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26
When Logan turned off the video, there was silence in the room. Then Monty excused himself, and they watched the video with his grandmother and the UNSUB. Unfortunately, they couldn’t gather much additional information about him.
The team spent the next few hours trying to rework the profile. Alex had a hard time concentrating after watching Jeff speed toward his death and Chunhua pleading with Monty not to kill himself. She was frustrated. It felt as if they were simply repeating themselves. She ran everything they’d already surmised over in her mind. The UNSUB was obviously an organized psychopath who felt the need to prove he was smarter than anyone in the BAU. He was so passionate about pulling off his carefully constructed plan that he was willing to kill Chunhua himself. This meant he was totally committed to his agenda, and that made him especially dangerous.
They also believed he was an older man of medium height and overweight, although it was possible he was trying to appear heavier than he really was. He may have known John Davis. He definitely held anger toward Davis and probably Bayne as well, but they had no idea why. They all agreed he was likely single and unemployed because he had a lot of time to engineer his plan and pull it off. He could be retired with some kind of pension, and he definitely had money, at least for this. Drones weren’t cheap. He had the ability to travel, although his comfort zone seemed to be near Bethesda. That didn’t mean he lived in the area, just that this was where his targets were, other than Bayne.
The FBI had gone through flight manifests with the airlines, trying to find someone suspicious who traveled from Bethesda to Houston, where Susan Davis lived. But the video of her sent to Davis was taken months before he used it to force Davis’s suicide, and the UNSUB could have traveled there by car so he couldn’t be tracked through the airlines.
If only Davis had looked closer, he might have realized the video wasn’t live. Instead, he spent the last thirty seconds of his life searching for a way to die—and finding one.
The team had recommended that the authorities hunt for someone who had a beef with the BAU or with Davis or Bayne—maybe both. They suggested that he may have worked in the technology field. He knew how to hack the phones, and he was able to handle a drone. They recommended looking for someone who was wrongly convicted based on a profile given to police by the BAU. It might not have been for the UNSUB but for a friend or family member of his. Although that was a solid deduction, it didn’t feel right to Alex. Not that kind of revenge. But that wasn’t surprising. Nothing felt right about this entire case.
The team had thrown out the idea that the UNSUB was angry about not being accepted into the BAU because of his age. But even that didn’t narrow down the possibilities. Who was this guy? Why couldn’t they get a handle on him?
“If only we knew the trigger,” Kaely said with a frustrated sigh. “It has to be recent. I know it took time to implement this plan since he waited for the Murder Will Out convention, but the trigger had to have happened in the last year or two. I know why we’re saying he worked in the technology field, but what if his accomplice is the one with that kind of knowledge?”
“Still not convinced he has an accomplice,” Monty said. “It would detour from the norm.”
“We’ve established that already,” Kaely said sharply. She shook her head. “I’m sorry. This is getting to me. We’re just going in circles.”
“I feel the same way,” Alex said. “I just don’t think we’re giving the police anything they can really work with.”
“Well, maybe we have,” Logan said. “We believe John Davis is the most important victim. He’s center to everything. That may be enough to find the guy.” He frowned at Ben. “Has the chief asked Susan Davis if she suspects anyone?”
Ben nodded. “She gave him some names, and we’re following up. But the FBI in Houston have taken over that part of the investigation. I think they can do a better job than we can.” He sighed. “The person she said he had the biggest conflict with was Evan Bayne. He’d be the perfect suspect, but he’s conveniently dead.”
Alex couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m sorry,” she said to Ben, “but we’re all punch-drunk and worried. You only said what we’re all thinking.”
“I still question Davis being the focal point of the UNSUB’s killing spree,” Logan said. “If that is true, why not stop after his death? Or at least after Bayne’s? What’s he trying to prove by going after other analysts? He outsmarted the men who started the BAU—who invented behavioral analysis.”
“I don’t know!” Alex said, revealing how she really felt—exasperated. “I’ve looked at these files until my eyes feel permanently crossed. I think we’re missing something. You know, like when you’re trying to remember the name of a song or the title of a movie, and it’s just out of your reach?”
Monty laughed. “You say stuff like that a lot.”
Alex couldn’t help grinning back at him. “But I’ve been right every time, haven’t I?”
The smile slipped from Monty’s face. “Now that you mention it, yeah. Hey, please figure it out, okay? My brain is starting to hurt.”
Logan pointed at him. “Well, keep that brain working. You’re on this team for a reason. We need everything you’ve got on this one.”
“I don’t know how you guys do this,” Julie said. “I’m used to being out in the field. This would drive me crazy.”
“It’s not exciting,” Alex said, acknowledging the point. “Working a profile is boring, detailed work. Very repetitive. Certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. But when you realize how much it can help the authorities track down suspects, it’s more fulfilling than you might think.”
“I guess,” Julie said with a smile. “I’ve never been more thankful for my job, though.”
Alex laughed. “I understand.”
“That passage from Dark Minds says a couple of other agents helped Davis and Bayne in the beginning,” Monty said. “We’ve assumed Reinhardt was one of them, but do we know who else it could be referring to?”
“Probably Bridget O’Fallon,” Kaely said. “She was a psychologist and instrumental in developing the Enders Psychopathy Checklist in the seventies. Of course, over the years it’s been changed by experience and a better understanding of the psychopathic personality, but her wisdom helped kick off the process we still use today. She was killed in a car accident around ten years ago.”
“Anything between her and Davis?” Julie asked.
“I don’t know, but I heard she and Evan Bayne were close ... for a while. Then he got married, so that was the end of that. Bridget lost control of her car on an icy highway. It was ruled an accidental death. No one to blame. That road leads to a dead end, I’m afraid.”
Logan sighed. “Reinhardt’s out as our UNSUB. Terry says he has an alibi for every death.”
