Chapter 10
“Good work,” he said.
Webb shrugged like it wasn't a thing. But it was, and they both knew it. Professionalism wasn’t a given.
Webb was not a natural presenter. He was a natural investigator, which was a completely different breed.
He thought in data and spoke in cop. Plus, he had the personality of someone whose relationship with facts was far too honest for the polite correctness that briefings sometimes required.
To put it simply, he was as blunt as a hammer.
He stood at the front of the room with his printed profiles and talked through them the way he worked, which was carefully, no bullshit, and facts only, which was exactly what this case needed.
“Ten dump sites, not counting Angela,” he said.
“I’ll get the information on the Memphis case as soon as it comes in and incorporate it.
But as of last night and those qualifiers, there are nine adjacent business profiles attached.
I pulled registration data, service territories, client industry classifications, and employee count where available.
” He looked at his sheet. “The question from last night was what the adjacent businesses service. Not what they do, but who they do it for.”
He put his own version of the map on the board. He'd marked the adjacent businesses with colored dots. Not pins, printed dots, color-coded by industry classification. Everyone leaned in.
“Four of the nine adjacent businesses are in the industrial equipment maintenance and service sector,” Webb said. “They service manufacturing facilities, processing plants, and commercial operations. Not consumer-facing. Business to business.”
He pointed at each one. Boise, Missoula, Fargo, and Kansas City.
“Three of the nine are in the infrastructure services sector,” he continued. “Utility maintenance, road construction supply, civil engineering support. They service municipalities, utility companies, and construction contractors.” He pointed. Spokane, Sioux Falls, and the Calgary site.
“The remaining two are in the medical services support sector.” He paused. “One is a medical supply distribution operation. One is a medical equipment service company.” He pointed. Omaha and Nashville. “I’ll add Memphis when I get the information.”
The room was quiet as they digested the information Webb had accumulated.
“So, we've got three industry sectors,” Reyes said. “Industrial equipment. Infrastructure services. Medical services support.”
“Yes,” Webb said. “With industrial equipment being the plurality.”
Marcus looked at the map. At the colored dots. At the pattern they made against the dump site locations. “Does the medical services cluster match the medical campus cluster we identified last night?”
“Partially,” Haven said. “The two medical-adjacent businesses are in the Omaha and Nashville areas. The medical campus cluster we identified last night was Nashville, St. Louis, and the Kansas City-Omaha corridor.” She put up a second map so they could see both overlays.
“There's overlap, but it's not complete, which means the medical campus proximity might be coincidental. The campuses are near highways, and highways are near everything.”
“That's one way to look at it,” Marcus said.
“It's the honest read at this point,” she said. “We can't weigh it higher than the data supports.”
He nodded. She was right. He wrote on the board: MEDICAL CAMPUS PROXIMITY — INSUFFICIENT DATA TO CONCLUDE RELEVANCE. He wasn’t going to eliminate it. He turned around. “So, what are we left with as a working hypothesis on the subject’s field?”
“Three sectors,” Reyes said. “Industrial equipment maintenance. Infrastructure services. Medical services support.”
“Which we need to narrow,” Marcus said. “Let's build the elimination criteria first. What do we need the field to provide him?”
This was the part that required the whole room.
They spent forty minutes building the criteria list. They came up with multi-state travel on a consistent schedule, which was confirmed by the corridor pattern.
Flexible hours and irregular timing, which was confirmed by the late-night and early-morning abductions.
Familiarity with transitional edge land between urban and rural areas, again confirmed by the dump site selection pattern.
Access to sterile handling equipment as a professional standard, which was confirmed by the absence of DNA and fiber evidence at every scene.
Knowledge of future land development schedules, which was confirmed by the dump site pre-selection methodology.
And the ability to operate without supervision or check-in requirements at job sites.
Six criteria. Marcus wrote them on the board in a column.
Then he wrote the three sectors across the top, and they started working.
* * *
Infrastructure services came off first.
Not because the travel profile didn't fit—it did, reasonably well.
Civil engineering support and utility maintenance work moved through the corridor.
But the sterile handling equipment criterion was the problem.
Infrastructure workers used protective equipment, but not the sterile-grade kind.
Their gloves were cut-resistant, chemical-resistant, and work-grade.
Not the smooth, no-transfer material Haven had described from the attack.
“Also, the land development knowledge,” Paulson said.
“A road construction supply company would know about highway projects.
But they wouldn't necessarily have visibility into the full range of development types we're seeing, like logging, utilities, medical, and commercial.
That's a broader picture than one sector gives you.”
“Unless he researches it independently,” Webb said.
“He might,” Marcus said. “But we weigh against what the job gives him rather than what he might do additionally. The job has to be the foundation.” He looked at the board. “Infrastructure services … What's the consensus?”
“Reduced probability,” Reyes said finally. “Not eliminated. The travel fits. The sterile equipment criterion doesn't.”
Marcus wrote REDUCED — STERILE EQUIPMENT INCONSISTENT under infrastructure services.
Two sectors were left on the primary board. Industrial equipment maintenance and medical services support.
The room broke for lunch at 12:30 p.m.
Marcus stayed, and so did Haven. Neither of them made a declaration about it.
The room just emptied, and they were still there, which was becoming a pattern that Marcus attributed to the chemistry they shared.
They had the same sense of dedication, drive, and focus.
Besides, he coveted the time he spent alone with her.
During these moments, there were no performative actions between them.
They let the professionalism slip and became Marcus and Haven, not two detectives working a case.
Haven poured the last of the morning coffee into her mug, looked at it, and poured half of it into Marcus's mug without asking.
He accepted it the same way she'd offered it.
Without comment. The familiarity between them and the level of comfort they felt with each other was unusual, but damn it felt good.
They stood at the board.
“Industrial equipment maintenance,” Haven said.
“Walk me through what you're thinking.”
“Multi-state travel. Check. Industrial equipment service companies maintain regional territories. Their technicians drive the same areas repeatedly.” She pointed at the cluster map.
“Flexible hours. Check. Equipment breaks on its own schedule.
Emergency calls go out at 2 a.m. as readily as 2 p.m. A technician who responds to emergency service calls works whenever the machine fails, not whenever it's convenient.” She moved to the criteria list. “Edge land familiarity.
I mark that as a yes, too. Industrial facilities sit exactly where we're seeing the dump sites. The transitional zones. The spaces between things.”
“Sterile equipment,” Marcus said.
She paused. “Some industrial equipment requires clean-room handling. High-precision machinery, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and certain pharmaceutical processing systems. Technicians working on those systems use sterile gloves and protective equipment.”
“Some,” Marcus said. “Not standard across the field.”
“No. Not standard.” She looked at the board. “It fits some specializations within industrial equipment maintenance. Not the field as a whole.”
“Keep going.”
“Land development knowledge.” She thought about it.
“Industrial equipment service companies service manufacturing plants.
Those plants are built on developed land that is zoned, permitted, and built.
A technician who's been in the field long enough would have general familiarity with industrial development.
But the specificity we're seeing, like logging operations, utility corridors, highway staging areas, that's broader than a single manufacturing sector gives you.”
“Unless his client base spans multiple industries,” Marcus said.
“Which it might.”
They were both quiet.
“It fits,” Haven said. “Imperfectly. Like a shoe that's almost the right size. You can wear it, but something's wrong.”
“What's wrong with it?”
She thought about it for a long moment. “The sterile equipment piece.
It's not central to most industrial maintenance work.
But it's absolutely central to what we found at those scenes.
No DNA. No fiber transfer. No trace. That's not someone being careful with standard work gloves.
That's someone whose professional standard requires a level of contamination prevention that is—” She stopped.
“That is what?” Marcus asked.
“Specific,” she said. “Very specific. The kind of specific that comes from working in environments where contamination has consequences beyond just job quality.”
They looked at each other.
“Medical services support,” Marcus said.
“Medical services support,” Haven said.
* * *