Page 38 of Dead Man's List

No one wanted this case, it seemed. Kit certainly didn’t.

She sighed. “We have a million suspects and we haven’t talked to any of them but the wife. We’ve spent all day tracking the trailer the killer used to get Munro and his Ferrari—”

“And his Rolex,” Connor inserted.

Kit nodded. “And his Rolex out of the gated community.”

“Well, we’ll keep an eye out for chatter on the Ferrari and the Rolex,” Goddard said, his Southern accent seeming thicker than normal, “but I wouldn’t hold out a whole lotta hope. It’s not a specialty collection, like coins and paintings. But we’ll put outfeelers at pawn shops and chop shops. Rolexes show up at pawn shops all the time. The Ferrari will probably be repainted and sold as-is.”

“We were wondering if the killer might not just keep them,” Connor said.

Goddard made a thoughtful face. “As souvenirs? Maybe. There was a lot of rage in that crime. Someone had a powerful need for revenge.”

“Or someones,” Kit said reluctantly. “The ME says it looks like a mob hit. Like, not the mafia, but a group of people.”

“Lucky, lucky you,” Goddard drawled. “We can put out feelers for the trailer, too. That’s a loose end.”

“It won’t still be wrapped,” Connor said. “That was a temporary way to hide it. Easy enough to remove it himself.”

“Or herself,” Kit murmured. “The mutilation of his genitalia may indicate a female doer. But Munro was a big man. Would be harder for a woman to drag him under that boulder in a windstorm.”

“Unless she had a wheelbarrow,” Goddard said.

“It’s possible. Any tracks in the sand were long gone when Sam and I found his body. Or, more correctly, when our dogs found the body.”

Goddard grinned. “So you and Sam finally had your date.”

Kit frowned. Did everyone know about their date? “Kind of.”

“Was it nice?” Goddard asked slyly. He was a shit-stirrer for sure. He’d asked Kit out, but Kit thought that was only because he’d wanted to nudge Sam into doing so himself.

Which made Kit feel protective of Sam. Another feeling she wasn’t used to yet.

“It was very nice until we found a dead body,” Kit said dryly. “Next topic, please.”

Connor smirked, then sobered. “Were you able to get into Shelley Porter’s cloud account?”

Kit nodded and brought Goddard, Marshall, and Ashton up to speed on their newest victims. “Jeff in IT got into her account. Shelley exchanged several texts with what turned out to be a burner phone. At this point it looks like she thought she was dealing with David Norton. The customer said that he was cash-strapped and that he’d give her the money for the wrap job in cash if he could pay in installments. Offered her sixty percent of the total for starters, which came out to about four grand. That had to have been a lot of money for an addict like Shelley making minimum wage at her aunt’s auto body shop.”

Goddard whistled. “That’s a lot of money for most people.”

“True enough,” Kit agreed, not looking at Connor. She suspected that wasn’t a lot of money for him, but she really didn’t want to know for sure. “According to her texts with her boyfriend Ace, Shelley planned to leave town with the cash. She asked Ace to run away with her, but Ace told her no, that the money she’d be getting wouldn’t last them a month on the road. Which surprised me, to be honest. From what I’d heard, he’s a thug and would have snatched that money in a heartbeat. But in the texts, he tried to get her to stay.”

“How did her killer get her cell phone number?” Marshall asked.

Kit sighed. “The body shop’s call log shows that the burner number called their main line, and I assume he talked to Shelley. He might have gotten her number then. If he asked about paying on the side, she would have been happy to give him her cell so that her aunt didn’t get suspicious. The first text from the burner number said, ‘Hey, it’s me. We talked on the phone about my wrap yesterday.’ ”

“Smooth,” Goddard said. “Gave no names, so nothing to triphimself up later. Does the body shop record their calls ‘for quality assurance’?” He used air quotes.

“No,” Kit said. “He must have known when Shelley would be there alone, and he had to have known she was the weakest link. We just need to figure out how.”

“Security footage?” Goddard asked.

Marshall shook his head. “Ashton and I went to the body shop with CSU. The security cameras were spray-painted over, just like at Munro’s house. So we got nothing there.”

“Have you talked to this Ace person yet?” Ashton asked.

Kit shook her head. “He’s our next stop. His real name is Calvin Livingstone.”

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