before,” Harry interjected. “Several times, in fact. You do not get to decide what I publish. My editor does. If you want a newspaper for which you can call the shots, why don’t you get the FBI to start one? Call it the Bureau Gazette. I’m sure it’ll be very popular. Federal agents are known for their creative flair.”
“There’s nothing that positively links those two cases, and—”
“Sure there is.”
She blinked. “What?”
“You’re linking those cases,” he said. “And if you’re involved in both of them, I can only assume they’re related.”
“I want to talk to your editor.”
Harry’s grin widened. “Please do. His door is over there. He’s named McGrath.”
Zoe looked at the door, hesitating.
“You should knock first. He gets grumpy when you just enter unannounced.”
She bit her lip, then glanced over his shoulder at the screen. “Is that another article about the murder?”
“That?” He turned around and minimized it. “No, that’s something else I’m working on.”
“The headline said, ‘McKinley Park Residents Outraged by Police Incompetence.’”
“Yup.”
“The police are not incompetent. They are doing their very best to solve this murder case.”
“Uh-huh. Sure they are. And what about the three other murders in the past five years? Only one was solved. And that weird drunk guy in the mall who keeps catcalling women? What about him? Why won’t the police do anything about him?”
“What weird drunk guy?” Zoe asked, incredulous.
“If you lived in McKinley Park, you’d know. And the woman who almost got her baby snatched? And the graffiti epidemic? And the school break-in? The residents of McKinley Park feel unsafe.”
“Where are you getting all that?”
“Mostly from comments on my other articles.”
“And you’re writing a news article about . . . reader comments on a different article?”
“I don’t tell you how to do your job; don’t tell me how to do mine.”
Zoe shook her head in disbelief. “Whatever, I don’t care. About your article linking the murders—”
“Tell me,” Harry said. “Why are you even worried about this article?”
“Serial killers are often obsessed with news articles about themselves. Those articles make them accelerate their pace and sometimes change their pattern. Especially when those articles are cheap and loud.”
“You flatter me. And in your opinion, is this killer the sort of killer affected by the press? I’m asking because the police are the ones who circulated Glover’s photo with the media.”
“Those pieces also taint jury pools. You spread hysteria—”
“Zoe, don’t you get it?” Harry said, losing his patience. “You need me to run these articles.”
She frowned, saying nothing.
“Do you want that picture of Rod Glover to keep circulating, or don’t you?” Harry asked.
“I do,” Zoe admitted after a second.
“Then you need to keep this story on the front page. People are losing interest in the Catherine Lamb murder. If I tie it to the Henrietta Fishburne story, it’ll get more eyes. More people actively looking around for Glover to show his face. None of the other papers are giving the Lamb story even half the coverage that we are. But by tomorrow, after I run my next piece, half of Chicago will know what Glover looks like. We’re going to use his photo again, as well as Catherine and Henrietta’s photographs.”
She paused, then said, “Okay. But I need you to use different pictures than the ones you’ve used so far.”
Harry shrugged. “Give me whatever you want, and I’ll see what I can do.”
Zoe rummaged in her bag and took out a flash drive.
“There are pictures of Glover and Catherine Lamb here,” she said. “Can you use those instead?”
Harry stuck the flash drive in his USB port. A folder opened containing two images. She’d come prepared. He briefly wondered if this had been her real intention all along. He double-clicked the first image. It was a close-up of Rod Glover talking to someone, smiling. The photo had caught him in a bad moment, his smile turned into a sneer, morphing his face into something sinister and cruel.
“This picture isn’t as good as the other one,” he said. “I think he’s less recognizable here.”
“Perhaps, but he’s perceived differently.”
It was true. In the previous image he was smiling at the camera cheerfully, looking like everyone’s favorite uncle.
He checked the second image, of Catherine. “Oh, we’re not going to use that.”
“Why not?”
“Because we have a much better photo of her. Didn’t you see it? Looking so happy, with the sun shining on her hair, that gorgeous view in the background. It’s the perfect victim picture. A beautiful life snagged too soon and all that.”