“At least those that are documented.” Andi had started with the grinding of the plastic parts.
“It’s a start.” Luke shrugged. “Once we have a list, Susan and Mark can begin checking them out.”
“Evangeline also found out that Marco Flores was roofied, heavily so. The killer used flunitrazepam, a popular rape drug, as you surely know. It’s very likely he didn’t feel the severing of the toe and the subsequent strangling.” The expression on Geena’s face said loud and clear what she thought of such “mercies.”
“Since the killer appears to be very predictable and set in his ways, we can assume the other victims were roofied as well.” George wrote the word down and circled it in purple. It was a new color in their arsenal, and they were still discussing how to use it best.
“It suggests that he might be unable to kill his victims when they’re awake. It means he’s probably not a psychopath who can’t feel empathy,” Luke injected. “Of course, it can also mean he’s not skilled enough to kill them while they’re able to fight back, though I doubt it. He has to be strong to haul them down into the bunker.”
“Then what’s his angle?” Geena cocked her head.
“They all had mental problems. Perhaps he thinks he’s helping them somehow? Freeing them of the burden they carry?” Andi didn’t look up from where he was plowing the plastic pieces into neat rows.
“A scary thought. And plausible. Why else would he kill them?” Geena looked at Andi in an assessing way George didn’t like. But Andi didn’t show any signs of being troubled, meaning Geena wasn’t a threat. For now.
“Did Evangeline find out anything else about his MO?” George asked Geena.
“Yes. As I said, the victims were all strangled. We have one inconsistency, though. The first two, TJ Ross and Celia Murdoch, were killed with a leather belt, which they found in the second quadrant with Celia’s bones. It was still slung around her neck. The others were killed with a rope made from manila hemp. And here’s the kicker. The belt buckle had initials on it. RMD. Shireen found a Reuben McDonald mentioned in the visitor logs of House Cusabo. He saw Celia several times.”
“Who was she to him?” George wrote the name in red, drawing a green line to Celia’s.
“We don’t know. Shireen couldn’t find anything that would suggest they were somehow related. Celia was raised by her mother, no father in the picture. Reuben is a trucker. He travels regularly from Florida to West Virginia, passing through North Carolina on the way. As far as Shireen can tell, he was in the vicinity of Charleston for each of the murders. He’s based in Florida but has a one bedroom apartment here in Charleston.”
“It fits. Quite well.” George added Reuben’s name to the list of suspects on the other whiteboard as well.
“It could still be coincidence.” Andi had a tissue on his desk, blotted in blue. The ballpen’s core was history.
“Let’s sum up what we can say fairly surely about the killer so far.” George hesitated for a moment. He and Andi were aware that it was only one person. Geena and Gelman were not. Was it worth throwing this question in to muddy the waters? Or would it come back to bite him in the ass? George glanced at Andi, who was engrossed in the destruction he had caused on his desk. Deciding to risk it, he looked at Gelman. “How sure are we this is the work of one killer?”
“Eighty percent. All we have learned so far—the method of killing, the profile of the victims, the meticulousness—it all points toward one killer. Incorporating somebody else in what we assume is a highly ritualized procedure is possible, but not likely.”
George nodded. Just like that, they had a scientific reason to operate under the assumption of one killer without showing their hand about having already known. It was just a small piece of the puzzle, but the more of those they had sorted, the less likely the few they couldn’t explain stood out. Another thing he had learned from Andi—people liked neat stories enough to ignore the occasional hole in the plot. As long as the defense attorney couldn’t use those holes as leverage, they were safe. It was a thin rope to walk, like everything connected to Andi’sgeschenk. There were days when George enjoyed the challenge and weeks like this one when he was glad for everything he didn’t have to make up.
“Okay, so we have one very organized, very meticulous male killer who seems to be capable of empathy and who probably feels pity for his victims, hence the reason they’re roofied before he kills them. He has a type, people who won’t be missed, homeless people, the weak and defenseless, which means he’s also calculating and cold.”
“Again, we have one inconsistency.” Geena held up her hand. “Izzy Whitewall had a family who was quite frantic in their search for her, according to the information Shireen has found. They even offered a reward of two thousand dollars for any information leading to her being found.”
“Was there anything that stood out?” George circled Izzy’s name with yellow, as he had done with TJ and Celia, indicating they didn’t fit the MO as seamlessly as the other victims.
“No. It was the usual avalanche of useless speculation, people claiming they had seen her at a bus station down in Florida or suggesting that she had just run away, given her mental state. Nobody mentioned murder or even hinted at it.”
“Hmm. Andi, can you ask Shireen to do a check of the calls that came in?”
“On it.” Andi started patting his pockets for his phone.
“Izzy was also the youngest. Perhaps something about her triggered him?” George wrotetriggernext to Izzy’s name.
“Now for the fun part. What makes Timothy Cervill, Thomas LeClerk, and Reuben McDonald plausible suspects?” He tapped at each name.
Geena pointed at LeClerk’s name. “He’s working at House Cusabo, had direct access to some of the victims, is skilled in recognizing different conditions, has easy access to all kinds of prescriptive drugs, and had a personal connection to Kesha.”
“He also reported her and three of the other victims missing,” Luke added.
“But why not all? Sure, it could have been a way of staying under the radar, but if the reporting is part of his ritual, I would assume he did it with all the victims.” Geena’s brows were creased. “And why would he kill somebody he had a relationship with? Kesha was the twelfth victim. I can’t imagine he suddenly changed his MO, and we’re fairly sure the victims either didn’t know the killer or only in passing.”
“Good objections.” George wrote both in prompts on the whiteboard. “Do we have anything to add to Timothy Cervill?”
Geena, Luke, and Andi stared at the clues already written down. Finally, Andi shook his head. “Nothing. Though if I had to make a ranking of the most likely suspect, I would put him before Thomas.”
