The FBI had collected the local police department’s notes on five persons of interest in the deaths of Alexandra Ruiz and Sylvester Wilde. I started with the first file.
“Thomas Wesley,” I said, hoping the others would follow my lead and focus on the case. I laid a finger on the man’s picture—the same one Agent Briggs had put up on the screen on the plane.
“Self-satisfied,” Michael declared, studying the photo for a moment. “And hyperaware.”
Filing Michael’s observations away for reference, I skimmed the file. Wesley had created and sold no fewer than three internet start-up companies. His net worth was eight figures, nearing nine. He’d been playing poker professionally for about a decade—and in the past three years, he’d ascended the ranks, winning multiple international competitions.
Intelligent. Competitive. I took in the way Wesley was dressed in the picture and processed Michael’s read on the man. You like to win. You like a challenge.
Based on the party he’d thrown on New Year’s Eve, he also liked women, excess, and living the high life.
“What are you thinking?” I asked Dean. He was a warm, steady presence by my side, reading over my shoulder, not asking the questions I knew he had to be thinking about the exchange between Sterling and me.
“I think our UNSUB likes a challenge,” Dean answered quietly.
Just like Thomas Wesley.
“How many of our POIs are here for the poker tournament?” I asked. Picking out potential suspects was significantly easier when there was variation among the people you were profiling. By definition, anyone capable of playing poker at an elite level was highly intelligent, good at masking their own emotions, and amenable to taking calculated risks.
Lia thumbed through the files. “Four of the five,” she said. “And the fifth is Tory Howard, stage magician. Four bluffers and an illusionist.” Lia smiled. “I do like a challenge.”
You’re methodical, I thought, my brain turning back to the UNSUB. You plan six steps ahead. You get a rush out of seeing those plans come to fruition.
In most of the cases we’d worked in the past few months, the killers’ assertions of dominance over their victims had been direct. The victims had been overpowered. They’d been chosen, they’d been stalked, and they’d died looking at the faces of their killers.
This UNSUB was different.
“Persons of interest two, three, and four.” Michael drew my attention back to the present as he spread the files out one by one on the coffee table. “Or, as I like to call them,” he continued, glancing at each POI’s picture for less than a second, “Intense, Wide-Eyed, and Planning-Your-Demise.”
The one Michael had referred to as Planning-Your-Demise was the only woman of the three. She had strawberry blond hair with a slight curl to it and eyes that looked several sizes too big for her face. At first glance, she could have passed for a teenager, but the dossier informed me that she was twenty-five.
“Camille Holt.” I paused after reading her name. “Why does that sound familiar?”
“Because she’s not just a professional poker player,” Lia replied. “She’s an actress.”
The dossier confirmed Lia’s words. Camille was classically trained, had an undergraduate degree in Shakespearean literature, and had played small but critically acclaimed roles in several mainstream films.
She didn’t exactly fit the profile of your typical professional poker player.
You don’t like being put in boxes, I thought. According to the file, this was Camille’s second major poker tournament. She’d gone far enough in the first to surpass expectations, but hadn’t won.
I thought about what Michael had said about her facial expression. To the untrained eye, she didn’t look like she was plotting anything. She looked sweet.
You like being underestimated. I rolled that over in my mind as I made my way through the next two files, skimming the information the FBI had gathered on Dr. Daniel de la Cruz (Intense), and the supposedly wide-eyed Beau Donovan, who looked more like he was scowling to me.
De la Cruz was a professor of applied mathematics. True to Michael’s assessment, he seemed to approach both poker and his field of study with laser focus and an intensity unmatched by his peers.
For maximal contrast, Beau Donovan was a twenty-one-year-old dishwasher who’d entered the qualifying tournament here at the Majesty two weeks before. He’d won, giving him the amateur spot in the upcoming poker championship.
“Shall we role-play?” Lia asked. “I’ll be the actress. Dean can be the dishwasher from the wrong side of the tracks. Sloane is the mathematics professor, and Michael is the billionaire playboy.”
“Obviously,” Michael replied.
I picked up the final file, the one that belonged to Tory Howard, the only POI who wasn’t an elite poker player.