CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"…bringing you real-time, live, vetted information about the copy-cat of all copy-cats who is bringing terror to the cities across our country and shows no sign of stopping.
On one side, we have what the media is dubbing The Corrections Officer, with a current body count of four, and on the other side, we have the FBI in not one, not two, but three cities, and soon to be more.
Aiding them in their pursuit of the CO is Dr. Alison Payne, who you might know from previous episodes, which I will link in the description.
But before that, a word from our sponsors, who make all of this possible—"
Hartley slammed the laptop shut. "How long has this been out there?"
"It’s not a recording," Special Agent Carson replied. "This is live at the moment. We’ve tried to get in contact with them to shut it down, but we can’t."
"We don't want that," Alison said. "Even if we did get through, I have a feeling she’d hit that live."
"We have a team on the way there," the special agent told them. "They’re a few minutes out."
"Good," Hartley said. "We can't have this going out on the air, not now. There’s already panic spreading across the immediate states with talk of who will be next. We can't sensationalize this."
"She said there had been four bodies so far," Alison pointed out. "The details from the latest crime scene haven’t been released to the public yet, have they?"
"No," Hartley agreed.
"So, anyone who knew there had been a third murder would automatically assume there were now three victims. You wouldn’t jump to conclusions unless you had information."
"You think she could be the killer?" Hartley asked.
"I don't know," Alison admitted. She turned to Carson. "Who is she?"
"Angela Wu," Carson replied. "She’s a true crime podcaster and former forensic psychology doctoral student. There’s a lot in her bio about leaving academia because of the people around her. It’s all very vague, but it gave me the impression that she butted heads with people and was either forced out or left by her own accord.
Maybe we get that from her when we bring her in.
I’ll talk to the team going down there and let them know they are to detain her. "
"Just," Hartley said, grabbing the other agent’s arm, "remind them that Wu is live right now.
We want to be in and out without any of it being reported.
We don't make this into a bigger scene than it needs to be.
The last thing we need is to give her fuel for the fire or to face a lawsuit.
If she knows things about the case, we need to find out what she knows. "
"I’ll brief the team. They’ll almost be there by now."
Carson left them to go and talk with the team.
"We still have Dalton, but I say we let him stew for a bit while we prepare to talk with Wu," Hartley said. "He never once mentioned anything about an alibi while we were in there."
"It wouldn’t surprise me if he had alibis locked and loaded, ready to go," Alison said.
"He enjoyed being in there with us, toying with us and sparring with us. I have this uneasy feeling that as soon as we ask for an alibi, he’ll have one or multiple alibis ready, only to make us look like we've been wasting our own time. "
"Then even better to let him stew for a bit," Hartley said.
"If he does, then we can cut him loose, and we don't need to talk with him again. Until then, let’s find out as much as we can about Wu before she gets here.
I want to turn that podcast back on just to hear what happens, but I don't know if I want to know.
Either we get her without it being broadcast on air, or it turns into a gong show. "
"There’s nothing we can do about that now," Alison pointed out.
***
"…who is believed to be a security guard caught up in a wicked plot to stage an innocent museum employee as one of the exhibits.
We go to museums to see history, not horror.
The report that has come to me suggests that children were exposed to the terrible display the Corrections Officer left for them to witness on arriving at the museum that morning.
An entire school bus of grade 7 children was—"
Hartley looked at Special Agent Carson. She widened her eyes.
"That’s right before they detained her," Carson said.
"We didn't want any word of the FBI’s arrival being aired live, so they cut the power to the equipment in the building, and nothing else was broadcast. To any listeners, it would have sounded like an outage or mechanical failure.
Wu didn't know what was happening until they had her in custody. "
"Great work," Hartley said. "Dr. Payne, are you ready to go and talk with her?"
"Let’s go," Alison said. They walked together toward the interview room, going past the door to the room where Dr. Dalton still sat. "My only concern now is what she’ll say live on air if she’s not the killer.
If we find she’s innocent and we need to let her go, she’s going to talk about the raid on her studio and how the power was cut. The listeners will love that."
"It’s a risk we have to take," Hartley said. "My only hope is that she turns out to be reasonable and she’s willing to work with us somewhat until we catch the killer. Well, that’s not my only hope. My one true hope is that she’s the killer and we can arrest her today and all of this is over."
"I can get on board with that," Alison said.
Hartley knocked on the door, and the two women entered the room. Angela Wu was a small woman, short and thin, with jet black hair and a wide grin across her face.
"Oh, I can’t wait"—she slammed a hand down on the table—"to get back to the studio. Which one of you gave the order to cut the power? I need names right now."
"Not a problem," Hartley said calmly as she sat down. "You have every right to our names, and you have the right to a lawyer should you need it."
"Oh, I will need it," Wu said. "As soon as I’m done here, I’ll be talking to my lawyer to see how far I can take this."
"We’re in the middle of a homicide investigation, and I won't tolerate anything that could derail that," Hartley said. "If you want to pursue this legally, then—"
"I don't care about that," Wu said. "I’m talking about my next podcast episode. You had a team descend on my studio, cut the power, and haul me out of there. I can't wait to talk about that live on air as soon as I get out of here. It’s going to make for my best episode yet. Just you wait."
"A quadruple homicide," Alison pointed out. "Four people are dead, and you’re looking for a way to sensationalize that."
Angela rolled her eyes and smirked. "Oh, don't give me that, trying to guilt-trip me. As if I’m the only person who does that, and the only person who will do that. And I still didn't get your names. I’ll need them for the podcast."
Hartley shook her head but didn't delay in giving her name. "Special Agent Nicole Hartley, and my assistant, Dr. Alison Payne."
"Oh, my goodness," Angela said sweetly. "The great Dr. Payne in the flesh. Well, I’ll be. Do you know, I’ve thought about reaching out to you multiple times, hoping to get you at a table to talk about your experiences, but it never happened.
Well, until now, and this is not quite what I had in mind. You must come on the show."
"When all of this is done, and we have the killer, I’d be happy to," Alison said.
Angela grinned.
"On the condition that you don't talk about the case until then," Alison added.
Angela made a show of pouting. "I’m not sure I can do that. After my latest live cast was cut short, the fans will want to know what happened, and I’ve already begun talking about the case, so I can hardly stop now."
"You have started talking about it," Alison pointed out. "You already mentioned that four people are dead."
Angela’s eyes widened in expectation as she sat forward. "Have there been more? I want my podcasts to be as current as possible."
"How did you know four people were dead?" Hartley asked.
"What?" Angela asked, frowning. "What do you mean?"
"That’s not public knowledge yet," Hartley told her. "The media have been reporting on three crime scenes, but not four victims. The most obvious conclusion from public knowledge out there is that we have three cross scenes and three victims. So, where did you get your information from, Miss Wu?"
Angela took a moment, not speaking. Her jaw tightened as she controlled the emotions and thoughts running through her. She looked from Alison to Hartley as she planned what to say.
"I can't talk about that," Angela replied.
"You can't or you won’t?" Hartley asked.
"Both," Angela said.
"Okay, so you have private information that the killer would know, and you’re refusing to tell us where that information came from?" Hartley asked.
"Yeah, I’ve been talking with the killer," Angela said sarcastically. "They’re going to be a guest on the next show."
"I’m looking for a killer who’s killed four people and might kill more," Hartley said sternly. "I don't appreciate the mocking tone. Now, the way I see it, either you know the information because you’re the killer, or you know the information because someone told you."
"I couldn’t have been at the museum," Angela said. "I was in the studio with my team, planning out the next episode. We pulled an all-nighter. There’s no chance of my slipping out, making it to the museum, and back. It’s not like it’s close to the studio, right?"
"Okay, good," Hartley said. "Now, we’re getting somewhere. We’ll check that alibi, and if we can confirm it, we’re a little further forward.
So, if we can rule you out as the killer, that means the information came from someone close to the case.
Either the killer themselves or someone associated with the case.
I believe you when you tell us that you couldn’t have killed anyone at the museum, but if you’ve been conversing with a serial killer and haven’t told anyone, I will arrest you right now, and you’ll have to record the next episode of your podcast from prison.
Is that what you want, Miss Wu? Will that bring more popularity? "
"I haven’t been talking to the killer. Of course, I haven’t," Angela said quickly.
"So, the quip about the killer appearing on your show," Alison said.
"Just a bad joke, okay?" Angela raised her hands before her. "When I get nervous, I often make jokes. That’s all that was."
"So, you aren’t in leagues with the killer?" Hartley asked.
"No, I have no idea who they are."
"Okay, good," Hartley said slowly. "So, we can rule out you being the killer, if your alibi can be confirmed, and we can rule out you conversing with the killer. That means you’re getting your information from someone associated with the case, which is also extremely serious. I want their name."
"I can't give you that," Angela said, confirming to them that there was someone feeding her information.
"That’s not good enough," Hartley told her.
"I don't need to give you that information," Angela claimed. "You can check my alibi, and it’ll prove that I didn't kill anyone. I can give you the names of two other people who were in the studio with me that night, and it’ll prove exactly what I told you. I’m not giving you my contact's name. I’ve spent years establishing trust with them. "
"Then I have no option but to detain you," Hartley said. "At the moment, I can cite obstruction of justice, but we’ll figure out the details later. All I know is that we’re in here with you instead of looking for the killer. You’re wasting our time."
"You only want to silence me," Angela claimed. "I knew that as soon as I started talking about the case on my live stream, you would have me shut down. It’s freedom of speech, you know?"
"You can talk about that on your next episode, all you want," Hartley said.
"I don't want you talking about the case live on air, that’s true, but this has nothing to do with free speech and has everything to do with spreading panic. We can't have details of the case out there just yet, and you have to know that. This isn’t some past crime that you can talk about. We don't have the killer in custody yet, and if you release information that hasn’t yet been released, you jeopardize the case. So, give me a name, or I’ll arrest you. "
Angela fell quiet as she thought about it. She looked down at her lap as she sucked in her bottom lip.
"I can't do it," she said. "I wish there were a situation where it would make sense, but I can't do it. Not right now. I have an alibi for the museum, so if you need to arrest me for something else, then I’ll take that lawyer."
Hartley sighed. She stared at Angela for a while, hoping she would change her mind, but there was no about turn. Hartley eventually turned to Alison, and the latter nodded. Both women got up and left the interview room.
Two interview rooms with two different suspects, and one they were sure had committed a crime. Yet, that crime wasn’t the murder of four people over three different crime scenes.
"Hartley," Special Agent Carson called as he walked the hallway toward them. "We have something."
"What?" Hartley asked.
"Kenneth Sterling. We didn't make the connection until the third crime scene, referencing a third case. He’s a retired profiler who worked on the Fenway Slasher case when Dr. Cowan was dismissed, but he was dismissed soon after as well.
We don't know why. Anyway, he was brought on to consult on the Collector case and again was relieved of that duty soon after. He wasn’t officially a part of the Strangler case, but he was a good friend of Dr. Carver at that time.
Not just a friend, but they were together for a couple of years.
She would have spoken to him about the case. "
"Okay, and where is he now?" Hartley asked.
"We don't know," Carson admitted. "We’ve tried calling him, but there’s no answer. We sent a patrol car to his house, and no answer there either."
"Get on the phone to Judge Walker and tell him that I need a warrant for Sterling’s home," Hartley instructed. "Tell him I need it fast-tracked. We’ll go over there now and take a look, and I want to be able to go in when we get there."
"All right," Carson said.
"When you’re done with that, head on to the alibis of both suspects in the interview rooms. Angela Wu is not going anywhere yet. I’ll call for a lawyer on the way to my vehicle. I’d like to rule them both out if we can, so we can focus on Sterling for now. Nice work."
"Thank you," Carson said, heading back the way he’d come.
"Does it make sense?" Hartley asked Alison. "A former profiler is behind the murderers?"
"It makes as much sense as anyone else," Alison replied. "He was connected to all three cases, and didn't have any success with them, by the sounds of it. Let’s see what he has to say for himself. That’s if we can find him."