CHAPTER ONE
Dr. Alison Payne looked up from the table in the conference room of the California Bureau of Investigation offices as two people came to the door, one familiar face and one stranger.
Alison smiled as she shot up from her chair and rounded the table, despite the serious nature of the investigation. She immediately went to Special Agent Nicole Hartley and hugged her.
"What are you doing here?" Alison asked as she hugged the special agent tightly.
Hartley laughed and waited for Alison to let her go before she answered. "You really helped us out in Philly," she said. "If it weren’t for you, Dr. Carver might have gotten away with it."
The case was still fresh in Alison’s memory.
It was just shy of a week since she had returned from Philadelphia, where she had helped to stop Dr. Carver, a prominent profiler in her day, from killing more people.
Carver had re-created old murders to point out the mistakes made in them, and had tried to frame Alison as the killer.
Carver was now behind bars and would remain there for the rest of her life.
"It was a team effort," Alison pointed out. "It’s always a team effort."
"And that’s what this’ll be," Hartley said. "Once we heard what was going on, we had to be here for you. So, the Philly FBI sent me to coordinate with the national team. We don't know yet if he’s left California, but we want to be ready if he does. We’ll aid the manhunt in any way we can."
"Thank you." Alison grabbed Hartley’s upper arm and squeezed it. "I appreciate the help, and it really is great to see you again."
"Let me introduce you to Marshall Steven Rodriguez," Hartley said, turning to the man who had arrived with her. "Steven, this is Dr. Alison Payne."
Rodriguez stuck out his hand, and Alison shook it warmly.
"I’ve heard a lot about you," Rodriguez said. "A lot of good things."
Alison smiled, then turned to introduce the other person in the room. "This is Special Agent Derek Sullivan. He’s been working the case with me for the last two years, and he found the evidence that led us to Howard Mills."
"And we don't know where he is now?" Rodriguez asked.
"We tracked him to a motel in Sacramento," Derek said, "but he managed to escape right before we got there. We don't know where he went after that. We don't think he has the means to go far."
"Okay," Rodriguez said. He pulled out one of the chairs at the conference table and sat down. "So, what are we looking at so far?"
The other three pulled out chairs, and Derek winced ever so slightly as he sat.
Alison noticed his pain, but no one else did.
When they’d come face to face with Mills a week ago, he’d pushed Derek down some concrete stairs, putting him in the hospital for a couple of days, and he was still recovering.
On the surface, he looked fine, but underneath, his ribs were bandaged up, and he was still taking medication for the pain.
Special Agent Hartley also had tenderness beneath her exterior; she was four months pregnant. As she sat, Alison stared down at the bump, then looked Hartley in the eyes and smiled. Hartley smiled in return, placing a hand on her stomach as she sat.
"Howard Mills, fifty-one," Derek said. "Until a week ago, he worked for a security and locksmith company, a role he filled for almost thirty years, and which also allowed him to move around the city undetected.
The only reason we spoke to him was that a van was spotted at two of the five crime scenes. "
"And you’re now sure that all five murders are connected?" Rodriguez asked.
"We are," Derek confirmed, placing his hands on the table and pushing his shoulders back a little.
"For a long time, we worked under the assumption that all five were connected, based on the demographics of the victims, all young female joggers, and the patterns in the crime scenes.
We were initially investigating a murder from twenty-two years ago. "
"Emma Payne," Alison said. "My sister. She was killed when she was eighteen, found in a park after she was jogging home after her swim practice. She was posed in her swimsuit after she was killed. Some of the other women murdered were also posed. I’ve been looking for my sister’s killer for over twenty years, but it’s only in the past six months that I’ve considered that she was the victim of a serial killer. "
Derek pointed behind him to one of the five whiteboards, one for each victim.
"Katrina Sands is the one who gave us the lead that led to Mills. We checked the CCTV and noticed a work van scouting the area before she was killed. There was also a witness statement from the previous crime scene, where a work van was mentioned. We were able to narrow down the companies the van belonged to based on the logo on the side, and James Payne, a retired police officer, and also Emma Payne’s father, and I began working through the companies and the employees who worked for them. "
He paused to let the special agent and US marshal digest the information being given at a rapid pace. Alison and Derek had worked the case for years, and the information had built brick by brick. Now, it was a cascade of everything they had put together.
"Howard Mills," Alison stated. She didn't need to show a photo of him.
Most of the state and half of the country had seen his picture.
"He fit the profile of what we were looking for, and when we paid him a visit, he became more and more agitated, before making a run for it, attacking Special Agent Sullivan in the process. We weren’t able to apprehend him at his residence, and he has so far been able to evade capture. "
Rodriguez and Hartley both nodded as they followed along. There was silence in the conference room, but a light buzz coming from the bullpen on the other side of the open door.
The files on Howard Mills were spread out across the circular table among the four of them, and while Hartley and Rodriguez had been briefed on the case, they spent some time reviewing the information to reacquaint themselves with it.
"You’ve spent time face-to-face with Mills," Hartley said. "What do you make of him?"
"The file we have on him shows that he’s a regular guy," Derek said. "Obviously, we know he’s killed five women over the past twenty-two years, so he is dangerous. However, other than the fact that he works for a lock and security company, perhaps giving him some lock-picking skills, he’s quite unremarkable.
He’s not in great shape, middle-aged, no major hobbies or interests, nothing like survival skills, no gun license, and isn’t known to own a gun, and no family or friends in the area where he could hide out. "
"When we spoke with him," Alison continued, "he was calm and collected at first, but when he found out who I was and that Emma’s father was also there, he became visibly nervous. We know from the fact that he escaped arrest and suspicion for twenty-two years that he’s careful and plans ahead. He ran when we confronted him, so I’d assume he didn't have an escape plan because he never expected to be caught. "
Alison stood up and walked around the room.
"He’s not a confident man. He lost his cool pretty quickly when we started talking to him. When he’s alone with a young women who he’s taken by surprise, then perhaps he has confidence in what he does, but he’s unremarkable in regular life."
"But he is patient," Derek said. "There were five years between each murderer. Seven years between the last two. Since talking to the wife, we’ve discovered that she went through treatment for cancer two years ago. That’s why there was a large gap between the last two murders."
"And the wife?" Rodriguez asked. "Did she know anything about it?"
Alison shook her head. "No, not as far as we know. We’ve spoken to her multiple times, and she claims she had no idea."
"She still goes on and on about us having the wrong person," Derek added.
"I believe her," Alison said. "She thought her husband had no secrets from her. That he did his job, came home, ate dinner, and liked to sit in front of the TV after. She’s still in shock that he could have killed five women.
Still, as much as she claims he didn't do it, she’s working with us completely. "
"And there were the mementos in the basement," Derek added. "The final nail in the coffin."
Alison went to the wall-mounted bulletin board and pointed out the framed photos that Derek Mills had kept in a locked cabinet.
"He had framed photographs of each of his victims in a locked cabinet in the basement. In the same cabinet, he had mementos from each of the five women, mainly jewelry, including a heart necklace my sister was wearing on the night she was killed."
"The families of the other four victims have been notified that there is an investigation underway and that we know who the killer is. For some families, much like Dr. Payne’s, there have been years, or decades, of not knowing.
We can finally offer some closure. Let’s catch him so we can offer justice. "
"Okay, this is great work so far," Hartley said.
"The manhunt has become a federal issue, and we can't rule out that Mills has already crossed state lines. The FBI will be taking the lead on the case, with the US Marshall’s office assisting. We’ll contact local law enforcement as needed.
For now, I would ask you both to go home and get some well-deserved rest."
"I’m not going anywhere," Alison said.
"Dr. Payne, I know you and the case well enough to know that this goes beyond stubbornness of professionalism, and I also understand how hard you’ve worked on this case so far.
I’m extremely grateful to both of you, and we wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for you.
However, both of you are far too close to the case.
We need to decide whether we can capture Howard Mills alive without jeopardizing the case.
We can't have a family member of a victim chasing down the killer. "
"We will find him," Rodriguez assured them. "We have been given unlimited resources, given the nature of the case. Once we have him, we will have some fancy lawyer arguing that there wasn’t due process. We will need to consult with you both, but you’ll need to take a step back from the case. Let us finish what you started."
"I—" Alison stated.
Derek stood with a low groan. "Come on, we both need some rest. We can pick up some food on the way home. You know they’re right. We’ll be on hand if they need anything, but we can't be a part of this now."
Alison bit her bottom lip to stay her tongue. She nodded, then quietly left the office, unable to thank the agent and marshal, or out of fear, she would plead her case instead. She knew they were completely right, but still wanted to argue against them.
It was only when she was outside and turned to face Derek, who had followed her out, that she let go.
"I can't just sit around and do nothing," she complained.
"I know, but I’m going to make sure that’s all you do." Derek took her in his arms and held her tight, even though it would have hurt his ribs to do so. "Come on, let’s go home."
"What? And wait?" Alison asked.
"That’s all we can do." He continued to hug her. "It’s time for the healing to begin. You found him. We found him. After two decades, you know who killed your sister, and he’s currently one of the most wanted men in the country.
He doesn’t have the skills or resources to evade capture forever.
Soon, you’ll be able to put all of this behind you. It’s time to go home."
"I know," Alison said. "It’s just that, if they don't catch him, I won't be able to heal from this."
"They will catch him," Derek said softly. "I won’t rest until they do, you have my word."
Sarah took Derek’s hand. "I trust you."
"Then you get to heal," he added. "I’ll be with you through it all."