Safest Place to Hide
Chapter 7
Making Sense
They walked into One Police Plaza together the next morning with an entirely new outlook in mind. Since Sparks was in the system for threats, Mitchell was the key witness in putting his father in jail and Sparks and Mitchell worked together at the school, he had means, motive and opportunity. Not to mention it was simple to frame Moss for the killing since he was upset that his daughter had not been accepted. Furthermore…
"He must have seen the gun when he was over there. The perfect scapegoat and the perfect murder weapon to frame him," Alex was saying as she removed her coat and settled it on the hangar closest to her desk.
"It's a stretch," Bobby protested.
"He had motive in revenge," she shot back.
"For putting his father in jail? All of our witnesses say they were best friends." Bobby was still having a hard time putting all of the clues together.
"Bobby, all of the threats were documented, hell, I filed a complaint. Plus, what better way to get close to someone than to become their friend?"
"Why didn't he strike before now? You said it yourself, the case is six years old," he pointed out. Alex rolled her eyes as she sat, Bobby following soon after.
"By attacking now it looks like the cases are totally different…"
"Separate cases. He thought we wouldn't connect them. He had a scapegoat in Moss… he was Lisa Moss' boyfriend giving him access to the gun." It was slowly started to make sense.
"I'll talk to Carver about search and arrest warrants," Bobby volunteered, having stayed standing.
"And I'll talk to Deakins," Alex responded with a smile.
Carver presented them with a warrant the next day. They exchanged grins as Bobby helped Alex with her coat and she grabbed the keys.
The house was quaint, small, almost cottage-like in its appearance. Alex and Bobby withdrew their guns as they approached the door and knocked. No one answered. The go-ahead to break down the door resulted in a broken window and teams bursting into the house. The first thing Alex saw as she moved to the left – Bobby to the right followed by other teams headed for the basement – was the wall peppered with newspaper clippings. It took a moment for her to register it all and she froze.
The entire thing was about her.
Things began fitting themselves into the lose puzzle she and Bobby had managed to fit together. The motive wasn't anything like greed, or jealousy, but indeed revenge like they'd guessed. The revenge wasn't just against the witness, however, but anyone involved in the case. The robbery in her apartment was a fit of rage that she hadn't been present, the eyes that followed her and never left her face studying her, trying to figure her out. She had been his latest target. It was all a twisted revenge scheme.
Revenge on her.
Shouts rang throughout the house bringing Alex back to the moment and hand and the need for her total concentration now that she realized that she was not the hunter, but the hunted. If they could take down this guy here and now, she'd be safe. Gun cocked, she moved off down the hall.