CHAPTER EIGHT
Faith’s phone buzzed just as she stepped into the car. She put it on speaker and said, “Go ahead, Cuthbert.”
“Knights of Nature,” Cuthbert said. “Little group from the University of Nebraska in Omaha. Led by a senior named Alex Forrester. They got into the news last year for wearing uncured animal pelts to a demonstration to show people how development was harming animals.”
Faith grimaced. “How attractive.”
“Oh yes, very much so. They’ve got a blog too. I’ve been reading it, and this kid Alex is very out there. Advocates things like slaughtering ranchers the way they slaughter their animals, penning up women who eat dairy and gorging them on hormones to harvest human milk or giving them steroids and harvesting their breast meat.”
“Christ,” Michael whispered. “Like seriously?”
“I don’t think so. But the killing people for hurting animals thing? He seems really serious about that. Wrote an essay about a woman who was mauled to death by her pit bulls. Said the dogs should be hailed as heroes.”
“Okay, you’ve got me interested,” Faith said. “Send me an address and a picture.”
“I’ll give you the address to his house. That’s where the group meets. Oh, and if you need another reason to hate him, it really is his house. He’s a trust fund baby.”
“Weirdly enough, most of them don’t turn into psychopathic killers,” Faith said.
“They do turn into snobby, ignorant assholes.” He chuckled. “Don’t mind me. Ex had a trust fund. It was really fun until she decided that being rich meant she could sleep with whoever she wanted.”
“The address, Cuthbert.”
“Right. On its way.”
He hung up, and Faith took a deep breath. “Thank God. We finally have a suspect.”
Michael looked out the window. “You think he’ll be home? We’ve got two or three hours of daylight left.”
She frowned. “Probably. Kids go out at night on weekdays, not daytime.” Her frown deepened. “I’ll call Cuthbert anyway and have him head to the University, just in case.”
“Good idea.”
She made the call, and when she finished, Michael remarked. “I was never home in college.”
“Yeah? Too many girls to visit?”
“You want me to answer that?”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, cowboy.”
He chuckled. “No, not many girls actually. Just three.”
“Only three? You poor boy.”
“Not at the same time.”
“Thank you for clarifying.”
"I mean, we didn't date at the same time. I'm a one woman at a time kind of guy."
“Why are we talking about this?”
“Because I don’t want you to think I’m an asshole.”
“I’ve known you for eleven years. Almost twelve. I know you’re an asshole.”
“Good point.” Traffic was starting to thicken, so he switched the lights on. “But I’m just saying, I was always out and about. I would go to the beach or to the zoo.”
“The zoo? Really?”
“One of the girls was an intern there.”
“Ah.”
“But I would go out drinking or to the movies or to a friend’s house. I was never alone.”
“This might come as a shock, Michael, but introverts exist.”
“They don’t lead protests covered in animal skins.”
“Sometimes they do. In fact, introverts aren’t always afraid of people or uncomfortable around others. They’re also usually less concerned with the opinions of others, so they won’t mind doing something socially unacceptable.”
“Okay, so Alex might be home. How does this help us? I mean, knowing that he might be an introvert?”
“I’ve been thinking about our profile,” Faith said. “The killer’s violent and vindictive, but I think he’s also antisocial.”
Michael switched on the siren and weaved through stalled traffic until they were past the choke point. “What makes you say that?”
“The animal mimicry. I get the point of killing someone as though you’re taking revenge for an animal, but that kind of message could be sent by clipping mugshots and news stories to them or even leaving a note to say why he killed them. But the animal mimicry suggests that he might identify more with animals than people.”
Michael shook his head. “That’s thin, Faith. I see where you’re going with that, but it’s really thin. First of all, this guy is doing a shitty job mimicking animals.”
“That just means he’s ignorant. Or he’s trying to be clever and make himself look ignorant.”
“That’s an even bigger stretch, but second of all, if he identifies so much with the animals, why isn’t he freeing all of them? Why is he only freeing the one he needs to make it look like the deaths were accidental?”
Faith bit her lip. “Okay, you got me there. It might be a delusion, though.”
“No, because he had the presence of mind to free that one animal, and the presence of mind to escape before he was killed himself. Let’s say Saul’s right and the jaguar’s a sweetheart. I doubt like hell the black mamba was. I looked it up. They’re supposed to be one of the most aggressive snake species on Earth. You walk within striking distance of one of them and they bite.”
Faith sighed. “You’re right. About the presence of mind. Still… I guess call it a hunch.”
Michael shrugged. “Fair enough. Well, we have this lead now, so let’s focus on Alex and deal with our hunches later.”
She nodded. “Sounds good.”
They reached the address eight minutes later. There were several cars parked in the driveway and on the street in front of the house. Faith noticed with a dry smile that they were all expensive sports cars.
“Not too concerned about the environment, I guess,” Michael said.
“Doesn’t look that way,” Faith agreed.
They approached the house slowly, weapons drawn. Hopefully that was overkill, but they were clearly going to be outnumbered.
They made it to the driveway when the door burst open. People poured out of the door, vaulting over cars, shrieking and crying, “Run! The cops!”
The agents looked through the group for Alex Forrester. No one Faith saw matched the description. Maybe he was still in the house.
“Faith!”
Faith turned to Michael to see him pointing at the fence separating this house from its neighbor. A lanky young man straddled the fence and looked back at the agents with shocked wide eyes staring through wire-rimmed glasses.
“Get him, Turk!”
Alex swore and vaulted the fence. Faith and Michael followed. Behind them, they heard the chorus of high-revving engines roar to life as Alex’s friends made their escape.
Faith leapt over the fence while Michael stayed on the other side with Turk. Alex was trying to hide underneath a low table in the backyard. He swore when he saw Faith chasing him and stood, throwing the table behind his back.
Faith nearly caught him on the other side of the fence, but he shook her off and vaulted into the next backyard. Faith followed and dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding a lawn ornament that Alex hurled at her. It shattered behind her, and her eyes narrowed.
“That’s assault on an officer!” she shouted after Alex. “All you’re doing is racking up charges, Alex!”
“Suck my dick!” he called back.
All right, then.
Faith followed him through two more backyards. In the last one, they surprised a family. Alex leapt over a child sitting on a trike in the middle of the yard while Faith dodged the toddler’s older sister. The mom shrieked obscenities at them, and Alex, thankfully, chose to leave the backyards behind.
He landed straight in front of Turk and Michael.
“Shit!” he cried out, “Damn it!”
Turk ran in front of him and brought him to a halt, teeth bared, ears flattened. Michael grabbed him and tried to push him to the ground, but Alex twisted his hips and tossed Michael to the ground. He nearly landed on Turk, and the dog’s momentary confusion allowed Alex to leap another fence into a drainage ditch. Faith followed, and called back to Michael, “Find a gate and send Turk through! And call Cuthbert! We need units!”
“You need this unit!” Alex called behind him.
Real original, kid , Faith thought drily.
She sprinted after him, keeping pace with the taller, younger student but not catching up. She ran for several miles every day and was confident her stamina would hold, but it would be really nice not to be five miles from her car when this was over.
Outside of the fence, Turk rushed forward until he was even with Alex. He barked at the fleeing suspect, a warning that he was still there, still saw Alex, and was coming for him.
Faith looked behind to make sure that Michael was keeping up. She sighed in relief when she saw him behind, still running and apparently unharmed from the throw.
“Alex!” she called. “We have police coming! You will not get out of this. You know it! We know where you live and where you go to school! Your friends all have records, and their addresses are on file! Stop fleeing now!”
“Bite me!”
She probably should stop trying to reason with him.
She looked ahead and found an opportunity in forty yards. The drainage ditch ended at a road bridge, and the tunnel where the water drained was too small for people to crawl through. She called to Turk, “Go on ahead! Cut him off up there!”
Turk followed her point and put on a burst of speed. It always amazed Faith how fast he was. And they thought he was too old to chase suspects anymore!
Better hope this one doesn’t get away, or Turk might not find him again.
Faith hated that little cynical voice of doubt in her head. His sense of smell was fine. It was one damned test.
In any case, this suspect didn’t get away. Turk was waiting for him at the top of the bridge. Alex skidded to a halt and turned around, eyes huge.
He gritted his teeth and rushed Faith, but once more, Turk outran him, leaping into the ditch and jumping in between Faith and Alex. Alex skidded to a halt and stamped his foot. The movement was so absurd and immature that Faith had to laugh.
“Hands above your head!” she shouted. “Obey my commands, or I will have my K9 make you obey!”
“Oh, go to Hell,” Alex said miserably.
He complied, though, and Faith was able to handcuff him without any trouble.
“You’re in so much trouble,” Alex told her. “My lawyer will sue you until you have to beg for work at an ice cream shop.”
“Can’t wait to meet him.”
“It’s a girl, dipshit.”
“My bad,” she said drily.
She hauled Alex to his feet and led him back to the bridge. Michael waited there, having arrived while she handcuffed Alex.
“My partner’s going to help you up,” she told him. “You’re going to behave, or Turk will take you to the ground. Please understand that the only reason he hasn’t bit you yet is that I haven’t ordered him to.”
Alex sniffed. “Whatever.”
She rolled her eyes and passed him to Michael. Alex was tall but thin, and the six-foot-two, two-hundred-ten-pound Michael had no trouble hauling him up to the road. Turk hopped up and watched Alex while Michael helped Faith to the top.
“All right,” Michael said, panting. “Let’s see what the trust-fund terror has to say for himself.”
Alex rolled his eyes at Michael and muttered something under his breath.
“Same to you, buddy.”
They pulled Alex to his feet, and Faith called Cuthbert. "Suspect in custody."
“On my way. Good work, agents.”
“Thank you, Detective.”
She hung up and turned to Alex. “Okay, kid. Let’s take a ride.”
Alex didn’t say anything as they drove to the station, but the mounting fear on his face gave Faith hope that they could put a swift end to this mystery.
And to any doubt that Turk was as effective now as he ever was.