'Jack, Simon's right,' Kate said, 'and assuming you are not a mad dog killer and thief and that Anthony Corliss and Milo Harper aren't crazy, what's going on?'
'Let me take a crack at it,' Simon said. 'The way I see it, there are a few possibilities. First, Delaney and Blair weren't murdered but Enoch was, making for one crime. Second, Delaney and or Blair were murdered, making for two or three crimes that are potentially connected. Third, all three were murdered, which, given their participation in the dream project, increases the likelihood the murders are connected.'
'Which is a nice way of saying that they were committed by the same person. And, if they were, the killer may not be finished,' Lucy said.
'Are you talking about a serial killer?' Kate asked.
'It's possible,' Lucy said. 'By definition, a serial killer has at least three victims and they usually share things in common. These victims were all volunteers in the dream project. And, they died-or were killed-over a short span of time with a shorter time between the second and third murders than the first and second, which is typical of a serial killer on a spree.'
'What's the timeline?' Simon asked.
'Blair died on December tenth, Delaney on January ninth, and Enoch died last week on the twenty-third. The interval between Delaney and Blair was thirty days. It was fourteen between Blair and Enoch. If I'm right, another victim will turn up in the next few days.'
'So the killer must be someone involved in the dream project,' Kate said.
'Whoa. Slow down, CSI,' I said. Though I'd raised the same prospect with Maggie Brennan, I didn't want my makeshift team running wild. 'We're a long way from profiling a serial killer. They usually commit ritualized murders with a heavy sexual component. The murders look alike from how the victims were killed, to the letters spelled with words cut out of magazines and sent to the local newspaper. Apart from Delaney's, Blair's, and Enoch's participation in the dream project, we don't have any of that here. Plus, a serial killer doesn't account for Wendy's envelope.'
'The thing about the letters to the newspaper,' Kate said, 'that's just an example, right. You don't mean every serial killer does that.'
'No,' I said. 'My point is that serial killers operate in a pattern. They keep body parts as souvenirs. They like to taunt the police, maybe even insert themselves in the investigation because they think they're too clever to be caught. There's no evidence of a sexual component in any of these deaths. None of the bodies was mutilated and there have been no communications from the killer.'
'It's not like baking a cake. Just because it doesn't fit the pattern so far, you can't rule it out,' Lucy said.
'Agreed,' I said. 'But that doesn't mean we only focus on single white men in their twenties and thirties who live alone and are sexually dysfunctional.'
'And who set fires, abused animals, and wet their beds when they were kids,' Simon added. 'Hey, I watch TV too.'
I sighed. 'Try more Food Network and less
'What do you want us to do?' Kate asked.
'Help me fill in the blanks. There are two hundred and fifty volunteers in the dream project. Each of them was videotaped describing their dreams. I want you to take a look at the videos and tell me if anyone jumps out at you on the secret psycho scale. I'll give you my ID and password for the institute's computer system.'
'Two hundred and fifty videos. Sure thing. Let me call the office and tell them I'm quitting my job.'
'Don't tell them that. Tell them you just got a huge piece of work at a premium rate. My budget is unlim
ited.'
Her smile lit up her face. 'That I can tell them.'
'Simon, I want you to run background checks on the volunteers and the staff that had access to the dream project files. I'll know tomorrow which ones actually got into the files. Let's see who's had a restraining order entered against them, who's been arrested, and who's late on their mortgage.'
'How soon do you want all this?' Simon asked.
'Now would be just fine. Is that a problem?'
'Were you serious about the unlimited budget?'
'Milo said I could spend whatever it takes.'
'In that case, now is not a problem. It's impossible, but it isn't a problem.'
'What Kate and Simon are going to do may not be enough,' Lucy said. 'A lot of serial killers are charming people like Ted Bundy or the BTK killer in Wichita. That guy was active in his church and was a Cub Scout leader.'
'Look,' I said, 'we aren't going to make the same mistake Dolan and Kent made and assume we know anything until we can prove it. Why would a serial killer take whatever was in Wendy's envelope?'
'One reason,' Lucy said. 'The killer was picking his next victim.'
Chapter Twenty-eight
'I don't buy that,' I said. 'It's too random. It doesn't fit the pattern.'
'Don't underestimate the rules of randomness,' Simon said.
'What are you talking about?'
'He's talking about the world,' Kate said. 'We like it orderly but it's mostly disorderly.'
'From coin tosses to baseball to the stock market, the world is random,' Simon said. 'Hitters and stock pickers have hot streaks but over time, they regress to the mean. In the end, randomness rules.'
'What's that got to do with murder?' Lucy asked.
'Everything,' Kate said. 'Einstein said it is a magnificent feeling to recognize the unity of a complex of phenomena which appear to be things quite apart from the direct visible truth. We're looking for an explanation that accounts for everything we know but if we limit ourselves to what's most obvious or most likely, there's a good chance we'll be wrong.'
'Maybe so, but the direct visible truth is what I know. There are facts in common, that's it. Even if they added up to a pattern, I don't fit into it. I'm not a participant in the dream project.'
'You are as connected to the Harper Institute as Delaney, Blair, and Enoch were, maybe more.'
'If you widen the net that much you make every institute employee a potential victim, which doesn't tell you anything,' I said.
'It's just as dangerous to make up your mind too soon that the case is one thing as it is to decide that it isn't something else,' Lucy said.
'She's right,' Kate said. 'It's called the Endowment Effect. People attach more value to the things they own just because they own them whether they're coffee mugs or opinions. That's why we overvalue our houses so much we can't sell them and it's why we have such a difficult time changing our minds.'
'Okay, I won't argue with that,' I said. 'I'll keep an open mind but I still don't buy that a killer has put my name on a list. Let's get to work.'
Simon and Kate took over the dining room and Lucy and I went back to our poster art. She took the floor and I settled into the recliner.
'Take me on the dead man tour,' I told her. 'How'd you get into Enoch's house?'
'The back door. Flimsy lock. I have a set of picks.'
'Possession of burglary tools,' I joked.
'To be a crime, the tools have to be used to enter an occupied structure for the purpose of committing an offense therein. Enoch's house was not occupied and my motives were pure,' she said, sticking her tongue out at me.
'All charges are dropped. What did you find?'
'Not that much, to tell you the truth. There were no signs of forced entry, which suggests that Enoch knew his killer.'
'With all the stolen mail sitting around his house, he wasn't going to let a stranger in. It had to be someone he trusted.'
