Kiss Me, Kill Me

Lucy sat at the hotel-room desk and stared at her notes from the past week without really seeing them. She felt like an idiot. What was she doing second-guessing a smart, seasoned agent like Suzanne? Wade Barnett had lied to the police about knowing those women. Someone had taken down the Party Girl site-and according to Suzanne, they’d spoken with Barnett Thursday morning. Sean said it would take at least twenty-four hours if Barnett wasn’t serving the site himself. “Never mind.”

“It’s always good to hear from you, Lucy.”

He was going to hang up. She blurted out, “Sean told me he talked to you about my application. I haven’t told my family.”

Hans said, “Neither have I, Lucy.”

“I would never have asked you to look into it. I know why I failed.”

“You do?”

“You told Sean I might be too controversial. I don’t think that’s it. I think-” She hesitated, then said, “I wanted it too much.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been thinking about this since I got the letter. One of the questions they asked was why I hadn’t settled on a career. I knew that the FBI had become a place for second careers-so few people are recruited out of college anymore, unless they have a special skill. But I said that I had always wanted to work in the Bureau, that everything I did was self-training-working in the morgue, working for the sheriff’s department. But the female panelist commented that I didn’t have a passion for anything.”

Lucy continued, her words tumbling out. “I kept talking because I was worried that they thought I was too cold or hardened or something. I rambled about my passions-for stopping sexual predators and working in cybercrime and everything I wanted to do to protect the innocent, and I said too much. Either they thought I was playing them, or that I was radical.”

“Lucy, don’t overanalyze-”

She interrupted, “The rest of the interview went so smoothly! Nothing stood out. Except-if it wasn’t wanting it so badly that I panicked, then it’s only because of one other thing.”

“Adam Scott.”

She said, “I killed an unarmed man.”

“There were extenuating circumstances.”

“I shot him six times. And I would do it again. And those two facts are in my record, and there’s nothing I can do to change it.”

Hans didn’t say anything.

Lucy said, “I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking I could end up just like Fran Buckley.”

Fran, a retired FBI agent, had been her mentor at WCF, the victim’s rights advocacy group Lucy had volunteered with for three years. But Fran’s illegal activities had shut WCF down and caused the FBI untold problems from which Lucy was certain they were still reeling.

“The Bureau likes to believe they always make the right hiring decisions,” Hans said. “But in any business, government or private, there are always rotten eggs. I had one who worked for me and I didn’t see how psychopathic she was. No one did, until she shot her partner and left her for dead.

“You may be right,” Hans continued, “on either theory. I don’t know. I told Sean I would discreetly look into your application, but if you want me to pull back, I will. Whatever you want me to do, I hope you’ll still appeal the decision.”

“I haven’t decided. I wasn’t going to, but-”

“You still want it.”

“Yes.”

“You’ll have to fight for it. But you’re more than capable.”

“Thank you.”

“Now what did you really call me about?”

Lucy said, “It’s how these girls were killed. The killer either didn’t have sex with the victims or it was consensual. The last victim hadn’t had sex recently. No sign of physical trauma, no defensive wounds on any of the victims, and they were all suffocated with some sort of plastic bags-which were then removed and taken by the killer. Their bodies weren’t moved after they died-the killer suffocated and dropped them right there. No postmortem abuse, either. The killer took one shoe-hence the moniker ‘Cinderella Strangler.’ ”

“Did the killer tie the bag around the victim, or hold it in place?”

Lucy thought back to the autopsy report she’d read. “There were no ligature marks or anything to indicate rope or tape was used to hold the plastic in place. There was some bruising, but not in a strangulation pattern. I didn’t see photos of bruising, but the coroner wrote ‘inconsistent with strangulation.’ ”

“Bruises likely left from how the killer held the bag.”

“The victims weren’t restrained, but they were drugged. And because they were all at raves, the drugs were most likely taken voluntarily by the victims. All the victims left the party and no one has come forward to say they saw anyone in duress. There aren’t a lot of witnesses-though my missing teenager may have seen something when the last victim was killed. She wrote something to that effect in a convoluted message she sent her ex- boyfriend.”

“But you said the FBI made an arrest?”

“Yes. Wade Barnett. I haven’t met him, and maybe if I do these doubts won’t linger-”

“They had good cause to arrest him?”

“He lied about knowing the victims; he lied about having a physical or online sexual relationship with the victims. He then admitted it, but of course denies killing them.”

“It sounds like sex was consensual?”

“Yes, it appears so. Of course there are many cases where a killer has a relationship and, in anger or because the victim cuts it off, he stalks or kills her. But four times? And then there’s the method. This killer is cold. He or she puts plastic over the heads of their victims, who are so drugged they hardly fight back, and then waits. Five to seven minutes before the victim is dead. That’s a long time to watch someone die. More than that-there are no premortem injuries consistent with the victims being on the ground while they were dying. I was looking for cuts from glass or rocks that might have indicated the victim fighting from a prone position. But if the killer didn’t use a rope to tie the bag-”

“He used his hands.”

“Right. To hold the bag in place.”

“Which suggests that the victims were upright and the killer held them while they died. That’s a very intimate way to kill.”

“That’s what I said!” Lucy exclaimed, excited that Hans saw the crime the same way she did.

“Which could in its own way be a sexual murder, even if the killer didn’t attempt intercourse.”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“Did you realize what you said before?”

“That I didn’t think about it as a sexual crime?”

“No. You said he or she in reference to the killer.”

“I didn’t notice. Considering the victim profiles and the intimate aspect of the crimes, of course the killer would be male.”

“I think I know what has been bothering you about the murders,” Hans said. “It’s that the victims were suffocated. Suffocation is traditionally a more feminine method of murder. Along with poisoning, it is more common among female killers than male killers.”

“Wade Barnett is a good suspect,” Lucy said, weighing Hans’s comments. She hadn’t considered a female killer; why was that? But the manner of death had caught her attention and wouldn’t let go.

“Is there any physical evidence connecting him to the murders?”

“Not that I know about. But the investigation isn’t over. The FBI has a search warrant, and lying about knowing the victims is a big red flag.”

“People lie for many different reasons.”

Lucy asked, “Do you really think that a woman could hold someone for the seven minutes it takes for them to die? Then coldly remove the bag, drop the body to the ground, remove one shoe, and walk away?”