who wanted to curry favor with Sheriff Lehman, someone who the sheriff is hounding for a murder or something. Quid pro quo: kill Deputy Glet, get a free pass to get out of town with no warrant for anything to follow.’ Feldott sighed. ‘If any of this gets released improperly, it will destroy people’s faith in us at Cook County law enforcement.’
‘I get what you’re doing, Cornelius. You and the CIB are trying to restore the M.E.’s and then the sheriff’s department, but you’re going to have to go after Lehman to do that.’
‘Allow me time to investigate everything, Mr Rigg. Ideally, we’ll find leads to the girls’ killer.’
‘And pursue Wilcox for the boys.’
‘I expect my new team to solidify the case against him. Just give me time.’
Till led him to a small conference room. ‘What’s too urgent to discuss on the phone?’ he asked as they sat at the small table.
‘I told you Glet took Johnny Henderson’s foreign DNA sample from the M.E. lab,’ Rigg said. ‘You told me that might make sense, that you’d check it out and get back to me. You haven’t gotten back to me. And now I’ve just spoken with Cornelius Feldott.’
‘The kid who’s taken over the medical examiner’s office and soon the world.’
‘He’s got GSR that purports to show Glet was a suicide, and other evidence that shows Glet might have been involved in the girls’ murders.’
‘Too convenient?’ Till said.
‘He agrees everything could have been manipulated. But he and I have got questions about what Glet was doing with the missing DNA. And that, I think, is what you were going to get back to me on.’
‘Glet asked if we ever used an independent lab for DNA testing, which we have, on occasion. I told him about Richmond Laboratories. They mostly do paternity and ancestral stuff, but they’re top-notch with everything.’
‘He didn’t say what he was up to?’
‘No. As I’ve told you, we work our side of the street, he worked his. But he took his own swab from Wilcox, and, after a time, he became more persistent with him. He badgered him relentlessly, saying his DNA was found on the boys, trying to get him to confess.’
‘But not the girls?’
‘He tried, but as I said, Wilcox laughed; he could see Glet was bluffing. Hell, we could all see Glet was bluffing about the girls. After I told you that Glet’s little theft might make sense, I called Richmond. They know me; they were candid. Glet came in twice. First, he brought in two samples to be compared to each other, a swab and a medical examiner’s vial, neither labeled. The results matched. He paid five thousand dollars for that and told them to keep both the swab and the vial.’ He paused. ‘I had to wonder about a cheapskate like Glet shelling out five grand of his own money for that.’
‘Lehman and his deputies have access to unlogged evidence money,’ Rigg said.
Till smiled faintly. ‘Ah, yes. Cook County.’
‘That second time?’
‘He brought in a soda can and a paper coffee cup.’
‘To be compared with each other?’ Rigg said.
‘No. He wanted them kept safe until he returned with whatever he wanted them compared against, but he said it might be a while. He wanted them kept safe until he could return.’
‘What was he waiting for?’ Rigg asked.
‘A new DNA sample to appear, obviously.’
‘From a girl,’ Rigg said. ‘A girl yet to be discovered, a girl who would point to her killer or killers.’
‘Killers whose DNA was on that can and that cup? Most likely we’ll never know, Rigg. I don’t have the authority to order them tested, and, even if I did, it would prove nothing.’
Outside, Rigg stood in the cold, indulging a thought, a long shot that had begun to form in his mind. And then he called Feldott, because there seemed nothing else to do.
‘I have to believe Glet left traces,’ Rigg said.
‘What traces?’
‘Traces – notes, memos, something – of those fireworks,’ Rigg said.