“Janice Pembroke?” said Michelle.
“No. I figure her simply as a person in the wrong place at the wrong time,” answered King.
“Diane Hinson? She was a lawyer. Maybe she was working on some corporate deal with Bobby,” Michelle suggested.
King shook his head. “Doubtful. She was a trial lawyer, mostly criminal work. I made a lot of inquiries and could find no one who could place them together at
any time. Let’s leave Hinson for the moment and move on. Next up is Junior Deaver. He had a clear connection to the Battles.”
“Right. He worked for them and was also accused of stealing from them,” said Michelle.
“But the burglary occurred after Bobby had his stroke,” said Harry.
“I never thought that Bobby was killing anyone,” said King, “perhaps other than Mrs. Canney. But we have three people with possible connections to Bobby Battle. Each was killed using the M.O. of an infamous serial killer, a watch was placed on the wrists and a letter was subsequently received.”
Michelle looked unconvinced. “Granted, Pembroke might have been killed merely because she was with Canney, yet Hinson was killed in the manner of the Night Stalker. But you say she has no connection to Battle.”
“Her watch was set to one minute past four,” said King. He paused and said, “And remember, Pembroke’s watch was set to one minute past two. The others were right on the hour.”
“So Hinson’s and Pembroke’s were one tick off,” said Michelle slowly.
“Exactly.” King looked at her puzzled. “One tick off? There’s something familiar about that phrase, but I can’t think of what it is.”
“So the killer is intentionally telling us, via the watches, that some victims are, what, slightly off?”
“I think he’s telling us that Tyler, Canney and Junior were killed intentionally because of their connection to Bobby. Pembroke and Hinson were not specifically targeted, because they had no such connection.”
“All right, let’s assume Pembroke was killed because she was with Canney. Why was Hinson murdered?” asked Michelle.
“So we’d run down numerous paths trying to have it all make sense but it never would. For our killer’s purposes having Pembroke die at the same time as Canney was simply gravy. It muddied the waters even more. If Canney had been alone, I bet we’d have had another murder like Hinson’s to cover up the connection to Bobby. And it also explains why the killer used the word ‘kid’ instead of ‘kids’ in his letter following the teenagers’ deaths. Only one kid was his target: Steve Canney.”
“But, Sean, if the killer really wanted to throw us off, why set some of the watches so they were one tick off? If he’d kept them all on the hour, chances are you’d never have stumbled on this line of reasoning.”
“For some reason I think this guy is trying to play fair by giving us a legitimate clue.”
“Or he’s just screwing with us,” said Michelle.
“Possible, but I don’t think so.”
Michelle still looked skeptical. “All right, let’s assume all that’s true. Now we have Bobby Battle as a possible common denominator. But you don’t think he was killed by the same person. Isn’t his being linked to yet another killer too huge of a coincidence? And then we have Kyle and Sally. How do those deaths fit in?”
“Despite what Sylvia found, Kyle may have been a suicide. And Sally may have been killed because she didn’t come forward about the alibi for Junior.”
“I’m not following, Sean,” said Harry.
“If Junior was killed only because he stole from the Battles, then once the killer found out he really hadn’t committed the burglary, that meant Junior was killed for no reason. The killer revenged himself and in his sick mind perhaps thought he was avenging Junior as well by killing Sally. He might have foregone his trademark watch and infamous serial killer indicia in her case because he was too incensed or didn’t consider her to be important enough. And he didn’t have much time to plan it. Sally only told me the truth barely seven hours before she was killed.”
“Well,” said Michelle, “her face being crushed by repeated blows after she was dead maybe fits with the theory of revenge. Someone in a rage.”
“Right. A man capable of ferocious attack and—” King froze. “Seven hours.”
“What is it, Sean?” asked Harry.
“I’m not sure,” he said at last. “What I just said about seven hours, it struck me somehow, but not the way I thought it would.” He thought for a moment and then shook his head. “Sorry, probably a slightly premature senior moment.”
“What about Chip Bailey’s theory that Sally lied about being with Junior and committed or helped commit the burglary?” asked Michelle.
Harry’s eyebrows went up. “That’s an intriguing conjecture.”