The killer coughed harshly a few times and then rolled down his window to spit. The short-burst fits had grown more frequent, creating a sense of urgency for him. He fumbled in his jacket pocket for a plastic pill container and palmed two into his hand before dry-swallowing them with a wince.
Up ahead the Maybach signaled a lane change. The killer smiled to himself. So far this was going well. By his calculations, they would be at his house within another forty minutes, tops, and then he would settle in for a long weekend of watching and waiting.
And planning.
You could never do too much planning.
The following morning, Silver pulled up a chair at the conference table and sat down, eyes wandering over the room’s occupants — Richard, Seth, Sam, and another half-dozen agents. She was excited — she’d had a breakthrough the prior night as she’d drifted off to sleep, and it had stayed with her upon waking. It was only a hunch, but right now, considering the dearth of leads they had, it was worth pursuing.
She cleared her throat and opened the file in front of her, withdrawing a sheaf of photographs from the various crime scenes.
“We’ve been focusing on finding clues in the forensics or the backgrounds of the victims, and have so far come up blank, with the exception of the terrorist funding anomaly, which is still too undeveloped to rate. So I got to thinking that maybe we’ve been going about this the wrong way. Perhaps the clues are the actual killings. The way the victims have been murdered or the locations.”
Sam exhaled audibly and shook his head. “I don’t understand. What do you mean, the way or the locations? Each was killed differently in a different place. Number one, stabbed in his car. Number two and three burned to death at home. Number four, decapitated at home. You aren’t the only one missing a connection…”
Silver nodded. “What I mean is…perhaps there’s a symbolism to the killings known only to the killer. Perhaps there’s a ritual to it — the way the victims are being killed means something or has significance to him that we’re not aware of. Or perhaps the locations are important to him in some way. I don’t know why they would be important, but that’s the point of throwing this out there.”
Richard leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, and considered the idea. “If there is some symbolism, I’m with Sam that it’s obscure. I don’t see any pattern other than the obvious one — the victims are all male and are all associated with the financial industry in some way.”
“Yes, that’s the obvious, but it doesn’t really help us much. There’s no apparent pattern, which itself is odd. What do most serials have in common? A sense of ritual. They have a preferred way of killing and a preferred type of victim. And yet our Regulator is all over the map. The lack of a pattern could be a pattern in itself,” Silver countered.
Sam winced and shook his head. “The lack of a predictable routine would also be consistent with the theory that this is something besides a serial killer. Like the terrorist funding thing. If the murders are somehow related to that, then these killings could be a ruse to make targeted executions appear to be the random work of a nut. Like a boyfriend who kills his girlfriend and tries to make it look like a robbery. That strikes me as more likely.”
“I’m not discounting that, but it doesn’t feel right.”
“
Silver felt anger stirring, but maintained her composure. “Ordinarily I’d agree with you, but sometimes the subconscious processes all the information and arrives at a conclusion before we’re aware of why. While I understand your skepticism, I’d also remind you that I’m running this show, and I’m telling you that I think there’s more to the way he’s killing them than just random chance. For Christ’s sake, he decapitated the last one. How much work was involved in doing that? It makes more sense to me that there was a reason he chose decapitation. There’s enough meaning in the act for him to warrant his preparing the cards with an allusion to the manner in which they died. That could be the way we find him.”
Seth nodded. “I get it, but I’m not sure where to begin. Where would you start?”
“There’s a strong vengeance or vigilantism aspect to this. He views himself as judge and jury, not to mention executioner, and he’s decided they deserve to die. So the obvious question is, why?
“Maybe he believes they did something to him, specifically. I mean, obviously he believes that they did something to society in general based on his statement to the
“I don’t follow,” Sam said.
“Is it possible that he has somehow been harmed?” Silver mused, “or feels he has, in the same way as he’s killing the victims — that the manner of execution is a re-enactment of some sort? Maybe this is some sort of an eye for an eye. Nobody’s advanced that idea, but it seems like it’s worth considering.”
“Anything’s possible. It’s possible that none of this means anything more than the obvious. The question is not what’s possible, it’s what’s probable…” Sam said.
Silver bristled. She was getting tired of his condescending attitude.
“How would these men have harmed him in the same way?” Seth asked.
“That’s the question we should be asking,” Silver replied.
Everyone looked at her expectantly.
“I think we should go down the road that he’s been involved in, or was affected by, similar tragedies. That he’s killing in a specific way to emulate damage that was done to him.” She held up her hand, silencing any discussion. “It’s worth looking at. What I would suggest is that we run a computer search for any events that mirror the circumstances of the killings. Decapitations. Stabbings. Death by fire.”
“That will be a massive list,” Sam argued.
“Yes, it will. Especially if we go national. But once we have the list, we can start sorting for geography, or any links or connections to the financial industry. It may come up cold, but it’s worth doing.”
Seth scribbled some quick notes. “Can’t hurt to run the queries,” he agreed. “Worst case, we don’t find anything that makes any sense. In which case we’re right back where we’re sitting — waiting for the next victim…”
“I’m sure that there’s some sort of pathology to this we’re missing. Sure, he’s pissed off at the bankers — he said as much in his communique to the press. But lots of people are. The economy is in the toilet, unemployment is an ongoing problem, people are struggling to make ends meet…and it’s all because of the financial industry, which took outsized risks, forced the world to the brink when its bets went bad, and banked massive bonuses in the process. But Joe Mainstreet hasn’t put his broker’s head on a pike. Maybe some would like to, but they haven’t.” Silver studied the assembled faces of the agents. “Only for our man, it’s different. He’s crossed the line and taken it upon himself to right the world’s wrongs. I don’t believe that’s necessarily psychosis. I think if we look hard enough, we’re going to find that something happened to take him over the edge — and it could be that the something is playing a part in his selection criteria, as well as his method of killing. If I’m right then there might just be a connection we can make that will lead us to him, or at least give us a group of candidate suspects. Does everyone see the logic?”
“Sure, but I want to go on record as saying that this seems like it will be a huge waste of resources based on nothing more than a hunch,” Sam stated flatly.
Silver encouraged healthy give and take on her team, but it was time to shut Sam down. “Do you have some sort of a problem, Sam? Someone piss on your Wheaties this morning?” She again held up a hand. “Don’t answer that — I don’t want to know. Your sentiments are noted, but this isn’t a request or a suggestion. I want Seth to do a preliminary pull based on the murder criteria, and I’m uninterested in your views as to whether that’s the smartest use of the taxpayer dollar. I know you think the terrorist angle has legs, but unless there’s something substantial that comes up tying the rest of the victims into it, that’s a dead end. So, Richard, please keep digging on their backgrounds and finances, Seth, please pull all cases that in any way resemble the killings going back a decade, and Sam, get the traffic feed analysis done in case we get lucky there. That’s all for today.”
Sam looked as if he had been punched in the throat, which gave her some slim satisfaction. He was typical of a certain breed at the Bureau — smug, arrogant and convinced that he was better capable of running the task force than she was. But she was the boss, and as much as she hated putting her foot down, enough was enough. The
