Page 22

Fornier folded his arms across his chest. “Exactly that. A cockroach. Anis Tera doesn’t have the nerve or the strength to do something like that.” He nodded at the photos in front ofhim.
“Mr. Fornier, we’re going to have you work with a sketch artist to come up with a likeness of the man you knew as Anis Tera.” Nyle left the room silently. Ethan continued, “In the meantime, I want you to tell us everything you recall abouthim.”
The other man looked at both of them askance. “You’re wasting your time, I’m telling you. He wouldn’t have the balls to come near Felix again.” A sly smile crossed his face. “And I know that for afact.”
* * *
They huddledwith Lieutenant Martin in the room next door, where the man had been watching the interview on CCTV with the Crown prosecutor. “Edouard Cote is an accomplished forensic artist,” he was telling them. “He can often tease out physical descriptions from the most recalcitrantwitnesses.”
Ethan wished he could share the lieutenant’s optimism. They’d spent several minutes trying to get details about Tera’s appearance before leaving Fornier. He’d come up with little more than short, weak, and brown hair. Cote was going to need to be gifted indeed to develop a sketch they coulduse.
In the meantime, the requested warrant had arrived for Simard’s effects at the hotel. At Ethan’s request, Martin had sent a couple of men to pick them up. The laptop would be overnighted to the Ottawa crime lab. Even if it had been replaced since the blackmail messages three years ago, there might be information regarding the man’s business that he was sure the Montreal police would findinteresting.
He slanted a look at Alexa. “You zeroed in on Fornier as soon as he mentioned the alias Anis Tera.” And itwasan alias; they could be fairly sure of that. A quick search of the Internet revealed no Canadian by thatname.
“Anis. That’s Swedish, isn’t it?” put inMartin.
“Anis Tera.Anisoptera. It’s the scientific infraorder name fordragonflies.”
“Holy shit,” Ethan muttered. “I perked up when Fornier mentioned the white van Simard thought was following him. But that name…you’re right. It’s too damn similar not to be him.” They’d never released the information about the insect samples in the victim’s mouths, although the media pressed them for more details nearly every interview. The cautious side of him tempered his flare of excitement, but he couldn’t prevent a lick of adrenaline from spreading through his veins. They’d had suspects before on the earlier task force. But this fit too neatly for it to fizzle the way the othershad.
“Just this morning some kids reported spotting a 2014 or older white Ford Econoline above the embankment of the crime scene,” Ethan told Lieutenant Martin. The other man’s eyes widened in understanding. “And now Fornier reveals that Simard mentioned seeing this Tera in a white van. That can’t be acoincidence.”
“If the UNSUB drove the vehicle from New Brunswick, there are limited ways into Nova Scotia,” Nyle said, as Ethan opened his laptop and brought up a map of the province. “His second victim was in Fredericton, and he needed to come to Halifax forSimard.”
“Fastest driving route would be from Fredericton to Moncton, where he’d catch the Trans-Canada Highway,” muttered Ethan as he scanned the map he’d brought up. “That has tolls, though.” Which meant cameras. “It would be nearly two and half hours longer to circumvent the toll roads and drive to the St. John’s ferry. Nyle.” The other man was peering at the computer over his shoulder. “Check where the highway cameras are for the roads on all theseroutes.”
“Highway traffic cameras won’t show driver images,” Nyle warned. As Ethan straightened from the computer, the other man took his place. “But the cameras at the toll roads…yeah, maybe…” He begantyping.
“I have some men I can put at your disposal,” Lieutenant Martin putin.
“Thanks. I’m sure we can use them.” But he needed to talk to Captain Campbell, immediately. Ethan looked at Alexa. “The kids spotted the van on Friday. Simard saw it Saturdayevening.”
“And he was dead early Mondaymorning.”
Ethan nodded. He needed to issue a BOLO alert on the van, which wasn’t going to be easy without a license plate. If the UNSUB was still in the province, they wanted to prevent him fromleaving.
His mind was racing. They had the Anis Tera alias to give to all transportation centers to stop the UNSUB from buying a ticket to leave Nova Scotia. But he was under no allusions that the man had only one alias. “No reason for him to still be in the vicinity.” There was a burn of frustration at the possibility that the man might have already escaped them. “Unless…”
She picked up his thought. “Unless he’s planning on a second victimhere.”
He took his phone out and pressed the numbers to callCampbell.
“Ethan?” He looked at Alexa questioningly, his cell already up to his ear. “We need more information from Fornier about the intel that brought Simard here. There should be a safety check done on Vance, and anyone else included in thatintelligence.”
“You’reright.”
Campbell came on the phone then. “I was just about to call you, Manning. That press conference has been set for today, in less than threehours.”
Somehow Ethan had managed to put the prospect of a news conference out of his head. Wincing, he said, “Maybe we should hold off. We’ve got a person of interest in the case, and I need all the resources you can bring to bear to shut off his possible routes out of the province. If he is still here, I want to keep it thatway.”