Hartman was all too happy to give it to him, that information ended up in my hotel room along with the type of key that the offender left at crime scenes.”
“You’re wondering,” Dixon said, “what the connection is between a deadbeat journalist with a shady past-and present-and a former Alcatraz con.”
“Shady past?” Yeung asked.
“Scheer’s got a sealed juvie record,” Dixon said. “And remember, his wife didn’t exactly paint a Man of the Year portrait for us.”
“Scheer’s his son,” Vail said softly.
“What?” Burden asked.
Vail curled some hair behind her ear. “MacNally had a son. Maybe it’s Scheer.”
“But I thought Scheer was adopted.”
Vail shook her head. “We don’t know that. It’s a likely explanation for the two birth certificates. But it’s just a guess.”
“Even so,” Dixon said, “big deal. MacNally’s son could’ve been adopted.”
“Could Scheer be a psychopath?” Bledsoe asked.
Vail sighed deeply. “Psychopaths are very skilled at deception, so it’d be possible for us not to pick up on it. Not to mention he had us running all over the goddamn city, keeping us busy while he readied his grand show: killing John Anglin and placing him in his original cell for us to find. Everything he’s done has been planned, calculated. But he also works off what we do and shifts strategy on the run if he needs to.” Vail massaged her forehead. “So yeah, it’s possible. I need something to eat. And some coffee.” And some sleep. “I’m having a hard time thinking straight.”
“What happened to MacNally?” Burden asked. “Where is he now?”
Carondolet moved in front of his laptop and clicked, then scrolled. “Here it is.” He read a moment, then said, “That head injury was pretty bad. He had brain damage to-”
“Brain damage?” Vail nearly shouted. “That could change everything. You numb nuts didn’t think to tell us that earlier?”
“Excuse me,” Yeung said. “You’re not the only one who’s been up all night. Back off.”
Vail held up a hand. “You’re right. I’m sorry. My ASAC wants me to play nice with you guys out here because I may be making more trips out to California. So let me rephrase. You numb nuts didn’t think to tell us that earlier?”
Carondolet and Yeung looked at Burden, who was merely studying the ground, shaking his head. And doing his best to stifle a laugh.
“His injury was to the prefrontal cortex and frontal lobe,” Yeung said with a tight jaw. “According to the doc’s report in the file, that means he-”
“Suffered from severe impairments in judgment, insight, and foresight,” Vail said. “My colleague’s done a lot of research on brain trauma and violent crime, and this kind of frontal disinhibition syndrome was something he briefed us on a few months ago. If that’s what MacNally has, that might explain a lot. I can dial him up, see if he can shed some more light on it.”
“So where’s MacNally now?” Dixon asked.
“After Alcatraz closed in ’63, he was transferred to Atlanta, then to the new max pen at Marion when it opened a few months later. He served another fifteen years and was released in ’77.”
“Released,” Burden said. “That’s freaking great.”
“We all know that’s common,” Yeung said. “Last known whereabouts, he was in Chicago. But that was back in ’78. He fell off the radar after that.”
“Please tell me one of you guys put out a BOLO,” Vail said.
Yeung closed the lid of his laptop. “Done.”
“All right, look,” Burden said, rubbing his hands together as if trying to generate warmth. “We can’t stand out here all night. Let’s go back to Bryant. Get some food and coffee, give ourselves time to clear our heads, then attack it fresh.”
It was approaching 4:15 AM when they walked into Homicide with several coffees and a selection of pastries from Sparky’s all night diner.
Vail, Burden, and Dixon greeted Friedberg, who looked pallid and drawn, but otherwise appeared to be holding his own.
While the others settled in for an all-staff conference to review the latest developments and relevant case points, Vail called the profiler at the BAU who had written a number of research papers on brain injuries and their impact on violent behavior: her new partner, Frank Del Monaco.
“Frank,” Vail said, moving away from the commotion of gathering inspectors and interns. “I’ve got a question for you.”
“You mean you need something from me,” Del Monaco said. “Admit it and I’ll be more than happy to help you. Well, I’ll help you. Let’s leave it at that.”
Vail rolled her eyes. “Yes, Frank. I need your help.”
“Isn’t it like the middle of the night in California?”
“Now there’s the perceptive man I’ve come to know and loathe.”
“Karen, I know you have a hard time with this. But when you call someone to ask a favor, you shouldn’t start the conversation with an insult.”
“Goes to my point, doesn’t it? Your perceptive powers are truly exceptional. So. My question pertains to the research you’ve done on brain injuries. We’ve got a suspect we really like who suffered substantial head trauma that resulted in damage to the prefrontal cortex and frontal lobe. I remember you telling us about the inhibitory effects-”
“Wait, wait. Hang on. You mean you were actually paying attention to what I was saying?”
“I know,” Vail said, “as hard to believe as that may be, sometimes you say something intelligent. So I have to be on my toes for that rare moment. Now, can you help me or not?”
“You know we’re going to be working together, right?”
“If you’re trying to piss me off by bringing that up, you’ve succeeded. Now, your research.”
“There’s actually a new study out of Israel that I’m incorporating into a paper I’ve been working on. I won’t bore you with the details of the trial, but the bottom line is that the impairment patterns we see in the personalities of psychopaths are mimicked in individuals who’ve sustained frontal lobe damage. Very aggressive and highly impulsive and uninhibited violence.”
“You’re shitting me. You wouldn’t joke about that, right? I’m serious- this could be huge.”
“First of all, the frontal lobe symptoms they observed in the study were a bit different from the typical psychopath’s instrumental, cold-blooded, and predatory violence. Second, just because such an injury can cause psychopathic-like behaviors, doesn’t mean it has to. Third, no. I’m not yanking your chain. The study was conducted out of the University of Haifa and-”
“Was it good research? I mean, do you trust it?”
“The sampling’s smaller than I’d like, but the study’s sound, Karen. I
