That’s what you’re thinking, right?”
“Right. But when Cole and I came along and he decided not to risk a confrontation, he turned back, killed Mary and got away while we were riding along in the ambulance and before we realized there was a reason to get the police searching those woods. And remember, again, about the campfires and flashlights Kaylee mentioned. Light from something like a campfire is visible a long way off in the dark. For him to be that bold, he’d have to have his camps far, far away from anywhere that he’d expect someone to ever be. Which reinforces the idea, again, of the camps being even farther into the Glades than we’d thought.”
Drew nodded. “That would explain our lack of success with the searches. But I didn’t exactly send a bunch of greenhorns out there. They spent hours combing that area and didn’t find anything.”
“They went in after a rainstorm, which obliterated any trail that Kaylee or the others might have left. And we all believed that the killer wouldn’t have stuck around, or returned, assuming instead that he traveled to new places every time. The idea of established camps didn’t cross our minds. So when we found no evidence of anyone passing through, we moved on, getting farther and farther away and searching other areas. I’m thinking now that decision was a mistake. I believe the killer will come back, if he hasn’t already, which should give us new clues, a new trail to follow.”
Drew held his hands up as if in surrender. “All right, all right. You’ve raised enough questions to make me agree that searching that initial area again where you found Kaylee makes more sense than searching the outlying areas we’ve been targeting. Especially if all of this adds up to the killer wanting to keep his established bases.”
Zack nodded, relieved that Drew was seeing this the way that he was. It helped reassure him that he wasn’t grasping, that it made sense to pull the teams off the other grids. He didn’t want to kick himself later for doing that if the killer ended up being in one of the areas they stopped searching.
“There’s something else to consider.” Zack rested his forearms on the desk. “This isn’t related to the search strategy. But it is related to the case. Kaylee said the killer usually only came there very early in the morning, or at night. If we assume that he switches back and forth between his camps more as a killer’s signature, or routine, than because he’s worried that someone has seen him in town getting supplies, then there’s another plausible explanation for why he’s never at the camps during the day.”
Drew’s mouth tightened into a hard line. “Our perp probably has a job, a day job. And he works and lives close enough to the camps that he can make it to work on time every day. Our killer is Mr. Upstanding Citizen during the day and psycho killer at night. But we’d already figured that as a possibility.”
“True, but we also thought he was moving around more than we now think he is. We figured he might be a truck driver, or a salesman, something that would allow for a larger territory. Now I don’t think that’s the case. We need to tell Special Agent Willow about the camps, that the killer has a more condensed, established area where he keeps his victims, that he probably has a steady day job. Willow should see if he can get us a new profile.”
“He’s busy on another case now, but I imagine I can at least talk to him over the phone and see if he can get someone to revisit the profile.”
“He sounds like an organized killer to me. He’s intelligent, able to blend in as a normal guy at work. We’re dealing with someone who either called in sick or took vacation on the day of each of the abductions, and was either late or absent the morning that I found Kaylee.”
“All good points. I’ll ask Willow whether he thinks we should release the profile to the media once he works it up. If people hear
“Right. But when Cole and I came along and he decided not to risk a confrontation, he turned back, killed Mary and got away while we were riding along in the ambulance and before we realized there was a reason to get the police searching those woods. And remember, again, about the campfires and flashlights Kaylee mentioned. Light from something like a campfire is visible a long way off in the dark. For him to be that bold, he’d have to have his camps far, far away from anywhere that he’d expect someone to ever be. Which reinforces the idea, again, of the camps being even farther into the Glades than we’d thought.”
Drew nodded. “That would explain our lack of success with the searches. But I didn’t exactly send a bunch of greenhorns out there. They spent hours combing that area and didn’t find anything.”
“They went in after a rainstorm, which obliterated any trail that Kaylee or the others might have left. And we all believed that the killer wouldn’t have stuck around, or returned, assuming instead that he traveled to new places every time. The idea of established camps didn’t cross our minds. So when we found no evidence of anyone passing through, we moved on, getting farther and farther away and searching other areas. I’m thinking now that decision was a mistake. I believe the killer will come back, if he hasn’t already, which should give us new clues, a new trail to follow.”
Drew held his hands up as if in surrender. “All right, all right. You’ve raised enough questions to make me agree that searching that initial area again where you found Kaylee makes more sense than searching the outlying areas we’ve been targeting. Especially if all of this adds up to the killer wanting to keep his established bases.”
Zack nodded, relieved that Drew was seeing this the way that he was. It helped reassure him that he wasn’t grasping, that it made sense to pull the teams off the other grids. He didn’t want to kick himself later for doing that if the killer ended up being in one of the areas they stopped searching.
“There’s something else to consider.” Zack rested his forearms on the desk. “This isn’t related to the search strategy. But it is related to the case. Kaylee said the killer usually only came there very early in the morning, or at night. If we assume that he switches back and forth between his camps more as a killer’s signature, or routine, than because he’s worried that someone has seen him in town getting supplies, then there’s another plausible explanation for why he’s never at the camps during the day.”
Drew’s mouth tightened into a hard line. “Our perp probably has a job, a day job. And he works and lives close enough to the camps that he can make it to work on time every day. Our killer is Mr. Upstanding Citizen during the day and psycho killer at night. But we’d already figured that as a possibility.”
“True, but we also thought he was moving around more than we now think he is. We figured he might be a truck driver, or a salesman, something that would allow for a larger territory. Now I don’t think that’s the case. We need to tell Special Agent Willow about the camps, that the killer has a more condensed, established area where he keeps his victims, that he probably has a steady day job. Willow should see if he can get us a new profile.”
“He’s busy on another case now, but I imagine I can at least talk to him over the phone and see if he can get someone to revisit the profile.”
“He sounds like an organized killer to me. He’s intelligent, able to blend in as a normal guy at work. We’re dealing with someone who either called in sick or took vacation on the day of each of the abductions, and was either late or absent the morning that I found Kaylee.”
“All good points. I’ll ask Willow whether he thinks we should release the profile to the media once he works it up. If people hear
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