CUTTING ROOM -THE- (29 page)

‘Holy shit …'

She nodded.

‘I'm gonna guess it's not Talbot Lunders committing the murder. I assume that would have been the first thing you told me. Although I'm still waiting for the courtesy call to inform me that he's back on the street.'

She decided not to respond to that. Focus on the positive. ‘Correct. We don't know who it is. He's young, buff and has a tattoo across his back of an archangel throwing lightning bolts. He's also wearing a mask. Lepidus is too old for it to be him, plus in the videos the judge is featured in, you can tell he's tattoo-free. Manny is checking tattoos with those documented on inmates, but that's a daunting task. Law enforcement only recently started to keep records and photos for that purpose, and this video was made twelve years ago.'

Vance picked up the flash and fingered it. ‘You shouldn't have held out on me. From the very beginning, Daria, this is something the State Attorney and I should have been in on.'

‘I wasn't sure at first what I was looking at, Vance,' she explained. ‘The video clip that Abby Lunders gave me could have been a homemade S&M tape Momma was trying to lob as a distraction. I wasn't gonna come to you with that until I investigated. It wasn't until the connection between Gabriella Vechio and Holly Skole became apparent — after the similar brandings were identified through crime-scene and autopsy photos — that Detective Alvarez first suggested a possible connection to Cupid. But he couldn't be sure if it was anything more than a hunch based on something the guy had said years before. So, like I said, I wasn't really sure what we had, or didn't have, until we met with Bantling. When he dropped Lepidus's name I thought he was probably BS-ing, because, as you already pointed out, convicted killers don't make the most reliable witnesses. It's only now that the connection between Judge Lepidus and Patty Graber's been exposed, I felt I had something for you. Because now I know it's for real, Vance. Now I know it's big.'

The Chief Assistant said nothing for a long moment. ‘You weren't around when Cupid was tried in 2001. I was. It was a zoo. I've never seen a case — a defendant, actually — transfix the public the way that case did, except maybe O.J. Simpson.' He tapped the pen again on the desk and scowled. ‘Jesus, you've never tried a serial before,' he added, almost like a note to self.

‘A rapist. Corey Lightsey. Seven consecutive life sentences.'

‘There's a big difference between a rapist and a serial killer. This whole thing is so complicated now. Much more so than when I gave you the case. Then it was a single homicide with a little bit of local publicity to worry about containing. Now you're talking potentially a criminal enterprise with multiple defendants, and we're looking at a maelstrom of publicity, the center of which might very well be a notorious serial killer.'

Daria felt her stomach drop.
There was no way she could lose this case. Not now. Not after all the work she'd done …

‘So what is Lunders's role in all this? Is Holly Skole's murder a snuff-club killing?' he asked. ‘Is it related to this club that Cupid claims to know so much about? Did he tell you that?'

‘Bantling told me this was a game,' she answered. ‘He gave some cryptic analogy to baseball players and scouts and stadiums. He said Lepidus liked to watch. So I have a theory. Based on Talbot Lunders's good looks, the surveillance video of Holly Skole getting in his Benz willingly, and then the cell phone records the night she disappeared from Menace, I'm thinking Talbot's role in this club was to
supply
victims for the game — a game of murder that Lepidus and others like him would pay to watch, most likely on some sort of Internet connection like Skype, only heavily encrypted. Manny Alvarez said that when he first interviewed Bantling years ago, he mentioned this club having international connections. If that statement's true, then it would have to be via the Internet. That would be the easiest way, the most discreet way, to assemble the watchers. Postal and Customs have nailed dozens of worldwide Internet kiddie-porn clubs that way, as well as money-laundering outfits, sex traffickers, and terrorist organizations. I believe Talbot Lunders was a hunter — a “scout” was the euphemism Bantling used — trolling bars and charming women, probably drugging them. That supposition is based on Marie Modic's statement describing how she felt and why she believed Lunders had spiked her drink.

‘When you think about it, Vance, the crime has a lot of similarities to Cupid's MO. As for Patty Graber's murder, that happened during the Cupid rampage but because she wasn't missing her heart no one made a connection. It's possible some of Bantling's murders were captured on video. He might have had a whole following of watchers himself — although I can't for the life of me figure out why Bantling wouldn't have pulled this snuff-club card out during his trial to try and save himself or shave a few years off his sentence. Why didn't he cough up names then? Or maybe he did, but the prosecutor didn't believe it. C.J. Townsend's long gone, and no one seems to know where, so I guess I can't ask for her input in the thought process.'

‘C.J. left the office years ago,' Vance answered. ‘She moved out of state, as far as I know. Cupid sucked the life out of her. I liked her, but mentally she was a mess when she left. A wreck.' He jotted down something on his legal pad. ‘So what you're saying now is you
don't
think Talbot Lunders actually committed or participated in Holly's murder?'

‘I don't think he actually killed her, but I believe he transported her to her death. He picked her out like he was shopping for meat at a supermarket, which makes him guilty of felony murder. And I can still get the death penalty on felony murder.'

‘Maybe. But if he didn't know he was whisking her away to a slaughterhouse, it presents as a much more difficult case. Now we have to prove he knew or should have known he was leading her to her death.'

‘Regardless of what he knew, he still participated in the felony.'

‘What's the underlying felony?'

‘Kidnapping.'

‘You said she went willingly.'

‘I also said I think he drugged her. That's not willingly.'

‘Supposition. You can prove there were drugs in her system when you
found
her — six days after she disappeared. You can't prove she was drugged the night she went missing. In fact, the surveillance tapes show otherwise. They show her walking out of her own accord and getting into that Benz with a big smile when he held the door open.'

‘We can connect him to purchases of sulfuric acid. That's what was used to melt her feet.'

‘Interesting. Can you tie the sulfuric acid he purchased to the acid that she was burned with?'

‘No.'

‘So it's interesting and circumstantial, but it's not direct evidence of his involvement in her murder.'

She stared at him, embarrassed that she hadn't thought it out this far before entering his office. ‘Well, this is frustrating.'

‘You see the problems we have now? Because now we
know
there's a third party. If Lunders claims he was just taking Holly to party with some boys, then he left and that's the last he heard of it, you don't have much of a case.'

Daria bit her lip.

‘That's the problem with circumstantial cases — they're circumstantial. And since we don't get to depose Talbot, we don't know what he's gonna say or what his theory of the case will be until his trial. So we're gonna need to find a witness who can explain what Lunders's role was in Holly's murder. And we don't have much time, seeing as the speedy clock is ticking. So if you really think he didn't kill her, then let's have him give up who did. If it is a snuff-club operation he's involved in, like Bantling has detailed, we're gonna deal him if he hands us the other players and tells how this club works.'

‘He won't talk. Manny Alvarez tried.' She didn't mention the creepy message he'd forwarded to her through Manny. If Vance thought she was spooked, it might give him the excuse he needed to pull the whole case from her. ‘He's pretty smug.'

‘He has reason to be. If his role in this is defined by the rules of the sick game you describe, then he's done this before. And he's learned from someone. Dig deeper, Daria. Phone records, exes, current girlfriends. Like Lepidus, he must have been into kinky shit that somebody can tell us about. See if he can be linked to any of the other dead women. No matter how slight the connection. We need to scare the shit out of him and let him know we're not playing. He's gonna pay for Holly's death if he doesn't give us someone who will.'

She nodded.

Vance grew pensive. ‘The bigger fish in this, though, is Cupid. He gave us Lepidus as an appetizer. He wouldn't have given us the biggest name
before
working some sort of deal, which means he knows a lot more names. It's possible he can give us Lunders. The kid might not be a newbie, he might have been involved in this club from before Bantling went away. What did Bantling say when you confronted him that Lepidus wrote the opinion on his overturned appeal?'

‘I wasn't aware of that at the time I interviewed him,' she answered sheepishly. She felt embarrassed, as if she somehow hadn't done her homework on Bantling before going up to Starke to interview him, although there was no way she would've known about Lepidus's remote connection to Bantling when he first mentioned the judge's name. Who the hell would have memorized all the appellate judges' names that touched a defendant's case before questioning him? She looked at Vance's frowning face and then down at her fingers. Maybe she was in the office of the one person who would have.

‘I want to know who else has been watching these murders go down all these years,' he continued. ‘Who might be a player or a scout. I want to know how many other killers are out there living amongst us, how many might be sitting beside me in a courtroom or joining me at a midnight crime scene or presiding over one of my cases, for Christ's sake. That's much more disturbing — wondering who might be more influential than a Supreme Court judge on Cupid's list. A snuff club operating right here in Miami … That's gonna make headlines, all right. Especially if the star witness turns out to be none other than Cupid himself.'

It was funny how quickly the pronouns had changed. Vance no longer said ‘hers' or ‘yours', instead it was ‘us', ‘we' and ‘ours'.

She had to ask. ‘Is this still mine?'

‘What does Bantling want?' Vance asked, ignoring her question.

‘I'm not sure what he'll settle for, but he said he wants out for the information he has. And he said that a couple of times. Of course, that's out of the question, I—'

‘Depends on what other names he has. If they're as big as Lepidus, we deal him.'

She said nothing for a minute. She remembered what Manny had said to her after they'd interviewed Bantling at Florida State Prison. ‘I didn't think that was an option, considering what he's done, all those women.'

‘Ray Lepidus sat on the Florida Supreme Court. If he was the appetizer, think of what the names on the main course must be. Hell, you could be talking CEOs, politicians, priests, rabbis, international fucking figureheads. If Lunders won't talk, then we work with those who will. Cupid can give us the names of the other participants and how the operation works, we deal. They're murderers, too, whether they watched, scouted, or stuck the damn knife in. They need to be brought to justice. And we need to find out who they are. It's unfortunate, and it sounds sordid, I know, but deals are cut all the time, Daria. It's how the system works. Murderers are flipped against one another, sentences are reduced because we need to find the body. Because a family needs closure. And sometimes we have to negotiate with monsters. Governments swap terrorists. It sounds counterproductive to steadfastly refuse to pursue these murderers because the information we want is going to potentially come at a tremendous cost.'

She nodded.

‘“Better that ten guilty men escape punishment than that one innocent suffer.” You've heard that saying before, I assume?'

She nodded. ‘Of course.' English jurist William Blackstone's formulation was a basic principle of American criminal law.

‘It would seem to follow that in this case it is also better to let one guilty man go free so that we can rid the streets of ten more scumbags.' Vance looked at the disturbing autopsy photo of Patty Graber. ‘Maybe a hell of a lot more than ten. It's a last resort, of course, freedom. There are other options to consider.'

‘Is it still mine?' Daria asked again, though she already knew the answer.

‘It's
ours
. I'll be trying this case with you. We'll work it together from now on. And the first thing we're gonna do is pay another visit to our friend in Starke.'

‘Now what can we expect if this storm hits as a Cat 5?' the perky anchor on the television asked the weatherman.

‘Well, that depends on where it hits, Jennifer,' the weatherman replied with a smile. ‘With sustained winds over one hundred and fifty-five miles per hour, Category 5 storms are monsters. There will be extensive damage wherever it makes landfall, if it makes landfall as a five. With sustained winds right now of one hundred and sixty-two miles an hour, Artemis is a whopper of a storm, but it's still seven to eight days out. That's a long time in the life of a hurricane forecaster. The computer models are literally all over the board on this thing, from a southeasterly turn over Cuba to a march across northern Florida, to a dead hit on Miami like Andrew in '92. We have a system of high pressure that is moving in from the Canadian Rockies, which could change the whole game. So we don't know what to expect at this stage. What everyone in the state of Florida should be doing right now is going over their hurricane preparedness checklist …'