travel instructions and ticket. If you don’t follow these instructions, the good folks in law enforcement will soon be hearing about your involvement in the mystery deaths at the hospital. In other words, I’m looking forward to meeting you! Good luck!
The Commissioner
A ticket fell out.
Ruth Dykstra looked at the ticket attached to the inside of the card. She read it, then read it again. It had her name, a date, a time, and detailed travel instructions.
Her face had gone ashen gray and she looked at the knife still in her hand. She considered applying it across one wrist, and then the other. She always knew some day, even though she was too smart to ever actually get caught, that something beyond her control could happen. Something that would result in people learning of her achievements.
She took another deep breath, put the knife down, and sipped from her tea.
No, she wouldn’t cut her wrists open. Some day maybe, but not now.
She needed to find out who this person was, who had found her, and who had started this so-called tournament.
Her jaw set. She felt a coldness in her chest, felt it spread throughout her body and soothe her frayed nerves.
She was upset and angry and ready to find the person responsible for this league. She would find the person and take care of him.
But she was also curious.
And deep down, she knew she could win.
17.
Mack
When Mack built his home in Florida, he took special care in the location of his office. The main goal was to make it separate from any living area that he and Janice would share. He also made sure his office door had a lock. He didn’t need Janice to see photos of murder victims plastered along the wall.
Ultimately he chose to put the study on the other side of his bedroom with a door that was kept locked. Only he and Adelia had a key.
Now, he sat in the study, staring at the walls covered with maps and photographs, each representing a serial killer he knew was active at this very moment.
He hadn’t shared everything with the students at Quantico, but just about everything. He’d left out a few key details.
Of all of them, he felt closest to catching the I-75 killer. He just needed the reports from the Trucking Commission. Once he had those, he knew he’d be close. He felt a momentary flash of anger and frustration that he had not yet received the information. It always amazed him at the callousness of bureaucracies. People became so immersed in the mundane daily task of paperwork and menial jobs that they forgot how important small things could be. In this case, a request from an FBI agent was met with silence. How many more lives would be lost because some clerk at a trucking organization hated his job?
Mack made a mental note to send a second request for the records, this one with some vaguely threatening language that would be sure to get the ball rolling.
He looked at the map and the other cases. The blonde girls in suburban Chicago. He felt very good about his profile on that one. Mack was sure the perp lived in the area. Probably a man, mid to late thirties, middle-class, in a position of authority within the community. Most likely married with a family of his own, but unhappy with his life.
The profile was as thorough as he could make it. But so far, no one had officially requested his thoughts on the case. Local law enforcement had to request help from the FBI, and if they had, Whidby had prevented the request from filtering down to Mack.
He also felt good about his profile in the series of missing prostitutes in Boston. Several eyewitnesses had reported a luxury sedan, either a Mercedes or a BMW, in the vicinity when the girls were said to have gone missing.
This one was a highly organized killer, Mack knew. To snatch prostitutes, most likely kill them, and keep the bodies hidden required some careful planning. If in fact the perp drove an expensive car, it meant he was most likely a white male, above average intelligence, narcissistic and concerned wholly with satisfying his own pleasures.
The profile reminded him of Jeffrey Kostner. Kostner had raped, tortured and killed six women before finally meeting his match in Nicole Candela. Mack thought briefly of Nicole Candela. Wondered how she was doing.
But most of all, he wondered if she ever thought about him.
There was a knock