“And that’s why we caught this case?” Vail said. “Almost no forensics?”
“Yeah, that. Plus this isn’t the first fire matching the MO. McBride said there were four more before this one, spread across a wide area. All in Virginia. And another they’re now looking at from five years ago.”
“I’m confused,” Del Monaco said. “What in this crime scene says homicide? Sterno? Could’ve been left over from a party they had. The body could’ve been the homeowner. Smoking, watching TV, falls asleep, place goes up. Not like that doesn’t happen. A lot.”
Rooney’s military demeanor helped him maintain his composure at times like these when others—Vail being the definition of “others”—would lose it with Del Monaco. “Too hot,” Rooney said evenly. “I’m telling you, Frank, we’re going to find a bonafide accelerant. And if not, we’ll be going over those other cases to see if there’s something that can clue us in on what to look for. We just need to dig deeper. The more info we have on the behaviors he left behind, the better we can establish linkage. And if we can establish linkage—well, you know the deal. If it is the same offender, we’ve gotta find him. He’s not going to stop. These guys love their fires too much.”
“And,” Vail said, “if he’s setting fires with people inside the houses, that’s a whole other ballgame.”
“Were there any distinguishable vapors at the scene?” van Owen asked. “Weather’s been cold.”
Rooney nodded. “Good point. Accelerant odors are sometimes detectable when the investigators make their initial inspection of the fire scene—and those smells are usually sharper on cold mornings. I’m told that they smelled something but couldn’t identify it.”
“Thank you, Art,” DiCarlo said. “Agent Vail, you want to give us an update on Jasmine Marcks?”
He’s “Art” but I’m “Agent Vail.” What’s up with that? Vail did not bother walking to the front of the room. She had no PowerPoint to present. Just a verbal update, if that. “Some of you remember the Roscoe Lee Marcks case that Thomas Underwood handled before I joined the unit. I inherited the case and Marcks has been sitting behind bars at Potter Correctional doing LWOP,” she said, using cop speak for life without parole. “Everything’s been quiet until his daughter wrote a book about him. That seems to have stirred her father’s pot.”
“Why would he care?” Dietrich Hutchings asked.
“Because Jasmine was the one who turned him in.”
“Oh, right. Duct tape or something?”
“Among other things,” Vail said. “The profile was pretty much spot-on, but the nail in the coffin was the evidence she gave the cops. Her testimony blew away the thin alibis he had on the more recent murders. Not to mention the forensics they found at two of the later scenes. Anyway, Jasmine got a threatening note from him and—”
“And,” DiCarlo said, “Agent Vail appears to have allowed herself to be drawn in to act as a babysitter.”
Vail kept her death-ray gaze away from DiCarlo. And she held her tongue—both improvements in her demeanor that she had been working on the past few years, at Gifford’s urging. She glanced at Hutchings instead, but he was wearing a politically correct poker face. “Fairfax County PD is taking it seriously, which I agree with. Detective Erik Curtis.
“I met with the offender at Potter Correctional, which I’ve been trying to do for years. After threatening his daughter, I felt he may have something to say and be more open to a sit down.”
“And? What’d he say about his daughter?” Del Monaco asked.
“Nothing useful.”
Hutchings spread his hands. “What was the threat? We can’t be of much help if we don’t have some details.”
Vail told them.
Rooney, now seated across from Vail, lifted his brow. “Three issues here. One, is it credible, and two, if so, is he going to act on it, and three, what can he do about it? My sense is that you have to treat it as credible.”
“Curtis and I agree. He’s looking into known associates, tracking down visitors he’s had the past year, the usual stuff.”
“Is this surprising for Marcks?” Rooney asked.
Vail had to think about that. “I think so. He’s a bad dude, no doubt about that. Underwood felt he exhibited some traits of psychopathy, but not the whole cluster. So he may have the ability to exhibit certain emotional responses. And if that’s the case, it could simply be a case of building anger over the years. Disappointment, betrayal. And then the book comes out and it sets him off. He’s pissed, he sends a letter that’s designed to freak her out.”
“I’m confused,” DiCarlo said. “So you don’t think there’s a threat here?”
“It could be a case of frustration and anger. Or it could be something a lot more serious. We can’t take that chance, especially when dealing with an offender like this, whether Jasmine is his own flesh and blood or not.”
“Best guess?” Gifford asked.