“That’s the one thing Maggie promised me—she’d act first, accept looking silly if it was a false alarm.”
“I’m sorry she’s losing such a beautiful place to live. John’s still at the scene. He says things are slowing down with all the media underfoot. The medical examiner wants to do more review before the body’s moved. It’s going to be dawn before they haul away the vehicles. John’s mostly negotiating the evidence—her phone gets looked at there, then returned to her, that kind of thing. He said to tell you Sam is outside here, will be wherever Maggie is until you say otherwise.”
“If I can’t have John himself, Sam’s the guy I want. Thanks. I appreciate you playing messenger on the details. Where are we going to watch this video of the warrant being served on his property?”
“There’s a secure laptop set up on the kitchen table.” David turned that direction.
Charlotte’s husband was dumping ice into a freshly brewed pitcher of tea. He glanced over as they entered. “Eat something,” Bryce said.
There were fresh hamburger buns out, deli turkey, bologna, shaved ham, lettuce, American and Swiss cheese slices, mayonnaise. Any of that would do. David stacked himself a sandwich.
Bryce poured Evie a glass of the tea. “I’ll be in my office if you need anything. David, the bedroom next to Maggie’s has been made up for you. Give Gary your hotel room key. He’ll pack your things, bring them over. Maggie is going to stay here with less fuss if you tell her this is where you’re going to be too. The press can’t bother either of you here.”
“I appreciate that more than you know.”
Bryce smiled. “We’ll enjoy the company—I’m just sorry it’s under these circumstances.”
Evie brought up the video feed.
David pulled out the seat beside her and prepared to see what Andrew Timmets had left behind. It looked like four officers were doing the search, two with Indiana PD and two with the FBI. The video was being transmitted via the shoulder camera of a member of the FBI team. The audio was much like listening to a conversation on speakerphone, some voices clear and almost too loud, others hollowed out and difficult to understand.
The four first walked down a narrow hallway and took a left into the garage. Lights turned on to reveal two vans—a locksmith vehicle with business logo on the side, the other a plain white panel van. “That answers one question,” Evie said softly.
The white panel van looked clean inside, hand-vac marks still present in the direction of the carpet fabric. “Forensics will have a challenge, but maybe something is there,” David offered.
The van was closed up and left for the crime lab to deal with. The four officers conferred and split up, one remaining to search the garage, one heading downstairs, another to the bedrooms, the last one to find any office area Andrew maintained.
David pulled off some blank sheets from Evie’s notepad and began writing an official statement on events for the record.
An hour later, Evie laid a hand on his arm. David looked up to the video.
“We’ve found our smoking gun,” a voice said, the person not yet on camera. “Look at this.” The person shooting the video turned, and a figure came into view near a bed with a tall headboard. The cop was easing something out from behind it—a simple kitchen corkboard, a foot square, with a line of drivers’ licenses stapled to it. “This is being ID’d as exhibit seventeen, found tucked behind the headboard of the bed in the master bedroom.”
The board was shifted and held up to the camera, each license centered for a dozen seconds so that the image was captured into the permanent record.
“That’s Jenna’s driver’s license,” Evie whispered, her voice tight. “Tammy. Virginia. Emily. Laura. He’s claiming all five girls as his,” she continued. Beneath each license was a Triple M concert ticket stub.
David watched the screen in silence as the board was slowly scanned by the camera again before being carefully placed in a large evidence bag.
“Anything else back there?” they heard someone ask.
The officer pulled the bed away from the wall to shine a light behind the headboard. “Nothing else in this location.”
“Keep looking.”
The video went back to the dresser as drawers were removed and checked for something taped behind or under them.
“I’m honestly surprised,” David said. “We figured out the scope of his crimes without capturing him—that’s rare. There are usually entire caverns of truth you haven’t seen until you’re actually looking at and talking with the person responsible.”