Rebane’s apartment building? Or any activity on her phone or credit cards?”
“We looked at all of it yesterday. Nothing on any other surveillance tapes. Struck out on the phone and credit cards, too.”
Pine left the tent and gazed around. Wallis came to stand next to her.
“This was a risk, putting the body in so public a place,” she said.
“But nobody was around at the hour he probably did so.”
“But if he came from town, he had to drive across the highway. I don’t see the guy schlepping a body in his arms across the road in the dead of night.”
“He could have come from the other way.”
“Still had to drive.”
“Lot of cars come and go from here. Asphalt parking lot. We found no useful traces.”
“Maybe somebody was out late and saw something.”
“We’ll be checking all of that,” promised Wallis.
“We have a serial murderer here, you know.”
“It doesn’t take a genius.”
“No, I mean, you have to make a call.”
“To who?”
“The FBI.”
“You are the FBI.”
“I’m here unofficially. You need to officially request their assistance. This is what they do. They have a ton of resources and specialists devoted to this. I used to be one of them.”
“You mean profilers and such?”
“Technically, there is no such thing at the Bureau. They’re called analysts.”
“Do I tell them about your involvement?”
Pine didn’t answer right away. “Might as well. They’re going to find out at some point.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“Catch a couple more hours of sleep. I think I’m going to need it.”
Chapter 26
WHO DO YOU THINK they’ll send?” asked Blum.
They were at the Cottage in Pine’s room. It was later in the morning, and Pine had filled Blum in about the recent murder.
“I don’t know. I was offered a position at BAU Three while I was stationed in the DC area,” said Pine, referring to the Behavioral Analysis Units that were part of the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. “But that was a long time ago.”
“Unit Three deals with crimes against children,” said Blum.
Pine nodded. “And Unit Four deals with crimes against adults and includes the ViCAP database that you accessed earlier. I did work there for a year.”
“Why just a year? Don’t most agents stay there for longer than that?”
“Let’s just say I had my fill.”
“I’ve read that some people are critical of using psychological profiling.”
“It’s not perfect, and it’s only one tool that we use among many. But it got results. Now, with a team being called in, they can do a deeper dive and also integrate what we learn with this latest death.”
“A groom’s outfit,” said Blum with a slight shiver. “This is really getting creepy.”
“This guy is sophisticated and focused and organized. And he must know the area. Putting a dead black guy on top of a Union soldier’s grave? But one of the Raiders, who were really bad guys because they preyed on those who wore the same uniform? I’m not certain there’s a message there, but I also have a hard time believing it’s a coincidence.”
“What do we do now?”
“We have no leads to run down on that case, so I want to focus on why we came here.”
“Do we have leads on your sister then?”
“We have a clue. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. The guy said that rhyme. I know I didn’t imagine it. So if it wasn’t Tor who did it, who was it? And why use that device?”
“It was a way to decide which of you to take,” opined Blum.
“Why was it a choice?”
“He could only take one of you.”
“Why? If my parents were stoned downstairs, and he had already come through the house? If he carried Mercy downstairs, why not me, too? We were only six. He probably could have carried us away together. But he took Mercy and struck me so hard he cracked my skull.”
“Maybe he only wanted one of you, for some reason.”
“Right. But I’m just wondering what that reason was. And if he really wanted to kill me, why not just do it? He could have suffocated me, broken my neck. But he chose to hit me. He couldn’t have known whether I would die or not from my injuries.”
Blum sat back in her chair as she considered all this. “It’s a puzzler.”
“Myron Pringle knows more than he’s willing to tell.”
“What are you going to do about that?”
“Talk to him again. We’ll have to go out there since he doesn’t have a phone or email.”
“How about I talk to Britta while you speak to Myron?