Crush

either took her soon after or followed and tracked her for awhile. Given that this guy appears to be an organized offender, he probably planned his attack on her.”

Agbayani sat down heavily. His chair creaked. “Well, I’m glad we’ve got some activity to work with on this. Maybe we’ll catch this fucker.”

Vail’s phone rang. She pulled it from her belt and checked the display: Robby. “Excuse me, I’ve gotta take this.”

VAIL ANSWERED THE CALL as she headed back out to the parking lot the way she’d come. “Hey, stranger.”

“How’s your day been?”

Vail sighed. “I’m working. Learned some stuff about the wine industry you’re not likely to get from one of the tastings we had planned.”

“Yeah?”

“And you?”

“Oh, been tooling around, visited a few wineries. Took a tour of this castle winery, pretty cool actually.”

“Tell me about it over dinner. Wanna meet around six?”

“I can do that. Want me to pick you up?”

“I can get someone to drop me off. Where do you want to meet?”

“Back at the B&B. We’ll go from there.”

There was a noise over her shoulder. Dixon and Lugo walking toward her.

“Gotta go. See you later. Miss you.” She ended the call and reholstered her phone. “So, good work, Ray. This is an important discovery.”

“I’d much rather find already dead bodies from this killer than fresh ones.”

Vail shielded her eyes from the glare of the sun, which was breaking through the clouds. “I have a feeling there are more. Looks like this guy’s been operating in the area for a while. That means he’s comfortable here. Knows his way around, works here, lives here.”

“So the question is,” Dixon said, “where’s his base of operation?”

“That’s a loaded question. We’d need at least an hour to answer it in theory, and a few more victims to answer it in practice.”

Dixon pulled out her car keys. “So for now, we just keep adding to the profile.”

Vail nodded. “Exactly.”

Their phones buzzed simultaneously. Vail pulled her BlackBerry: a text from Brix. They were to report back now to the task force op center.

Lugo turned toward his vehicle. “See you two in fifteen.”

EIGHTEEN

Vail followed Dixon and Lugo into the conference room the Major Crimes task force was currently occupying. A number of suited guests were standing in front of the whiteboard. Redmond Brix was conducting class, gesturing to the group of bureaucrat-looking officials.

“Who are these people?” Vail whispered to Dixon.

Dixon turned her back to Brix and said, “Let’s put it this way. They’re not friendlies.”

Brix looked past the shoulder of one of his guests and locked on Vail and Dixon. Lugo had already taken his seat.

Vail felt the coolness of Brix’s look, even across the room. She and Dixon made their way to the front of the room. Each of the guests turned to face Vail. The men glanced at Dixon—men could never help but look at a beautiful woman—but their gazes returned to Vail. She felt as if she had done something wrong and was facing her accusers.

“This is Roxxann Dixon, investigator with the DA’s office, and Special Agent Karen Vail, FBI,” Brix said. He gestured to the suits and said, “And this is Mayor Prisco, Board of Supervisors president Zimbrowski, and Timothy Nance, District Director for Congressman Emmanuel Church.”

Vail absorbed this information, hoping she hadn’t contorted her face too badly; she wasn’t one to effectively mask her emotions, particularly when it came to bureaucrats and politicians. Trying to behave, she shook each of their hands with a firm greeting.

“This is a pretty impressive showing,” Vail said.

“This is a pretty important case,” Timothy Nance said.

Politically, Vail mused. This is a pretty important case politically.

Brix consulted his watch, then spread both hands. “Why don’t we take our seats, get started.” He held up a sheaf of papers. “I had our names and contact numbers typed up and hole punched. I also had copies made of the autopsy report on Victoria Cameron. Take one of each and pass it on.”

The politicos sat in chairs placed in the front of the room, off to the side. Sheriff Stan Owens walked in, clapped hands with the mayor, said something to Zimbrowski and Nance, then took a seat beside them. Vail sat where she had earlier, at the midpoint of the oblong table, to Brix’s right, who stood at the head. Dixon was beside Vail, followed by Lugo at the far end, facing Brix. Scott Fuller perched himself on the other side, opposite Vail and slightly to her left.

“Everyone’s been introduced to our guests,” Brix said, “so let’s move on. We have a number of follow-ups to cover, but first, let’s hear about this new vic.”

“That’s mine,” Lugo said. He took the papers making the rounds and peeled off a copy of each document as he spoke. “Lived and worked in Vallejo, killed three years ago. Body dumped in an upper class South Vallejo neighborhood. Nothing to go on, case unsolved.”

“Severed breasts and second right toenail removed postmortem,” Vail said. “That provides us with linkage to Victoria Cameron and the unidentified vic from the excavation site. So that gives him three victims that we know of, and there are going to be more.”

“You know that how?” This from the board of supervisors president, Zimbrowski.

“From my years of experience studying serial killers,” Vail said firmly.

“Whoa,” Nance said, leaning forward in his seat. He looked at the room’s door, as if to make sure it was closed. In a lowered voice, he said, “Let’s not throw around terms like ‘serial killer.’ That’s volatile stuff. We don’t know that’s what we’re dealing with here.”

“I’m with the Behavioral Analysis Unit,” Vail said. “A profiler.”

“Profiling. I’ve always wondered about that,” Nance said. “Is there any validity to that stuff?”

Vail chuckled. “You know, you bring up a valid point, Mr. Nance. I’ve had the same doubts. I’ve always thought my career was a waste of time and taxpayer money.”

The room was silent. Nance dropped his head and leaned back in embarrassment, clearly realizing how stupid his question was. At least, that was Vail’s initial interpretation of his reaction. Now that she thought about it, however, he could’ve been thinking, Who’s this bitch and how can I get rid of her?

“Agent Vail has a way with words,” Brix said, breaking the odd quiet that had draped the room like dense smoke.

“I’ve found her analysis useful so far,” Dixon said.

Lugo nodded. “Because of her input, I was able to find that Vallejo vic.”

“That’s dandy,” Nance said, a bit louder. “Has it caught us a killer?”

“Look,” Vail said, “I’m not here to debate the merits of profiling. But I’m here. And to answer your question, yes, there’s validity to it.”

“Why are you here?”

“I wasn’t—”

“I asked for her help,” Brix said.

Vail looked at him, and again, tried to disguise her facial expression, which probably bordered on wide- mouthed shock.

“This is something beyond our knowledge base,” Brix said. “We probably could’ve done a decent job, muddled through it, missed some important nuances about this killer, and eventually caught the guy. But in my estimation,