Dead Even - Mariah Stewart [12]
“I’m confused. I don’t understand what this has to do with this other guy, this Archer Lowell.”
“Shortly after Giordano was released from the county prison, my sister Amanda’s business partner was found with a bullet through his head.” Evan spoke levelly. “Not long after that, another close friend of Amanda’s was found murdered.”
“And Lowell, who had been convicted of stalking and assaulting your sister . . .” Will’s fingers began to beat softly upon the table.
“Was still in prison,” Evan told him.
“And your sister?” Will asked tentatively.
“Is alive and well because of Miranda and the local chief of police,” Evan said. “Giordano came after her.”
“But what was the connection between your sister’s partner and her friend—the two deceased—and Giordano?” Will accurately followed the sequence.
“There was none to Giordano,” Evan said, “but they were both people who had pissed off Archer Lowell. Both had given statements to the police about Lowell’s actions; both had made it very clear they were going to testify against him at his trial. Their testimony was the main reason Lowell’s attorney insisted that he accept the plea offered by the D.A.”
“Strangers on a Train,” Will murmured. “You do mine, I’ll do yours. . . .”
“Exactly.” Miranda nodded, then added grudgingly, “You figured that out a lot faster than we did.”
“Channing offed people who had connections to Giordano, Giordano took out people who had connections to Lowell. So if the pattern holds, we could expect Lowell to be going after people who have ties to Channing,” Will said.
“That’s the way we see it.” Miranda munched a potato chip.
“So, if we’re correct in assuming that Channing got the names of his victims from Giordano,” Will continued, “and Giordano got the names of his victims from Lowell, we have to figure out whose names Channing gave to Lowell. Who, over the course of his life, pissed off Channing sufficiently that he’d want them dead.”
“Unfortunately,” Miranda reminded him, “Channing himself is now dead.”
“Guess we won’t be getting much help from him,” Will muttered.
“So the question is, who is Lowell going to go after, now that he’s out of prison, and how do we get to them before he does?” Jared stated the obvious.
“Why don’t we just ask him?”
Four heads swung in Will’s direction.
“Why don’t we ask him?” Will repeated.
“I doubt he’s going to admit that he’s part of a conspiracy to commit murder,” Jared said dryly.
“One of two things will happen.” Will’s fingers were all now drumming on the table. “He’ll either tell us the truth, or he won’t. Either way, he’ll know that we know. It might be a deterrent, if in fact he was planning something.”
“Will has a point,” Anne Marie said. “At the very least, he’ll know that someone will be watching him. Of course, he won’t tell the truth. . . .”
“Why not?” Will turned to her. “Who is there for him to be afraid of? Channing’s dead, and Giordano is back in prison, right?”
“He won’t admit to the conspiracy.” Evan shook his head. “He’s out, he’s going to want to stay out. Why should he implicate himself in anything?”
“Maybe, if he thought he could get immunity, he’d tell the truth,” Will suggested.
“I know this guy,” Evan told him. “He’ll smirk and he’ll lie, but he’ll never admit to knowing either of the others. As a matter of fact, he’s already denied ever having met them. Believe me, I’ve asked.”
“What’s his incentive?” Will persisted. “There’s no one to make him follow through.”
“We don’t know what his intentions are,” Anne Marie agreed, “but I think, knowing what we know, we have to proceed as if he is planning on playing this out. Several lives could be at stake.”
“Then we really have nothing to lose by confronting him.” Jared turned to Miranda. “Since you were involved in the other two cases and know some of the players, I’d like you to take the lead here. Pay him a visit, have a little chat with him.”
“My pleasure.” Miranda smiled. She’d expected this.
“You, Fletcher.” Jared directed his gaze to the opposite side of the table. “You’ll go along. I want him to know that the Bureau