the school grounds, was abducted, strangled and then butchered as a means of disguising the true motivation of the crime.”
“Why did it have to be a molester?” Rachel asked. “Could she have stumbled onto a burglar, a drug deal, anything else?”
“Polly Amherst had third-period recess watch on the day she disappeared. The locals interviewed every child who had been in the yard. A lot of conflicting stories but a handful of kids remember a man at the fence. He had stringy blond hair and glasses. He was white. Sounds like Brad wasn’t too far off with his description of Roderick Usher. They also said this man had a camera. That was about the extent of the description.”
“Okay, Sheila, what else?” Backus asked.
“The one piece of physical evidence recovered with the body was a strand of hair. Bleached blond. Natural color is reddish brown. That’s about it for now. We are going to work with Bledsoe again tomorrow.”
“Okay. Chicago’s next.”
The rest of the reports contained nothing noteworthy in terms of identifying or adding to the growing database on the Poet. The agents were mostly covering ground the locals had already trod and they were finding nothing new. Even the report from Denver contained mostly old information. But at the end, the agent on the line said that an examination of the gloves worn by my brother was conducted and a single blood spot was found in the fur lining of the right-hand glove. The agent asked whether I was still willing to call Riley and ask her to allow an exhumation. I didn’t answer because I was in a daze thinking about what the indication of hypnotism meant my brother’s last moments were like. Asked again, I said I would call in the morning.
As an afterthought the agent concluded his report by saying he had shipped the GSR swabs from my brother’s mouth to the lab in Quantico.
“They run a pretty good ship here, boss, and I don’t think we’ll get more than what they found.”
“Which was?” Backus asked, careful not to look at me.
“Just the GSR. Nothing else.”
I didn’t know what I felt when I heard those words. I guess there was relief but it was no proof that anything did or did not happen. Sean was still dead and I was still haunted by thoughts of what his last moments and thoughts had been. I tried to shove it aside and concentrate on the conference call. Backus had asked Brass to update everyone on the victimology and I had missed most of the report.
“So we are discounting any correlation,” she was saying. “Aside from the possibilities mentioned earlier in Florida, I’m saying they are picked at random. They didn’t know each other, they never worked together and the paths of all six never crossed. We’ve found out that four of them went to some kind of bureau-sponsored homicide seminar at Quantico four years ago, but the other two didn’t and we don’t know if the four who did go ever even met or talked to each other at the seminar. All of this doesn’t include Orsulak in Phoenix. We haven’t had time yet to do a track on him.”
“So if there is no correlation, we are to assume they are chosen by the offender simply because they take the bait?” Rachel asked.
“I think that’s correct.”
“So he must stand by and watch and see his prey for the first time after the bait kill.”
“Again, correct. All of these bait cases received heavy local media attention. He could’ve seen each of the detectives for the first time on TV or in a newspaper photo.”
“No physically archetypal attraction involved.”
“No. He simply takes whoever gets the case. The lead detective becomes the prey. Now, that is not to say that after that selection, he may not find that one or more of these subjects were more attractive or fulfilling to his fantasy. That can always happen.”
“What fantasy?” I asked, struggling just to keep up with what Brass was saying.
“Is that Jack? Well, Jack, we don’t know what fantasy. That’s the point. We are coming at it from the wrong direction. We don’t know the fantasy that motivates this killer and what we are seeing and guessing about are the parts. We may never know what rocks his world. He’s down from the moon, Jack. The only way we’ll really ever know is if he decides to tell us someday.”
I nodded and thought of another question. I waited until it was clear no one