Page 44 of Three Girls Gone (Detective Amanda Steele #14)

THIRTY-EIGHT

Amanda paced outside Trent’s cubicle. Marshall Wilcox lacked imagination, choosing an alias so close to his own. Wilson M-Something. Please.

Katherine filled them in on her conversation with Leslie Gallagher. “I can’t believe after all this time we have the guy.”

“Having his name is one thing. Tracking the asshole down is another,” Trent pointed out.

“Is he always like that?” Katherine jacked a thumb toward Trent.

Amanda shook her head. “Usually the opposite, but he’s right. Wilcox isn’t going to make it easy for us to find him.”

“You sound like you’re defeated.”

“Then you don’t know me as well as I thought,” Amanda pushed back.

Katherine lifted her hands. “I apologize. It’s just after all this time the guy was right there, and I had no idea. He slipped right through.”

“Does this guy have a vehicle registered to him? A local address?” Amanda asked Trent.

“He just shows an NYC address. No vehicles tied to him,” he told her. “Current place of employment listed as the NYC venue.”

“Which is clearly out of date,” Katherine said. “I just told you that Wilcox was fired last fall. Another thing that stuck out to me was the boss described him as quiet around her. But he wasn’t quiet with interns.”

“So he is comfortable around people he sees as his equal,” Trent said. “He could have a problem with authority.”

“I thought the same, but his boss couldn’t say one way or the other.”

“We unravel that mystery, we might gain some insight into why this monster targets little girls,” Amanda said. “Do you know why he was fired?”

“All I was told was his incompetence got to be too much,” Katherine said. “But in response to the other thing you said… about why he targets girls. Statistically, the answer to that would go back to his childhood. Who hurt him? What did he suffer so that he thinks what he does is justifiable?”

Amanda looked at her friend. She’d had years to process Julie’s loss and consider the type of person who killed her. And while Katherine’s words suggested empathy, they had rolled off her tongue with a bitter malice.

“Well, if his termination was the proverbial straw,” Trent inserted, “I see how losing his job, combined with Katherine circling back to the venue, could have gotten his attention.”

“Thing is, though, he supposedly only popped by the party,” Katherine said.

“You can’t be doubting his guilt now. That’s what his former boss told you. She probably didn’t even pay him any attention,” Amanda said. “Same may apply to everyone else based on what I’ve heard. It sounds like this guy lives rather under the radar.”

“Which might be why he gets a thrill from crashing parties and pretending to be someone he isn’t,” Trent said.

“And he might have been fueled to do this more after he got away with doing so at the Gilberts’ party. After…” Amanda left the rest of that unsaid out of mercy for Katherine.

“He got a thrill from hurting Julie,” Katherine said, going right there.

“All right, priority one is finding this guy. Figuring out any properties he has connected to him and getting out there.” Amanda refused to give up. She wouldn’t fail Eloise like she had Hailey.

“As I said, only one address in NYC,” Trent said. “It looks like it’s an apartment.”

“Probably is,” Katherine said. “The Big Apple isn’t a cheap place to live, and someone who worked as an assistant wouldn’t have much money.”

“He must have low self-esteem to stick around that long in an entry-level job,” Trent said.

“And putting up with Leslie Gallagher. She strikes me as a real bully,” Katherine said.

Amanda was squirreling away all this information as it provided a glimpse into Marshall Wilcox.

But she was hungry for more. “We need to find out as much as possible about Wilcox. His background, his upbringing, anything that might give us insight into why he’d victimize children.

We also need to get someone out to his apartment and see what they can find out from his neighbors or friends.

For all we know Wilcox is commuting back and forth, but I think he must be holding the girls somewhere nearby.

Someone might be able to point us in the right direction.

” It niggled that they didn’t have the scene of Hailey Tanner’s murder, but Amanda would guess once they tracked Wilcox, they’d have that.

It was the waiting game that was painful.

“I’ll call Detective Fitz.” Katherine already had her phone in her hand.

“He can handle everything you just mentioned in New York, Amanda. Hopefully, we’ll find something we can use.

” Within seconds, she was talking into her phone.

At least there wouldn’t be a delay caused from waiting for a call back.

Amanda turned to Trent. “While Detective Fitz is busy with that…”

“We’ll look into car rentals and Wilcox’s credit history,” he finished.

“Yes, but waiting on the financials to look for charges from a rental company will take time.”

“Which we don’t have. We could call around to some rental companies,” Trent suggested. “Though for this to benefit us, he would have needed to use his real name.”

“At least we know he likes to use Wilson as an alias.” She wasn’t going to consider he might have a few to pull from.

After all, Hailey’s nanny told them he enjoyed pretending to be someone else.

Another indicator he wasn’t happy in his personal life.

Not that this was surprising considering what he did to feel powerful.

Katherine ended her call with Fitz. “He’s going to Wilcox’s address right now, and he’ll let us know what he finds out ASAP.”

“Good news,” Amanda said. “We need to rope in Sergeant Malone and the police chief on our discovery and get some other things moving.”

The three of them set off to Malone’s office. They found his door shut but saw through the window in the door that Chief Buchanan was inside.

Amanda rapped her knuckles on the glass. Both men looked her way. Malone was flushed when he waved them in. She’d guess their arrival was a blessing for him.

“We have an ID on our killer,” she said, getting right to the point. “Marshall Wilcox. He’s from New York City.” Amanda filled the sergeant and chief in on Detective Fitz and the suggestion she’d made to Trent.

“There won’t be an issue with getting the warrant for his financials,” Malone said. “I’ll get on that myself. You said you wanted to call vehicle rental companies in the area. That will keep you busy for a while.”

“Thanks, Sarge,” Amanda told him.

“Okay, go. Track this bastard down.” Buchanan nudged his head toward the door.

Guess we’re excused… Amanda was the first out of the office.

“I’m going to make some calls,” Katherine told her and Trent, stopping their strides.

“To?” Amanda asked.

“To Wilcox’s coworkers from the NYC venue to see if any of them have anything that might help us track him down.”

“That’s a terrific idea,” Amanda told her, and Katherine returned to the conference room. She turned to Trent. “You ready to start on the rental companies?”

“I’m already on with the first one.” He smiled at his hyperbole, but she appreciated his eagerness to get going.

“I’m right behind you, but I have a feeling I better arrange some care for Zoe tonight.”

They returned to their cubicles, and Amanda called Libby first and explained the situation.

“Please don’t worry yourself about it at all. I’d love to keep her overnight…”

The way the sentence dangled, Amanda got the sense a but was coming. “If tonight doesn’t work, I can arrange for someone else to come get her.” The last thing she wanted to do was take advantage of the woman’s kindness and love for Zoe.

A few seconds then, “If you could. It’s just that Penny and I had planned to spend some time together tonight.”

“A date night on a Wednesday, at that. Way to keep the passion alive.” Amanda was smiling, happy for the couple.

“Yeah, well, you can wish me luck too.”

“Luck for— Oh.” Amanda pieced it together. While Libby and her girlfriend had been living together long enough and were like a married couple, the law wouldn’t recognize their union. Amanda suspected Libby wanted to make it legal. “Are you going to ask?—?”

“I am.”

“Well, you don’t need luck for that. She loves you. And don’t worry about Zoe. I’ll get someone over to pick her up right away.”

“Thank you.”

Amanda hung up from Libby and called Kristen. Her sister answered in the middle of the second ring. She ran through the situation and struck out again. She had three other sisters and a brother, but she opted to call her mother.

“Mandy? Is everything okay?”

Such a loaded question… “I need someone to take Zoe overnight, or even stay with her at the house. Could you?”

“I’d love to.”

“Wonderful. She’s at Libby’s if you could pick her up. As soon as possible,” Amanda added slowly.

“Yes, I will drop everything because it’s Zoe.” Her mother had a dry sense of humor sometimes.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Hey, it gives me some time with my granddaughter.”

“Just don’t keep her up too late. She has school in the morning. And are you going to my house or…?”

“Yes, I would think that would be easiest.” Her mother’s smile traveled the line.

“Wonderful.” Amanda ended the call feeling some sense of satisfaction. Zoe would be well taken care of, so Amanda could devote her entire focus to finding Eloise.

Trent was on the phone in his cubicle, already calling vehicle rental companies. He hung up. “No luck there.”

“Who’s left?”

“Five others in the area. ”

“All right. No time like the present. Give me a couple, and I’ll get started.”

Trent handed her some names, and she called them. The first wasn’t willing to part with the information even though the police were asking. The second had no record of a Marshall Wilcox or a Wilson M-Something or even renting out a Kia K5.

Trent hung up his phone and looked over the cubicle wall at her, just his eyes and the top of his head showing. “No luck here, though I had to leave a message for the manager at one. I’m not holding my breath.”

“Guys.” Katherine came hurrying toward them, panting. “I’ve got something, and you’re not going to believe it.”