Sydney leaned back in her chair. “Actually, the term forensic psychologist is a general term that applies to any psychologist who works in the criminal justice system. Some forensic psychologists do evaluations, both in child custody cases and in criminal litigation. Other psychologists work with attorneys to aid in jury selection, and others might work with witnesses before they testify. Some psychologists provide counseling to inmates, while others work in the areas of rehabilitation and reintegration into society after release. I decided to go into profiling.”
“Is that something you always wanted to do?”
“Not at all. Initially, I was interested in counseling in the private sector. I planned to obtain my doctorate and then open my own practice, but I did a summer internship at a prison while working on my doctorate. I guess you can say that experience changed me because by the time summer was over, I had realized I was fascinated with the criminal mind, so I applied for and was accepted into the FBI profiling program. I worked with a team on the East Coast for a while, but my family is in California, so when the opportunity to work out of the San Francisco office presented itself, I jumped on it.”
“And do you like what you do?”
She hesitated. “My job can be mentally and emotionally challenging, but I feel that what I do is worthwhile.”
I realized that she hadn’t actually said that she liked her job, only that she found it worthwhile. If I knew Sydney a bit better, I might dig around in her obvious attempt to divert the answer, but I didn’t know her all that well, and it really wasn’t any of my business.
“So did you meet Ben while working for the FBI office in San Francisco?” I asked, changing the subject.
She paused and then answered. “Yes and no. Ben and I met after I started working out of the San Francisco office, but we actually met on Shipwreck Island. Did Ben mention a man named Ezra Reinhold to you?”
I nodded. “Ezra is a tech billionaire with a tragic past who decided to seclude himself in a private estate on an island where he sponsors a team of civilians who fight crime.”
“Basically yes, although, don’t be fooled by the term civilian. Ezra employs the best money can buy. I was first introduced to Ezra by a woman I met while working on the East Coast. Octavia is ex-CIA, and our paths had crossed a time or two.”
“Why did she quit the CIA to go to work for Ezra?”
She shrugged. “I think Octavia became disillusioned along the way with some of the protocols she’d been forced to adhere to.”
“So Ezra is a rule breaker?”
“If breaking the rules will achieve the desired outcome.” She took a sip of her wine. “Anyway, as I said, I met Octavia when she was still with the CIA, but we stayed in touch even after she decided to work for Ezra. I was home visiting family on Shipwreck Island when I ran into Octavia. We got to talking, and she invited me to a strategy session the group was holding that evening. It was then and there that I first met the team. After I moved to California, I was asked to join in from time to time. I happened to meet Ben during one of the meetings I’d decided to attend.”
“Can you tell me why he’d approached the group?” I had to admit I’d been wondering that since I’d spoken to Sydney on the phone.
“Ben was working on a cold case involving a missing sixteen-year-old. At least she was sixteen when she went missing, but by the point when he brought the case to the group, she would have been nineteen. Anyway, this case wasn’t one he was officially working on for the SFPD. I guess you know he liked to poke around in unsolved cases in his spare time.”
“Yes, I do know that. Why did Ben think the group could help him on this particular cold case?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure how it is he came to approach the group. What I do know is that Libby Bolinger went missing after attending a movie with friends and was never seen again. Her parents were sure she’d been abducted, but there wasn’t any evidence that she had been, so the detective who was looking into the case filed it away as a teen runaway case. Apparently, Ben came across the file and decided to look into it. He knew about Ezra’s group, and he somehow managed to get an invite to present the case to the team. That, in and of itself, was quite the feat. Ezra doesn’t invite just anyone to his meetings, and he doesn’t take on every case that comes his way.”
I knew that Ben could be very persuasive. I wasn’t at all surprised that he’d talked this man into hearing what he had to say. “So did they find Libby?”
“Actually, they did. It seems that a man named Dugan Dunsmore was a survivalist living with his five sons in Idaho up near the Canadian border. Apparently, when each of his sons turned sixteen, Dugan found them a wife.”
“Found them a wife? Are you saying that he kidnapped a wife for his sons?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. By the time the team managed to track Libby down, she was nineteen and ‘married’ to the youngest Dunsmore son, who was likewise nineteen at that point. When I say ‘married,’ I’m not referring to a legal ceremony, but a commitment ceremony that had been forced on them by Dunsmore.”
“So what happened after Ezra’s team found Libby? Did she go home?”
“Actually, no. When the team showed up to save Libby, she no longer wanted to be saved. She’d fallen in love with the man she’d married, and the couple
