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“I’ve got it!” Colleen said.
Mark and Ragnar looked at her, arching their brows simultaneously.
Even Red looked at her, his head at an angle as if he was questioning her words.
But Colleen just smiled and looked at Megan.
“He does have a place where he builds his coffins—maybe where he took Emily and Lainie before he buried them alive. And where he assaulted them. That was a difference in the kidnappings too,” Colleen reminded them. “There was no sexual assault with Dierdre.”
“Okay, still?” Ragnar asked.
“West Virginia, Maryland, DC—and Virginia. All easily reached from Carver’s latest rental. The buried coffins were all found in the woods—to the east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Follow those trails and where can you wind up?”
Mark looked at her and smiled slowly. “Front Royal, Virginia,” he said.
Colleen and Megan nodded.
“And, of course, he thinks we’re all idiots who would never get it,” Colleen said.
“Well,” Mark admitted dryly, “most of us were idiots who didn’t get it. I mean, we’re still looking for a needle in a haystack.” He turned to Megan and added, “But a much smaller haystack thanks to you.”
“I don’t have a scientific guarantee,” Megan said. “But from his determination to send letters to the media, and the way he talked to Colleen, I’m pretty sure that’s what his taunting meant. I’m not a mind reader, just an interpreter, I guess.”
“It puts us on a better path than anything we’ve had before,” Mark assured her. “We can get Angela on local police and forest rangers and tell them we’re looking for any kind of cabin or retreat in that area. That will help a lot,” he said, looking at Megan curiously again. “A lot. It may be the puzzle piece we’ve been missing.”
“Well, I hope I’ve helped,” Megan said. She glanced at her watch. “I really do need to get to that meeting tomorrow. If you’d be so kind—”
Ragnar spoke to Mark, saying, “I’m going to head over to Sally’s place. I’m going to knock on the door and ask her if Brant is there, and if not, find out where he might be. She has to understand we are worried about her and will be looking out for her—including where Brant Pickering is involved.”
“All right. We’ll get Megan to the train. I’ll call Angela and have her and Jackson contact anyone they can in the Front Royal area and see what we can learn. And if we have enough agents and police covering Sally’s home and Dierdre’s place, I’m going to get Colleen home and we’ll call it a night and start out for Front Royal for some in-person searches and discussions in the morning.”
“I’ll join you,” Ragnar promised. He turned to Megan. “Thank you, Miss Law. Your agreement to help on this will hopefully prove to be incredibly important.”
He didn’t wait for an answer from her; he stooped down to pet Red goodbye and was gone.
Mark realized then that they hadn’t told the guard to go ahead and take Jim Carver back to his cell.
He smiled.
The man was ranting.
“Hey! Hey! Talk to me. All right, you all just wait. There is going to be a lawsuit that is going to make your stupid heads spin.” He paused to laugh. “Yeah, your royal ass heads are going to spin, right in front of you!”
His words were garbled at the end because he was laughing so hard.
But then his laughter stopped as his temper soared.
“Get me out of here! Lawsuit! Cruel and inhumane punishment when a man is still innocent until proven guilty, and you will not prove me guilty!”
A guard opened the door to the observation room.
“Have you finished with what you need for today?” he asked him.
“Yes, I’m sorry. We should have informed you right away.”
The guard gave them a hard grimace.
“Not at all. I love watching him; he’s tormenting himself far more than any of us. Maybe I’ll give him another minute.”
“You do that,” Mark said. “We are going to leave. Thank you.”
“Just nail him,” the guard said, and left.
“I guess he’s not a particularly beloved prisoner,” Megan said.
“Nope. Now, come on, we’ll get you to your train station.”
They talked on the way, the triplets’ curious abilities again the topic of conversation. All of them had an ability, and every ability was different.
“Colleen hears, you interpret meaning... What does Patrick do?”
“Our brother is a criminal psychologist,” Megan said.
“But what does he do—hear...see...”
