Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“Let me know if you guys need anything else. I’ll be at my desk,” Christine tells us as she leaves the conference room.
Walker checks his phone once more before placing it face up on the table in front of him.
He usually has his phone away for meetings, but with Vivian due to deliver their twin boys any day now, he is never without his phone, and at least one backup charger.
It’s sweet. He’s terrified and excited all at once, just as any father-to-be should feel.
The paperwork for him to formally adopt his stepdaughter was submitted to the courts last month, but it’s not clear if it will be finalized before Eloise’s little brothers make their arrival.
Vivian mentioned they expected it to take two to four months to be official, but it’s purely a technicality.
They are already a soon-to-be-family of five; the rest is just legal documentation.
I’ve known Walker for just over four years, but the transformation the man has had in the last two since fate brought Walker and me to Vivian’s sister’s house is still impressive.
He was always so serious and guarded, which is still his natural default, but he smiles and even laughs now, especially when he’s around his girls.
It’s amazing to see the change that love has made in his life.
Suddenly, I connect the real possibility that if Ryan and I continue what we are building, and I think that’s extremely likely, then someday, Walker could be more than my boss—we could even end up officially being family. I just have to actually admit to him that Ryan is my boyfriend.
Minor detail.
“We’ve got an outlier to add to The Carnation Killer,” Mason starts while pulling up photos.
“The victim is an unidentified Jane Doe, estimated age is twenty-five to thirty years old. She was discovered in a secluded area of St. Thomas Park in Escondido, California, by dog walkers on the morning of January fifteenth. Full toxicology reports are still pending, but preliminary screening flagged traces of ketamine in Jane Doe’s blood. ”
“Those are deep strangulation marks,” Tara murmurs.
“He’s mad, but at what—or whom?” Kelly adds.
Mason walks us through the crime scene photos.
The victim is lying on a generic picnic blanket with a lone carnation placed on her chest. Her dark hair is brushed back neatly, and her clothes are arranged like Sleeping Beauty herself with the pink lipstick carefully applied.
“And what is he doing on the Western Seaboard?” Walker questions.
“Were there any other findings from her autopsy that deviate from our previous cases?” I ask Mason.
“Other than her geographical location, the rest of the data is consistent with our prior cases. There was no evidence of sexual assault, and no trace DNA identified.”
“Is he being more cautious now that we have his DNA, or are we looking a possible copycat?” Walker asks me.
“He wouldn’t know we have his DNA. We haven’t released any of the official details of these cases, and the placement of the carnation, along with the grooming ritual, are both compulsions he is unable to suppress.
I think this case presents as another victim, and it’s accurate to add it to the CPM calculations,” I say to our team as Walker gives a single nod and double taps the table with his fist.
“I agree. What’s the updated score—and does it even matter at this point? The unsub is already at critical.” Walker turns to me while raising his eyebrows.
“It matters to be consistent, but yes, I believe this unsub is still our top priority. Mason, can you zoom in on the third photo of the crime scene? I want to see her sweater, specifically.”
He pulls up the image and zooms in on Jane Doe’s sweater.
She’s wearing a dress, which is smoothed and perfect, like the other victims. But the sweater isn’t.
The left side is rumpled up like it was caught on something and not adjusted back into place.
The right sleeve is pushed up to her elbow, but the left sleeve is pulled down almost to her wrist, but it looks unkept.
“Do you see how, for whatever reason, the unsub didn’t smooth out her sweater?
If we pull up the crime scene photos from the unsub’s other kills,” I nod at Mason who does just that, “their clothes are all perfectly smoothed and in place. But not this one. Was he in a hurry? Maybe. But the fact he was able to complete his other rituals during and after the kill, but not this part, is significant.”
“What could it mean?” Walker asks.
“I can’t say for certain. However, the shift in pattern and ritual suggests not only an escalation of the unsub’s behavior, amplified by him going cross-country between kills instead of staying in his comfort zone, but it’s also possible that he is entering or has entered psychological collapse.”
“How does that impact our ability to find him?” Kelly directs his question to me.
“If he’s entering psychological collapse, I’d expect an acceleration.
Shorter cooling-off periods. Higher risk tolerance.
And more victims in the near future. This unsub is highly controlled but prone to episodic rage.
That explains why some of his kills are closer together.
Combined with the disruption in his ritual behavior suggests the fantasy is no longer in control, but his impulses are—which also means he could become reckless and is in one of the most dangerous stages of a serial offender’s cycle. ”
“It doesn’t seem helpful for us to head to California, though, right?” Tara asks and lifts a hand toward Walker. “And we understand if we do have to go somewhere, you will only be with us virtually, Papa Bear.” She smiles at him as he nods once.
“I don’t think it’s necessary with a single victim to take the entire team to California, unless we find some type of lead that’s worth pursuing, or some indication that the unsub is now in California instead of the Eastern Seaboard, where we have profiled him to be based on his hunting grounds,” Walker says as we all nod in agreement.
I don’t think the killer is in California—but I do think he is on the verge of a complete break from reality. And that makes him dangerous to anyone in his vicinity.