“We go and speak to Scott Darnell,” Laura confirmed, feeling much more like they were on the right track than she had all morning.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Laura took the call when they were halfway to the address that the local PD had managed to dig out for Scott Darnell. Seeing that it was Captain Mills on the line, she didn’t hesitate in answering it.
“Agent Frost,” she said, putting the phone to her ear.
“I think you might want to see something before you speak to Scott Darnell,” Captain Mills said. “We’ve just been analyzing some phone records that were released to us by the network provider. It’s pretty interesting reading.”
“He was still in touch with Lucile Maddison?” Laura asked, signaling to Nate to turn the car around with one finger in the air.
“Not Maddison,” Captain Mills said. “Like I said – you’re going to want to see this.”
He ended the call, and Laura quickly reprogrammed the GPS to get them through the unfamiliar streets and over to the precinct.
Laura dug her phone out of her pocket, while Nate handled the driving and left her hands free. She sent a quick text off to Agent Jones: Have you heard anything about Amy?
She hadn’t expected an instant reply, but it came before she even had time to look up at the street again: Nothing yet. Chief R keeping it very hush-hush.
Laura sighed to herself, staring out of the window and seeing nothing. She wanted to know that everything was alright. Being so far away and unable to help was like slow torture.
The precinct loomed out of the middle of a city street, other municipal buildings and residential apartments all around it. It towered high above them, and the front steps seemed to play host to a constant stream of cops in uniform and civilians coming in and out.
Nate pulled around the back and found a place for them to park. Laura got out of the car while he was still searching and walked ahead, up to the main lobby, where a desk sergeant sent her in the direction of the third floor. There, Laura walked into a bullpen rowdy with detectives sitting at their desks and suspects, victims, and all manner of others filling the spaces. At the back of the room, she could see an office with glass windows. Inside it, she recognized the form of Captain Mills, and headed over there immediately.
“Ah, Agent Frost,” he said, looking up as she knocked sharply and then opened his door. “I’ve asked Sergeant Thornton to prepare the records for you upstairs in one of our offices. It’s lying empty temporarily, so you won’t be putting anyone out. I’ll show you up there now.”
Nate joined them as they passed the elevator, heading back into it and up one floor to a long hall where they found the office. It was a small room, not even as big as Captain Mills’ office in the bullpen, but at least it was quiet and private.
Sergeant Thornton was pinning up a map to the wall as they arrived; Laura saw that it already had the locations of the two bodies marked in red ink. Across the table were the pages of phone records.
“Sergeant, could you take them through what you found?” Captain Mills asked, hanging back near the door to watch his employee at work.
“Yes, sir,” Thornton said, tucking her dark hair behind one ear. “So, these are text message exchanges between Suzanna Brice and a number which we’ve only just managed to identify as Scott Darnell.”
Laura took the page she was holding up, scanning over it. “The first message looks like it’s already part of a conversation,” she said. “Is this where it starts?”
“Yes,” Thornton said smartly. “We believe that the conversation started on Tinder. Suzanna was a member of the dating app and she had been chatting with other men as well. Looking back over her call and text history, it seems like there’s a pattern of starting to talk to someone, going on a date or two, and then the conversation petering out.”
“Lots of frogs and no princes,” Nate said. “When are these dated?”
Laura shook her head in disbelief. “Just over a week ago,” she said. “Scott Darnell was in contact with both victims, and Suzanna very recently. It looks like they organized a date and place to meet up.”
“That’s right,” Thornton nodded, lifting up another page for her to see. “They do appear to have gone on the date. Afterwards, Suzanna is quiet, then Darnell sends her a message saying it was a nice night and it was a shame she had to go home early.”
“Or she said she had to go home early because the date wasn’t going well,” Laura said, with a raised eyebrow. It wasn’t hard to imagine the scenario. It was one of the oldest tricks in the book. She’d practically used it herself last night, although she had been telling the truth.
“Right, and it definitely sounds that way,” Thornton said. “She at first didn’t respond, so Darnell sent her another message saying he wanted to meet up with her again. Suzanna said she’d rather not, and she was pretty polite about it. That must have rubbed him the wrong way, and he then said some not very nice things about her.”
Laura scanned the messages. They weren’t hard to predict. He’d called Suzanna a bitch, prissy, a prude, accused her of only being out for a free meal. Eventually, Suzanna had told him to leave her alone or she was calling the police, and the messages stopped.
“He gave up?” Laura asked. The date was timestamped for three da
ys before Suzanna was killed.
“She blocked his number,” Thornton said, with a gleam in her eyes.
“That’s really good work, Sergeant,” Laura said, smiling at her. “This is a good lead. The sister, Vicky – she didn’t mention anything about this.”