Dead Even - Mariah Stewart [68]
“And if we can catch up with Archer Lowell in the meantime, we can avert two more murders.”
“All good, all around.” She nodded.
“So what have you got?” Will asked. “You have that look in your eye.”
“I may have found someone who could have pissed off Channing in a big way.”
“Who’s that?”
“A guy named Ronald Johnson. He was Channing’s boss in a little restaurant in Wynnefield.” She leaned back in the chair and looked just a little smug. “Wynnefield, Ohio, where three bodies were found within two weeks time. DNA was just recently matched to Channing.”
“What’s that got to do with Johnson?”
“Johnson fired Channing. Shortly after he lost his job, the killings stopped. Picked up about three weeks later in Union.”
“Why’d he fire Channing?”
“It doesn’t say.”
“Maybe we should speak with Mr. Johnson.”
“I’ve already made a call to the Wynnefield police.” She smiled. “We’re booked on a three o’clock flight to Cincinnati. We’ll pick up a car and drive on down to Wynnefield.”
“Great.” He glanced at his watch. They had another two hours before they’d have to leave for the airport. “Who put you on to Johnson?”
“The owner of one of the restaurants Channing worked for. I got the names of his prior employers by running the social security number he was using back then. I matched up the restaurants with the towns where we had confirmed kills that matched back to Channing. Seems he drifted from town to town for several years, restaurant to restaurant.”
“Kill to kill,” Will murmured.
“So it would seem.”
“The owner didn’t have a number for Johnson?”
“No. He said Johnson left his employ about three years ago, left no forwarding information. The Wynnefield police are doing a search for me. I’m expecting to hear from them.” She glanced at her watch. “I hope they call back soon. I’d love to know what caused Johnson to fire Channing and how Channing reacted.”
“Well, I say for now, we put Johnson’s name on our list of maybe victims.”
“I already did. You find anything interesting in your stack of files?”
“Only that there’s a stretch of time when Channing seems to have disappeared from the area for a while.” Will frowned. “For almost a year, there were no kills in the Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, or Pennsylvania areas that we can attribute to him.”
“You sent his DNA through CODIS; if he’d been active elsewhere, it would have shown up.”
“If he left DNA behind. If he’d smartened up by then, who knows? He could have been just about anywhere.”
“Did you imput his kills for similar MOs?”
“I just started doing that when Evan called.”
“Want me to help?”
“No, thanks, that’s okay. It’s giving me an opportunity to take another look at his patterns.”
“Let me know if you change your mind.” She stood up and stretched. “By the way, I spoke with Regan Landry this morning. Apparently all’s quiet on the Plainsville front. She isn’t happy about having to be in Philadelphia right now—she feels she should be with her dad until this is over—and her father isn’t particularly happy about having Art Phillips in his hair, as she put it.”
“Her father would be even less happy to have Archer Lowell in his face.”
“Regan agrees. But she said Landry and Phillips keep rubbing each other the wrong way. Landry goes outside without telling Phillips, Phillips gets pissed off. Landry gets pissed off.”
“Sounds like one big pissing contest in the fields of New Jersey.”
“That pretty much sums it up. Regan told her father he’d just have to live with it. She’s trying to keep him in line, but you know, as she explained it, he thinks he’s the authority on the criminal mind.”
“Thinks he can outsmart Lowell, does he?”
“Well, so did we, if you remember.”
“Ouch.”
“Anyway, Regan’s riding herd on her father to just ignore Phillips and just let him do his job.”
“Let’s hope he listens to her.”
“Yeah, well, in the meantime, Livvy’s ordering lunch. You want anything?”
“Where’s she going?”
“Luigi’s. They deliver. No one really feels like going out into this storm.” She nodded toward the window. “Or hadn’t you noticed it’s raining like crazy out there?”
“I noticed,” he said,