They'd sent Betsy to the northside interrogation room to have Sekulovich type out her statement for the court level, then arrange protective custody over the timid woman until the case could be solved.
The revelation shouldn't have surprised them, and yet, hearing the truth out loud from somebody who had lived with Daniel Mears for several years made the sinister past come to life in a way few other things could.
Shortly after sending her off with Art, Mike had sat down behind his desk, rubbing the bridge of his nose, nervous fingers tapping on the coroner's report for little Kevin Saunders they'd hoped would hold so much evidence and yet paled in comparison to the bombshell that had waltzed in shortly after.
"That's why they stripped the house down to the bare minimum. Mears wanted to make sure that nothing else was hidden there.", Steve said quietly, leaning against the small black file cabinet, his fingers clenching the metal so hard that it turned his knuckles white.
"But Mears wasn't there. Ethan's department handled that.", Mike countered, the criminal corroboration leaving more than a bad taste in his mouth.
"Do you think Morris is the only one in on this or some of the other guys in the department too?"
"We can't be too sure. I wouldn't put it past either one of those guys. However they pulled it off, they must have done a good job considering that Alex only suspected some involvement from the city, he had no clear thought on who it was- at least nothing was noted in the information he left behind."
Letting his chin sink to his chest, Steve let out a strained breath, then shook his head, clearly overwhelmed with the new information trickling in.
"So, Morris, being the good buddy that he is, calls Mears to tell him that the Saunders found the envelope. Mears goes over there, probably disguised as a plain clothes cop, then confronts them, trying to find out if they have any other piece of evidence. Things go south and he slaughters the parents, then takes little Kevin with him to the park so nobody sees him. Perhaps he's asking the kid if he knows of anything else that was found. When he doesn't get the answers he wants, he kills him too, but Carl witnesses the whole thing."
"And he'd be an easy target to blame, at least for Kevin's murder. I am also willing to bet that Morris stopped by the house that same night, after everyone has gone to sleep, to scrub it for anything left behind. Then, the next morning, Alex gets the call and stumbles across the crime scene."
"By then all finger prints have been wiped and any other pertinent evidence destroyed."
"Exactly right, Buddy Boy."
Both detectives fell quiet again, burdened with the insurmountable challenge to find enough proof to indict both Morris and Mears in a crime so unspeakable that even life in prison didn't feel like a harsh enough sentence.
Eventually, it was Steve who pushed himself off the file cabinet to walk up to his partner.
"Well, you can bet that the ehm…the envelope full of evidence has since disappeared."
Mike nodded wearily and crossed his hands behind his head.
"And we don't have Brandi's body or any eye witnesses at the moment. Get with Gerry and get us a warrant for the phone records for both, the Saunders house and Morris's direct line, as well as the credit card bills for Miss Morris. If he balks, have him call me. I know it's a long shot but hopefully we can duplicate some of the evidence and the phone calls should give us a pretty good idea of the exact timeline of those murders and who was involved. Hopefully that will decrease our massive pile of circumstantial evidence somewhat and turn it into cold, hard proof."
"The thing I don't understand is, why hasn't Mears tried to kill Betsy yet. He has to know that she knows…"
"She's the direct link at this point. If he were to kill her, everything would point straight back at him. And who knows if Ethan isn't protecting her somehow, possibly even blackmailing her. Look at her Steve; have you ever seen anybody more timid than her? I don't think I am exaggerating when I say that she quite possibly took a chance on getting disowned, if not out-and-out killed just for coming to us and bringing this up. She is one brave woman to do what she just did."