Because that’s what Paterno thought they had here—someone not only out for blood but something else as well. The guy was playing a game, intentionally leaving clues, taunting the police and hoping to strike fear in those who were still alive.
Why else take the time to scrawl the weird symbol on the mirror in lipstick?
Why else leave a backpack with the identical drawing?
Why else make a point to let the police and everyone involved know that the kidnapping of Dani Settler was connected to Mary Beth Flannery’s death?
He glanced at one page of his notes, the ones dedicated to the victim.
Mary Beth Flannery had been thirty-three, a mother of two, and, if gossip was right, soon to be divorced from her husband, Robert Flannery, a firefighter. There was a sizable life insurance policy on her, nearly half a million dollars. But she was balking at divorce, so her death would both free Flannery of his marriage and put a lot of money into his pockets.
And Robert Flannery was in financial trouble. The family house had a first, second and third mortgage on it. Any bit of equity in the small ranch house had been already taken from it. Then there was the credit card debt and a brand new leased BMW.
Robert Flannery had plenty of motive to kill his wife, but why go to all the trouble of such an elaborate, staged killing? That part didn’t fit. Unless he was trying to throw the police off and knew enough to make it look like this killing was connected to the burned birth certificate left at his sister’s house. But Paterno didn’t think Robert had the brains, time, or wherewithal to kidnap the kid. He might be an opportunist taking advantage of an ongoing investigation, trying to muddy the waters after learning that the girl had been kidnapped. But Paterno didn’t think that, either.
Robert Flannery struck him as impulsive—a risk-taker, but not a plotter. He may have wanted his wife dead, but he would be the kind of guy who hired someone to do it. Or he might stage an accident himself, but not this bizarre, almost ritualistic act. Paterno felt this was outside the scope of the man’s imagination.
So who?
Paterno drummed his fingers some more and frowned.
There were others who probably would have liked to have seen Mary Beth out of the way including Cynthia Tallericco, Robert’s mistress, but again, why the over-the-top killing? The planning? The linking to Dani Settler’s disappearance?
The interesting part was that Tallericco had been instrumental in helping to put the girl up for adoption.
Coincidence?
Paterno didn’t put much stock in coincidence. In fact, he didn’t much believe there was such a thing.
Why would Cynthia Tallericco, or anyone, for that matter, draw the symbol on the mirror? Or on the backpack?
After searching the premises, the police had found the backpack left near the sink. It had been singed but had remained intact, so it must have been sprayed with some kind of retardant.
Upon questioning, Robert Flannery had insisted that the backpack didn’t belong to either of his kids or any of their friends, but Paterno wondered if the firefighter would even know. School had barely started and Flannery had been pretty involved with his new girlfriend. Chances were he was ignoring his kids as well as his wife while the affair was heating up.
However, the backpack and symbols didn’t seem to fit with Robert Flannery unless they were elaborate smoke screens. But Paterno didn’t buy it. No, the backpack and scrawled images were the killer’s doing, and that killer wasn’t Robert Flannery.
So what did he know?
First, Mary Beth had been strangled. There had been water in her lungs, but not enough to drown her, and the bruising around her neck indicated someone had cut off her air supply with his hands. True, her husband Robert had alledgedly been the last person to see her alive, but he had an alibi, the Tallericco woman, and Paterno believed they really had been together.
Second, Mary Beth’s place had been torched, with clues intentionally left at the scene.
Third, a search of her phone records revealed that Mary Beth had spoken to her brother Liam and Shannon Flannery within the hour before the fire had been called in.
Fourth, her kids were conveniently spending the night with Mary Beth’s sister, Margaret.
He decided to check with all of Mary Beth’s family and friends again. Officers were already canvassing the neighborhood, talking to people who lived nearby, looking for anything out of the ordinary on the night of her death.
Her family had called the police station repeatedly. And the press didn’t seem satisfied by the answers they’d gotten from the information officer. But they would all just have to wait.
Paterno’s chair squeaked as he got to his feet. He leaned over his desk again, his eyes drawn to the weird symbols that were left at two of the scenes. The first was an odd diamond-like shape missing a point. In the middle of the shape was the number six. Or, he supposed, nine, if he turned the shape upside down.
The second symbol was obviously part of a five-pointed star with one point missing. In the lower left-hand corner, there was a blank space, no point, but the number five had been written, boldly drawn. The lower right-hand point was visible, but it had been drawn with a broken line while the rest of the star was in strong, bold strokes. The number two, also written in a broken line, was situated in the middle of the lower right-hand point.
Paterno stared at the drawings and frowned. If he lifted the first image and placed it over the second, it fit perfectly, the number six in the center of the fractured star. Not nine, but six, so that all of the numbers were situated right-side up.
What the hell was the murderer trying to convey?