perfume of an expensive day spa in Calistoga, miles down the road.
Then again, maybe she was just imagining it. She gave Robby a call to see where he was, but he didn’t answer his cell. She left a message, then called her ASAC, Thomas Gifford.
A moment later, she was put through to his desk. “So how’s your vacation? How’s the weather out there? Been raining nonstop here since you left. I think you should come home, give us a break.” He chortled a bit, in surprisingly good spirits.
She hesitated. “Weather’s been good. Vacation was good, too. But . . .”
“I don’t think I like the sound of this, Karen. But what?”
She and Gifford didn’t agree on much, and they’d had their share of arguments, but this was not likely to sit well with him, given what had happened with Yates, and, of course, Dead Eyes. Given the work the profilers did, the mental health of those in his units was a top priority. “Well, we kind of stumbled onto something here.”
“What kind of ‘something’?”
“Something like a dead body. Both breasts severed and removed from the scene—”
“Ah, Jesus Christ, Karen. What are you, a serial killer magnet?”
“Yeah, that’s a good one, boss. Remind me to put that on my new personalized license plate.”
“Serious, Karen. I sent you away to
“Believe me, I wasn’t looking for it. It was a ‘wrong place, wrong time’ kind of thing.”
“So let me guess. You told the detective assigned to the case that you should help out, because you’re the great Karen Vail, super agent who thinks she can absorb all sorts of psychological trauma and keep on ticking.”
“Not in so many words.”
“So now he wants BAU support.”
“Right again, sir. Did you eat your Wheaties this morning? You’re on a roll.”
Silence.
Finally, Gifford said, “So you think this is a serial offender?”
“I do. Not his first kill. Pretty brazen, possibly narcissistic.”
“Fine, you’re there, you take the case. But I don’t want you staying longer than your vacation. And when you get back, I want you to take a real vacation. Maybe we’ll put you in a cement overcoat, suspend you by crane over the Potomac, where you can’t get into trouble.”
“If you think it’ll help.”
“Honestly, I don’t. Somehow trouble will find you.”
“I’ll have the Incident Commander send you a formal note on letterhead. And hey, the sheriff here went to the National Academy.”
“Well,
Before she could reply, she realized the line was dead. But she still needed the VICAP run, so she called back. Asked for a colleague of hers, Frank Del Monaco. He answered on the third ring.
“Frank, it’s Karen.” She heard an audible sigh. “Something wrong?”
“I was having such a nice day before you called, is all.”
“And now?”
“Not so much. Wait—aren’t you in California on vacation?”
“Well, you got the first part right. Listen, I need you to run something through VICAP.”
“What do I look like, your servant?”
“Frank, I’m three thousand miles away. If I could do it myself, and not have to ask you for anything, I’d do it. Now, I need you to run the following parameters. The UNSUB we’re looking for—”
“You’re on vacation and you’re working a case?”
“Yes, Frank. And I don’t need any shit from you. Just run this or I’ll call Rooney or Hutchings.”
“Rooney’s in California, too. But, fine, whatever.”
Vail gave him the details of the behaviors she had observed. Del Monaco said he would run the report when he was done with his meetings and get back to her when he had the results.
She hung up and tried Robby again. Voice mail. She went back into the sheriff’s department and tracked down Brix. “I need a car or I need to ride with someone.”
“What about Hernandez?”
“He’s off doing his own thing. He’s not answering his phone.”
“Smart guy, probably tasting wine and enjoying himself.”
She ignored his swipe. “So—car or not?”
“Not. You can ride with Dixon.” He told Vail to wait there, then disappeared back into the task force conference room, down the hall. He emerged a moment later with a reluctant Dixon. Vail couldn’t hear what was being said, but from Dixon’s hand movements, it appeared she was asking, “Why me?”
After her apparently futile argument, Dixon moved back into the room while Brix held open the door. Dixon appeared seconds later with her binder clutched in her left hand. She made her way down the corridor to Vail. Her body was stiff, her face tight.
“Guess I’m chauffeuring you around today,” Dixon said.
“Just for a bit, till my friend gets my voice mail, then you can be rid of me.”
They walked outside to Dixon’s county-issued vehicle, a Ford Crown Victoria. She got in and unlocked the doors.
As Vail sorted herself out, Dixon snapped her seat belt and said, “Now what?”
“This is your investigation,” Vail said. “I’m here to help, that’s it. If there’s some insight I can offer that’ll help narrow our pool of suspects, that’s my specialty.”
Dixon put the car in drive and headed out of the lot. “Problem is, we have no pool of suspects.”
“At this point, we don’t even have a pond.”
Dixon stifled a laugh. “Yeah, no pond.”
“I put in a call to Quantico and we should have a report on the VICAP results later. Meanwhile, let’s make use of our time.”
“How about we start where all crimes start? Motive.”
Vail knew that motive for a serial killer was a much different animal from that which a traditional criminal exhibits. But she decided to go with Dixon, see where it would lead. “Keep in mind that most murders are between individuals who know each other. Serial offenders are traditionally stranger on stranger crimes, which makes it harder. Motive isn’t always visible to us.”
“Noted,” Dixon said. “But we have one thing going for us.
Victimology—in this case Victoria Cameron and the Jane Doe. Start with basic investigative policework: Who would want her dead? Had she had any arguments with anyone? What was her relationship with her husband like? Do any of these things have to do with the Jane Doe lying in the morgue?”
“All good stuff,” Vail said. “We may want to extend that to looking into where Victoria shopped, places she frequented on a regular basis, people she did business with, and so on. Once we get an ID on the corpse Brix unearthed, we’ll do the same for her. That’ll generate a suspect pool and then I can be a little more helpful.”
“I thought your info was pretty helpful.”
Vail tried not to let the surprise show on her face. “Thanks, Roxxann. I appreciate that.”
WHILE DRIVING, Dixon activated her visor-mounted Bluetooth and called her office. She spoke with the deputy district attorney and explained why they needed a search warrant drawn for Silver Ridge Estates, and told her that Brix would be drafting the probable cause statement. She was promised an executed warrant within the hour.
“So what’s the scoop on the guys on the task force?”
Dixon chuckled. “What am I, the school gossip queen?”
“It’s best to know who I’m dealing with so I don’t put my foot in my mouth.” Vail threw up a hand. “Scratch that. I’m gonna put my foot in my mouth anyway. But I’d still like to know who these people are.”
“Haven’t you profiled everyone in that room already?”
