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“Exactly.”
“Any word on Omar Coolidge?” Ellie asked.
“Still hasn’t regained consciousness,” Derrick said. “But I viewed cam footage from his computers last night. He was definitely watching the female residents in his building for years. I found one of the night Darla Loben was attacked by spiders. There was an empty apartment next to hers. Someone put them in the vent.”
“Same way Sarah Turner’s abductor got into her place.” Ellie thought on that. “Coolidge had access. But as far as we know, there’s no connection between him and the other suspects. He dropped out of college his freshman year and definitely wasn’t in Dansen’s class.”
“Maybe he’ll wake up and confess,” Deputy Landrum said.
Fat chance of that, Ellie thought. “The hospital is supposed to notify me if he regains consciousness.” She inhaled. “Shondra, any info from Professor Pockley’s colleagues?”
“Nothing concrete. Just that he liked biology, especially dissecting animals. His colleagues also said he was awkward around women, and that he didn’t handle rejection well.”
“Thanks, Deputy Eastwood. Good work. The dissection of animals could lead back to those animal graves we found.”
Shondra smiled and continued, “If he asked Amy Dean out years ago and she rejected him, it could go to motive.”
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Ellie said. “Now let’s talk about Wahlburg. Dr. Dansen mentioned that Frank was obsessed with murderabilia,” Ellie said. “We found evidence of that in Jones’ safe.” She filled them in on the contents, and a ripple of unease rumbled throughout the room.
Deputy Landrum raised a finger, indicating he wanted to speak. “I found a private chatroom on the dark web which could be how they’ve been communicating. Aliases are used, but one guy is into collecting and selling murderabilia.”
“Dr. Dansen said Wahlburg wrote a paper on that topic,” Ellie said.
“What is the name of this chatroom?” Derrick asked.
“The Brotherhood.”
Ellie considered that.
Deputy Landrum continued, “In the chatroom, participants share fantasies about mutilation, dismemberment of victims, torture and murder.”
Ellie exhaled. “My God.”
“Maybe the Bureau’s cyber team can track the IP addresses and identify the members,” Derrick said. “If our suspects are part of it, they may have referenced crimes they committed in that chatroom.”
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN
Derrick used a separate section of the whiteboard to list each of the persons of interest starting with Frank Wahlburg, then Professor Roland Pockley and Dominique Radcliff.
“I did some research last night and compiled a timeline of where each of these men have been the last ten years. We’ve established that Frank Wahlburg disappeared after Amy Dean’s and Waycross’s deaths.”
Ellie interjected, “I can fill in a few of those blanks. In Lorna Bea’s journal, she said they moved around at least once a year, changing their names with each move.” On the whiteboard, she listed the states Lorna Bea had mentioned along with the dates they’d moved.
“That helps,” Derrick said. “Let’s talk about Professor Pockley. After college he earned his master’s in zoology and for a while worked at the Atlanta Zoo before returning to Widow Lake to teach. Since then, he’s been a guest lecturer at other universities and conferences.”
Derrick listed the dates and places, chronicling the man’s career.
“Now let’s move on to Dominique Radcliff. Radcliff went the tech route and became a phlebotomist at a community hospital in the suburbs of Atlanta. After his arrest, he claimed he intended to study criminal investigation, focusing on blood spatter analysis.” Derrick listed Radcliff’s victims that they knew of, the dates the bodies were found and the two other missing women they suspected he’d murdered.
“Radcliff had a tumultuous upbringing. His mother was bipolar and had multiple affairs. One night Radcliff’s father went crazy, slashed his wife’s throat and killed the lover. His father painted her lips with blood. Blood spatter analysis was used to expose the truth.”
Ellie sifted through that realization. “So he hated his mother and chose to kill other women as a replacement. The bloody lips mimicked what his father had done.” She snapped her fingers. “Did his father hack off his mother’s hair?”
“No, we think he did that to destroy their beauty.” He paused a beat. “We know Amy Dean was killed in Widow Lake in 2013. That same year, two other coeds were murdered. A young woman named Zelda North, ten days after Ms. Dean disappeared. Two months later, on Halloween, Kitty Korley was killed in Brunswick, Georgia. And a third—Vanna Michaels from Dawsonville. We think these murders may be connected, either committed by one of our suspects or the group.”
After he allowed time for everyone to absorb that information, he continued, “Radcliff began his killing spree in 2008. First with a young woman named Pamela Louis. He was caught early 2013. It’s possible a copycat or accomplice adopted his MO and went from there.”
Ellie nodded. “I found a list of four other similar crimes across the states. However, in looking at those dates, Radcliff was already incarcerated,” she said, adding their names to the board. “Pockley was speaking at a conference at the time a coed named Judy Zane was murdered. We don’t know the whereabouts of Frank Wahlburg at the time which means he could be culpable,” Ellie said.
