Dead Certain - Mariah Stewart [106]
“Anne Marie McCall.” The blonde smiled warmly and extended her hand.
“Annie is a profiler with the FBI,” Evan told them. “We met a few months ago while working on a case. She’s here as a friend.”
Amanda took a seat next to her brother. “Speaking of the FBI, why aren’t you down there in class or doing whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing?”
“I ran into Annie down in Quantico where she was giving a lecture. I knew she had a little history with Vince Giordano and might be able to shed some insight into Sean’s case.”
“But when I heard the story, I wanted to come talk to you myself. Evan decided to take a few days off to come with me,” Anne Marie told them.
“You know Vince Giordano?” Sean asked.
“We—Evan and I, as well as my boss at the Bureau—believe he’s the man who set in motion several attempts on my sister’s life.”
“What was your sister’s connection to Giordano?” Sean asked.
“You’re familiar with the case down in Lyndon?” Anne Marie asked. When Sean nodded, she told him, “Mara, my sister, was the child advocate who recommended that the court terminate Giordano’s parental rights.”
“I did read through the file Evan had sent up, but I thought the Mary Douglas killer was a guy named Channing.”
“Yes,” Anne Marie said. “Curtis Channing.”
“What was his connection to Giordano?”
“We were never able to figure that out,” Evan admitted.
“Just like we can’t figure out the connection between Giordano and Lowell,” Sean noted.
The four of them sat in silence for a while.
Finally, Amanda said, “Okay. I’m the odd man out here. I don’t know this case except that I remember that Evan was really involved with it. Tell me what this guy Channing did.”
“Curtis Channing killed Giordano’s mother-in-law,” Evan said, “the judge who severed Giordano’s parental rights, and several women named Mary Douglas. Anne Marie’s sister, Mara Douglas—Mara, not Mary—was the advocate. Channing got the name wrong. He killed three innocent women trying to get her. All three targeted victims—Mara, the mother-in-law, and the judge—had in one way or another crossed Vince Giordano.”
“Then they were friends,” Amanda murmured, intrigued. “Giordano and Channing.”
“We haven’t been able to determine when—or if—they ever actually met,” Anne Marie told her. “And now we have two people who crossed Archer Lowell dead—as well as one who may or may not have gotten in his way somehow—and one other potential victim who’s been stalked and attacked. You.”
“Strangers on a Train,” Evan said softly. “I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me before.”
“What?” Anne Marie said, startled.
“Strangers on a Train. You ever see that movie, where two guys meet and decide to kill for each other?”
“You think the three of these men . . .” Anne Marie played with the idea.
“It makes as much sense as anything else at this point,” Sean told her. “Evan, this may not be so far off the wall.”
“When I was trying to get a handle on the Channing case, I found out that both these men were in High Meadow at the same time, but not in the same wing. Their paths did not appear to cross there. As far as we were able to determine, the only time they were in the same place at the same time was one day earlier this year, when they were transported to the courthouse in the same van. But we interviewed the driver and the guards, and they swear there was no conversation in the van. There never is, they told us. They said these guys didn’t even sit near each other.”
“There had to be something, some time when they talked,” Amanda said.
“So we need to get to Lowell . . .” Anne Marie thought aloud.
“Oh, we just had a nice conversation with him. Let me tell you, he’s really good at playing dumb. Swears he doesn’t know Giordano. Never heard of him, never met him.” Sean taps a pen on the table. “But here’s something else to think about. Archer Lowell gets out of prison in a few weeks.”
“Makes you wonder what’s next, doesn’t it?” Amanda glanced around the room at the others.”If there was some kind of secret agreement, what do you suppose he agreed to do? What’s his part of the bargain?