The Trespasser

Conway and Steve head out to search Aislinn’s apartment. On the way, Conway gives Steve the recap of Breslin’s suspicious behavior, which confirms their mob theory. She tries to keep Steve’s elation in check even though she feels the same: “I’ve been trying not to say it out loud because I don’t want to jinx it […] This is new, it’s stupid, it comes from the squad training me to look for booby traps everywhere” (164). Their search for hidden evidence at Aislinn’s apartment turns up nothing. The results are almost too neutral: “Me and Steve give good search, but I feel like Aislinn snuck something right past us, and no matter how many times I think back, I can’t figure out what or where it could be” (168).

The two check the local dive bars to see if anyone remembers Aislinn. One bartender recalls her drinking with an older man—early fifties, tall, with a full head of hair. Conway thinks this sounds like the man she spotted near her home. As they leave the bar, Conway finally recalls where she saw Aislinn before. It was during the time Conway was assigned to Missing Persons: Two and a half years earlier, Aislinn came in asking for an update about her father. She looked like a dowdy brunette at this stage.

Conway feels contempt for Aislinn because she refused to move forward with her life as Conway herself had done: “Because she was twenty-six years old and chasing after Daddy, whining for him to fix everything for her. That’s fucking pathetic” (175-76). Because Conway brushed her off and didn’t help her, Steve speculates that Aislinn might have undertaken her own investigation and pursued the possibility that her father had been involved with a gang. Instead of an older boyfriend, perhaps Aislinn’s mystery man was her father. 

Conway and Steve return to the incident room to go over paperwork. Nobody on their team has turned up anything useful. One of the floaters is listening to an interview with Crowley bemoaning the fact that the police are doing nothing to solve Aislinn’s murder. The coroner calls Conway to let her know the autopsy results. Aislinn was punched hard enough to break her jaw; however, she died from a skull fracture when she fell against the fireplace surround. There are two skull injuries, one less severe than the other. Conway and Steve speculate that perhaps Aislinn fell before being punched. The murderer lifted her up to check if she was dead before letting her head drop back to the floor. Such a sequence would indicate murder instead of manslaughter and make Rory a less likely suspect.

A messenger from Missing Persons drops off the records of Aislinn’s father’s disappearance. A cryptic note from Detective O’Rourke warns Conway to contact him directly if she finds anything she doesn’t like in the files. Conway and Steve quickly comb through the material before Breslin returns. They discover that Desmond Murray ran away to England with a woman named Vanessa O’Shaughnessy. Strangely enough, Missing Persons never informed his family about this. Conway calls O’Rourke to inquire but gets his voice mail. Conway feels frustrated by all the blind alleys and misdirection associated with this investigation: “I feel like I’m missing the bleeding obvious here, but the harder I concentrate, the more all the signals turn to noise. […] Someone wants me to make a mistake” (197-98).

Breslin returns to the incident room, asking for an update. Conway tells him what they’ve learned. Breslin asks about the box delivered from Missing Persons. Steve downplays the gang angle to throw off suspicion. O’Rourke from Missing Persons returns Conway’s call. He explains that Aislinn’s father died of natural causes in England. He told Aislinn the same thing when she asked him but never said anything about the father’s girlfriend. This destroys the detectives’ theory that Aislinn was looking to reconnect with her father. Steve comes up with a new notion: He points out that Aislinn lived in a fantasy world and may have believed the mob killed her father. She may have wanted revenge and decided to infiltrate a gang to get the truth. Conway says, “Anyone who turns herself into Barbie because that’s the only way she feels worthwhile needs a kick up the hole, but someone who does it for a revenge mission deserves a few points for determination” (214).

The two detectives go to O’Kelly’s office at the end of the day and explain that they haven’t arrested Rory yet because all their evidence against him is circumstantial. O’Kelly knows they’re hiding something but doesn’t press the issue. Driving home, Conway is pulled over for a DUI. Someone on the squad has called in a false tip; her paranoia grows. When she arrives at her house, she realizes an intruder is inside. He turns out to be an undercover cop named Fleas. Because he’s embedded with the local gangs, Conway asks if he’s ever seen Aislinn with any gang member he knows. He doesn’t recognize her photo. Fleas does mention that someone is casing Conway’s street. He describes a man wearing a black overcoat and trilby hat. Conway asks him to text her if he can get a closer look at the man. Fleas leaves but never sends a text that evening.