James nodded and looked down at his desk before looking up at Derek with furrowed brows."I’ve been thinking about that.What if he’s been there long enough that he’s transitioned to management?That’s a possibility."
"I don't know," Derek replied."If he’s responsible for the most recent murder, then he’s out and about on the streets in one of their vans.Maybe he took one of the vans, but that would be risky if someone discovered it.It’s far better for him to fly under the radar in all aspects of his life and use the job as a cover.If we find that a van from the company he works for was in the area of mutual murders when it wasn’t scheduled to be out, then that looks far more suspicious than if he were out for a job.I’ll admit that we don't know a lot about this guy, but we do know he’s careful to remain unsuspected of any crime over the past twenty years."
"Okay, but I don't think we can discount that fully," James said."We have to look at everyone."
"No, I agree," Derek confirmed."We leave no stone unturned."
When James looked down again, Derek got back to work on the list he’d been compiling.They hadn’t yet made contact with any employees at the company.There was a risk that someone in management would mention that an investigation was ongoing, and that could tip off their killer.When they started talking to employees, there was a greater chance that the other employees would find out.
If the killer was among them and found out the employees of his company were being investigated, he wouldn’t wait around to talk to them.
Unless he believes we have nothing on him, and he’ll look us in the eye when he denies any knowledge of the murders.
They had to tread lightly.The killer had evaded capture for more than twenty years, and during that time, there had been no investigations into any security companies or the employees who worked for them.To tip off the killer now and have them flee before they could talk with him would be the ultimate failure.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Alison stood in the conference room at the FBI offices in Philadelphia with Special Agent Hartley, Detective Wolfe, and several other agents and officers.They were all there to catch the killer who had been terrorizing multiple states.Among the other agents were two from Boston and two from Baltimore.They’ve come to liaise with the investigation in Philadelphia, along with task forces set up back in their respective cities.
A map was attached to the wall facing the glass windows that looked out into the bullpen.The locations of the three murders were pinpointed on the map, with separate colors denoting where the original murders occurred.There didn't seem to be any pattern relating to the original and present cases, but they needed to look at every angle.
To the right of the map were clusters of photographs, each group from a different crime scene, with a thread connecting the location to the photographs.Each person in the Polaroids had been contacted to gather any unknown information about the case.There was a chance that the killer was among the people stuck to the wall.
Alison glanced at the photos, seeing her own up there.
Three whiteboards were set up before the wall at right angles to the one with the map and photos.Each whiteboard has the files from the original case that the current one mimicked, along with any reports from the current case.Alison had spent some time before the boards, as people filtered in, trying to find a pattern in the madness or a detail that had been overlooked.
She’d come up empty-handed so far.
If the killer hadn’t changed their M.O., they might still be empty-handed.Now they had the letter, and it contained information.
"All right, thank you all for coming," Special Agent Hartley told them."Settle down.Now, as you all know, we are dealing with a copycat killer, but not one we’ve encountered before.This killer is not merely recreating the murder of one other person, but of multiple killers.So far, we have three separate crime scenes and four dead bodies.There’s no reason to suspect that there won't be more."
Detective Wolfe stepped forward, taking over."What makes this killer more difficult to track is their ability to adapt.So far, we have strangulation, a knife to the neck, and two bullets at point-blank range.They don't discriminate in how they kill or how they kill.We believe they are choosing their victim at random, which makes it hard to track who they will take next, although we can narrow it down slightly by the case they might copy next."
"But that is also difficult," Hartley said.She paused and surveyed the people gathered in the room."We know what you are going after: failures in investigations where a killer wasn’t caught or where they weren’t caught quickly enough, and—"
"Sorry," Alison interrupted, stepping forward."That’s what we know so far.Those are the cases they’ve targeted, but going forward, we can't know for sure what they might target next.We have to look at all previous cases with an open mind.We don't know what they consider a failure, nor can we be sure of the type of case they’ll target next.So far, it’s been serial killers.But, again, we can’t say they will target a serial killer next."
"No, exactly, Hartley said."I know some of you are already going through cases across the country, looking for candidates for the next copycat and message that comes with it.We know the killer is willing to travel, but they haven’t strayed far yet.We start with cases in neighboring states or two states over, and we get the word out.We look for where they might target someone, kill them, or dump them, and we coordinate with local law enforcement in those areas to monitor them as best we can."
When Hartley stepped back, Wolfe stepped forward again as if they’d practiced the movements together."This is one of the most difficult cases we’ll ever deal with.There’s no real M.O.here.We can't say who or what they’ll target next.We don't look for the next victim.We can only look for the killer and take them out before they kill again."
Wolfe looked at Alison and nodded.
She stepped forward, and Hartley pressed the button to bring the handwritten note up on the screen.
"This is something new from our killer," Alison told them."So far, everything has been clean and flawless from the killer.They’ve been able to kill someone with their bare hands, cut someone’s throat, and execute two people at what ballistics and forensic experts were able to tell us was pretty much point-blank range.Especially in the recent double homicide, the killer didn't seem to hesitate.They move from method to method, able to kill without a second thought.
"They’ve chosen specific locations, killed four people without being seen, haven’t been caught on camera, repositioned bodies to mimic the previous murders, and placed photographs of the people they believe are to blame around the bodies."
Alison gestured towards the photos pinned to the wall.
"They’ve done all of this without leaving a shred of evidence.Not a fingerprint, not even a partial one, no hair, saliva, or blood of their own.Nothing was left at the scene by accident.No noticeable mistakes made.Until now."
Alison gestured at the screen behind her.
"The killer won't consider this a mistake," Alison said."They wrote a letter to us.A handwritten letter.They want us to know how brilliant they are.This is not only about showing us our previous mistakes but also about proving how much better they are than we are.That backs what I was already thinking, that this person is connected to law enforcement,"
