Page 76 of Every Last One
The librarian looked at the screen. “The last time someone took that book out was eight months prior.”
That suggested that Mindy Ashmore had, in fact, assumed the username Alaya Princess, but he had to be sure. And if the foursome communicated once through a book, they had likely done it before. “Do these four people share a history with any other books in recent months?” He doubted their conspiracy went back further than that.
“Let me see.” The librarian returned to the computer and confirmed the four of them held two other books in common. Both on tax law, and they dated before the one Eric had found in Perkins’s apartment.
“Could I see them?”
“Sure. They’re all here.”
A handful of minutes later, Eric was thumbing through the books. They held more in common than their topic. The interior lining had been compromised in both. This more than cemented things for Eric. He had the identity of their shot caller.
FORTY-TWO
5:40 PM
Sandra was considering trying to reach Alaya again when Neal came into the vehicle holding his phone and looking victorious. He’d stepped out for some fresh air, and he must have gotten a good call.
“Detective Birch is on speaker. Go ahead,” Neal told Eric.
“The shot caller is Mindy Ashmore, thirty-seven, married to Dylan Ashmore, forty-one. The four accomplices have been passing notes in books for a few months now.”
“The same book?” Brice asked.
“No, there were three total. I couldn’t recover any of the other notes, though.”
Gibson pecking away on his keyboard was slightly distracting, but Sandra shut him out. “Perkins was probably responsible for destroying them.”
“He just never got around to the latest one?” Eric tossed back, and it had her thinking.
“His holding on to it might have been intentional,” she said. “He must have figured the police would be led to his home at some point. This could be something he planned to hand over to make a deal for himself?”
“Possible, I suppose,” Eric consented.
“Ah”—Gibson spun around—“there’s no one close to Mindy Ashmore marked as deceased.”
“Lieutenant Coleman, anything else I can do for you?” Eric asked.
“Someone needs to talk to Mindy’s husband,” she said, and quickly felt that she’d crossed the line with Neal. “It could be insightful. We still don’t have a clear picture of her motive here, but if I can get her to surrender, the rest will likely follow her lead.”
“You assume that, though Tom Sparling was following his own agenda when he shot two people,” Gibson pointed out.
Sandra considered. It might not hurt to have Sparling’s daughter and Perkins’s mother on standby either. She shared as much with the team.
Neal eventually nodded. “I agree. Detective Birch, please go have a chat with Tom’s daughter. I’ll get other officers on the rest.”
“Sure thing,” Eric told him and ended the call.
“Actually,” Sandra said, gaining Neal’s gaze. “Maybe we should have Dylan Ashmore brought here.” There were times involving a close relative of a hostage taker worked against peaceful resolution, but with Mindy seemingly at the root of today’s incident she wanted him on hand to make that determination. He could also provide insight into her health without making a warrant for her medical records necessary.
“Should we round up Sparling’s daughter and Perkins’s mother too?” Brice asked.
“We’re going to need a bigger vehicle,” Gibson quipped.
“I think as long as they are on standby, that’s good enough,” Neal said. “But I agree that Dylan Ashmore needs to be brought here. I’ll get an officer to bring him in.”
Sandra only hoped what Mindy’s husband had to say would help end this thing once and for all. She turned to the emergencydirector and said, “Luis, now that we have names, can you find out from the billing department if our perps owed the hospital and for how much? Not for what, just dollars and cents.”
“Yeah, I should be able to do that.”
