Alison followed him out of the room, and Hartley walked with Alison from the doorway.
"We’re going to Baltimore," Hartley told her."A double homicide this time."
CHAPTER NINE
The road trip was extended.After confirming Dr.Cowan had an alibi for the murder in Philadelphia, and also an alibi for the double homicide in Baltimore that happened through the night, they got back in the car with the same seating arrangements as before, and Special Agent Hartley drove them to Baltimore, not stopping until they reached the museum there.
A few people stood on the street, trying to see what was going on.They would have turned up to visit the museum that morning to find it closed, and no statement had been released to the public explaining why.Given the level of police presence, it must have been obvious to those gathered that the closure was the result of something serious.
After parking in the parking lot on the side of the building, the three of them, the small traveling task force, introduced themselves and were directed towards Detective Hanson, who was leading the investigation.They ducked under the yellow-and-black police tape held up by the officer, and all three shook hands with Hanson.
"Two dead," Hanson explained to them."Both of them were shot in the head at point-blank range.We might not have called if it weren’t for one of my guys.He said he saw the photograph around the body and knew it was connected to two other murders across the country.Is that right?"
"Yeah, it could be," Harley said."We’ll know more when we see the body."
"It’s modeled after a previous case, isn't it?"Alison asked.
"Yeah, the Collector," Detective Hanson said.
"What do you know about that case?"Alison sassed as they all entered the museum.
"It was about ten years ago," Hanson explained."He killed four people in total, all in their homes.From what they were able to figure out and from what he told them after the fact, he went to the door and threatened the occupants at gunpoint, forcing them into their homes and then executing them.Always a single shot right in the middle of the forehead."
The smell within the large building brought a memory flooding back to Alison, and she was unable to follow up with the next question she wanted to ask.
She’d never been to the museum in Baltimore, but she had been to other museums, some in California, and others spread across the city when they had done road trips as a family.They all had the same smell.It was an old smell, but not a bad or offensive one.It was a smell that Alison associated with knowledge and learning.
As she closed her eyes briefly, she conjured a memory of her and Emma running into the main foyer of a museum—she couldn’t remember where—ahead of their parents, and they were holding hands as they ran.Perhaps there was a dinosaur skeleton, although Alison also remembers a large clock with an oversized pendulum.
When Alison opened her eyes, she snapped out of it and came back to the present.
"There’s more to the case," she commented."Why would the killer risk entering a museum late at night to kill two people?Why not go to their home as the Collector did?"
Detective Hanson stopped in the large room they were moving through.They were surrounded by large wooden beams that had come from old ships, along with some of the tools used to build them.Supplementing that was artifacts from Baltimore’s shipping history.
"The Collector didn't get his name until after he was caught," Hanson explained."The department here didn't have a name for him, and we don't like to do that sort of thing anyway.However, it was only after the fact that they discovered he was hunting them here.The Collector watched people in the museum, choosing those who regularly frequented it alone, and then followed them home.We don't know if he followed some people to find that they didn't live alone, and so selected someone else.We only know he hunted them here, but didn't kill them here.The media dubbed him the Collector."
"That wasn’t discovered until after," Alison said."That’s the mistake the killer wants us to see."
"Yeah," Hartley agreed."If they had figured it out during the investigation, it might have saved some lives."
"Hey," Hanson scolded, pointing a finger at Hartley."I wasn’t a part of that investigation, but I won't speak negatively about the people here.They would have done as good a job as any.I can take this psychopath running around killing people because they think a mistake was made, but I won't allow us to speak about each other in that way.The killer was caught and is now behind bars, and that’s good enough for me."
"I apologize," Hartley said."I didn’t mean it to sound like that.I’m thinking like the killer, but I know we’re all doing our best.I don't mean anything by it.If we’re going to catch our killer, we do it by working together."
"We’re all on edge right now," Hanson said."If they were both killed in their homes, it would be different, but the killer came here, to a safe place, and they left their bodies out to be found.This city took some time to heal from the Collector, and now this."
"We should take a look," Wolfe said gently, a world away from how antagonistic he had been in Dr.Cowan’s office.
"This way," Hanson said.
He didn't need to lead them much farther.They moved through the shipbuilding display and around the corner to where the forensic team was already at work.Everyone stopped to take it in except for Alison.She continued on to view the scene.
A young woman lay face up on the ground, a dark mark in the middle of her forehead where she’d been shot.Her legs were straight and together, and her arms were by her sides.Blood had run down her forehead and some into her hair.There were white markers on the floor beside drops of blood leading away from the body, showing that she had been moved from where she was killed.
Then, a curious addition to the scene was based on what Detective Hanson had told them.A security guard sat slumped in a chair that must have been moved to the scene by the killer.He had his head hanging downwards and looked like he would fall from his chair with the slightest touch.Alison moved closer to the guard in the chair and crouched down to see the same gunshot wound in the forehead.
"Maria Chen is the one on the floor," Detective Hanson said as he reached Alison."She was supposed to be here all night tagging some new artifacts that had just come in.We have to assume that the killer knew she would be here rather than entering the building on the off-chance that someone was."
