Chapter 16 #3
It was true. He was a drunk now. Smoked a pack a day. Used sex for a distraction rather than for true physical intimacy. His life was a train wreck with carnage lying all over the place.
But he still wasn’t going to walk away and let some scumbag wreak havoc in his name. Hell no. He would get this piece of shit. And then he could go back to being the coward who didn’t give a damn if he lived or died.
Sounded fair enough.
If he screwed up and somebody died, maybe Worth would just shoot him and put him out of his misery.
Ryan hesitated once more before going back to the conference room, took one last look at the fear in his eyes.
Someone could die.
Even with Grace’s help, he might not be able to save the next victim. But in this screwed-up scenario, if he didn’t try, the victim didn’t have a chance.
“To hell with it.”
He walked away from the fear in the mirror and took the stairs to the third floor.
When he reached the conference room, he still felt breathless.
He didn’t let that stop him, though, as he barged in and assessed his audience.
Worth had taken a seat and everyone, including the SAC, looked at Ryan expectantly.
“Grace”—he allowed his gaze to linger on hers a moment before he went on—“touch base with Schaffer and tell her to look for any files marked ‘random.’ That’s where I stored my personal notes on various cases.
Also”—he crossed the room to study the timeline board—“ask her to look for any fan mail I received. There’s something familiar to me about the way this guy words these emails.
I noticed it in that first email.” He shrugged.
“The sentence structure or phrasing. Something.”
Grace reached for her cell phone. “I’ll text her now. I should also remind her of the search parameters we’re using on the fan mail list, yes?”
“Yeah, that’ll help her narrow things down.
” Next Ryan turned his attention first to the photo of Alyssa Byrne, then the one of Katherine Jones.
Totally different, not a single thing about their lives corresponded.
“Pratt, find me a place where the lives of these two”—he pointed to Alyssa, then Katherine—“intersect. There has to be something. This guy is too intelligent and meticulous to simply be choosing indiscriminate victims. There will be a connection. Find it.”
“Yes, sir,” Pratt said with a nod.
“Davis.” Ryan turned to face the table once more.
“Stay on the fan mail list.” He shifted his attention to Worth.
“When Aldridge gets in, have him start looking at the crime scenes again. From the point of abduction to the point of rescue and everything in between. Is there any relevancy between, say, the cemetery and Walmart or Sloss Furnaces? Have we considered every possibility on the evidence collected?” That was a dead end, he was certain, but it needed to be looked at again.
“ASAC Talley and I are at your disposal as well,” Worth reminded him with a sincerity that couldn’t be faked even if the man wanted to bother.
“Talley,” Ryan said, addressing the assistant special agent in charge, “visit that neighbor’s boyfriend, Horace Jackson, again.” Ryan pointed to the notation on the timeline regarding Jackson’s statement. “Press him. Maybe he’ll remember something else.”
“I’ll get right on it,” Talley guaranteed.
Lastly his full attention settled on Worth. “Put together a major press conference. Use our pal Goodman.” Ryan saw the skepticism in Worth’s eyes but, to the man’s credit, he didn’t argue. “Let’s send Devoted Fan a big, public message about how the director himself has reinstated me.”
Worth pushed out of his chair. “Sounds like a good move. I’ll run your suggestion by the director. If he’s agreeable, I’ll set it up.”
Ryan gave him some ammunition. “Devoted Fan’s goal appears to be making sure the Bureau knows what a mistake was made three years ago, to see that I’m reinstated, yada-yada-yada. Let’s see if he’s being honest with us . . . or even with himself,” Ryan added as an afterthought.
Grace was the first to pick up on where he was going with that theory. “You think he’s using you as a ruse? That there’s a bigger plan in motion?”
Now he would have to explain the impression, and it had only just occurred to him. “Either that or we’re looking for an unsub with a previous medical condition or, hell, an incarceration that slowed him down. I was canned three years ago. Why wait so long to show his support?”
Ryan looked directly at Grace as he spoke, couldn’t help thinking about the way she’d come three times for him.
Maybe they shared more than one wavelength.
“Why Birmingham? Why these particular victims? Why Oak Hill Cemetery or Sloss Furnaces? What is Devoted Fan trying to tell us? Maybe he really believes this is about me when, in reality, it’s about him. ”
Ryan’s instincts sharpened; that old familiar release of galvanizing adrenaline took hold. “Whatever he’s up to, it isn’t just about me. This guy has a story to tell. We just have to be able to understand what he’s trying to say to us.”