Faith frowned.“Why?”
“Because…” Jessica took a deep breath.“I’m about to offer to handle this case by myself and let you and Turk go home to be with your husband.You’re clearly distracted, and that’s fine.That’s totally understandable.But you have a lot going on in your personal life right now, and it’s not fair to you to expect you to be a fully functioning FBI agent in the middle of all of this.Also…” She took another breath, “It’s not fair to the victims.”
Faith’s stomach shriveled at Jessica’s speech.It hurt a lot to know that Jessica could see how far she was from effective right now.It hurt a lot more to think about the victims and how many more there might be because Faith couldn’t give the task at hand all of her attention.
She opened her mouth to accept Jessica’s offer and return to Quantico.So, both of them were surprised when the words that actually left her mouth were, “No.Thank you, but I’d like to see this case through.”
Jessica blinked.“Are you sure?I won’t think any less of you if you want to take a raincheck on this one.”
“I’m sure,” Faith said.“I made a commitment to find justice for these victims and to put this killer behind bars.I’m going to keep that commitment.You’re right, my head’s been in two places during this case, but I’m finally accepting that there’s nothing I can do right now to help David.That’s a bigger problem than I can solve by myself, and the people coming to help me aren’t there yet.
“But Icando something here.I can find the asshole murdering these animal shelter workers.I appreciate the way you’ve stepped up to cover the leadership role that I’d usually provide, and I’m fine following your lead since you’ve been doing such a good job.But I’m going to stay here and keep supporting you.”
Jessica grinned.“Okay, I was gonna be upset, but I’m totally a sucker for praise, and you just said that I did a good job taking over for you.”
Faith laughed.“Well, don’t get used to it.I plan on going back to my surly old self as soon as this is over.”
“I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.In that case, let me show you the lead I found.”
She kicked back to the table and waved for Faith to follow her.Faith took the chair next to her partner, and Turk nudged his way in between both of them.Jessica showed them a picture of a Facebook profile depicting an image of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s logo.The name under that profile was Anthony Pierce, and the tagline on his account was, “Equal rights for all living things.”
“Okay, so we have an animal rights activist,” Faith guessed.
“Oh yeah.Big time.He’s been involved in multiple protests and terrorist actions over the past fourteen years.”
Faith’s eyes widened.“Terroristactions?”
“Well, that’s technically what they’re called, but nothing serious.Throwing paint on workers at oil refineries, sabotaging industrial farming and mining equipment, tying herself to trees, blocking traffic: typical college behavior.He’s not actually in college; he’s thirty-four, but that’s beside the point.”
“Hmm,” Faith said.“Connection to the victims?”
Jessica grinned.“So, I came across him because I figured we’ve tried the disgruntled colleague angle, the irate adoption candidate, and the bite victim who holds a grudge.None of those panned out, so I kept thinking about what kind of person would be happy that these victims are dead.The only thing I could think of that made sense was a serious animal rights activist who believed that all dog ownership was exploitation.”
That didn’t explain whythesevictims in particular, but Faith was following so far.“Okay.So, what made Anthony Pierce jump out?”
“Well, I started searching for protests at animal shelters in the past five years.It turns out there have been six different protests.Three of those were protests about killing the animals, but I ruled them out because Plano Animal Shelter—thanks to Sarah Garrett’s work—has become well-known fornotkilling animals.
“The other three protests were a little more serious.The protesters slashed tires in parking lots and threw bottles of sewage at anyone who came outside to stop them.There was at least one fistfight, and Anthony Pierce actually assaulted a police officer trying to arrest him.”
“Wow,” Faith said.“Okay, so he’s not above violence.I like it, but I still don’t see what the connection is with the victims.”
Jessica’s grin widened.“That’s the awesome part.Well, poor choice of words, but awesome in the sense that it connects him to our case.So, there were sixteen people involved in the protests.Of those sixteen, nine have moved away, four have cleaned up their act and distanced themselves from the group.Of the three who are still acting like eco-activists, only Anthony Pierce felt a need to post a list of people who, and I quote, ‘deserve judgment.’Guess who the top three names on that list are?”
Faith raised an eyebrow.“Our victims?”
“Our victims.”
Jessica clicked on the screen.The post was loaded to a site called the Modern Message Board, which appeared to be a place where people could post things without fear of censorship.Most accounts were anonymous, but Anthony had used his own name.That was unusual, but Faith had met many egomaniac murderers who just couldn’t resist dropping little hints so they would be discovered and admired for the geniuses they believed they were.
The post was a list of nine names, and sure enough, the top three were Sarah Garrett, Matthew Brooks, and Linda Hale.At the bottom was a portion of a Bible verse.God shall bring every work into judgment.It was only two weeks old, which put it very close to the timing of the killing spree.
Faith didn’t judge anyone’s religious beliefs, but she very much judged murderers.If Anthony wanted to commit a little property crime, that was one thing, but killing people in cold blood?No, that didn’t fly.
Of course, from Anthony’s point of view, killing a killer, a murderer, and a slayer wasn’t murder.It was judgment.
“Call Sergeant Hansen,” Faith said.“Give him this list and have him send it to all the local agencies.Get the word out to the other names on this list that they might be targeted by the killer and if possible, we want officers protecting them.Did you find an address for Anthony?”
“Not yet.”
