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“Zero,” Sylvie replied as she swiped up on the display of her tablet. Brook turned to see all the victims’ photographs displayed on the monitor. They looked nothing alike, but Brook had no doubt that something linked them together. The unsub had chosen them for a specific reason. “Grace Willow was the first victim.”
Brook zeroed her attention in on Grace Willow.
Sylvie had already been able to enter bullet points for each of the victims.
Grace Willow had been married for nine months before being abducted from a bakery. Her bloody handprint had been left on a mirror in the restroom. According to the asterisk at the bottom of her column, she’d entered the front entrance of the bakery, walked directly to the restroom, then walked back out without saying a word to anyone. It was the last time that she’d ever been seen in public.
“How do we really know that Grace Willow was the first victim?” Kate asked, her attention on Brook. “What if there was another victim, but no one ever noticed or reported the handprint?”
“Which is why we’ll proceed with caution,” Brook advised as she switched her focus back to Theo. “Anything else?”
“I have a call into Agent Parker to see if there was anything that he left out of his notes. Truthfully, there’s not a lot to go on.” Theo tapped the display of his tablet. “I’ll spend the rest of the evening reading over the statements taken from family, friends, and witnesses from the locations where the victims were abducted and their subsequent returns to leave their handprints. I did notice that the profiler on record emphasized the importance of the handprint. The profiler believed at the time that it was the unsub’s way of experiencing a sexual high from having the victims return to the scenes of the crimes.”
“Who was the profiler?” Brook asked as she became conscious of the fact that Harden hadn’t mentioned a name. While the majority of male serial killers did experience sexual release during their killing sprees, she didn’t necessarily believe that was the case with this particular unsub. “I recall this investigation, but I was handling another case at the time. I really didn’t have a need to follow up on the details.”
“Martin Sinnett. I’ve never met him.”
Considering that Theo had worked out of a field office in Pennsylvania, it was doubtful that he’d met any of the profilers who had worked inside the BAU.
“You’re not missing out,” Brook replied wryly without regret. “I’ve never personally met Sinnett, either. Unfortunately, the other field agents didn’t have too high of an opinion on him. Apparently, he’s quite the narcissist. If there is even a half measure of truth to that notion, I have no idea how he ever got through the academy.”
“Are you saying that he could have missed something?” Kate asked, always eager to know everything and anything about the Bureau.
“Actually, quite the opposite. I’ve heard good things about his work, which apparently contributes to his narcissistic tendencies. With that said, I’ve never had an opportunity to read through any of his profiles. As with most of us in the field, experience comes into play. His earlier profiles might have been lacking, and three years ago would have still fallen into his early work. If I’m recalling correctly, he graduated from the academy as a behavioral analyst about five years ago. He also has graduate degrees from Cambridge in psychology and MIT in forensic science.” Brook might have been able to hone her skills early on, but she still found herself learning with each profile that she constructed on unsubs. She would first review Special Agent Parker’s notes and the case files of each victim before drafting her own profile. She would then read through Sinnett’s profile to see what did or didn’t match up when they were aligned side by side. “What was contained in the last supplemental report?”
“It was dated November of 2021 by Agent Parker, basically documenting that no new information had come to light. Heather Krinsky was the last victim taken, and her remains have never been found.” Theo lifted his gaze from his tablet to focus on Brook. “The unsub stopped abducting and in all likelihood killing his victims over three years ago.”
“Which tells us that the unsub is either serving time in prison for another crime or dead,” Sylvie theorized as she picked up her teacup. “To top it off, we have no DNA evidence other than from the victims themselves.”
“I’m gathering all the security footage that I can from the locations and surrounding areas where the victims were abducted, only to return to leave their bloody handprints.” Bit grimaced as he stared at the monitor over Brook’s shoulder. “I don’t get why they didn’t just tell someone. I mean, they were surrounded by a ton of people who would have called the police.”
“Yet every single victim walked into a crowded place, left their mark, and returned to the unsub of their own free will.” Brook twisted the worry ring that she wore on her right hand as she spoke to the group. “There is only one reason why someone would voluntarily walk back to their deaths.”
“Blackmail.” Theo shifted his focus to Sylvie. “What was the length of time between victims?”
“Between handprints, you mean?” Sylvie didn’t need to look at her notes to know the answer. “Between three to five months, give or take. He stalks them for four to six weeks first, somehow forces them to return to the place that they were abducted from, and then they disappear off the face of the Earth...only to repeat the process with another victim.”
“For all we know, the unsub has already chosen another victim,” Kate said right before everyone’s tablets either vibrated or chimed. Someone was at the front entrance. “I’ll be back.”
Kate left the office before Brook began to delegate responsibilities to the rest of the team. She decided to preface the reason she was going to sideline Kate for the time being.
“As you all know, Kate should find out in the next day or two if she was accepted into the academy.” Brook had taken another sip of her coffee before speaking, and she continued to hold the warm porcelain cup in her left hand while checking her phone. She’d received a text message from Ann stating that all the files had been sent over and that a federal warrant for the security footage surrounding the coffee shop should be forthcoming. Leave it to Ann to subtly state that Brook should need nothing more. “I don’t want to give Kate any other case specific assignments until we know if she’ll be staying with S&E Investigations. She should have a few weeks to spend time with her father, if that’s what she wants to do.”
“Are we thinking of hiring someone for her position if her application is accepted?” Theo asked, garnering a frown from Bit. “I know you’re not thrilled with Kate leaving, but this is something that she’s been working towards for a long time.”
“We support one another,” Brook said after being given the opportunity to stress the double meaning in her response. They needed to support her personal decision to get back to a normal routine. “In the meantime, I’ll start reading through the case files and drafting a profile. Theo, follow up with Agent Parker and Sinnett. See if there is anything that we’re missing or was not included in the written reports. Sylvie, you should reach out to the detective who was assigned to Jenny Capshaw’s missing person’s case. We’ll leave that part of the investigation to MPD, but please inform him that we’ll be handling the rest of the case for the Bureau. Tomorrow morning, we’ll then see about dividing up the victims’ family and friends to be reinterviewed.”
“I’ve gathered all the footage from the locations given in the reports, received approval from all the various businesses but one—a rather high-end salon and spa—to access their security systems, and will spend the next few hours uploading them to my facial recognition program. If an individual appears in more than one location, I’ll flag them for further scrutiny,” Bit said as he pushed away from the table. “I’ve already coded an application to comb through the victims’ social media presences, as well. If they were connected in any way, we should be able to find it through their specific profiles.”
“Agent Nelson said that she should have a federal warrant for the city’s CCTV approved shortly, so you’ll have that footage to add to your facial recognition que, too.” Brook waited for the rest of the team to speak up and alert her if there was anything that she’d forgotten, but they seemed content with their duties for the rest of the day. “Sylvie, why the second layer of clothes?”
Brook couldn’t contain her curiosity anymore, especially after Sylvie had stood up from the table and shifted her legs as if her brown corduroy pants were too tight. Everyone pretty much dressed casual except for Brook, but that was more out of habit than anything else.
“She had a lunch date.”
The reply came from Bit, who didn’t seem bothered in the least that Sylvie’s plans had been cancelled today.
“We were supposed to go ice-skating, but I rescheduled for next week.” Sylvie grimaced when she once again shifted the lower half of her body. She didn’t expand on thewepart of her reply. “I think I’ll skip the long johns next time around.”
