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Friday — 3:09pm
“Kate,Iwantyouto keep working on the Rastini case.”
Brook didn’t look up from her electronic tablet. She waited until she’d finished inserting a few notes that would give Kate a couple of avenues to explore based on the initial profile that Brook had built of the unsub.
The victim who had been traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast had nothing to do with two open investigations at the Bureau involving interstate truckers. Brook had triple checked those profiles constructed by the BAU. There were known to be a handful of serial killers that combed specific interstates or highways for their victims while working fulltime as independent truckers. A few had been apprehended, while others were still active.
The BAU had full knowledge of them due to these truckers exchanging digital photographs of their victims. Considering the number of women who had gone missing, there had to be at least a half dozen more perpetrators hunting their prey using similar Modus Operandi (MO).
It was Brook’s belief that the murder of Kyle Rastini had been personally motivated. She suspected that Kyle’s killer was someone who he’d been well acquainted with during his short life.
Brook didn’t believe that his death was connected to any other case, and that meant the investigation was about to take a more intimate turn. His parents wouldn’t be pleased with the new direction, but she would inform them of her reasoning on their next scheduled update by conference call.
“I’ll get right on it,” Kate said as she picked up the approved expense reports that Brook had signed yesterday. The young woman did her best to contain her excitement, but Brook caught the eagerness in her tone. “Will Bit be working solely on the Gwinn case?”
“No,” Brook replied as she pushed the chair back from her desk. “He’ll have to pull double duty.”
She collected her tablet and phone, leaving the small space heater turned on behind her. Everyone always complained that her office was too hot, but it was quite comfortable in her opinion. They probably thought she had some circulatory issue, which wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Her mother had been the same way.
Unfortunately, Brook had concluded long ago that it was almost assuredly a psychological response. She hadn’t experienced true warmth since her childhood, well before she discovered her best friend’s body in the middle of a cornfield all those years ago.
“If you need something from Bit, feel free to make a request. I see no reason why we can’t run with multiple open investigations. You’ll have to help him prioritize anything you send him—routine, urgent, and critical.”
Brook had no current plans to expand the team. She would only ever work one active case at a time, but there were some cold cases that had no end in sight. Those types of investigations weren’t time sensitive like ongoing cases, such as the one involving their new client.
As a matter of fact, Brook had been contemplating another client who had reached out to her last week in regard to a missing person who had been presumed dead for years. Two older cases were doable with their small team, but she would wait until after Millie Gwinn was satisfied with their results. Either Dr. Kolsby was guilty of murdering several women or his confession had simply been the result of the anesthesia cocktail used for his induced coma.
Kate led the way out of the office, though she detoured her path by going around the main desk in the reception area. She would prepare an envelope for the expense reports to be couriered over to the firm’s accountant before joining the rest of the team in the conference room.
Brook had gotten to know the young woman’s habits after working with her for the past six months or so. She would fit in well when she finally made the decision to apply for the FBI academy. The Bureau was built of rigid routine and lockstep procedures. Old-fashioned routine policework solved crime more often than most people suspected. Most detectives just referred to it as the daily grind.
Brook had known when she’d hired Kate that her employment had simply been that of a steppingstone. She would miss the dynamic nature of S&E’s daily operations after she’d made the transition, but that was something that Kate would need to figure out on her own.
“Boss?”
“Yes?”
Brook came to a stop in the hallway as Bit walked out of his own area. To say it was an office didn’t do the room justice. His desk consisted of a long table with several monitors, numerous keyboards, and too many specialty gizmos that she couldn’t even pronounce. Racks of equipment had been strategically placed in corners with ventilation towers reaching the ceiling.
Honestly, the office was like something one would find in a basement with no windows at the NSA.
“You should know that I’ve assigned Kate to the Rastini case while we put our efforts into Millie Gwinn’s claims. I’ve advised Kate to reach out to you should she need something, along with a priority rating of each request.”
“Yeah, no problem. I’m a multitasking guru,” Bit said distractedly. He was staring at the display of his phone. He finally handed it over as she tucked her own tablet and phone into the crook of her arm. “It’s a coincidence, I’m sure.”
Brook stared at the headline of the article, and her initial response was to head back to her office and place some phone calls. She forced herself to remain in place, just as she made sure not to show emotion. It was a force of habit that she was unlikely to change.
A renowned plastic surgeon located in the heart of Los Angeles had been killed during a carjacking. Brook skimmed the article, confident that Bit would have already added it to Jacob’s files. The files would then be automatically updated to reflect on the murder board that was currently located in the smaller conference room.
“I’ll look into it.” Brook handed back Bit’s phone. “I appreciate you keeping on top of this.”
Bit merely nodded, though she could sense that he wanted to say something else. He must have thought better of it, because he turned around and headed for the kitchen.
“I’m grabbing an energy drink. Want anything?”
“I’m good, thank you.”
Brook remained where she was to get her bearings.
