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We continued discussing Franco for a few minutes, but when nothing meaningful came of it, my shoulders dropped in defeat.
“We aren’t giving up,” she assured. But it was hard to hold on to hope because of how much she had on her plate. Finding the evidence Dominic supposedly gave me, locating Franco Hopkins. Not to mention…
“How is the hunt for the Vigilante going?” I asked.
She clenched her jaw, and a hint of irritation crossed her face. “Not as fast as we’d hoped.”
“Do you think the press conference will help?”
“Too early to say. The first press conference drummed up a lot of leads but nothing with legs yet.”
“That sounds incredibly frustrating.”
“He’s good at hiding, but we’ll find him,” she declared, her voice unwavering.
“What kind of person could be behind this?” I mused aloud.
To this, Rinaldi let out a deep breath. “There are several theories going around, but it’s difficult because the Vigilante’s victims don’t seem to have commonalities. They differ in age, ethnicity, occupation, and income level. There doesn’t seem to be any correlation or connection between them.”
“Except they have all allegedly committed crimes.” I bit my lip.
The detective nodded, her face drawn in a grim expression. “Some victims were accused and acquitted. Some were never even suspected in the crimes the Vigilanteclaimsthe victim committed.”
“Has anyone looked into those alleged crimes?”
“We have a team set up that’s looking deeper at them now,” she said, her eyes darting around the room. “When this all first started, the department prioritized resources to finding the Vigilante, not investigating accusations he made against his victims. But now, we’re starting to dive deeper into those allegations to look for any clues that might lead us to his identity.”
I wondered what it would dig up. Hadallhis victims been accused of murder? Or other crimes, too? And how would he know about them? Was he privy to jailhouse snitches? A cop himself with access to arrest records? Or someone with an obsession with unsolved cases?
Unsolved cases…
Where the assailant was never brought to justice.
My gut swirled, something tightening in my chest.
It was a crazy thought, a fleeting one. Yes, Sean’s income was based on unsolved cases, and, yes, he’d become a savvy detective in his own right, getting access to information most others didn’t. It was what set his podcast apart and made it so successful. He had a knack for getting people to talk to him in a way they’d never talk to the police. Perhaps providing him with information about suspects that had never come out to the public.
No. Just because the Vigilante was the same height and weight as Sean, it didn’t prove anything. I had been friends with Sean for years. And, yes, he worked odd hours, but he wasn’t a violent person. In fact, I didn’t know any violent people.
“What’s your gut telling you?” I asked. “What type of person do you think is doing this?”
To that, she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Unfortunately, there isn’t a typical profile for a vigilante we can leverage because the motivations and backgrounds of these individuals vary widely. However, we have some possible common traits that could be in play.”
“Such as?” I pressed.
“The most obvious, of course, is this particular vigilante’s perceived injustice, for which he wants to exact his own brand of retribution. Other vigilantes have expressed a severe need for control, attempting to take charge of their environment and situations through vigilantism as their way of asserting that control.”
“Kind of like rapists?” Many people think rape is only about sex, but often, it was about control. Domination.
Rinaldi nodded. “Some have a lack of faith in the justice system. They believe the legal system is corrupt, or biased, or inept in providing adequate justice and, therefore, must take matters into their own hands.”
I thought back to the reason Sean was drawn to true crime in the first place. Back in high school, his girlfriend had gone missing, but despite an all-out search, the police weren’t able to save her in time. It was what propelled his involvement with true crime, and tragically, it also left a festering wound beneath the surface.
He definitely thought the police had dropped the ball, and he had a disdain for our slow and imperfect justice system—because once her killer was finally caught, it turned out the guy should never have been out on the streets to begin with. He was out on bail for attacking another woman at the time.
A point of contention earlier in our friendship. It took him some time to see my intention in being a criminal defense attorney was not to get criminals off; it was to protect innocent people accused of crimes they didn’t commit and ensure proper processes were followed for those that didn’t.
But if Sean was the Vigilante, why would his attacks have started suddenly two years ago? What would have been the driving motive then? Or now, for that matter?
