“Please give him my best when you see him.”
Max watched the exchange. Probably good that they were building rapport with each other, a sense of trust. She would much have preferred dealing with one shrink instead of two, but it had been a compromise. Something she didn’t particularly like, but did when necessary.
“Dillon, I’m Maxine Revere. Lucy probably told you I’m an investigative reporter with NET and host the show Maximum Exposure.”
“Yes,” he replied rather icily. “I’m aware.”
“And, Arthur, this is FBI Agent Lucy Kincaid. She’s out of the San Antonio Field Office, but she’s assisting on her own time. She has a personal stake in the case—as well as Dr. Kincaid. The first victim was their nephew.”
“I familiarized myself with the case after you e-mailed me yesterday,” Arthur said. “And I also reviewed your notes. I’m happy to help, though I don’t know that two of us will be any better than one.”
“Lucy trusts her brother, I trust you. Hopefully by the end of this conversation, we have a clear direction.” Max hesitated, then added, “I’ll admit, though I didn’t like the idea of working with a federal agent, Lucy has provided some interesting insight and a compelling profile of the killer, but I still don’t see the big picture.”
“We have additional information from our research today,” Lucy said. “We’ve confirmed that the second known victim, Tommy Porter, was also buried with his favorite stuffed animal. That’s three of the potential four known victims.”
“Known?” Arthur asked.
“Lucy modified my timeline. She put Victim Zero before Justin Stanton.”
Dillon said, “What makes you say that?”
“I put a question mark next to it,” Lucy clarified. “I don’t see at this point how or why Justin was the trigger. I think the trigger came before Justin, but again, I can’t be certain without more information.”
Arthur said, “You mentioned in your message, Max, that the killer is most likely female. Did you come to that conclusion, Dr. Kincaid?”
“No, that was Lucy,” Dillon said. “She has a master’s degree in criminal psychology from Georgetown and is well-versed in profiling. Don’t let her rookie status deceive you.”
Max glanced at Lucy. Was she actually blushing? That would be hard to fake. Max said, “Lucy, tell Arthur why you think the killer is a woman.”
“First,” Lucy said, “we should backtrack a bit. Did you familiarize yourself with the commonalities of each case?”
“Yes,” Arthur said, “though there are a few holes because of the pending trial of Mrs. Caldwell, correct?”
“I can’t access any of those records,” Max said. But after David’s conversation with Carney, she wondered if Lucy might have a better chance. In fact, if the FBI wanted to take a peek, would the DA say no? It was worth a shot, if Lucy was willing. And why wouldn’t she be? She wanted to solve these murders as much as Max. And Max didn’t say that lightly—she rarely found anyone as invested in any of her investigations as she was. Yet Lucy wanted answers, maybe even more than Max, and that was saying something.
“I filled Dillon in last night,” Lucy said, “so we’re all on the same page. The manner of death—it was set up as a mercy killing. No sexual assault, no violence, a quiet death. I suspect the boys were all unconscious from the sedatives in their system before they were suffocated. She also couldn’t look at them while they died—she wrapped them completely in their blankets. The other details are all similar. But the trigger eluded me until this afternoon when we visited the park where Justin was buried.”
Max was watching Dillon Kincaid closely. He was much older than Lucy, almost old enough to be her father. His expression was more than a little protective and he had a tense jaw. It was clear he hadn’t known she’d gone to the park. Was he worried about her? Or angry? Why?
“Justin was buried in a park where he often played—in fact, it was a favorite spot of his. Max’s assistant followed up with the Porter family—Tommy was also buried in a park. But he was buried at the edge of the baseball field, and he loved the sport—he was on a Little League team. Max asked her assistant to find out if Chris Donovan spent time in the nature preserve where he was found—I suspect yes, he did. I suspect it was a favorite spot.”
“Excuse my interruption,” Arthur said, “but weren’t all these locations close to the victim’s home? Possibly chosen because of proximity?”
“That was part of it, she didn’t want to be with the dead child long. But there was a playground closer to the Donovan house than the nature preserve. It was only two miles away, but the park was much closer. Alone, this information may not seem important, but in context it is absolutely imperative that we understand she buried her victims in these locations on purpose.
“The context is this: the killer knew that the father was having an affair. The killer knew where the family lived. She knew where the children played. She knew when the parents were not home and what bedroom the child slept in. She stalked the families for weeks, if not months. She had intimate knowledge of their lives. How? That is the question we need to answer. How did she know that the fathers were having an affair? We know Nelia was privy to Andrew’s affair, but it wasn’t discussed between them. Andrew claimed that no one else knew, other than his mistress. But cheaters often think that they are being discreet when, in fact, those closest to them know the truth. Adam Donovan told Max’s assistant that he ‘almost wanted’ his wife to find out so that she would divorce him. That tells me he wasn’t being discreet. Porter was a repeat cheater. But still, while adultery doesn’t have the stigma that it once did, people don’t generally talk about their affairs openly.”
“You think that the killer followed the husbands,” Dillon said.
How the hell did he come to that conclusion? Max wondered if having a sibling made you somehow psychic.
“Yes, I do,” Lucy said. “Maybe she overheard something or saw something, I don’t know, but she followed the husband until she confirmed that he was having an affair. That was the trigger. That’s what told her that he didn’t deserve a family.”
Arthur said, “That’s a big leap. Why not kill the cheater? Or the mistress?”
“Because she doesn’t view death as punishment. She views suffering as punishment. And what better way to make someone suffer than to take away the one thing they love more than anything else?”
Max felt ill. She’d heard and seen a lot—mostly by choice in her profession—but she couldn’t begin to understand what would make a person kill a child to punish a parent. And Lucy … she was so matter-of-fact about it. As if she had conversations like this every day.
Maybe she did. What had Dillon said earlier? Don’t let her rookie status fool you.