Alone in the murder room, Kristeva sat at a table paging through the Singer report until he located the bare-bones profile the missing detective had made of the group he'd been investigating. He pulled this out and set it beside a copy of July Lockett's autopsy results he'd had e-mailed from Dr. Steiner, then dug in the folder of mixed reports and printouts and located the news article about Mark Kincaid's suicide. He went to one of the dry-erase boards and taped up each page, one below another, and stared at them for a while as he chewed on the end of a marker. The pattern looked clearer to him, but that didn't mean he wasn't just grasping at straws.
A double knock at the door made him jerk a little, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Devetko peer in. On reaching the station they'd first gone to their desks and turned on their computers, Kristeva to request the copy of the autopsy and do a little searching, Devetko to do whatever it was he must do on his computer, but when Kristeva had mentioned needing a little time sorting things out, the other detective had excused himself to go speak with Chief Bowen. Kristeva had been tempted to check out the storage room behind his office, but had refrained.
"Hope everything went well," he said mildly.
"Just sorting something out." Devetko looked at the board. "This is what you had on your mind?"
"I know it doesn't look like much, and maybe it isn't. But it's not like we have much else going on at the moment." He stepped aside so the papers were in view as Devetko sat at the table like a student in class. "We'll start with the most innocuous one. Mark Kincaid." He tapped the printout. "News article from shortly after he died. An interview with a local guy, Phil Falcon, knew Mark somewhat."
"The Falcon's Nest. Makes sense that he would've gone there often."
"According to Phil, and I asked him about this myself, Mark was romantically involved with someone at the time. 'Everything seemed to be going great with his life, he was doing good at his job, had a kid to look out for, started seeing a lady.' I looked up pictures of the funeral, and aside from cops, there were no other women present. Whoever this lady friend was, she couldn't be bothered to show up."
Devetko shrugged. "There could be all kinds of reasons for that. Maybe it was too stressful for her, like what happened with Trooper Condry's fiancee. Maybe she was asked not to attend. Or maybe Phil misread things and it was more of a 'friends with benefits'-type situation."
"All possible. I don't really care about the specifics anyway, just pointing out that one moment there was this woman in his life, then there wasn't." He tapped the second printout without a further comment, earning a puzzled frown from Devetko. "Second one. July Lockett or whoever the hell she was. I tried looking up info on her, but aside from the news reports about her death, it's the dead end Steiner said it would be. I was kind of hoping he or the original investigators had overlooked something...but apparently not. From the looks of it, July simply didn't exist until she introduced herself to the people involved in the Jenner/Cooper case, which ended up also being her own murder case. A witness at the trial--one of the out-of-state parties--claimed that July approached him at the Falcon's Nest and got him to meet her in public but only after following a ruse...like she thought she was being watched. She provided some information about Sgt. Kincaid's raid, info which wasn't--and still isn't--readily available, so it looks like she had firsthand or immediate secondhand knowledge of things that other people close to the case didn't have." He stepped away from the board and rifled through the folder. "Incidentally...the line of questioning the prosecutor used was kind of odd. He asked the witness about certain claims July had made regarding a criminal group. The witness said, quote-unquote, 'You mean cult?' The prosecutor said he meant a group involved in organized criminal activities, and the questioning went on from there."
"I'm not sure I follow why that's odd."
"Just that it seems strange how insistent the DA was about avoiding usage of that particular term, when the witness seemed quite ready and willing to use it to describe what July told him about. Kind of echoes the note Mark Kincaid applied to his own report advising Chief Bowen to make sure any mention of a 'cult' be kept from the public record or criminal proceedings so people might take it more seriously." He closed the folder. "But anyway. July Lockett had no identity before she popped up in this case. Her fingerprints aren't on file, and her driver's license is a fake. Nobody can find any work or family or birth records for her. Which brings us to the third one." He tapped the bottom page. "Det. Singer's profile of the 'criminal group.' I haven't been able to locate the entire profile, if it even still exists, but a good part of it was included in his report. He was the first one to refer to this 'criminal group' as a cult. I don't know if you've read the whole thing..."
"I did."
"...So you might remember when he started talking about the role of women in this 'criminal group.'" Kristeva picked up the marker and wrote on the board beside the page: Women are disposable. "That doesn't mean they didn't have their uses, though," he added, setting the marker back down. "One role he mentioned was what the literature typically calls 'breeders.' Exactly what it sounds like," he said in response to the unpleasant face Devetko made. "Cults need members and they need victims, and it's far easier to just manufacture them oneself than to go out and scoop them off the street, especially if they have friends and family who'd miss them. Eliminate some of that fuss by recruiting women to have babies--babies who are essentially without birth certificates or personal histories or identities. Blank slates nobody would ever miss, because nobody knew they were alive to start with."
He turned from the board, prepared to explain, but the look on Devetko's face told him he didn't need to. Devetko was staring at the second page on the board, a miserable sort of understanding in his eyes.
"July Lockett," he said.
Kristeva paused, then stepped aside again when he stood and approached the board, taking down the page with July's autopsy results and driver's license photo and staring at it. "I'm not saying that's definitely what happened..."
"It would explain things," Devetko murmured. "Including why she had inside knowledge of the Kincaid raid. She could have been involved, or could have heard about it from somebody who was in on things."
"She also had knowledge about what had happened to Kinnie before the raid...stuff they didn't go over in trial, but it was included in the police report of her murder. Same witness who mentioned a 'cult.'"
"And it would explain why she acted like she was being watched."
"Incidentally..." Kristeva said again, retrieving the folder and paging through it, "July was in possession of a white German shepherd shortly before she died. Kinnie took ownership of it afterward. Probably means nothing. But German shepherds are good guard dogs, as in keeping people away from stuff they want to remain hidden. And are especially intimidating when somebody cuts them up for display."
Devetko grimaced. "Any of these animal mutilations are of German shepherds...?"
"Not many, but a few. No white ones that I know of. But who knows, maybe they prefer to keep the white ones alive."
Devetko replaced the printout. "This could connect July with Singer's report, and with the Kincaid raid, though I don't really follow what it has to do with Sgt. Kincaid's suicide."
Kristeva touched the Singer report. "Another possible use for women. Singer doesn't go into lots of detail...and considering the circumstances, I think I know why...but he does hint at something." He picked up the marker and wrote on the board: Sometimes used as bait. When he turned and saw the look of utter confusion on Devetko's face, he shrugged. "I thought you said you read the thing..."
"I did. And yes, I remember that line. He didn't explain it, though, so I thought maybe part of the report had been omitted around there."
"What it likely means..."
"I know what it likely means. Women can be used for a type of recruiting. Especially of men. Hit on them, offer them sexual favors, draw them in. What I don't get is..." He trailed off, staring at the board. "Oh. Shit."
Kristeva blinked, not having expected that sort of response at all. He stood silent while Devetko took down Singer's report, then the Kincaid news article, poring over one and then the other. "Shit," he said again.
Kristeva tilted his head a little as if to try to look up into his face. "Mind sharing what you're shitting about...?"
"Why didn't anybody ever follow up on any of this?" Devetko gave him a glare that was almost accusatory, though he could tell it wasn't aimed at him specifically. "Find this woman Singer was having an affair with. And track down this 'lady' Sgt. Kincaid was supposedly seeing. If this means what it sounds like it means, then that's at least two people who could have firsthand knowledge of two criminal cases."
"Two--?"
"Singer's disappearance, and Sgt. Kincaid's suicide."
Kristeva frowned. "Last I knew, suicide doesn't make a criminal case."
"It does if that person was drugged into killing himself."
Kristeva pursed his lips now. "So...you believe there's actually a case, here...?"
"That's what you've been trying to convince me of all along, isn't it?"
Kristeva said nothing to this, and when Devetko looked at him he shrugged. "Sorry. Just that I'm used to this being the point where people look at me like I'm nuts, and then everyone moves on." He gestured at the board. "Maybe somebody would've looked into it...if it hadn't seemed like everybody involved wanted the case closed, or was too busy getting murdered. Welcome to my life--this is the sort of shit I look into. Because nobody else wants to do it." Not wanting a reply to this, he took down July's printout, and retrieved the other two from Devetko. "Chief Bowen is likely the one who ordered the case sealed. He might still find out about that, by the way, if Buchanan decides to get pissy, well, pissier than he already is, at least. I'll handle that if and when it happens. But anyway, I already brought it up with him at the start, and he's not interested in opening things up again. So that's one reason nobody's ever followed up. As for the other reason...nobody seems to know who these pieces of 'bait' are. Phil didn't have much to offer aside from saying maybe I should ask Kinnie, because Kinnie's seen this woman, but good luck with something like that, I'm amazed I even got that prison form from him. And Singer's bait, I don't know anybody who might have ever seen or met her, aside from Singer himself, and you saw him, he's not talking."
"Singer had family, didn't he? That photo you showed me. A wife and kid...?"
"Wife and niece. Ex-wife and niece...his case file was last updated when she divorced him. Probably a legal matter. Brenda Singer..." He made a face. "Correction...Brenda Pierce...is deceased. Cheryl Singer--the niece--still lives in the old house and is willing to offer any info she has, but she's already done that. Never met this lady, that she can recall. Only knows that there was a lady, and her uncle got too into his work, and that's that. Do you have any suggestions for who else to ask about this bait? I'm not being catty, I've just run out of ideas, and you seem to think on a different wavelength, so maybe you've got something I've missed."
Devetko frowned at him but then looked at the notes Kristeva had written on the board. "Phil couldn't offer much about Bait Number One?"
"Pretty, long dark hair, late twenties or thirties. Considerably older by now, I suppose."
"And Singer didn't offer any hints about Bait Number Two."
"Only vague references to her in her capacity as informant. Naturally, he didn't let on in the report that he was probably doing her, though it looks like it was a pretty open secret around here."
"Well...maybe that means somebody else around here saw her, then?"
Kristeva frowned at the board now. "I doubt he would've brought her to the station...and nobody's ever come forward since then. Who knows if she's even still alive. I don't want to guess what they do to bait that doesn't do its job properly..."
"Singer and Sgt. Kincaid worked here around the same time, right?--and were both working on this case, just not in collaboration with each other."
"There was a little bit of overlap, yes. Mark picked up where Singer left off."
"Sgt. Kincaid might have gotten a look at this lady. This might even have been part of the reason they sent bait after him--if this entire scenario is true."
"Well..." Kristeva held up his hands. "Do you know how to talk to the dead--? Because I'm game, if you can figure that out."
Devetko rolled his eyes. "I don't mean Mark, idiot, I mean Kinnie. Dr. Steiner suggested he probably knows a lot more about everything that's been going on behind the scenes, and Phil hinted at the same thing. Even if he wasn't rescued yet when Bait Number Two was in the picture, Mark might've had some info about her, and might have passed it on to him." He paused, as if awaiting a reply, then crossed his arms. "You've gone through all this and you're not willing to talk to him? Seriously? You'd rather visit a prison, and bother a guy in a coma, and do...whatever it is that Buchanan guy had you do, but you won't talk to our lieutenant."
Kristeva made a face. "Buchanan is just a garden-variety asshole. Kinnie? I know you're new here, but frankly, he scares the shit out of me, and out of Hawthorne and Tulie and DelBora, and I'm pretty damn sure he scares the shit out of Sheriff Rhoades and Chief Bowen, too. Has Tulie told you the story yet about them having to replace his office window after he threw a letter opener through it, apparently just because--?"
"I don't know why that bothers you, you sound like two peas in a pod."
"I'm going to let that one go, only because I have to. Are you volunteering to question him, then--? Because by all means, be my guest."
Devetko gave him a sour look and took the files from his hand, a bit abruptly. "As much as it pains me to say it...you're the lead investigator, on this case you aren't even supposed to be working, and yet have still somehow managed to drag me and everyone else into. But if you're going to be such a pansy about it, sure, I can do the questioning."
Kristeva raised his eyebrows. "'Pansy'--?"
"I'd appreciate it if you at least took down a few notes about what exactly it is we need to ask him, though. Just so we don't overlook anything important. And I'm good, but do you need to psych yourself up any--?" When Kristeva started to scowl he shrugged. "You're the one he scares the shit out of, not me. You can sleep on it and we can talk to him tomorrow."
Kristeva's scowl shifted back into a slight wince as he suddenly remembered the day. "Tomorrow morning's not good...it'll have to be the afternoon. I won't be in until then."
"A prior engagement--?"
"A mandated one. Every other week."
Devetko blinked. Then shifted his eyes away, tapping the files into order. "Sorry," he said, and Kristeva felt mildly surprised that it sounded like he meant it. He turned away to break the awkwardness that had entered the room, picking up an eraser and wiping the board clean.
"Yeah, well...you don't need me breaking your shiny new umbrella. I'll be in by noon. I imagine you'll put together a decent line of questioning, you seem to know what you're doing." He put the eraser down and turned back. "Oh. One thing, though. We'll have to try to fly below the radar, and by that I mean, not draw Bowen's attention. Because Kinnie might scare the shit out of everyone, but Bowen's the one in charge. And even if Kinnie agrees to talk, I doubt he'd like us to be asking Kinnie about this stuff."
Devetko frowned a little--Kristeva sensed that the convoluted politics of the Minot Police Department perplexed him--but offered a short nod. They pushed the chairs and board back and left the murder room in the state it had been in before their visit.
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