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Mary was already intent on starting up her computer. “I’m fine! Close the door. I have work to do. And tell everybody to leave me alone for a while.”
Peter closed the door and started back to his office. His intercom buzzed, and it was Blake asking what was wrong with Mary. Peter pressed the button. “She’s all excited about something. She wants to be left alone, said she has work to do.”
“Let me know if anything changes.”
Peter pushed the button again. “Will do.” He went back into the conference room to ask Bobby, “Where’s Shelley?”
Bobby looked up from his computer. “Blake called her to his office and I haven’t seen her since.”
Peter returned to his office and sat back in his command chair. He clicked on a message from Blake, which read: “Transfer all information dealing with the Seattle killer to Shelley. Any request for information must go through her from now on. She is on her way to Seattle and will be our coordinator. A large number of police and sheriff departments are involved in the murders up there. We don’t need to be bombarded with the same questions over and over.”
Blake picked up the file Peter had left on his desk with a phone number and a contact in New Orleans. Blake pulled his phone out of his pocket and called the number. “Hello, is this Chief Wiggins?”
A gruff-sounding voice came back. “This is Wiggins. Who the hell is this?”
Blake had a feeling the conversation was not going to go well. “This is Agent Harris of Homeland Security’s Special Unit. I believe you were sent some information about a serial killer operating in your area. I’m just calling to offer our help.”
The gruff voice became worse. “Agent Harris, the best help you can be to us is to stay out of our business. We don’t need or want your help. We can take care of our own shit.”
Blake started to reply, but the line was dead. He laid his phone on the desk, in his mind saying, Fuck them. But he pushed Peter’s button and said, “Peter, New Orleans doesn’t want our help right now. But I want you to monitor the traffic down there, just in case. If it gets too bad, we’ll turn it over to the FBI.”
Wayne, Rainbow, and Bob got off the elevator, and Wayne and Rainbow waved at Blake as they proceeded to Operations. Bob stopped and knocked on Blake’s door, followed by Taylor, who had noticed the arrivals. Blake waved them in. “Have a seat and tell me some good news.”
Bob threw up his hands. “I’ve got no joy for you. Keeler said it was our guy but that was about all. He said he would let me know if he found anything in the lab but for us not to hold our breath.”
Blake wasn’t surprised, but he was disappointed. “I hoped that sooner or later the asshole would make a mistake.”
Bob sighed. “The three of us walked the entire area, along with about ten men from MPD. We found nothing.”
Blake’s visitors were standing up to leave when Blake remembered Mary’s return. “Did something happen out there to upset Mary?”
Bob shrugged his shoulders. “Not that I saw, but she took off like a bullet.”
Blake waved them out, Bob headed to Operations, and Taylor went back to his office.
Bob walked in on a conversation between Rainbow and Wayne about working undercover. The two had found they had a common background. Rainbow was saying how he had been a homeless bum in L.A. for three weeks once. Bob pulled out a chair to sit down and listen, along with Bobby, and with Peter, too, whose door was open.
Wayne said, “I don’t know how you lasted three weeks. After two weeks under, I began to feel like it was real. If I had stayed that last week, I’m not sure I would’ve been able to come back.”
Rainbow took a deep breath. “It’s not easy to return to your old life. Every event leaves a mark on you. Like you were saying, sometimes you make friends and they get hurt because of their involvement with you. I have sent a lot of what I called good friends to jail.”
Wayne knew there was a difference between what they were referring to. “This guy Roy hadn’t done anything and wasn’t involved in anything bad. But he was killed by people who’ll never be tried for the crime. I can’t help but believe something I did placed him in danger.”
Bob interjected, “We’re all like a pebble hitting water. We send out waves just by walking down the street. Most of the time our waves are harmless, but sometimes, even without our knowing it, we turn over somebody’s boat. You can’t blame yourself for someone else’s actions.”
Wayne ran a hand over his head. “I’m not blaming myself for his death but for my inability to bring the killers to justice.”
Rainbow stood to go get a bottle of water. He patted Wayne on the back. “There’s justice and then there’s right and wrong. They’re not always the same thing.”
Mary came bounding out of her office and hollered, “Peter, call Blake and Taylor down here. I have a new profile of our killer.”
It took a few minutes, but soon everybody was seated at the table looking at Mary. She slid her hand across her keyboard and sent her screen to the big screen on the wall. “I’m sorry for the first profile. I based it on what our killer was doing here in Memphis. But remember, we think he only recently started killing here. By going back over the killings we believe he did in other places, I found he had no routine at all. That only started once he began killing in Memphis. Before, he was killing black women wherever he found them. In one town he raped and killed a black woman in the back seat of her own car. Another was in an alley, then in a field where a house had been torn down. His choking and raping were the same, but where he did it didn’t seem to matter.”
Bob asked, “What changed?”
Mary smiled. “His job. I’ve been looking so hard to find something about him I forgot about his job. The one he had before had him traveling. My guess is he was fired from that job and now he has a lower-paying and less-important occupation.”
Wayne said, “I don’t see how knowing what his job is will help us. He’s a mild-mannered employee during the day and a rapist and murderer at night? One doesn’t relate to the other.”
Mary brought up a list of jobs on the screen. “In this case it does help. He changed his pattern after coming back to Memphis. This is unusual for serial killers. They like to stay with what they know. But now he can take his time and move freely, picking his time and place. I also believe he picks his victims. He knows who they are, and they may even know him. He has a week or two to study their movements. Then, when he finds the one he wants, he strikes.”
Blake said, “I see you have mailman and security guard at the top of the list. Then day-care worker, school-bus driver, taxi driver, etc. In other words, a job that would have him moving through neighborhoods.”
Mary smiled at Blake. “Nobody notices him, because he belongs there. It’s a freedom he never had on the road. The number of times he attacks may increase as he gains more confidence.”
Blake handed Wayne the paper with the jobs on it and smiled as he praised Mary. “Good work, Mary! Wayne, compile a list of every man working in these job fields, and which ones would have been in the neighborhoods where the murders have taken place. Bobby, you’re assigned to Wayne’s team. Wayne, if you find we need more help, I can bring in the MPD, but I would prefer we kept it in-house.”
“It would be better if they’re not involved. Like I said before, added security in the area could scare the killer away.”
“Okay, we’ll keep the MPD out of it.” Blake stood and walked to the door. “By tomorrow afternoon I want a partial list, one with the most likely jobs and people. It’s the end of November, gang. If it gets too cold we may lose him or he’ll move his attacks inside. We’ll get together and begin to go through the list tomorrow.”
He and Taylor walked back to his office together. “It looks like Mary may be on to something, boss.”
Blake looked at Taylor. “I thought she was on to something with the first profile. A profile is only a guess, but this may be a good guess. We can only hope.”
| Copyright © 2019, 2020 by Ed Rogers |
I love the characterization of Mary. Those opening paragraphs say so much!
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