“Hunt has no knowledge of that murder, just the San Antonio crime.”
“But what does this have to do with Sean and the escape?” Lucy asked, exasperated. “This isn’t telling us anything—except that Hunt manipulated a current case to get transferred here, to Houston, at the same time as Sean was in jail.”
“You’re right, but I just don’t know how or why. Hunt himself went to the warden in California with information about the San Antonio case after he heard of Michael Thompson’s arrest.”
Lucy opened the box of files that the AUSA had given Megan. First thing she did was organize them—depositions, Michael Thompson’s rap sheet, investigative notes, trial transcripts. First things first—figure out who Thompson was, why he was a hit man, who else they suspected he killed, to see if there was a pattern.
It was going to be a lot of work, but she was motivated.
If there was something here that they could use to prove that Jimmy Hunt had orchestrated this in order to facilitate the escape, they would be one small step closer to proving Sean’s innocence.
There was a knock on the door and Lucy jumped. She hated being so antsy.
“Room service,” the visitor said.
Lucy reached for her gun. “I didn’t order anything.”
“I did,” Megan said. “You need to eat, and I ordered it when I got here.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“We both need to eat.”
Megan answered the door and signed. RCK had reserved them a suite, so they’d be staying here tonight—Megan and Kate were sharing an adjoining room.
She’d ordered salads, soups, and sandwiches. “I didn’t know what you wanted, but I went with healthy over junk food. I know you and Jack love spicy, so ordered the spiciest dishes on the menu.”
“Thanks.” She picked at a salad as she read over the information in Thompson’s file.
Michael Thompson was born in Maine. He’d served in the military for six years, honorably discharged, then came home and worked for a construction company. Ended up starting his own business in Maine, married, and had two daughters. He left Maine seven years ago … and fell off the grid.
Something was missing.
“Megan, what happened seven years ago to Thompson? He had a wife and two kids, and then he fell off the grid.”
Megan opened her laptop and did a more detailed background on him. “His older daughter was raped and murdered at the age of ten. How awful.”
Megan skimmed the information she’d found. “The killer was their next-door neighbor, a repeat sex offender from New York who hadn’t registered in Maine. Thompson became despondent and paranoid, his wife left him and took his younger daughter. He disappeared … until he got on our radar after the San Antonio hit.”
There was something very familiar about that story, Lucy thought. Had she read about it? Studied it?
“What happened to his daughter’s killer?”
Megan scrolled. “Roger Tyson. Convicted of all counts, life in prison. He was killed in a prison fight a year after he was convicted.”
Lucy took a bite of a sandwich. Hmm. This was familiar … why did she know this case?
She continued reading, then turned to Megan and said, “Where did his wife go?”
“She took their younger daughter—then eight, now fifteen—to Colorado. Remarried last year to a cop, a widower with two kids. There had been a restraining order against Thompson in Maine, but she never refiled it when it expired.”
“And we don’t know where he went after he left Maine?”
“No.”
“Can you dig deeper on him? Where he went to high school, whom he served with in the military, family connections.”
“Why? What are you seeing?”
“I don’t know. But there’s something really familiar about Thompson, and I can’t put my finger on it.” She bit her lip. “I think I know him, but I don’t know why. I don’t recognize his picture, I don’t think I’ve met him.”
“I’m on it,” Megan said. She started typing.
Lucy put Thompson aside and finished half the sandwich. She would pick up the file again after she studied the victims.
Gregory Davidson in San Antonio and Councilman Charles Gomez in Houston. Was there a connection between them? Davidson had been dealing drugs at the high school he’d taught at; there didn’t appear to be a motive for Gomez’s murder—no drug connections before his death or discovered during the investigation. What about the other alleged victims of Thompson?
“Where are the other victims?” she asked as she began flipping through files.
“Excuse me?”
“You said Thompson was suspected of killing several other men and women, likely murder for