The North Face of the Heart - Dolores Redondo Page 0,91
His partner will know more than I do. Sometimes we have to break into smaller units. The smallest is the buddy team. Over.”
“Can you give me the name of his partner that time? Is that team member with you now? Can we talk to him? Over.”
“He was with Phil Lorenzo. Phil’s here, but he’s been sent out already. The hurricane blew off part of the Superdome’s roof, and there’s rain pouring in on the people there. Word came in about twenty minutes ago, and we were dispatched because our team was closest to the scene. I was just about to leave when they said you needed to speak to me. If it’s urgent, I can get Phil to a radio as soon as possible, but it could be several hours from now. Over.”
“We understand the difficult circumstances, but we wouldn’t be troubling you if it weren’t vital. We’d appreciate it if you could put Phil Lorenzo in contact with us as soon as possible. Just a couple more questions. Did Nelson go with you to Alvord, Texas, last week? Over.”
“Yeah, he was there, but not the whole time. He couldn’t get away immediately. He arrived a few hours after we did. Over.”
“How much later? Over.”
“Hmm . . . seems to me we got there around noon, and he came in that night. Over.”
“Was he with you in Miami three days ago? Over.”
“Right. He went there on his own because he was close to the scene. Drove to Miami in his personal vehicle, so he was waiting for us at the airport. Over.”
“And he traveled to New Orleans as part of the group? Over.”
“No, Nelson isn’t here; he had to work. He let us know at the last minute that he couldn’t come. Over.”
Johnson turned to look at Dupree and Amaia.
“He made a leave request in Tampa,” Dupree said under his breath.
Johnson turned back to the mic and pressed the red button. “Chief Meigs, this is very important: Can you confirm that Brad Nelson didn’t travel to New Orleans? Maybe he’s going to join you later? We understand he requested leave for that reason. Over.”
“Hundred percent sure. Happens all the time. Remember, these guys are police officers, firefighters, paramedics—emergencies happen, and they have to cancel at the last minute. Over.”
Johnson thanked the chief, signed off, and turned to his colleagues. “Where is Nelson?”
Charbou answered. “I’ll tell you where he is: here in New Orleans. You heard Meigs. Nelson was on location everywhere the murders occurred. Any alibi he might pretend to have is blown by the fact his timing is sometimes erratic. It shows he had ample unsupervised time to commit the murders when he was working with the teams. We can’t eliminate him as a suspect.”
“I agree,” Tucker said via telephone. “Traveling solo gives him options. He has the authorization both from his employers and from the rescue group. He’s a cop, he has a badge and rescue credentials. That’s all he needs to circulate in a disaster zone. If anyone spots him, he explains he’s getting there at the last minute and comes across as a hero.”
Dupree listened, analyzing Tucker’s contentions, head tilted in thought. “What do you think, Johnson?”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves. First thing to do would be to check whether there really was an emergency, something that kept him from traveling. Some things still don’t fit. But when it comes to opportunity, I have to admit he could be the one.”
“Yes,” Dupree conceded. “At first it seemed unlikely, but arriving as part of a rescue team justifies his presence in each place. It also means he’s being watched and supervised. At first glance, that suggests he’d have trouble getting away long enough to commit the crimes, but what we’ve just heard shows it might’ve been easier than I thought. Maybe he claimed he was busy somewhere else or dispatched to a different area. They’re under local command, so if the team splits up, I doubt anyone but his buddy could vouch for him. And Meigs confirmed that the team does get divided. For example, how difficult would it be for Phil Lorenzo, traveling right now between Charity Hospital and the Superdome, to get away from the team for, let’s see . . . How long do you think it would take him to locate pre-identified targets, round them up, kill them, and rejoin the team?”
Tucker’s voice was a metallic rattle that dropped out briefly but came back again. “For the actual murders, between twenty and thirty