“Not in the least.”
“Pity.”
He shifted his weight to help ease the tightness in his hip. “Maybe you can brief me on what’s in the folder. Mason mentioned you think you’re on the trail of a serial killer.”
She nodded and ran her hands up and down her arms, looking slightly less eager now that the discussion was at hand. She reached for the tequila.
He swore and placed the bottle on the counter behind him. “Trust me. You’re already going to have a heck of a hangover. No more alcohol. Now, for a common reference, so there’sno confusion, what name are you dubbing your alleged killer?”
She drew a deep breath, then straightened her shoulders as if she was about to head into battle. “The Kentucky Ripper.”
Chapter Four
Bryson froze, then slowly straightened. “That’s not funny.”
Teagan’s eyes widened. “I’m not making a joke. I’m serious. The Ripper is the killer I’ve been researching.”
“At least now I know why you asked Mason for me, specifically. Well, forget it. Rehashing past failures isn’t my idea of fun.”
She held up her hands. The overhead lights winked off several gold rings. “Just hear me out. I’ve been researching this for a long time. I’m not here to cast blame. I’m here for your insight. And I’m here to ask a very important question.” She squeezed her hands together. “What if the guy they thought was the Ripper is actually a copycat and the real serial killer is still at large?”
He winced, then eyed his empty glass with longing. “If that’s true, then I screwed up even worse than I thought.”
“Not at all.Youdidn’t make the mistakes during the Ripper investigation. Thepolicedid.”
He tore his gaze from the shot glass. “Maybe I drank too much tequila too because that one went right over my head. I’m lost, in spite of ourcommon frame of reference.”
“Then I’ll be happy to explain. First, profiles are tools, not biblical text.”
He stared at her as his own words were thrown back at him. “Did Mason say that to you?”
She frowned. “No. Why?”
He shrugged. “Just wondering. Go on.”
She crossed her arms on top of the island. “When your profile indicated that one of the two top suspects was the most likely killer, the police went after him with everything they had. Meanwhile, their other prime suspect was no longer under surveillance. He took advantage of their mistake to abduct and murder a woman. Instead of thinking of your profile as a divining rod, they should have stayed the course, kept their surveillance on both suspects until some evidence tipped the scales.” She motioned in the air as if waving away her words. “Regardless, my point is that, based on my research, I think your profile was spot-on. The first guywasthe real Ripper. The guy they put in prison is a copycat. The police got sidetracked by the last murder and pursued that killer to the exclusion of everyone else. So, while there’s plenty of blame to go around for how everything turned out, none of it should have ever blown back on you.”
He was going to filet Mason for giving this misguided, albeit beautiful woman his address. Her theories were bogus. Unfortunately, he could tell how vested she was in them and he didn’t want to destroy her confidence before her law enforcement career was even off the ground.
Using his nonjudgmental teaching voice, the one he’d adopted while presenting guest lectures at Quantico, he explained, “For that theory to hold water, the first requirement would be that the Ripper is still active. But no other women have been tortured and brutalized per his specific signature since he was put away. Explain how your theory addresses that.”
“No other womenthat you know of.”
“Fair enough. That I know of. But if new cases had popped up, I can’t imagine the media not making a connection even if the police didn’t. The Ripper case was bread and butter to them. It made for great ratings. If something that sensational happened again, they’d be all over it.”
“The media in Kentucky, yes, absolutely. Other places, not necessarily. They don’t know about the original cases and wouldn’t realize there was a serial killer operating in the area.”
“Maybe.”
“Definitely,” she countered.
He admired her confidence, even if she was dead wrong. “Why would the killer change locations?”
“Because he’s smart. He knew he’d been given a tremendous opportunity, that a mentally disturbed fall guy had taken credit for his crimes and turned attention away from him. He knew that if he killed again in the same area, the police would know right away that they’d caught a crazy guy bent on enjoying the spotlight and confessing to crimes he didn’t do. They’d be back on the trail of the real Ripper, reassemble the task force. But stopping, not killing anymore, isn’t an option either. Our psychopath is driven by an urge to kill that he can’t control. So in addition to changing locations, he also changes his MO, his modus operandi, the way he kills.”
He could see why Mason had found her compelling. She spoke with authority, like someone who’d had real-life experience with this sort of thing rather than just book knowledge. He decided to press her some more, see whether she’d backtrack and second-guess herself, or hold firm and defend her theory. “Don’t serial killers always keep the same MO?”
She gave him a wounded look that almost had him feeling guilty. “You’re treating me like a student, testing me, aren’t you? Pushing to see if I know what I’m talking about.”
