PART III Chapter Twenty
PART III Chapter Twenty
Kate and Megan slowly woke from a night with too much drink and sadness of losing their friend. It was clear there would be no run this morning, just a slow rise mixed with coffee and aspirin. There would be a faint headache left that the coffee and aspirin cocktail couldn’t drown, but they would grab breakfast on the way after showering the memories away of the night before.
Kate had an interview with the bank president later that afternoon and she also had hopes her head would stop the jackhammer it had been running since she first woke. Megan seemed to be in pretty good shape, no signs of the night before remained with her. Must be the effects of age, she reasoned. She remembered those days of carefree youth. Her days didn’t last as long as some of her school friends, Afghanistan grew her up real quick and then she joined the force with no time to just linger around.
Kate often let Megan drive to work while she experienced the passenger side. This turned out to be a prime day to do that again. They walked into the station together but they went their separate ways when they got to the lab. Kate told Megan to have a nice day and she went to her desk to work on her questions for the bank president. The empty desk beside her where Cindy had spent so many days helping her solve her cases stood like a monument to their time together.
Kate was barely into the questions she wanted to ask when Megan came in and threw down a folder.
Megan said, “We got it. Tim’s DNA matched the DNA we found in Susan that wasn’t her boyfriend’s and it showed he was the father of the fetus found inside Shannon. There is one mystery though. The gum wrapper that was found in the bushes close to the driveway yielded DNA that was an unknown male.”
Kate said, “The defense will always argue that was the real killer and I am sorry to say they might be right. We need to find out whose DNA that is.”
Megan responded, “It may not even be related to the case. It could be from the paperboy or it may be from some other visitor. We just need to know who it belongs to.”
Kate added the DNA matches to her collection of evidence she had collected. She wasn’t sure how it all fit together but a few more interviews might tell the story. She would eventually interview Tim but that would be the last one after she had interviewed everyone he worked with and knew at the bank.
Kate would talk to the bank president, Robert Green, and then she planned on talking to the neighbors that lived close to Tim. At the moment he was her prime suspect until the evidence pointed elsewhere. She finished her questions and sat and waited for Robert Green to show up for his interview.
She didn’t watch for Robert to show up like she normally did for witnesses. It was a mind game she played sometimes. She left word with the front desk. Kate understood that a bank president was at the top of the hierarchy at the bank. He was used to everyone doing what he told them too. She wanted to show him she was high in the ranks too. It was a plan to put him down on a lower level equal to hers.
She saw the patrol officer leading Robert toward the interview room. She had the patrol officer bring Robert and seat him in the interview room. She wanted to walk in with the folder and make an entrance like a doctor. Robert was sitting in a chair with his arms folded together. Kate knew that pose, it was saying I am here but you won’t break me.
Kate entered the room and walked slowly around and took her seat laying the folder on the table before being seated.
Kate said, “Thank you for coming here for an interview. I have some loose ends I need to tie up.”
Robert said, “It is what we need to do. We had a bank employee murdered in her home and I am dedicated to finding out who did that.”
Kate said, “I appreciate your willingness to help us.”
Robert said, “I am glad to be of any help possible.”
Kate asked, “How much do you know about the employees who work at the bank?”
Robert replied, “We do a background check on everyone who works for us and we have security cameras everywhere.”
Kate responded, “Do you know anything about what they do when they go home.”
Robert said, “Of course we don’t track what they do after hours. That is an invasion of privacy.”
Kate asked, “So you wouldn’t know anything about the affair your Teller Susan was having with your VP, Tim Thomas?”
Robert replied, “I heard the rumors but I never asked him about it. Are you sure it really happened?”
Kate responded, “His DNA was found in her body at autopsy, so it is pretty sure it was true.”
Robert said, “I am sorry to hear that. I know his wife Christine and she is a sweet unsuspecting kid that deserves better. Are you suspecting Tim of murder?”
Kate replied, “We don’t have enough evidence yet to file any charges but we are working with him as our prime. Do you know anything about him that might help us?”
Robert responded, “I will confess that I knew he was playing around, I just didn’t know one of them was Susan. I have travelled for business out of town and he always had a woman he took with us, I just covered for him.”
Kate asked, “Was any of those women named Shannon Graves?”
Robert answered, “I didn’t know any of their names. I just kept it a secret assuming it wouldn’t affect the bank, but obviously it did make a difference. I am sorry I looked the other way but Tim’s work at the bank was top notch. I will help you any way I can.”
Kate said, “I am applying for a search warrant for his home and car, but it is much more likely he would hide away evidence somewhere else, most likely his office.”
Robert said, “I will give you permission to search at the bank, you could search the whole facility to keep him from being suspicious.”
Kate responded, “That may work, it would be more likely he would keep things there.”
Robert responded, “Tim is off on Thursdays and wouldn’t be there. That would be the best day to do a search because he wouldn’t be there to possibly hide things in his office.”
Kate said, “That would be perfect, I can have a crew there this Thursday.”
The search was set up. Kate would go through the motions to get a search warrant for the house and car but she wouldn’t need one for the office since she had permission. Kate gave Robert her card and speech and led him to the front entrance. She would be part of the search but she also wanted Megan and perhaps someone else from the lab to be there to help.
Kate organized the team that would go to the bank. Megan would be the lead for the forensics team. Megan had been working on background checks on Tim and everyone in his household. That information would be added to anything they found at his office. She needed something to actually point to the murder, like a murder weapon.
The time for the search was getting closer and Megan told Kate that they hadn’t found anything in Tim’s background. He didn’t have a record, there were no signs of a registered gun and he didn’t own an SUV that would match the tire prints found in the alley. Kate had concerns they would do a search and not find anything, after all, two different weapons were used in each of the shootings. That was another thing that would have to be explained.
Kate had a couple of days before the search at the bank. Kate figured there would be little reason to interview others at the bank. She had the fact that Tim and Susan had an affair verified by multiple people. Unless the witness actually saw the shooting, their account wouldn’t be of much help.
Kate decided to put a tail on Tim. She didn’t want to go through proper channels to fund it so she decided to do it herself. She would follow Tim and document his movements until the time for the search of his office. She parked a block away surrounded by other cars to blend into the neighborhood.
She could watch the bank and had Tim’s car in clear view, if he left to go anywhere she would be able to follow him. When lunchtime arrived, she saw Tim walk out and get in his car. He didn’t drive it anywhere, he just sat there and warmed the engine. A few minutes later a red headed woman walked out a back door at the bank and got into the passenger seat right next to Tim. Kate didn’t know who she was, it wasn’t anyone that she had already talked to so Kate figured it was a new hire.
She could see some of the other bank employees watching out their clear glass windows as Tim slowly drove the car out the parking lot exit. One of those people was the president of the bank. It even looked like Robert was taking photos of Tim with the woman, whoever she was.
Kate followed the car slowly and far enough back to keep from arousing suspicion. The car parked in front of a house that apparently belonged to the redhead. Kate wrote the address down and she would run a check to see who it belonged to. She waited patiently outside after photographing the two going inside the house.
Any stakeout usually wound up long and boring. She didn’t have the means to see what was happening on the inside but she didn’t need a road map to figure it out. She just had to wait and follow the car back to the bank. She wanted to see where Tim went when he left after work.
When the two came out of the house and headed for Tim’s car Kate took photos of that too. They looked different from when they went inside. Their hair was messed up and their clothes were disheveled. It was obvious to anyone who witnessed their entrance and departure from the house they had been active inside the house. Kate followed Tim back to the bank and watched them straighten their clothes before going into the bank. She then saw them go into a restroom each across from each other and then emerged with hair combed and perfectly in place. All outward signs of anything between them had been completely erased from their appearance.
Kate hoped the search would help uncover the evidence she needed to arrest Tim. She had confidence that he was the person responsible for the death of two women so far. Kate had looked at photos and reports about her victims for weeks and she felt she knew them. She also felt she owed them the peace of finding and convicting their killers.
When the day finally ended, Kate was there at the bank, parked and waiting for Tim to lead him to wherever the night took him. She was disappointed to find that Tim went straight home after work. She parked a few houses away and watched Tim get out and walked up and entered the house. There were other people there, a woman who she knew to be his wife and a man who she didn’t know the identity of. She took a few photos of him and she would get Megan to try to find out who it was.
Kate didn’t know what anything she had seen so far had to do with murder. She hoped to know more after the search warrants were served.