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Overby said, "He caused all that chaos by a few phone calls?"
"Pretty much that's it. But he was smart. He spread the rumors verbally in the park too. And the patrons helped him out, of course, when they texted and Tweeted. Online media and TV picked up the story in seconds, and then those who weren't at the park would text their family members and friends who were inside."
Overby nodded. "Chain reaction."
Dance said, "Flash mob at its worst."
"No prints on anything, not even shell casings--at either scene, Prescott's apartment or the theme park. And the car he stole from the airport here?"
O'Neil explained: It had been a sloppy theft, suggesting that the unsub wasn't a pro at the art.
But, she reflected, it had worked.
Overby's cheek twitched up. "So, nothing."
O'Neil said, "Not in OC, other than his phone, though. I've found something else. Not really a lead. But it's something to throw into the mix about our unsub."
"What's that?" TJ asked.
"Remember that Jane Doe?" He spread out photos that Dance had seen. "The asphyx?"
O'Neil explained about the homicide he was working, the attractive young woman found in a seedy motel, the bag rubber-banded over her head.
Never rains but it pours...
"Could have been consensual sex gone wrong, could have been intentional. We don't know for sure. Except for this."
He opened the folder and extracted a photograph. It was a still from a security video. The picture was black and white but it clearly showed a light-colored Honda Accord.
"No tag number," Dance noted, shaking her head.
Sometimes it was that easy. Not often. Not now.
"Where was it?"
"A block from the motel where our Jane Doe died. I had some MCSO officers canvassing all the businesses around the area and one came back with this." Tapping the picture.
"The connection, though?" Overby asked.
O'Neil pulled another crime scene picture out of the back of the file folder and set it beside the Jane Doe. It was of Stan Prescott's body.
Looking from one to the other, Dance said, "It's the same pose as Prescott, same cause of death. Asphyxiation. Both lying on their backs." Both images were stark; the victims were lying in pools of bright light from nearby lamps.
"Why would he kill her?" Overby wondered aloud.
Dance offered, "The TOD on the Jane Doe was just after Foster leaked the info about what the unsub was wearing. Maybe she'd seen his outfit--the worker's jacket with the logo he'd worn to Solitude Creek. And he realized she could ID him."
O'Neil: "Could be why she didn't have a phone or computer or notebook. That could lead to him. The scenario: She wasn't from here. They met in a bar, had a one-or two-night thing. They were going their separate ways but he had to take her out."
Dance asked, "But why the parallel means of death?"
"Sadism," Overby suggested.
Maybe. That wasn't, however, a question that interested Dance at this point. She had only one query in mind: Was their unsub back in town, with another venue in his sights?
Chapter 56
Antioch March was thinking of Calista Sommers.
