CHAPTER ELEVEN
Alison stood in the conference room at the FBI offices in Philadelphia with Special Agent Hartley, Detective Wolfe, and several other agents and officers.
They were all there to catch the killer who had been terrorizing multiple states.
Among the other agents were two from Boston and two from Baltimore.
They’ve come to liaise with the investigation in Philadelphia, along with task forces set up back in their respective cities.
A map was attached to the wall facing the glass windows that looked out into the bullpen.
The locations of the three murders were pinpointed on the map, with separate colors denoting where the original murders occurred.
There didn't seem to be any pattern relating to the original and present cases, but they needed to look at every angle.
To the right of the map were clusters of photographs, each group from a different crime scene, with a thread connecting the location to the photographs.
Each person in the Polaroids had been contacted to gather any unknown information about the case.
There was a chance that the killer was among the people stuck to the wall.
Alison glanced at the photos, seeing her own up there.
Three whiteboards were set up before the wall at right angles to the one with the map and photos.
Each whiteboard has the files from the original case that the current one mimicked, along with any reports from the current case.
Alison had spent some time before the boards, as people filtered in, trying to find a pattern in the madness or a detail that had been overlooked.
She’d come up empty-handed so far.
If the killer hadn’t changed their M.O., they might still be empty-handed. Now they had the letter, and it contained information.
"All right, thank you all for coming," Special Agent Hartley told them. "Settle down. Now, as you all know, we are dealing with a copycat killer, but not one we’ve encountered before. This killer is not merely recreating the murder of one other person, but of multiple killers. So far, we have three separate crime scenes and four dead bodies. There’s no reason to suspect that there won't be more. "
Detective Wolfe stepped forward, taking over.
"What makes this killer more difficult to track is their ability to adapt.
So far, we have strangulation, a knife to the neck, and two bullets at point-blank range.
They don't discriminate in how they kill or how they kill.
We believe they are choosing their victim at random, which makes it hard to track who they will take next, although we can narrow it down slightly by the case they might copy next. "
"But that is also difficult," Hartley said. She paused and surveyed the people gathered in the room. "We know what you are going after: failures in investigations where a killer wasn’t caught or where they weren’t caught quickly enough, and—"
"Sorry," Alison interrupted, stepping forward. "That’s what we know so far. Those are the cases they’ve targeted, but going forward, we can't know for sure what they might target next. We have to look at all previous cases with an open mind. We don't know what they consider a failure, nor can we be sure of the type of case they’ll target next. So far, it’s been serial killers. But, again, we can’t say they will target a serial killer next. "
"No, exactly, Hartley said. "I know some of you are already going through cases across the country, looking for candidates for the next copycat and message that comes with it. We know the killer is willing to travel, but they haven’t strayed far yet.
We start with cases in neighboring states or two states over, and we get the word out.
We look for where they might target someone, kill them, or dump them, and we coordinate with local law enforcement in those areas to monitor them as best we can. "
When Hartley stepped back, Wolfe stepped forward again as if they’d practiced the movements together.
"This is one of the most difficult cases we’ll ever deal with.
There’s no real M.O. here. We can't say who or what they’ll target next.
We don't look for the next victim. We can only look for the killer and take them out before they kill again. "
Wolfe looked at Alison and nodded.
She stepped forward, and Hartley pressed the button to bring the handwritten note up on the screen.
"This is something new from our killer," Alison told them. "So far, everything has been clean and flawless from the killer. They’ve been able to kill someone with their bare hands, cut someone’s throat, and execute two people at what ballistics and forensic experts were able to tell us was pretty much point-blank range.
Especially in the recent double homicide, the killer didn't seem to hesitate.
They move from method to method, able to kill without a second thought.
"They’ve chosen specific locations, killed four people without being seen, haven’t been caught on camera, repositioned bodies to mimic the previous murders, and placed photographs of the people they believe are to blame around the bodies."
Alison gestured towards the photos pinned to the wall.
"They’ve done all of this without leaving a shred of evidence. Not a fingerprint, not even a partial one, no hair, saliva, or blood of their own. Nothing was left at the scene by accident. No noticeable mistakes made. Until now."
Alison gestured at the screen behind her.
"The killer won't consider this a mistake," Alison said.
"They wrote a letter to us. A handwritten letter.
They want us to know how brilliant they are.
This is not only about showing us our previous mistakes but also about proving how much better they are than we are.
That backs what I was already thinking, that this person is connected to law enforcement,"
Alison let the murmurs ripple around the room as people made comments.
"The killer knows a lot about multiple serial killers, and they are able to mimic the murders well enough for us to immediately recognize them. They can also understand what mistakes were made and who should be held responsible. They are certainly intelligent, there is no denying that, and they are precise and careful. I want you all to read through the letter to understand better what and who we’re dealing with. "
Alison turned and looked at the screen, reading through the letter for the sixth or seventh time.
It had been written on a torn piece of notepaper with a standard ballpoint pen.
The penmanship showed some flourishes in the curves of certain letters.
The periods had also been pressed into the paper with some force.
It was almost impossible to determine someone’s character from the handwriting alone, but Alison wondered if that was the killer’s anger spilling through.
This has been a long time coming, and I know you all understand this by now.
We have all made mistakes in our lives, and all we can do is atone for them.
No, that is not true. We can atone for them as long as we are truly sorry for the pain we have caused, and we do what we can to fix past mistakes and learn from them.
Have we learned from the mistakes of our past?
No, we have not. We allow mediocrity to seep into the very fibers of our being, and we accept it.
Collectively, as a group, as a society, as the human race, we accept that mediocrity is acceptable.
I do not allow for that, and neither should you.
So, I have taken it upon myself to do something about it.
I don't need to spell out what I have done about the mistakes of the past. I have spelled it out in the deaths of innocent people. Yes, I admit that the people I’ve killed are innocent, and there will be more innocent people killed.
I don't enjoy what I do; I take no pleasure in it.
Yet, it must be done if we are to learn.
Do not treat me as the evil you want to treat me as. I am human, and I am fallible, but I am one of the few who have stepped up to make amends. None of you has been able to do this because you are not strong enough, so I am doing it on your behalf.
I am sorry for what I do, but I don't apologize for it.
Alison gave them some time to read the letter.
"We have analysts looking at the handwriting, but I don't know how much we get from that," Alison said. "I’m also available to hear any of your theories about who might have written this or what they are communicating that we have missed. Before that, I’d like to give my thoughts to aid all of you in searching for this person. "
Alison looked around the room, catching as many eyes as possible. She’d mentioned the fact that it could be someone in law enforcement, and what she was supposed to say backed that up more. It was hard to consider the fact as it meant any of them could switch from catching killers to becoming one.
"The letter shows self-awareness," Alison said.
"The killer is not trying to hide who they are, but they obviously left out details that could lead us to them.
The first thing I want to draw your attention to is how often the letter's author mentions making mistakes.
This is not only about the mistakes others have made, but also about the mistakes they have made.
They are killing people to make up for what they did in the past, a way for them to deal with a mistake made, which further pushed me to consider the fact that this was someone who worked on one of the cases, or will have worked on an upcoming case.
"There is also a certain camaraderie in the letter.
There is mention of ‘us’ and ‘we.’ They talk about themselves as a separate entity to us, one who can help fix the mistakes of the past where we can't, but also one who is part of the same group: law enforcement.
They feel responsible for a past failed case and, to cope with it, they find others to blame for the mistakes.
If they can point the finger at others who have done what they did, then they don't feel so alone anymore. It’s a very human trait, even in those we deem to be evil. "
Some of the officers and agents in the room looked around at each other as if one of them might be the killer.
"So, when you leave this room, I want you to keep in mind what I’ve said to you," Alison explained. "Of course, the recent cases prove that we are all fallible, as the killer has pointed out. I don't want you to follow blindly. If you believe I might be wrong about something, or that any of us are, let us know. If you think of something that we haven’t, then let us know. I’m certain that we’re dealing with someone in law enforcement or connected to law enforcement in some way, but I don't consider that theory blindly. I hold it true until proven otherwise, and that comes down to all of you. Use the information I’ve given you, but scrutinize it and test it. Okay?"
There were some nods and murmurs of agreement from around the room.
"Good," Alison said. "Now, get out there and find our killer."
The letter was an escalation to what had come before. Alison didn't want to discover what the next escalation would be.