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“This was Daddy’s house!”
“It’s my house. I want you to leave, and I never want to see you here again. I will call the police if you return. Deputy Anderson said I don’t have to let you in, and that if you refuse to leave I can call her. I will, so help me God.”
“This isn’t over,” Kimberly said.
Josh took her hand. “Let’s go, Kim.”
“I hate you,” Kimberly said, tears starting to fall. “You turned my daddy against me.”
“I will say this one time,” Madelyn said, steady as a rock. “Your father loved you tremendously. Your anger and selfishness hurt him, but he never stopped loving you. I hope you realize that one day.”
They left, and Madelyn sat heavily in a chair. She looked worn out. “I don’t know if I can handle those two on my own.”
“I need to talk to Justin,” Kara said. She handed Madelyn her business card, and said, “If you think of anything, Madelyn—what you saw, heard, something that comes back to you about that night, or something Pierce said that might have worried him—call me. Day or night. I wrote my cell phone on the back, so you can reach me directly.”
“Thank you for being kind. Justin will be here tomorrow. He wanted to come sooner, but he was in Japan when...when the boat...” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, it’s been a long trip, and he’s grieving, but he assured me he would be here tomorrow before noon. I’m sure he’ll want to speak with you as well. And please, when you find out what happened, will you tell me? If Pierce was the target, or someone else? Or...no one? I read in the newspaper that it might have been an act of domestic terrorism.” Tears pooled in the young widow’s eyes as she looked at Kara. “Why, in a civilized society, would someone kill so many people to make a statement?”
Maybe because some people weren’t civilized, Kara thought.
5
With both Matt and Ryder gone, and Jim Esteban, their forensics expert, in a private office reviewing the autopsy reports and other forensic evidence, Catherine Jones sat in the large conference room the sheriff had provided them, blissfully alone.
She needed more information about the bomb itself to create an accurate profile of the bomber, because each bomb had a distinctive signature. Was it a one-time detonation, or had the killer used a similar device before? If it was unique enough, it could point to a pattern—or a person.
It could be that the bomb malfunctioned. Perhaps the loss of life was unintended—especially if it was set as a political statement. If that was the case, guilt may set in and expose the perpetrator.
The ATF was first on scene and had already collected physical evidence from the boat. They’d determined the type of explosive and the location of the bomb; they were unsure yet ofhowthe bomb went off. Michael Harris was with the ATF today because he had extensive experience in this field. That information would help her hone her profile of the bomber.
Zack Heller, their white-collar crimes expert in DC, was reviewing West End Charter financial records, as well as those of each of the victims—in case insurance or money was a motive.
C-4 was an explosive material that was not easy to come by but easy to work with, which suggested to Catherine that this was a deliberate, intentional act by a man of above-average intelligence.
Virtually every bomber was male.
There were two types of domestic terrorists. The first wanted to instill fear for a political purpose, and while they used violence as a means to create fear, they didn’t intentionally set out to kill anyone. They would vandalize, intimidate, harass, throw rocks and bottles, and might set fire to empty buildings. These types might also turn a peaceful protest into a violent attack against property, not caring about the cost, only the reaction. They might set a bomb, but only if the chance of killing someone was minimal. They recognized that murder would distract from their cause.
The other type killed because it was a bigger stage—they wanted attention, they wanted to destroy, they wanted to maim and murder because it was a Statement with a capitalS. They had a bigger agenda. Either the terrorist was a lone wolf—someone who was disgruntled in every aspect of his life and latched on to a political cause—or the attack was part of a bigger plan among a group of like-minded people who wanted to create fear and friction within society. Any deaths were necessary for a greater agenda, and murder birthed fear.
The chances this was a foreign attack or a sleeper cell target were slim to none. The FBI had a strong counterterrorism component, and there had been no chatter about any terrorist activity in the Pacific Northwest, and no organization had taken credit for it. After three days, their intelligence community would have picked up some talk of it. In addition, most foreign terrorists would go after a bigger target or mass casualties: a government building or an icon of America, like the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. If they were to target a boat, they would have picked a ferry with hundreds of people as potential casualties.
A cruise ship could be a target, Catherine mused, but a small charter boat? This was either domestic terrorism, an insurance scam, or the planned assassination of one person, masked under the deaths of nine.
Of course, she couldn’t discount that they were dealing with a sexual bomber. They were similar to serial arsonists, where they obtained sexual or personal satisfaction at the act of fire or explosion itself. But she’d already reviewed all known arson fires in the Pacific Northwest and there was nothing even close to what they had with theWater Lily. The team in DC was expanding the search in case the bomber was a visitor to the San Juan Islands and had started his violent explosions elsewhere. But so far, nothing.
Such serial arsonists—or bombers—started small. The fire or explosion created sexual excitement, and like many sexual predators, when small crimes no longer satisfied, they soughtbigger,more—larger fires after small; physical attacks after verbal attacks; murders after assault.
Serial criminals, whether they were arsonists or rapists or killers, followed an identifiable pattern. Theygrewover time, with the speed of that growth directly related to their psychology and environment, as well as external stressors and the control they had—or didn’t have—in their personal lives.
A serial bomber operated in a similar way as an arsonist, but generally didn’t act on their dark impulses until later in their life, at least well into their twenties. They were often antisocial and might have a long list of misdemeanors in their criminal record. They were almost always from broken or violent homes where they’d had no support and no healthy outlet for their anger.
Catherine considered the Tucson Bomber, whom Matt had arrested. Trevor Thompson had fit none of the usual criteria for a serial bomber—which was why Catherine now sought to assess the West End bombing with a totally open mind.
While Thompsonhadstarted with smaller bombs set in empty buildings or in the middle of the desert, he had quickly escalated. Matt had worked with the ATF on the investigation after a recognizable pattern emerged from abandoned building toclosedbusinesses. It was when Thompson targeted an empty school that Catherine had been brought in to do an assessment as to whether this bomber would escalate and take lives. She had determined that yes, he would.
The confirmation of her assessment came when a bomb went off in the teachers’ lounge in the middle of the day—but no one was injured. ATF determined that the bomber was becoming more proficient in his bomb making. Each bomb was bigger, better designed than the last.
And then Thompson killed when he set off a bomb in a classroom during school hours.
