How did she know?
“He was never in these places,” she said. “He was never doing the killing. That’s what he’s telling me. We know for a fact that he’s got zero skill. He’s some rich dude who inherited his money, so he’s had help. HeHIREDorTRAINEDpeople to do his work. Not only is he telling me he bought help, but he’s telling me who he bought! He was an apprentice then, but now, he’s the master, and he hasHELP!”
Callen pointed one thing out.
“Yeah, but we found his fingerprints and DNA on the scenes.”
Chris handled that.
“That can be planted, and a lot of the prints were smeared beyond recognition.”
Elizabeth knew that was a clue, too.
“We couldn’t read the prints. His helper smeared them on purpose as a clue. He manipulated the evidence!”
Oh, shit.
It was falling into place.
Chris continued.
“He wasn’t able to stay two steps ahead of her if he was in all these places. There’s no way he could have been in CorpusChristi, and then in DC to set up these scenes this quickly. She’s literally a day behind. He likely had already begun training his apprentices a while ago, in preparation for this game or he paid them handsomely. The father had been dead for a few years, and we know that his secretary and attorney had helped him, too. He had time to buy help.”
Yes, yes, he did.
Elizabeth pulled up the information on Devon.
“He’s had no medical skill. He’s had no bomb making training, that we have been able to find. He’s also not religious. He was never affiliated with it. Those are the three things he’s waiting for me to figure out. He’s telling me he’s not doing this alone but using money to make it happen! That’s why Ben Franklin was INSIDE the minister’s Bible!”
Ethan didn’t like this.
NOT.
AT.
ALL.
“If he’s got help, we have a huge problem,” Ethan admitted. “He won’t have to get close to us. He’ll be able to come right at us using them. They can hide in a crowd, walk down the street watching us, and we won’t know it.”
Oh, she was aware.
“Who would help a crazy?” Gene asked. “Who would willingly be part of this?”
Elizabeth knew.
“What makes the world go around?” she asked. “What’s the one thing we have, and he has that most people don’t?”
They all knew.
It was definitely all about the money.
Gene sighed.
“Everyone has their price,” he admitted. “We all do too. The only difference is because it’s crime, our price would be out of his league.”
She nodded.
Anyone could be bought, if the time was right, and the price was high enough.
