Flu

Chapter 69

Kate attaches a map of lower Manhattan to the murder board with magnets, and Rick marks the locations of most of Frees' victims' familial matches. "Except for the family that moved away, it looks like these radiate from a central point. Have you got a compass?"

Kate reaches into her desk drawer. "Here. Everyone at Stuy had to take geometry. I've hated this thing ever since."

"Not my favorite class either," Rick admits, "but my teacher did come up with a proof that all triangles are isosceles."

"They're not," Kate protests.

"I know, but I loved mysteries even then and spent a hell of a lot of time trying to figure out how he tricked us."

"Did you ever succeed?"

"No," Rick admits, "but a bunch of mathematicians did. Years later, I found the solution on Google. There's even a video on YouTube. The dodge has to do with drawing figures incorrectly. A point that has to be outside the triangle for the proof to be true, is drawn inside the triangle instead. There may be a lesson there somewhere."

Kate hands him the compass. "How?"

"Hmm. If I draw a circle as close as I can around the match points, plus our address for Bridget McCready, I get this."

Kate regards the map and points. "Right, so Frees' home base should be here."

"But we know it wasn't," Rick points out, "because he sold bags at the school and hung around the bodega. Both of those are outside this circle. We also know there are a bunch of points, corresponding to unidentified victims, that we don't have yet." Rick grabs a red marker. "Here's the school. Here's the bodega. They're close to each other. Suppose we pick a point midway between them and draw our circle to include the other points we have so far. We get this."

Kate sighs. "Pretty big circle."

"What if it shouldn't be a circle at all?" Rick wonders. "Isn't Frees into deer and Native American stuff? Maybe there's some kind of a symbol that's the right shape." Rick grabs his phone from his pocket. "Native American symbols: deer. Wow, Kate, look at this! It's a deer track, kind of like a circle but more like an upside-down boomerang, round at the bottom with points at the top. So, if we put the bodega and the school at the points, then everything else we have so far falls within the circle part, and we have a defined zone."

"And we can look for missing persons, girls that fit the profile of Frees' victims, within that area," Kate jumps in. "But they might go back 15 years or longer if he didn't start with Bridget. That's going to be a lot to sift through. We need to go see the matches we can, first."

Sighing, Rick shakes his head. "This won't be like Karrie Icelo. There aren't any bodies. We can't tell these families with certainty that their loved ones aren't still out there somewhere."

"No, we can't," Kate agrees, "but we can tell them what we do have. Trust me on this. Knowing something, is better than not knowing anything."

Rick draws Kate against his side. "I do trust you. It's just going to be another long, hard day, especially for you." A corner of his mouth quirks. "But at least we can tell Montgomery we're getting stuff done."


From inside her apartment, Mira Romano stares questioningly at Kate. "Except for the first couple of weeks after my sister disappeared, my family hasn't heard from the police in ten years. Why now?"

"Can we come in?" Kate asks.

Mira opens the door wide enough for Kate and Rick to enter. "Yeah, sure, come in. But answer my question."

Kate and Rick take seats that Mira indicates on a small couch, while Mira takes a nearby chair. Kate leans forward, catching Mira's gaze. "The truth, Ms. Romano, is that until now, the N.Y.P.D. had nothing to tell you. But we found D.N.A. on some evidence connected to a case. It was a female and a sibling match to yours. The lab report said your sample had been recently submitted to a database."

Mira taps her fingertips in her lap. "That's true. I did one of those search for your ancestors things. Where did you find Chiara's D.N.A.?"

"On some fabric belonging to a man we know killed at least one woman, and we have both physical evidence and testimony indicating he had more victims. "We believe," Kate continues softly, "that your sister might have been one of them."

Mira springs from her seat. "F**k! I tried to tell the detective who took the missing person report that a creep was hanging around. My sister and I lived here together. Before she disappeared, Chiara said she saw him watching her, but I don't think that cop took what I said about it seriously. I heard him mutter something like, 'Any man would watch a girl who looks like that.'" Mira rushes across the room and pulls a large sheet of paper from a drawer. "I'm a commercial artist. Here, I drew this back then. It's the creep. I gave the cop who took the report a copy. I don't know what he did with it."

Kate looks at the drawing and shakes her head in disgust before passing it to Rick. "Younger, but it's him."

"It's Frees." he agrees. "Those eyes haven't changed."

"Do you think this Frees killed my sister?" Mira demands.

"There's a strong chance that he did," Kate responds, pulling out her phone to snap a photo of Mira's drawing.

"Take it with you," Mira urges. "Just nail that sonofabitch."


Rick plops himself into his seat in Kate's unit. "How much do you want to bet that Heitner put the lid on any investigation of Chiara's disappearance?"

"He didn't mention it when Eli and I questioned him. Actually, we didn't get a lot. His lawyer and his union rep showed up and spent most of the time jousting with Eli for a deal. Eli wasn't exactly generous. Heitner didn't give us much we didn't already know, either. But he may not have had anything to do with Chiara. With missing persons, if nothing happens within the first few days and there are no overt signs of foul play, the investigation goes on hold. It sounded like the cop who took the call thought Chiara ran off with some guy. But now we have proof those trophies weren't just random swatches of fabric. And we know we can tie them to at least one missing person. And Frees didn't go unnoticed. We may get more from the other matches. The next one's only three blocks from here. Ready?"

"I'd be more ready if I had a barf bag."

"Yeah," Kate agrees, "me too."


Alexis squirms through her American history class. She usually likes the subject, not as much as science, but it's interesting. In this case, however, she read up on the period in question when she was researching Evelyn Montgomery's genealogy. If anything, she knows the events in more depth than her teacher is presenting them. Midterms start tomorrow, and after she finishes with her exams, she can begin her time at C.S.U.

She still feels a little guilty about abandoning her father to handle, what they usually do together, by himself. But he does have Kate. The talented detective can tell him if a garland is straight, as well as Alexis can. His new wife may not share the memories that go with the ancient and sometimes crumbling ornaments, but maybe she and Dad can make some new ones – without Alexis. Somehow the teen doesn't feel as good about that idea as she wishes she did.