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CHAPTER 103

I HAD A nightmare-filled night, and in the morning, as I rushed to do chores, take care of our dog and the kiddo, get out of the house and on the way to work, I forgot what I’d dreamed.

My phone rang at eight thirty while I was still driving to the Hall. The caller ID read: RC .

“Rich?”

“Yeah, Lindsay, I’ve got some pretty big news. When will you be in the squad room?”

“Ten minutes, depending.”

“Don’t stop for coffee. We’re meeting with Brady. And Cindy.”

“What?”

“Here’s a clue. ‘I said. You dead.’ More later.”

“I can’t hear you, Richie. Static on the line.”

He laughed at me.

“I’m counting on coffee,” I said.

I arrived in eleven minutes and spent an extra three going from my car to the entrance of the great granite cube of a building with carved letters over the main door reading, HALL OF JUSTICE .

After taking an elevator to our floor, I shoved open the squad room door and did the same to the hip-high wooden gate just inside.

Bobby Nussbaum was at his station at the front desk.

He said, “Morning, Sarge. They’re waiting for you.”

I looked down the center aisle and saw that Brady’s office was full. I waved at Nussbaum and kept walking down the aisle. Conklin opened Brady’s door for me and gave me his chair. Before I could even wonder why Cindy was in Brady’s office, I was in the chair beside her, and she was glowing.

I said, “Morning, Lieu, everyone.”

I propped my feet up on the edge of Brady’s desk. I wasn’t trying to look nonchalant, but I was getting an average of three hours of sleep a night. My smartwatch told me so.

Brady passed me a cup of coffee across his desk, asked me how I was, and I said, “Fine. Considering.”

He nodded sympathetically, then said, “Cindy is bucking for our jobs.”

“I cannot wait to hear this,” I said. I meant it.

I sipped my coffee, looking up at Richie, who could not hide the glee lighting him up.

Brady said, “Boxer. Cindy met with Angela Palmer’s mother, Joann Kinney. Cindy, if I get this wrong, say something.”

“You know I will, Lieutenant.”

More laughter, this time from all of us. We knew Cindy well.

Brady said, “Girl Reporter, you have the floor.”

Cindy looked damned pleased.

She said, “Thank you, all. She leaned forward and put a small digital recorder on the surface of Brady’s desk.

Cindy said. “Joann Kinney, Angela’s mother, thinks Brett Palmer killed her daughter. It’s just her opinion. I was about to leave her house after our interview, and as an afterthought, she gave me this recorder.

“This gadget belonged to Brett Palmer, who was at the Kinneys’ condo after Angela’s death. Apparently, he stopped there en route to a ‘business’ trip, and he was packing and repacking assorted bags and cases. Later, Joann Kinney told me, Palmer called her from the airport saying he’d misplaced his digital diary and asked if she had found it. She looked for it but didn’t find it, and texted Brett that she didn’t have it—then.

“She eventually found the device a year or more later and kept it, but she didn’t listen to it. So, she gave it to me. I played it for Richie and he called Brady. Lindsay. Here comes the message. The first voice is Brett. The other voice is his stepbrother, Nate.”

Cindy turned on the recorder and I recognized Brett’s voice from our meeting at the Ritz with Cindy a couple of days ago. Brett was saying, “It still makes me furious. Angela kept calling. Texting. She sent me a pair of her panties. I had told her no in every way imaginable. I told her, ‘All I’ve got left is the sweat on my balls.’ She still wouldn’t quit. So. You know. I said, ‘You dead.’”

Cindy said to me, “Next. This is Nate speaking.”

“Good job, bro. I never liked that bitch.”

Cindy turned off the recorder and looked at me.

I was in shock, but I took my feet down from the edge of the desk. Was I getting this right? Had Brett Palmer just admitted to wanting to kill his ex-wife? Had he gone further than that and actually killer her … and others? Was he the “I said. You dead” killer?

Brady said, “Thanks, Cindy. I’ll log the recorder in evidence. Conklin. Boxer. Find Brett Palmer and bring him in.”