AllFreeNovel
Share Us
10
The chief stepped out of the room when one of his officers knocked on the door. Monty had calmed down, but his sadness was so strong Logan could almost feel it.
“Now what?” Monty asked. “Alex is right. This changes everything. We need to start over on the profile.”
“Monty, you need to go home,” Alex said gently. “You need time. Time to grieve. And you have to call your parents.”
Odd that Alex’s mind would go there. A woman without a family. Of course, maybe that’s why it occurred to her. She valued something she’d never had.
“I’ll call them later,” Monty said. “They barely paid any attention to my grandmother. The rest of my family is in China. I lost touch with them a long time ago.”
“Well, we’re here for you,” Kaely said. “We may not be your idea of family, but we all care about you.”
“She’s right,” Logan said. “Please, Monty. Go home. I insist. We’ll send someone with you, just until we’re sure what’s going on.”
“I will, but first I need to go to my grandmother’s. And they won’t let me in yet. Please don’t make me leave.” His eyes filled with tears, and he quickly wiped them away.
The door opened, and Gorman walked in. “Monty,” he said, “please come with me. We have a counselor on call who wants to talk to you. Make sure you’re okay.”
“I don’t want to leave—”
“Monty, go with him,” Logan said. “I mean it.”
It looked as if all the air suddenly left Monty’s body. When he stood, he almost collapsed. Gorman put his arm around him and led him out of the room. Logan got up and quietly closed the door behind them.
“We’ve got to do everything we can to help catch this guy,” he said. He wanted to sound professional since he was in charge of this team, but he was incensed. The first two deaths were bad enough, but this time the UNSUB had hurt his friend. That made it personal to him and his team.
“We’ll do our best,” Kaely said. “But this is something I’ve never seen before.”
“None of us have,” Logan said. “Where do we start? He’s willing to change his MO to suit his endgame.”
“At least we understand his motive,” Alex said. “He hates behavioral analysts. But why?” She sighed deeply, as if trying to calm herself, then frowned. “Let’s start over. I think we’re pretty sure now this is a male. We thought he might be older, but maybe we should add a few more years to him. This took a lot of planning. Younger men are usually more spontaneous and don’t have the patience to pull off something so detailed. Also, I believe he thought Monty would shoot himself before we had time to stop him. I think he wanted us to watch Monty die, a way to punish all three of us. Frankly, it’s diabolical.”
“He has a real need to be in control,” Kaely said. “He’s the puppet master who expects his puppets to act out his play perfectly. But Monty didn’t do that.”
“That’s right,” Alex said. She paused for a moment. Logan could tell she was thinking. “Okay, his move today was theatrical. Hateful. But I don’t think it was personal. I know it was personal to Monty, but what I’m trying to say is that he was angry with Davis and Bayne. Those deaths were personal. They were first because they were the most important. Both men were in their seventies. I think he knew them.”
“You’re right,” Kaely said. “I also noticed that the UNSUB was overweight and of medium height. His eyes looked dark, but he could have been wearing contacts. At least we have a partial physical description.”
“Good,” Logan said, writing down Kaely’s observations.
“So what else can we deduce about him?” Alex asked.
“Well, we thought he was someone who didn’t like to get his hands dirty,” Logan said slowly. “But he proved us wrong.”
“I still don’t think he likes killing close up,” Kaely said. “I believe he really thought Monty would shoot himself. And that we would stand by and allow it. I don’t think he’s a man who understands friendship or loyalty. Or even the love of a grandmother who would tell her grandson to let her die. He doesn’t comprehend love. Something else ... My gut tells me that now that Davis and Bayne are gone, his most important goals accomplished, he’s even more focused on his plan. How to execute it. His anger has been satisfied. Now he just wants to prove that he’s smarter than us.”
Alex nodded slowly. “It’s going to be difficult to guess what his next move will be. We don’t know what his plan is, and we can’t trust him not to change his MO again. But whatever is coming, it’s already been set up.”
“Okay, so he wants to kill profilers,” Kaely said matter-of-factly. “Which means no one in the BAU or who’s retired from the BAU is safe.”
“Isn’t that jumping the gun a bit?” Logan asked.
The door swung open, and Gorman walked in with Monty. “Can we have the room?” he asked.
They all got up and headed for the door. Another man was standing behind Gorman. He was in plainclothes, but he had a detective badge from Fairfax County, Virginia. His expression was serious, and his manner was focused. He barely acknowledged the three of them. Logan was certain he knew what Gorman was getting ready to do. He wondered if he should stay. He and Monty were friends and had spent time together outside of work. He was closer to Logan than to anyone else in the BAU. But the look on Gorman’s face made it clear he wasn’t looking for an argument, so Logan followed the women out the door.
“Might as well go into the community room and get some coffee,” Kaely said. “Ours is cold.”
