At Digital Imaging Answers—let’s call it DIA for short—I’ll be inside with Coombs, the owner. If we get the call from this guy, he will be told that the camera he ordered is ready for pickup. We’ll try to press for a pickup time but not too hard, just keeping it natural.
“If the subject slips through the first net, the plan is to set up on him once he comes to the store. The store’s been wired—sound and video. If he comes in, I’ll just give him his camera and send him on his way, another satisfied customer. The felony arrest will take place at the time Don Sample, he’s our critical team leader, thinks is appropriate and gives the word. Obviously, that will be the first controlled setting our man takes us to. We hope that will be his car. But you all know the procedures for other contingencies. Questions?”
“Why not prone his ass right there in the store?”
“We feel we need Coombs to be there so as not to spook the subject. He bought the camera from Coombs, Coombs should be there. I don’t want to try to take this guy down that close to a civilian. Also, it’s a small store and we may be pressing it having even one agent in there. You put more in and it’s going to look suspicious to this guy. So why don’t we just give him the camera and take him down out there on the street, where we can control things a little better?”
With Thorson, Backus and Sample handing off to each other, they outlined the plan in more detail. Coombs would be in the store with Thorson to handle the daily business and real customers throughout the day. But when the outside surveillance teams reported the approach of any customer even remotely matching Gladden’s description, Thorson would remain up front to handle the transaction while Coombs excused himself, retreated to a small rear storage room and locked himself in. Another agent, posing as a customer, would enter through the front door as backup after Gladden entered. The interior of the store would be monitored by a video setup. The exterior would be monitored by roving and stationary agents ready to deal with all contingencies once Gladden was identified. Additionally, a female agent in a Los Angeles parking enforcement uniform and car would continuously patrol the block where DIA was located.
“I don’t think I need to remind everybody just how dangerous this individual is,” Backus said when the briefing was done. “Everybody pack some extra common sense tomorrow. Watch out for yourself and your partner. Questions?”
I waited a beat to see if there were any questions from agents. When there weren’t, I spoke up.
“What if the digiShot doesn’t come in tomorrow like Mr. Coombs said it was supposed to?”
“Oh, yes, good point,” Backus said. “We’re not taking any chances. The Internet group at Quantico has one of these cameras and it’s coming out tonight on a plane. We’ll use that whether the one he really ordered comes in or not. Ours will be wired with a homer just in case, God forbid, he gets by us. We’ll be able to track him. Anything else?”
“Has any thought been given to not taking him down?”
It was Rachel’s voice on the speakerphone.
“How do you mean?”
“Just playing devil’s advocate, it looks like we’ve got this pretty well buttoned down. This could be a rare opportunity for us to watch a serial killer and observe his hunting and victim acquisition patterns. It could be invaluable to our studies.”
Her question set off a debate among the agents over the plan.
“And risk the chance that we lose him and he kills some kid or another cop?” Thorson responded. “No thanks—especially with the Fourth Estate here watching.”
Almost everybody came down on Thorson’s side of it, the feeling being that a monster like Gladden, though a worthy research subject, should be studied only in the closed setting of a prison cell. The risks of his potential escape far outweighed the riches that might be gained by watching him at work in an open environment.
“Look, people, the plan has been set,” Backus finally said, closing the subject. “We’ve considered the alternatives that have been suggested and I feel that going at him in the way we have outlined is the best and safest plan. So let’s move on. Rachel, what have you got for us?”
I watched the body language of the agents in the room change as their attention