“I would rather catch the killer than hear about another innocent death,” Faith replied.“That’s essentially the same feeling.”
“Yeah, well…” Jessica opened a word processing tab and crossed out a name from the list of attendees she’d written down.“We’ve now seen everyonebutour victims.I hate to say it, Faith, but I think we might have been—”
“Hold on,” Faith interrupted.“Look.”She pointed at the screen.“That’s Sarah Garrett.”
Jessica’s eyes widened.“So, it is.And that’s Matthew Brooks entering through the back door.”
The two women fell silent as they watched two of their three victims mingle with a crowd in an auditorium.For a few minutes, everything appeared to be normal, but then a commotion started at the back of the room.Faith sat up in her chair.Turk, noticing the change in her attitude, got to his feet and watched her closely.
“Hold on, boy,” she said.“We might have something.We don’t know yet.”
The commotion spread through the auditorium, and after a minute or so, they saw their third victim.Linda Hale was among a group of attendees desperately trying to corral a group of protesters led by Anthony Pierce.As Faith watched, Pierce shoved Linda to the ground hard enough that she bounced.
“Nonviolent, my ass,” Jessica muttered.
After that shove, security got involved.The protesters put up a much more violent fight against them while Sarah and Matthew helped Linda to her feet.Faith’s doubts about Anthony were starting to ease.This man clearly didn’t mind being violent.Maybe he wasn’t afraid of being thought of as a fraud and head only hesitated during their interview because he didn’t want to go to jail.
She was just about to call the court with the new footage and try for that warrant again when she caught a figure in the top left corner of the video.It was a man standing a few feet away from the clustered attendees.The image was grainy and revealed none of his features, but he was staring at the three victims and clearly not at the struggling protesters, who were now several yards away.In his hand, he held a notepad and a pen.As Faith watched, he scrawled something on a piece of paper, then slid it underneath one of the chairs.With that done, he turned around and left.
It was far too late to figure out what was written on that note, but Faith had an idea it was a condemnation just like the notes he’d taped to his victims.
“Jessica, is that man one of the attendees?”Faith asked.
Jessica looked and frowned.“I’m not sure.I don’t think so.I have all of the registrants, and I already identified them.It’s hard to tell with his face smudged like that, though.”
Faith’s phone rang.When she saw the FBI number, a chill ran through her.Had something happened to David?
She jumped to her feet and answered.“Bold.”
The voice on the other end hesitated a second before saying, “Hello?This is Special Agent Faith Bold?”
Faith closed her eyes and sighed.“Yes.This must be the Fort Worth office calling about my handwriting analysis.”
“Yes.This is Special Agent Hanley Dunn.We have that analysis back.I’ve emailed you the full report, but I thought I’d go over some key points with you over the phone.”
“Thank you,” Faith replied.“I appreciate that.”She took a deep breath to settle her pounding heart.“Go ahead.”
“You’re looking for a male between thirty-five and fifty, probably over two hundred pounds.Height is difficult to judge from a handwriting sample, but he has large hands, and he presses very hard when he writes.He is of modest education and probably suffers from a mental disorder that causes impulsive and violent behavior.Although I suppose the murders clued you into that last part.”
Faith jotted down Dunn’s notes.“This is still helpful, thank you.”
She glanced at the computer screen.The grainy footage didn’t tell her how old or large-handed the mysterious man in the corner was, but he looked tall and broad-shouldered.He could definitely weigh over two hundred pounds.
Another idea came to her.“Special Agent Dunn, do you guys have a cybercrimes unit at Fort Worth?”
Dunn chuckled.“Of course we do.This is the largest urban area in the state, and Dallas and Fort Worth are both major economic centers.We deal with racketeering, counterfeiting, money laundering, embezzlement, you name it.”
“Right,” Faith said.She didn’t mean to be rude, but she didn’t want to talk shop right then.“I’m going to send you a video clip.I need you to enhance the footage focusing on a particular individual I will identify in the corner.Can you do that for me and put a rush on it?I have reason to believe that individual is our killer and that he will strike again tonight.”
“I’ll get it done before the evening is finished,” Dunn promised.
“Thank you.I’ll send it right away.”
She hung up and said, “Jessica, cut a minute of the footage showing our suspect and send it to the Fort Worth Office.I think he might be our bad guy.”
At the phrase “bad guy,” Turk’s ears perked up.Faith scratched him behind the ear and said, “Yes, Turk.We might have found our bad guy.”
“How soon can they get this back to us?”Jessica asked, attaching the clipped footage to an email.
