“We’re not going to find him,” Faith insisted.“We just aren’t.We don’t have enough.He didn’t know any of the victims personally, and he didn’t leave enough evidence behind for us to follow.”
“What about the bullets?”Jessica said.“Have we found any records of ceramic bullets being sold nearby?”
“Plenty of records of ceramic-tipped bullets,” Meyers replied.“Mostly for the Marines on the base for use as training rounds or armor-piercing rounds.No records of fully ceramic bullets.”
“Could he just melt the bullets down, separate the ceramic and make his own bullets?”Jessica asked.
“He could,” Meyers agreed.“But we’re still looking at a suspect pool in the thousands.”
“How many six-three two-hundred-thirty-pound Marines are there?”
“Thousands.”
Jessica sighed.“The problem is we’re trying to lure him in with a lot of real people.”
“No, just me,” Faith replied.“I’m the bait.”
“Yeah, you’re also going to be surrounded by officers protecting you, otherwise, the whole charade falls apart, right?So he’s not going to go after you.He’s going to go after the vulnerable people who aren’t going to have police escorts back to their cars.”
“We can account for that,” Faith said.“We can have the police form a cordon and direct people straight to their vehicles, like security keeping people in line at Disneyworld.”
Jessica raised an eyebrow.“When was the last time you went to Disneyworld?”
“You’re missing the point,” Faith said.“This guy’s taking his depression out on happy people.Successful people.People who have what he’s never had.He’s like a moth attracted to a flame.He’ll gravitate to the brightest lights he can see.”
“Yes, you used that example when you explained it to me the first time,” Jessica said.“I understand that point.I’mmaking another point.There are going to be dozens of civilians, maybe hundreds, all of them presumably smiling and cheering and enjoying life.You might be the brightest star in the sky, but the brightest star in the sky is the sun, and moths don’t fly toward the sun.It’s too hot.You’regoing to be too hot because men and women with guns will be protecting you.And if we don’t have that protection, then it’s not going to work because he’s not going to fall for the trick of a ceremony to award you something with no security around after four people have been murdered in parks in as many days.
“We’re grasping at a straw here, but we’re doing it with innocent lives on the line.At best, he just doesn’t show up at all.At worst, he shows up, ignores the sun, and looks for the moon or a star, thenwaitsuntil he can kill that moon or star without law enforcement watching him like a hawk.”
Meyers glance at Faith, and she saw the doubt in his eyes.“I know it’s a long shot,” Faith said, “but I still think it’s a good shot.I’m not going to be protected by cops at all times.After the event, I’ll slip away.I’ll walk away from the crowds and enjoy a moment of calm and quiet.I’ll leave myself open.”
“And what, you’re going to be too irresistible for him to pass up?”
“I think so.”
Jessica sighed irritably, “And if you’re not?If this falls through?”
“Then it falls through.”
“And someone else is in danger!”
“Someone else is already in danger, Jessica.A lot of people are already in danger.Do you think he’ll stop just because people aren’t going to parks?”
“That wasyouridea!”
“And it was the best idea I had.It was a way to slow him down, but not to stop him.It was a way to give us time to think of something else, but killers like this don’t stop.They don’t decide they’ve had enough.They get a taste for it, and they keep going until they’re caught.Either this guy will find a new way to hunt his victims, or he’ll move to another location and pick people off at parks somewhere else.”
Jessica rubbed her eyes.“I’m not trying to be an asshole, but this is still a shitty idea.It’s desperate, it’s clumsy, it’s got too many moving parts, and it requires our killer to fixate on one specific moving part just because we’re waving a red flag and begging him to focus on that part.”
“Yes,” Faith agreed.“It’s all of those things.But it’s doing something.It’s being proactive.”
“We’ve been proactive the entire case, Faith.That hasn’t helped us.”
“Then we keep trying!”Faith shouted.“We don’t just give up!”
Turk lifted his head, looking at Faith in surprise.Meyers shifted in his chair, keeping his eyes averted.Jessica’s face hardened.She took a deep breath and kept her voice even.“I’m not giving up.I’m telling you that I think your idea is dangerous and won’t work.I know you’re not happy to hear that, but it’s my honest opinion.”
Faith took a deep breath of her own.This conversation wasn’t going nearly the way she’d hoped.She was so excited when she thought up this plan that she hadn’t considered the holes it contained.
