book by Bob’s father, to possibly know how to make each of the bait killings and crime scenes different enough from each other so that a VICAP hit could be avoided.”
“Shit,” Thorson said. “What the fu—what was he doing with those books?”
“I assume by law the prison had to allow him access to them so that he could properly prepare his appeal,” Doran replied. “Remember, he was pro se. He was certified in court as his own attorney.”
“Okay, good work, Brass,” Backus said. “That’s a help.”
“It’s not all, either. There were two other books of note on the shelf. Edgar Allan Poe, the Poems and The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe.”
Backus whistled his delight.
“Now, that’s really starting to tie things up,” he said. “I assume we can find all the quotes in these books?”
“Yes. One of these is the book Jack McEvoy used already to verify the quotes.”
“Right. Okay, can you shoot us out a copy of that photo?”
“Will do, boss.”
The excitement in the room and coming over the phone lines seemed almost palpable. It was all coming together, all the pieces. And tomorrow the agents were going to go out and get this son of a bitch.
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” Thorson said. “Smells like . . .”
“Victory!” shouted those in the room and on every phone.
“Okay, folks,” Backus said, clapping his hands twice. “I think we’ve covered enough for now. Let’s keep sharp. Let’s keep this spirit. Tomorrow could be the day. Let’s say it is the day. And you people listening in the cities, don’t stop for one minute. Keep working your end. If we get this guy, we’ll still need physical evidence connecting him to the other crimes. We need to place him in every city for trial.”
“If there is a trial,” Thorson said.
I looked at him. The humor he had shown a moment before had now evaporated. His jaw was set. He got up and headed out of the conference room.
I spent the evening alone in my room, filling my computer with notes from the conference meeting and waiting for Rachel to call. I had paged her twice.
Finally, at nine—midnight in Florida—she called.
“I can’t sleep and I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have another woman with you in there.”
I smiled.
“Not very likely. I’ve been waiting for you to call. Didn’t you get my pages or are you just busy with another man?”
“No, let me check.”
She put the phone down for a few moments.
“Darn, the battery’s down. I’ve got to get another. Sorry.”
“You talking about the pager or the other man?”
“Funny guy.”
“So why can’t you sleep?”
“I keep thinking about Thorson in that store tomorrow.”
“And?”
“And I have to admit I’m fucking jealous. If he gets the arrest on this . . . I mean, it’s my case and I’m two thousand fucking miles away from it.”
“Maybe it won’t happen tomorrow. Maybe you’ll be back in time. Even if you’re not, it’s not going to be him. It’s going to be the critical team.”
“I don’t know. Gordon’s got a way of getting in there. And I have a bad feeling. It’s tomorrow.”
“Some people might call that a good feeling, knowing that this guy’s going to be taken off the street.”
“I know, I know. Still, why him? I think he and Bob . . . I didn’t really get it clear from Bob why he sent me to Florida instead of someone else, instead of Gordon. He took the case away from me and I just let him.”
“Maybe Thorson told him about you and me.”
“I was thinking that. He would, too. But I don’t see Bob doing what he did and not talking to me about it, not telling me why first. He’s not that way. He doesn’t take a side until he hears both sides.”
“I’m sorry, Rachel. But look, everybody knows it’s your case. And it was your break with that Hertz car that brought everybody to L.A.”
“Thanks, Jack. But it was just one of the breaks. And it doesn’t matter. Making the arrest is like what you said about getting the story first. Doesn’t really matter what’s happened before.”
I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make her feel better about the situation. She had brooded over it all night and there weren’t enough words for me to change her mind. I decided to change the subject.
“Anyway, that was good stuff you got today. It seems like everything is coming together. We haven’t even caught the guy and so