Page 46 of Crash and Burn

The arched passage into the dining room revealed the laptops set up on the table. If Marina had looked in the front window, it would have been obvious what the two of them were doing. Instead, the officer, still in her uniform, sat on the couch. Her hands twisted in front of her.

Definitely not an official visit,Sebastian thought. “What's going on, Marina?”

She took a breath and opened her mouth as if to speak. But she looked between the two of them to gauge the situation first. She must have found it acceptable, because she said, “There have been updates and I don't think the Feds or the department has been sharing them with you two …?”

Sebastian turned to look at Maggie and found her looking back at him, one eyebrow up, confirming Marina’s suspicions. “We haven't gotten anything.”

“That's what I was afraid of.”

“What's going on?” Maggie asked.

“The FBI has been hard at work. So that's really good news,” Marina said it as though she needed to couch what she was going to say next. “They've been going back and re-interviewing victims. Re-examining the crime scenes and cross-checking dates. Everything is getting reopened now that the two cases are intertwined.”

“What have they decided about that?”

“Everything and nothing. I wish I had something substantial, but I don’t. The jewelry you gave them seems to say that the two are working together—”

“So they've confirmed there are two separate perpetrators?” Sebastian interrupted.

“That's the working theory. But, no, it’s not fully confirmed.” Marina answered.

It was the same conclusion he and Maggie had come to. So it didn't surprise him, but Maggie had more questions.

“What about DNA and evidence, wouldn’t that indicate that it was two separate people? I mean, if they found the same evidence at the scene, they would have linked the two before this …”

“Right, but if the two of them are working together, they may be primary or secondary on certain things. So yes, there are two people involved, but we don’t fully know that the crimes are as separated as we originally thought. In fact, the discovery of the trophy hoard is clearly evidence that it’s not.”

Though they were both nodding along, Sebastian hated that it meant they still didn’t have enough information.

Marina kept talking. “And when they look at the patterns and the dates, the overlaps in time now provide new information.”

Sebastian looked to Maggie again and found her frowning at him, but Marina plowed ahead.

“The big concern is whether one or the other lived here at the boardinghouse for any extended period of time. The other possibility as that they were both in contact with a third person who was keeping the jewelry for them.”

Now Marina turned to Maggie, her expression pleading. “I hate to tell you this, but they're going to be investigating your aunt.”

“I figured as much,” Maggie said. Though her tone was resigned, Sebastian saw that Marina looked relieved. “I mean, these things were found in her home. And she was the one who accepted or rejected the borders. Innocent or not, she was involved.”

Though Maggie's voice was steady, Sebastian could hear the pain underneath. It was hard to lose your childhood heroes, or even to think that they might have made a mistake. Something told him there was even more at stake for Maggie though …

“There are also some updates on the silver sedan,” Marina told them. “I don't think anyone gave you those either.”

“What updates?” Sebastian was curious now, not just confirming Marina’s suspicions. The officers should have been watching the house, much the way he and Maggie were. But he’d been the only one chasing the car that had peeled out. And, if the officers had managed to tail the guy, why did he keep coming back?

“So the thing about the silver sedan,” Marina told them, “is that we don't know that it's this perpetrator’s car. Even if it is, we don't know if it's the same car they've had for years. However, there was a silver sedan mentioned in recent witness interviews in the case of the La Vista Rapist.”

Sebastian turned to look at Maggie, stunned and furious.Were the officers leaving the La Vista Rapist sitting outside Maggie’s door?He tried to ask a calm reasonable question. “Did they have it narrowed down to make or model or anything else?”

Marina shook her head. “Just ‘silver sedan,’ and it’s only been associated with recent cases. So we're probably looking for someone who purchased a silver sedan between two and four years ago.”

Sebastian was trying to figure out how they’d come up with that time.

It was Maggie who explained. “There was a two-year gap in the cases. They wondered if he'd moved away or quit.” Then she looked back to Marina. “I'm assuming they're looking into reasons why he might not have attacked in the intervening years.”

“Yes, and also why victims might not have come forward. It's entirely possible he was fully operational and no one reported it.”

Sebastian nodded, he did understand that one. He was sympathetic to both sides.

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