Hardwick had his acid-reflux expression. “You’re saying that Alyssa might have discovered that he was arranging for her removal, and that she hired someone to hit him first?”
“Something like that. At least that would be consistent with the Angelidis theory. A simpler version would be that it was entirely her initiative—that Carl never made a move against her—that she was after his money, pure and simple, and had him killed.”
“But according to his will, Kay was his sole beneficiary. Alyssa wasn’t going to get anything. So what good would—”
Gurney broke in. “Alyssa wouldn’t get anything unless Kay went down for the murder. Once Kay was convicted, New York law would block her inheritance and Carl’s whole estate would be passed down to Alyssa.”
Hardwick grinned with the dawning light of possibilities. “That could explain everything. That could explain why she was fucking Klemper, to get him to bend the case. She could even have been fucking her mother’s boyfriend, to get him to perjure himself at trial. She’s a stone-cold addict—she’d fuck a monkey for dope.”
Esti looked troubled. “Maybe her father wasn’t having sex with her after all. Maybe that was just a story she told Klemper. To get his sympathy.”
“Sympathy, my ass! She probably figured it would turn him on.”
Esti’s expression moved slowly from revulsion to agreement. “Shit. Everything I think about that man keeps getting worse.” She paused, made a note on her pad. “So Alyssa’s a possible suspect. And so is Jonah. What about Kay’s boyfriend?”
Hardwick shook his head. “Not in the preemptive strike structure we’re talking about. I don’t see Carl taking out a contract on him. I don’t think he’d waste the money. There’d be easier ways to get rid of him. And I sure as hell can’t see young Darryl in the position of discovering that he’s the target of a potential hit and reacting by organizing a faster hit.”
“Okay, but forget about the preemptive thing for a minute,” said Esti. “Couldn’t Darryl have killed Carl in the hope that his relationship with Kay might grow into something better for him once Kay had all the money? What do you think, Dave?”
“In the video of the trial he doesn’t look like he’d have the smarts or the guts for it. A little perjury—maybe. But a well-planned triple murder? I doubt it. The guy was a minimum-wage lifeguard and pool boy at the Spalters’ country club—not exactly Day of the Jackal assassin material. Also, I’m having a hard time picturing him smashing an old lady’s head or hammering nails into somebody’s eyes.”
Hardwick was shaking his head. “This is fucked up. None of it feels right to me. The three murders have three completely different methods and styles. I don’t see a straight line running through them. Something’s missing. Anybody here share that feeling?”
Gurney offered a small affirmative nod. “There’s a lot missing. Speaking of the MO issue, there’s no record in the case file that it was ever explored through ViCAP. Am I right?”
“In Klemper’s view,” said Esti, “Kay shot Carl. Period. Why would he fill out the ViCAP form or look into any other databases? It’s not like the bastard had an open mind.”
“I get that. But it would be helpful if we could run the key data now—at least through ViCAP. And it would be nice to know if NCIC has anything on any of the key individuals, dead or alive. And Interpol, too, at least for Gus Gurikos.” Gurney glanced from Esti to Hardwick and back. “Can either of you do any of that without creating a problematic trail?”
“Maybe I could get the ViCAP and NCIC parts done,” said Esti after a moment. The way she said “maybe” meant she could get it done, but by a route she was not about to reveal. “For ViCAP, what data bits are you most interested in?”
“To avoid being swamped with results, concentrate on the oddities—the most peculiar elements at each of the murder sites—and use those as the search terms.”
“Like ‘.220 Swift’—the Long Falls gun caliber?”
“Right. And ‘suppressor’ or ‘silencer’ combined with ‘rifle.’ ”
She made some quick notes. “Okay, what else?”
“ ‘Firecrackers.’ ”
“What?”
“Witnesses at the cemetery heard firecrackers going off around the time that Carl was hit. If that was an attempt to conceal the residual sound of the suppressed muzzle blast, it may have been a technique the shooter used before, and a witness may have mentioned it to an investigator, and the investigator may have entered it on his ViCAP form.”
“Jesus,” said Hardwick. “That’s one goddamn way-out long shot.”
“It’s worth a try.”
Esti was tapping her pen again on her pad. “You’re assuming the shooter was a pro?”
“Feels that way to me.”
“Okay. Any other search terms?”
“ ‘Cemetery’ and ‘funeral.’ If the shooter went to the trouble of killing someone just to set his main victim up at the grave, maybe the same thing’s worked for him before.”
As she was writing, Gurney added, “All the surnames connected with the case should be searched as well—Spalter, Angelidis, Gurikos. Also, we need to run Darryl’s surname, the surnames of the other prosecution witnesses, and Kay’s maiden name. You can find them all in the trial transcript.”
Hardwick spoke with loathing in his voice. “Don’t forget to include ‘nails,’ ‘nails in eyes,’ ‘nails in ears,’ ‘nails in throat.’ ”
Esti nodded, then asked Gurney, “Anything from the mother’s location?”
“That one’s not so easy. You could look for homicides set up as bathtub falls, homicides involving floral deliveries, even the fake florist name—Flowers by Florence—but that feels like an even longer shot than the firecrackers.”
“I think this is enough to keep me busy for a while.”
“Jack, I recall from the Jillian Perry case that you might know somebody at Interpol. That still true?”
“Far as I know.”
“Maybe you could see what they have on Gurikos?”
“I can try. No promises.”
“You think you could also take a stab at tracking down the main prosecution witnesses?”
He nodded slowly. “Freddie, who testified that Kay was in the apartment building at the time of the shooting … Jimmy Flats, the con who said Kay tried to hire him to whack Carl … and Darryl, the boyfriend who said she tried the same line on him?”
“Those three at least.”
“I’ll see what I can do. You thinking we might squeeze a perjury admission out of one of them?”
“That would be nice. But mainly, I’d like to know that they’re alive and reachable.”
“Alive?” Hardwick looked like he was thinking what Gurney was thinking. If at the heart of the mystery was an individual capable of doing what was done to Gus Gurikos, then anything was possible. The possibilities were horrendous.
The notion of horrendous possibilities brought Klemper to mind. “I almost forgot to mention this,” said Gurney, “but your favorite BCI investigator was waiting for me when I got home this afternoon from my meeting with Angelidis.”