“We get it,” Keller says. “We’re kind of coming up empty, and you know how that goes.”
Grosso gives a knowing nod. “I can’t believe Whitaker’s still out there. That was one hell of a disappearing act.”
Keller nods back. “I know it’s been a long time, so maybe it would help dust off the cobwebs if you walked us through what you remember about the investigation, take it from the top.”
“One thing I’ll never forget is that crime scene.” Grosso shakes his head, like it’s a memory he’d gladly discard. “So much blood. The four of them, the manager was a young guy, and the three teenage girls on that break room floor.” He exhales loudly. “My family used to go to that video store every weekend, but we never went again, not after that.”
Grosso explains how he was called away from a New Year’s Eve party. How a traumatized teenager had been found outside the store covered in blood on the brink of death. The grim discovery inside. The tips that led them to Vince Whitaker.
“Do you know who called in the tips about Whitaker being at the scene?” Atticus asks.
Grosso shakes his head. “I vaguely recall a customer had seen one of the girls, Katie McKenzie, having an argument with someone in the lot, though they couldn’t identify who she was fighting with. But someone else had seen Whitaker at the store around the same time.”
“How about who gave the tip about seeing Whitaker’s car in the lot later at closing,” Atticus asks. “It’s not in the file.”
“I think it was an anonymous tip, but I honestly don’t remember.”
“So, you get these tips,” Keller says, “and you all immediately think Whitaker’s the perp?”
“We also got a print on the back door to the break room, compared it to Whitaker’s, and it matched. You gotta understand, we had nothing to go on, so we brought him in. If I could go back in time, you know, twenty-twenty hindsight, I would’ve waited to make the arrest. Particularly since that dirtbag lawyer got him out for insufficient evidence. I mean, we found the knife right after he was released. But by then, Whitaker was long gone.”
Keller looks out at the water, which is murky and choppy. “After you found the knife, the investigation seemed to slow down. The file kind of winds up.”
Grosso nods. “The county prosecutor at the time was getting a lot of heat because we’d made the arrest too soon, that Whitaker got out, so he was eager to close the investigation. Declare some type of win, that we’d identified the perp. He assumed they’d scoop up Whitaker soon enough and all would be forgiven. Didn’t quite work out that way for him—or for any of us.”
Keller realizes that Grosso’s decision to retire young wasn’t completely voluntary. The county cleaned house after the Whitaker debacle.
“But it was for the best. I was burned out on the job, got a good government pension. I can fish whenever I want, so it all worked out.” He says this like he almost believes it.
“Were you okay with the investigation being shut down so abruptly?” Keller asks. Most detectives want a case solved, not merely administrative closure.
“Didn’t matter what I was okay with. But, yeah, I mean it seemed pretty open-and-shut. The kid takes off, we find the blade in his school locker, he had motive…”
“What was the motive?” Keller asks.
“You know, he’d been seeing one of the girls, Katie. We figured he visited her at work, they had a fight. He came back at closing to pick her up, maybe they went at it some more and he stabbed her in the heat of it, used a knife that was in the break room. Then maybe the others stumbled on the scene before he was out of there, or maybe they’d seen him there earlier, so he took out all the witnesses.”
“Except for Ella Monroe.”
Grosso releases another loud breath. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time. Yeah, she got lucky, that one.”
Keller looks at Grosso closely now. “Did you interview Ella?”
Grosso nods, staring out at nothing, like it isn’t a pleasant memory.
“Did she ever tell you about the killer saying something to her?”
“No, she’d been knocked out cold during the attack. Ella and Katie came into the break room together, so he needed to incapacitate them both. He clocked Ella, then stabbed Katie repeatedly. Before he left the store, the guy stuck Ella in the chest, and must’ve thought she was dead too.”
“You’re sure no one ever mentioned anything about the killer saying something to Ella?”