Sudden Death by Allison Brennan Page A

difficult. In the latter case, you’d probably be looking for a soldier or former soldier who felt he had been treated unfairly by the military or his unit. Possibly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and reliving a horrific event, accompanied by some sort of psychosis that leads him to believe killing other soldiers will relieve his anxiety. But I don’t see this type of killer as working with a partner or going through the elaborate ritual.”
    Megan leaned forward. “So you think the killers knew the victims personally?”
    For a moment, Hans didn’t say anything. “Possibly, or at least knew of them if they had never met them before. They were singled out specifically, and that’s why I want you to meet me in Austin.”
    “Austin, Texas?” Megan asked.
    “There’s far more going on here than the reports indicated. I need to talk to those who knew Duane Johnson. He’s the first known victim, and the killers waited nearly two full months before killing again, which makes me think they were waiting for something.”
    “Like what?”
    “Could be for the second victim—Perry—to be in a position where they could get to him, or because they wanted to see what the police would do, or because they feared they’d screwed up somehow.”
    Megan took notes while shaking her head. “I can’t go to Austin, I have to get Price’s body back, work with the CID on the evidence and autopsy—”
    Richardson interrupted. “They’re not going to give you a thing, Megan. And we have a far more important situation here.”
    Hans said over the speaker, “I agree. How did the killers know you were on the Price case, Megan?”
    Megan had been thinking about that since she opened the package. “I don’t know. Maybe one or both of them were observing us Monday morning at the crime scene? Our office gets a lot of attention, especially after the O’Brien case last year. I did that interview—” She frowned at Richardson. She hadn’t wanted to talk to the press, but her boss felt that having her on prime-time news would help with public relations. “They could have picked up on my position on the Violent Crimes Squad.”
    “Why you and not the SPD detective? Or the media?”
    “Okay, I’ll bite. Why?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Great. If you don’t know, how does that help?”
    “It could be nothing—the killer taunting police—and because the FBI is considered the higher law enforcement agency—no offense, Detective Black—the killers would want to taunt the FBI. But they had your home address, Meg.”
    “I know,” she said quietly.
    “I think it’s a good idea to get out of town,” Richardson said. He used the intercom to ask his assistant to book a flight ASAP for Megan to Texas.
    “I’m not running away.”
    “I’m not suggesting you do. Dr. Vigo wants your help and the FBI has already determined this is a serial murder investigation. We have the authority to go in if we need to. And you can’t do anything here that SPD can’t do—I have confidence that Detective Black will keep us informed if anything important arises.”
    “Absolutely,” Black said. “And,” he added, “the information you bring back from Austin and Vegas can help us here because we have next to nothing after losing the evidence to CID.”
    “Is this connected to Price being AWOL?” Megan asked the group. “Price was living on the streets; how did the killers know him? Know where to find him?”
    “Aw, that’s the million-dollar question.” Hans said. “If you can figure that out, I think you’ll have a much greater chance of capturing them. They have inside information—suggesting that they personally know these men or have access to their records.”
    “But CID didn’t know where Price was until he was dead and we flagged his record.”
    “Which narrows their information source exponentially. We have to learn everything we can about Duane Johnson and