true. While Kunze had, indeed, asked Gwen to be a part of this task force, it wasn’t his idea. A high-ranking senator had strong-armed Kunze to include her. It was a high-profile case. The Highway Serial Killings Initiative happened to be a program that Senator Delanor-Ramos had pushed through Congress. Everything in the District was about politics these days. Gwen joining this task force may have been sold as an outsider’s “fresh insights” but she knew it was really about covering the senator’s professional ass. She’d be the easy scapegoat if the project didn’t produce results quickly.
“Dr. Patterson has worked with the FBI on several cases,” Kunze was explaining to his team. “So she already has a working relationship.”
As Kunze continued his introduction, Gwen couldn’t help wondering if her familiarity might be as much a hindrance as a benefit. After all, her significant other and her best friend were assignedto this task force. Gwen hated the fact that AD Kunze may have agreed so enthusiastically to her presence to use her against Tully and Maggie. The assistant director had made both his agents’ lives a working hell since he took over the unit. So she couldn’t help but be suspicious of Kunze’s motive, of his agreeing so easily to her being foisted on his team.
“You’ve met Detective Julia Racine,” Kunze was saying. “The District was good enough to loan her to us.”
Gwen also knew Keith Ganza, the director of the FBI crime lab. The tall, skinny agent wore a white lab coat, frayed at the cuffs. His long gray hair was tied back in a ponytail, adding to his look of a reclusive scientist. Gwen had often heard Maggie claim the man to be a mild-mannered genius who could see more in a piece of lint or a clump of dirt than any trace evidence specialist she’d ever worked with.
Gwen had not, however, met Antonio Alonzo before. The handsome, young black man wore frameless rectangular glasses and a purple button-down shirt with the sleeves neatly rolled up. Kunze called Agent Alonzo a computer wizard, on loan from ViCAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). The young man seemed unfazed by the praise, which made Gwen instantly like him.
For all the talk of technology, however, when Kunze finally settled in and started the session he directed their attention to the front of the room where an old-fashioned paper map of the United States—three feet tall by five feet wide—had been spread out and hung up on a poster board. Bright-colored stick pins marked prominent areas across the country, some clustered together, others alone.
“Each of these pins represents a suspected murder victim. If they’re here it’s because they were found along our country’s interstatesystems in the last ten years. Or at least part of them was found. They’ve been entered into a separate database under the Highway Serial Killings Initiative.
“Many of these victims are transients who lived high-risk lives—prostitutes, drug users and dealers, hitchhikers, runaway teenagers. But there are about two hundred who were ordinary folks, traveling from one place to another like Gloria Dobson and Zach Lester.
“The idea behind the initiative was to organize a way to assist local law enforcement, to help them connect some of the dots. Until now it’s been tough for them to track since many of these victims disappeared from one state and their bodies showed up in another. The highway systems, by nature, create some unique challenges.
“Think of it this way—the crime scenes are also transient. The interstate system provides immediate and easy escape routes. A killer can simply get back on the road and be three hundred to four hundred miles away before the body is even discovered.
“Just since the database was created, two serial killers have been apprehended and convicted. Both long-haul truck drivers. We believe there are possibly several serial killers out on the roads using the rest areas and truck
“Dr. Patterson has worked with the FBI on several cases,” Kunze was explaining to his team. “So she already has a working relationship.”
As Kunze continued his introduction, Gwen couldn’t help wondering if her familiarity might be as much a hindrance as a benefit. After all, her significant other and her best friend were assignedto this task force. Gwen hated the fact that AD Kunze may have agreed so enthusiastically to her presence to use her against Tully and Maggie. The assistant director had made both his agents’ lives a working hell since he took over the unit. So she couldn’t help but be suspicious of Kunze’s motive, of his agreeing so easily to her being foisted on his team.
“You’ve met Detective Julia Racine,” Kunze was saying. “The District was good enough to loan her to us.”
Gwen also knew Keith Ganza, the director of the FBI crime lab. The tall, skinny agent wore a white lab coat, frayed at the cuffs. His long gray hair was tied back in a ponytail, adding to his look of a reclusive scientist. Gwen had often heard Maggie claim the man to be a mild-mannered genius who could see more in a piece of lint or a clump of dirt than any trace evidence specialist she’d ever worked with.
Gwen had not, however, met Antonio Alonzo before. The handsome, young black man wore frameless rectangular glasses and a purple button-down shirt with the sleeves neatly rolled up. Kunze called Agent Alonzo a computer wizard, on loan from ViCAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). The young man seemed unfazed by the praise, which made Gwen instantly like him.
For all the talk of technology, however, when Kunze finally settled in and started the session he directed their attention to the front of the room where an old-fashioned paper map of the United States—three feet tall by five feet wide—had been spread out and hung up on a poster board. Bright-colored stick pins marked prominent areas across the country, some clustered together, others alone.
“Each of these pins represents a suspected murder victim. If they’re here it’s because they were found along our country’s interstatesystems in the last ten years. Or at least part of them was found. They’ve been entered into a separate database under the Highway Serial Killings Initiative.
“Many of these victims are transients who lived high-risk lives—prostitutes, drug users and dealers, hitchhikers, runaway teenagers. But there are about two hundred who were ordinary folks, traveling from one place to another like Gloria Dobson and Zach Lester.
“The idea behind the initiative was to organize a way to assist local law enforcement, to help them connect some of the dots. Until now it’s been tough for them to track since many of these victims disappeared from one state and their bodies showed up in another. The highway systems, by nature, create some unique challenges.
“Think of it this way—the crime scenes are also transient. The interstate system provides immediate and easy escape routes. A killer can simply get back on the road and be three hundred to four hundred miles away before the body is even discovered.
“Just since the database was created, two serial killers have been apprehended and convicted. Both long-haul truck drivers. We believe there are possibly several serial killers out on the roads using the rest areas and truck
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