“Of course. If you’ll send me his flight details, I can meet him at the airport.”
They ended the call, leaving Vic to look around the construction site, her eyes once again going to the work lamps and the nude, golden figure near its center. The case was definitely bizarre already, and conventional approaches would not yield much progress. If Sterling could provide a new perspective, even a wild one, it might be worth listening to.
She approached one of the crime scene technicians who was photographing the lights around Vance's body. "What can you tell me about the gold itself?"
"All I know is that it’s professional grade," the tech replied. "Whoever did this knows their way around gold leaf application. And it’s been melted in a way that indicates the killer knew exactly how to do it; it’s done in such a professional way, I’d assume they also had high-end materials to work with.”
“So would you agree that this wasn’t done in haste?”
“Hell no. This took some time. This isn't something you could improvise."
"How long would it take to do this?"
"I don’t know, exactly. Gold isn’t really my field of expertise. But this is a very expensive corpse right now…I knowthatmuch.”
“You think they could have done it here?”
The tech shook his head. “No. No way. I say they did it elsewhere and then brought her here last night.”
Vic nodded, adding another piece to the puzzle. The killer wasn't just sophisticated in their methods—they had access to specialized equipment and secure locations where they could work undisturbed. That suggested either significant financial resources or connections to industries that used these materials.
Her phone buzzed with a text message from Quantico. It was Sterling’s flight information. And just seeing it, she truly hoped he could answer some of the questions that had everyone baffled so far.
If Dr. Sterling was right about the periodic table connection, if these murders really were part of a larger pattern, then they were dealing with something unprecedented. A killer who wasn't just selecting victims randomly, but following some twisted scientific methodology that spanned years and crossed state lines. And if they could handle and manipulate gold in such a way, what else could they do?
Vic wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
She had built her career on gut instincts and practical investigation, but she was pragmatic enough to recognize when she needed help. If Sterling could provide insights that conventional methods couldn't reach, she was willing to listen.
After all, in a case where the victims were being turned into golden statues, conventional wisdom probably wasn’t going to have a seat at the table anyway.
CHAPTER FOUR
Miles pushed through the front door and stepped into his home in something of a whirlwind. A large part of him had suspected Hayes wouldn't go for it, that any thought of him going to San Francisco armed with this bizarre theory was just a pipe dream. But Hayes had given the go-ahead, and now the next several hours of Miles's life were going to be a rushed stretch of insanity. In the end, Hayes had admitted it was hard to ignore the similarities in the cases Miles had been studying. The gold murders in San Francisco could be the proof he needed to validate three years of obsessive investigation.
"Elena?" he called out, dropping his briefcase by the door and heading straight for the bedroom. "I have some news. I…well, it looks like I’m leaving for San Francisco."
Elena emerged from the kitchen, a cup of coffee in her hands and concern already etched across her features. "San Francisco? Why? What happened to presenting your findings?”
“Well, I did. And it turns out, there’s an active case in San Francisco that seems to be linked directly to my findings. There’s already an agent out there and Hayes wants me partnering with them right away.”
As he hurried into the bedroom, Elena followed along. He knew she didn’t need to be at work until eleven today…which meant she’d have to deal with this sudden departure of her fiancé just before heading out the door. In the bedroom, Miles pulled a travel bag from the closet and began throwing clothes into it with the hurried efficiency of someone whose mind was entirely focused elsewhere.
“Miles, this is very sudden. You can’t get out of it?”
“Elena, I don’twantto get out of it. This is a huge opportunity, and it might be the pay-off for my constantstudying and obsessing over those cases. Right now, it seems there’s a killer in California who is coating victims in gold. Hayes thinks my theory might be relevant."
"Coating victims in gold?" Elena set down her coffee and moved closer, watching him pack with growing unease. "Miles, that sounds like active serial murders. You're talking about joining an ongoing investigation, not analyzing evidence in a lab."
"Element seventy-nine," Miles said, folding shirts with automatic precision. "Gold is atomic number seventy-nine on the periodic table. If my theory is correct, this killer has jumped ahead significantly from the sequential pattern I've been tracking."
“Or it breaks apart what you saw as the pattern of going in order,” Elena argued as she sat on the edge of the bed, studying his face. “Maybe this isn’t connected at all.”
“Maybe if I’m right, this could be huge for me. Forus.”
"Yesterday you wanted to present your findings to Hayes," she said carefully. "You wanted official recognition for your research. Now you're talking about flying across the country to chase down a serial killer?"
Miles paused in his packing, a pair of shoes in his hands. "This could be the breakthrough I need, Elena. If the San Francisco murders are connected to the other cases, if I can prove the periodic table connection in an active investigation, it validates everything I've been working on."
