Laurel’s thoughtful look was sexy. She probably didn’t know that. “Where did Ms. Scotford work?”
The sheriff ’s mouth opened and then shut. “The family didn’t say.”
“How about her closest friends? We should talk to them,” Laurel said.
The sheriff ’s face turned a mottled red. “Like I said, I got everything there was to get out of the family. They should be left alone.”
Laurel’s face cleared as if she’d just noticed the sheriff was getting pissed. Even so, she didn’t backtrack but instead just looked curiously at him. Her factual mind must cause her to miss subtext and irritate people. How often did she get caught off guard?
Huck had the erratic urge to step closer to her and block the sheriff ’s view as much as possible.
Laurel placed her hand over her file folder. “We’ll need to talk to the parents again and get a list of her friends as well as a better feel for her routine and habits.” She looked up at Huck. “Has her apartment been searched?”
“Of course,” the sheriff snapped. “The local yokels know how to process a scene, Agent. For your information, there was no sign of a struggle at her apartment, so she obviously wasn’t taken from there.”
“Did she drive a vehicle?” Laurel asked, her mind apparently working through the case.
The sheriff ’s mouth snapped shut.
Huck held up a hand to stop the interchange. Laurel was doing her job, and the sheriff was being an ass. “Let’s get the rest of the information out on the table.”
As the sheriff leaned forward, a blue vein stood out on his forehead. “I’m telling you to leave the family alone. They offered all the help they could.”
Deciding not to listen to the blowhard, Huck continued the meeting. “The ME’s report indicated sexual assault, torture, and denial of food and water. Ms. Scotford’s laptop and phone were found in her apartment and have been secured.” He nodded to Laurel. “Special Agent Snow is prepared with the profile.” He pulled out his chair and sat.
Laurel stood. “We’re looking for a white male, aged twenty-five to forty, familiar with this area. He lives in the area, in fact.” She didn’t look at the board or her papers but instead concentrated on the group assembled around the table. “He’s organized and plans well, showing he’s intelligent and in control. Obviously, his victim type is young and blond, but he’s changed his MO now that we know about him. He’s getting bolder.”
“You say that because he kidnapped a lower-risk victim?” Monty asked.
“Yes,” Laurel said. “He’s no longer taking prostitutes from Seattle.” She pointed to the file folders. “The eight victims that have so far been identified have been runaways or prostitutes, last known locations Seattle, surrounding towns, or Portland. With Ms. Scotford, he also used a new dumping site—one we could find—for the first time that we know about.” She rolled her neck. “Finally, he painted the nails of the last victim and made up her face. As if making her pretty for the authorities.”
“He wanted to make her presentable?” Monty asked. “Why would a man do that?”
“He’s playing with us,” Laurel returned. “He’s showing us what he can do. That he’s in charge and can do whatever he wants, basically.”
The sheriff stirred in his chair. “We don’t need a profiler to tell us that. Do you have any relevant information?”
Huck slowly turned his head to pierce the man with a look.
Laurel ignored the question and continued, unperturbed. “The suspect is comfortable in the outdoors, but he has a regular job and is most likely in charge of his business. His neighbors like him, his friends believe they know him, and he’s good at pretending to be one of the guys, but he isn’t. He mimics human behavior but doesn’t feel the way most people do.”
“Right,” the sheriff drawled. “We all watch television, Agent Snow. This guy is a sociopath who can’t love or feel anything.”
Laurel faced York directly. “Wrong. He’s a psychopath who feels quite a bit, especially when kidnapping, raping, and killing. It’s a misconception that sociopaths and psychopaths can’t feel love, Sheriff. They can and they do. It’s just in a different manner than you do.” She smiled. “Hopefully.”
Huck sat back, no longer feeling the need to throw his pencil at York’s face. Laurel could take care of herself. The “hopefully” was a nice touch. It took him a second to realize that she wasn’t being sarcastic. Had she missed the sheriff ’s sarcasm?
“Since this is a small-town case, I think I should take the lead,” York said.
Laurel shook her head. “Actually, since we’re dealing with dumping grounds in the wilderness and most likely a remote storage area for keeping and torturing victims, it makes sense that Fish and Wildlife take lead on this.”
Huck’s upper lip curved. Laurel wasn’t arguing with the asshat for show; she really believed what she said. He’d never met such a logical person before. “Agreed.” He stood. “Thanks for the profile.”
She took her seat. “One more thing. This guy is in the system. He’s good at what he’s doing and has been breaking laws for years. I’d do a deep dive on juvenile crimes, including peering into windows, torturing animals, maybe even attempted rape. He’ll have a criminal file already.”
Huck nodded. “We’ll dig into criminal files for Genesis Valley and Tempest County as a whole.” What the hell. He might as well really piss off Sheriff York. “Okay. Monty, use whoever you need in the office to identify the remaining victims and then perform background dives on all of them. Let’s see if they crossed paths at any time. We need to find out how this guy found them.” He tapped his fingers on the case file. “Also, have a team come at this from the killer’s background. Let’s do a deep dive on sexual predators in the area and then search for crimes similar to these world-wide.”
Huck looked around. “Also, I’ll ask Ena to obtain a warrant to dump Lisa Scotford’s phone and her computer. Sheriff York, I need you to work the town for any witnesses or leads.”
