“Uh . . . right,” Agent Valentine said, glancing at his papers. “Anyway, it is now believed that the actual murderer of the three women was Rod Glover, who had lived there at that time and left town immediately after the third murder—”
“It wasn’t immediate,” Zoe said sweetly. “It happened four days later.”
Valentine blinked. Across the table, O’Donnell grinned at Zoe, seemingly enjoying the spectacle.
“All three women were in their early twenties—”
“Only Beth Hartley was in her early twenties. Twenty-one, to be exact. Jackie Teller and Clara Smith were both eighteen.”
“Dr. Bentley, perhaps it would be best if we let Agent Valentine summarize,” Captain Bright said. “If you have anything you want to add, you can say it once he’s done.”
Zoe seethed. Agent Valentine let his lip curl and continued. “All three women were found near sources of water. They’d been raped and strangled to death.”
“What were they strangled with?” O’Donnell asked.
“Um . . .” The agent scanned his papers. “Some sort of cloth noose.”
“They were strangled with gray ties,” Zoe said.
“Thank you, Dr. Bentley,” O’Donnell told her.
“Right,” Valentine said. “Anyway, after leaving Maynard, Glover’s whereabouts were unknown, until—”
“Why did he leave Maynard?” O’Donnell asked, blinking innocently. “Didn’t the police have another suspect in custody?”
“He was probably concerned he was under suspicion.”
“He actually wasn’t,” Zoe said. “But the police were tipped off that he was seen lingering at one of the crime scenes and that he had a boxful of trophies from the murders under his bed. He ran before they could arrest him for questioning.”
“Thank you, Dr. Bentley.”
“You’re welcome, Detective O’Donnell.”
“Detective.” Bright’s voice was tight. “Please let Agent Valentine finish his summary. Any question you may have can wait until he’s done.”
Valentine’s face was flushed. “Glover’s whereabouts after that are unknown until he showed up in Chicago in 2008, killing two women—”
“I’m sorry,” Zoe said apologetically. “I really have to interrupt. We have solid evidence that he was in Chicago ever since 2006.”
Agent Valentine laid the papers on the desk. “Dr. Bentley. Would you like to take over this summary?”
“Thank you, that would be great,” Zoe said brightly. She quickly outlined their investigation into Glover’s past, his last workplace and apartment. She detailed the two murders they suspected he’d committed in Chicago. Then she summarized his attack on Andrea the month before.
“During the time Glover spent in Dale City, he went to see a doctor because of frequent headaches and repeated vomiting,” she said. “He was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma. That’s a grade-three glioma brain tumor. We’ve interviewed the doctor and consulted a specialist. Their opinion was that Glover had no more than a year to live, and in six months he would probably need constant medical supervision and nursing.”
Captain Bright leaned forward. “Did this guy Glover ever leave pentagrams in the crime scene? Or do anything else with satanic ramifications?”
“No,” Zoe answered promptly. “We haven’t seen anything like this in his previous murders.”
“So we’re assuming the pentagram and the knife are his accomplice’s idea?”
Zoe hesitated. “It’s possible. We don’t know enough about the psyche of the unsub to be sure.”
“What do we have linking the two crimes other than the phone call?” Bright asked.
“Footprints match for one of the murderers,” O’Donnell said. “The techs said there’s no doubt about it. We didn’t have a good enough footprint of the second man in the Lamb crime scene to get a definite match, but the shoe size fits. In both cases, the murderers wore gloves, so we have no fingerprints. I think we have DNA . . . Dr. Terrel?”
“I took DNA samples from the bite on the woman’s neck,” Dr. Terrel said. “In addition, there’s dry blood under her fingernails, which might belong to one of her attackers. Both samples are being compared to the saliva sample from the Lamb murder. Since the FBI had agreed to make this case a priority in their lab, we’ll have a result within a day.”
O’Donnell nodded. “In addition, both women were strangled to death, and both had syringe marks on their arms. We believe the syringe in Catherine Lamb’s murder was used to extract blood from the victim.”
“Was Henrietta Fishburne raped?” Bright asked.
“Not as far as I can tell,” Terrel said.
Zoe blinked, startled. Up until now, she’d assumed it was a foregone conclusion. “Are you sure?”
“The victim’s knees and palms are bruised in a manner that seems to indicate she was forced to her knees,” Terrel said. “However, I found no indications of recent penetration.”