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Authors: Allison Brennan
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said.
“It’s Megan Elliott.”
“Meg,” J.T. said warmly. “How are you doing?”
“Personally, fine. Professionally . . . well, I have a situation I need your advice on.”
“Does it have to do with the dead veteran you pulled yesterday?”
It always unnerved Megan how J.T. seemed to know everything. “I swear you’re a psychic.”
He laughed honestly, seeming to surprise both himself and Megan. “Sometimes I wish I were. Truth, Mitch mentioned it to me this morning. Do you need to borrow him? I know your squad is spread thin.”
She hadn’t even talked to her ex-husband, Mitch Bianchi, but he still had a lot of friends on the squad. Half the time Megan wished she had never encouraged him to take the job offer from Rogan-Caruso last year. The best agent in fugitive apprehension, Mitch’s exceptional instincts and abilities were sorely missed. However, Megan had to admit that Mitch was better suited to private investigation than following the rigid rules of federal law enforcement.
“Thanks, J.T., but I really need you on this one.”
“What can I do?”
“You were in the military police, weren’t you?”
“Navy.”
“My victim was AWOL from the army. Their CID took my evidence and my body. I want them back.”
“That won’t be possible. The army—hell, the entire military—doesn’t like to share. If CID has flexed its jurisdictional muscles, you’re out of luck. Though I’m surprised they acted so quickly.”
“That’s what I thought as well, but the vic attempted to kill his commanding officer. At least that’s what they told us.”
“Okay, that makes more sense. If he was simply a deserter they’d probably have been satisfied with positive identification and the coroner’s report.”
“Price is the third in a string of murders with the same M.O. Two dead men in two other states killed by the same people.”
“There’s more than one killer?”
“Evidence suggests there were at least two on scene.”
“How common are serial killers working in pairs?”
“Not rare, but not common. There’ve been several high-profile cases—the Hillside Stranglers; several male-female partnerships, where the woman lures the victim into the trap; Bittaker and Norris, who were prison buddies and started a killing spree when they got out. There’s usually a dominant and submissive— Why am I telling you this?”
“It’s interesting.”
“You don’t need me to teach you Forensic Profiling 101,” Megan said.
“I don’t usually draw such violent cases.”
It was Megan’s turn to laugh. “Perhaps not serial murderers, but don’t forget I’ve known you for a long time.”
“I could never forget that,” he said, perhaps too seriously, or maybe because Megan was on pins and needles. “What would you like me to do?”
“If I can’t get the evidence back, do you think you can find out what’s going on? I am particularly interested in the autopsy report and any trace evidence report. The Sacramento Police Department isn’t letting go; the detective in charge is digging into the victim’s background, his last few weeks, trying to put together some sort of victimology profile, plus following up on one lead we had before the CID took our case. But without the autopsy report, a weapon analysis, and a comparison of the needle marks with the previous victims, it’ll be hard to tie him into the other two murders. I need to be sure we’re dealing with the same killer, or the joint investigation could be compromised.”
“Why? If you have two other victims, why is this one so important?”
“If there are three known victims attributed to the same killer, where the M.O. is similar and there is a cooling off period, that puts these killers into the serial murderer category and they’re most likely to kill again. It frees up staff and resources at the federal level, and when we’re competing with other, higher-priority squads like counterterrorism and
“It’s Megan Elliott.”
“Meg,” J.T. said warmly. “How are you doing?”
“Personally, fine. Professionally . . . well, I have a situation I need your advice on.”
“Does it have to do with the dead veteran you pulled yesterday?”
It always unnerved Megan how J.T. seemed to know everything. “I swear you’re a psychic.”
He laughed honestly, seeming to surprise both himself and Megan. “Sometimes I wish I were. Truth, Mitch mentioned it to me this morning. Do you need to borrow him? I know your squad is spread thin.”
She hadn’t even talked to her ex-husband, Mitch Bianchi, but he still had a lot of friends on the squad. Half the time Megan wished she had never encouraged him to take the job offer from Rogan-Caruso last year. The best agent in fugitive apprehension, Mitch’s exceptional instincts and abilities were sorely missed. However, Megan had to admit that Mitch was better suited to private investigation than following the rigid rules of federal law enforcement.
“Thanks, J.T., but I really need you on this one.”
“What can I do?”
“You were in the military police, weren’t you?”
“Navy.”
“My victim was AWOL from the army. Their CID took my evidence and my body. I want them back.”
“That won’t be possible. The army—hell, the entire military—doesn’t like to share. If CID has flexed its jurisdictional muscles, you’re out of luck. Though I’m surprised they acted so quickly.”
“That’s what I thought as well, but the vic attempted to kill his commanding officer. At least that’s what they told us.”
“Okay, that makes more sense. If he was simply a deserter they’d probably have been satisfied with positive identification and the coroner’s report.”
“Price is the third in a string of murders with the same M.O. Two dead men in two other states killed by the same people.”
“There’s more than one killer?”
“Evidence suggests there were at least two on scene.”
“How common are serial killers working in pairs?”
“Not rare, but not common. There’ve been several high-profile cases—the Hillside Stranglers; several male-female partnerships, where the woman lures the victim into the trap; Bittaker and Norris, who were prison buddies and started a killing spree when they got out. There’s usually a dominant and submissive— Why am I telling you this?”
“It’s interesting.”
“You don’t need me to teach you Forensic Profiling 101,” Megan said.
“I don’t usually draw such violent cases.”
It was Megan’s turn to laugh. “Perhaps not serial murderers, but don’t forget I’ve known you for a long time.”
“I could never forget that,” he said, perhaps too seriously, or maybe because Megan was on pins and needles. “What would you like me to do?”
“If I can’t get the evidence back, do you think you can find out what’s going on? I am particularly interested in the autopsy report and any trace evidence report. The Sacramento Police Department isn’t letting go; the detective in charge is digging into the victim’s background, his last few weeks, trying to put together some sort of victimology profile, plus following up on one lead we had before the CID took our case. But without the autopsy report, a weapon analysis, and a comparison of the needle marks with the previous victims, it’ll be hard to tie him into the other two murders. I need to be sure we’re dealing with the same killer, or the joint investigation could be compromised.”
“Why? If you have two other victims, why is this one so important?”
“If there are three known victims attributed to the same killer, where the M.O. is similar and there is a cooling off period, that puts these killers into the serial murderer category and they’re most likely to kill again. It frees up staff and resources at the federal level, and when we’re competing with other, higher-priority squads like counterterrorism and
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