Conduit (13 page)

Lionel balanced two coffees, a lemon
Danish, and a file full of his notes on the case. He dodged other officers
threatening to steal his Danish in the bustling halls of the police station.
When he reached Conference Room B, he pushed open the door with his back,
almost spilling Shawn’s coffee.

Shawn rushed to Lionel’s aid. “You should have called me for
backup.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lionel said. He nodded good morning
to Detectives Reina Aurelio and Lawrence Timmons. “If Shawn had told me you were
coming, I would have brought more coffee.”

Timmons pointed to his mug on the table. “That’s why I
always bring my own. Can’t trust Brandt to do anything right.”

“You’re really going to start the meeting out like that?”
Shawn asked with an amused tone.

Lionel situated his notes on the table, making sure both his
Danish and coffee were within reach. “I think the mood is very telling of your dealings
with Dean Sheila Reynolds last night.”

“It couldn’t have gone better,” Aurelio said. “We have a new
lead.”

“So I hear,” Lionel said. “Tell me about it.”

“We started out by meeting with the dean,” Shawn said. “When
I brought up the idea that Lucy Kim may have been taken near the campus library,
we got what we expected. The college security is top-notch, there are ample
security guards around the campus at night to ensure that would never happen,
blah, blah, we’re so great, blah, blah.”

“I gave her a breakdown of the timeline you composed of Kim’s
last day,” Timmons said. “I let her know the campus library was the best place
for her to have been taken, but we understood if she believed otherwise. I told
her the only way to know what really happened would be taking a look at their ongoing
security measures at the library that time of night, along with any security
camera tapes of the area for the night in question.”

“And she probably told you she wasn’t obligated to share any
security tapes with you, to which you responded by threatening a subpoena,”
Lionel said.

“You got the first part right, sir,” Aurelio said, “but we
didn’t threaten a subpoena right away.”

Lionel shook his head at Aurelio calling him “sir” despite numerous
requests in the past not to do so. In her sixth month with the homicide division,
she was still hungry enough to remain formal with her superiors, especially
with Lionel, since he had recruited her for homicide.

Lionel gestured to the television at the front of the
conference room table. “Obviously you changed her mind somehow, or we wouldn’t
have a television parked in here with us.”

“I stepped up and did what needed to be done,” Shawn said.

Timmons’s laugh rolled across the table. “Brandt flirted
with her like they were college students ready to get it on.” He stressed the
last words in a singsong voice.

Lionel’s jaw dropped. That was the last thing he had
expected to hear this morning. Since his separation from Amber, Shawn had never
so much as hinted he would consider flirting with a woman.

Timmons slapped his hand on Shawn’s shoulder. “She was like
seventy or something, but that didn’t stop this young buck from using his best
moves. And his best really ain’t much.”

“What in the world happened there last night?” Lionel asked.

Shawn shrugged. “Someone had to take it for the team.”

“Too bad it didn’t work,” Timmons said, and let out another
roar.

“It helped,” Shawn said under his breath.

Aurelio didn’t appear happy with the lightheartedness of the
conversation. “Sir, after she declined Sergeant Brandt’s unorthodox advances, I
explained to her that if she didn’t want to help us, then that was her right. We
would get a subpoena, but on the way to talk to the judge, we might release a
statement to the press that the victim may have been taken from the campus and
we were seeking witnesses.”

Lionel’s eyebrows shot up. “Smart thinking.”

“Thank you, sir,” Aurelio said. “I let her know that even if
our hunch turned out to be inaccurate, that kind of publicity wouldn’t look
good for her or the university, especially after the rape they had on campus
last year. I also reminded her that everything about the case made the national
news. She agreed to turn over the tapes.”

Lionel beamed like a proud father. Aurelio was perfect for
the assignment, and she balanced out both Shawn and Timmons as he had expected.
She had also done enough homework to know about the previous crime on the campus,
and used that information in the perfect manner.

“That’s excellent work,” Lionel said. “The less time we
spend in front of a judge getting subpoenas, the better.”

“I still think the flirting helped,” Shawn mumbled.

“I’m sure it did,” Lionel said, “but first place goes to Aurelio
today. Let’s see the tape.”

“This is from the day our victim disappeared,” Aurelio said.
“It’s time stamped 5:46 p.m. The view is of the west side of the building.”

Aurelio picked up the remote in front of her and started the
tape, which showed vehicles and pedestrians moving through a parking lot near the
library. “I have it at half-speed now,” Aurelio said. “Keep your eye on the
lower right-hand corner.”

Black and white cars moved through the lot at varying
speeds, with an occasional student crossing the blacktop. Then he saw what Aurelio
wanted to show him. A person wearing a dark jacket with the hood up and head
held down came into view. From the large build of the person, Lionel surmised
it was a man. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his jacket, and he moved
at a slow, measured pace while others dashed about the parking lot. The man zigzagged
through parked cars, but never once stopped at a vehicle.

“Does the camera rotate at all?” Lionel asked.

“No,” Shawn said. “None of the cameras on the campus move.
Even though this is one of three cameras in the library parking lot, you can
only see him on this camera.”

Though Lionel had also guessed the person to be male, he
asked, “Do we know for sure it’s a man?”

“We find out really soon, sir,” Aurelio said.

After the man walked out of view, Aurelio fast-forwarded the
tape. When it reached 6:04, she slowed the action. The man came back into view
and walked almost the identical path as he did before.

“That’s definitely suspicious behavior,” Lionel said.

“Exactly,” Timmons said. “He holds to this pattern through
the rest of the tape. We think he doubled back around by going behind the
building. If he walked against the back of the library, there are no cameras
with the right angle to catch him on video.”

Twice more, in fifteen to twenty minute intervals, the man
maneuvered through the cars in the same manner. Then at 6:53, the man came back
into view for his fifth lap through the parking lot. This time, the hood of his
jacket did not cover his head. Despite the pixilation and the night shadows
creeping over the screen, Lionel could easily tell it was a man with short,
dark hair.

The man inched across the parking lot, weaving through the
few cars that remained. At every turn, though, there was not even a glimpse of
his face.

“This happens four more times. After we see Lucy Kim emerge
from the library, we don’t see him again,” Aurelio said.

“Because he grabbed her when she left,” Lionel said. He took
a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair, contemplating what needed to
be done next. “Timmons, I want you to get this tape along with the tapes from
the other library cameras to the lab. Let’s see if we can get them cleaned up.
We might be able to see at least part of his face. Figure out the makes and
models of the cars he walks between and calculate his height. He looks pretty
tall from what I can tell, and that could help us find him.”

Timmons retrieved the tape from the player and raced out of
the conference room without a word.

“Aurelio, you seem to have connected with Dean Reynolds, at
least on a threatening level. Take two uniformed officers with you back to her
office and let’s get our hands on all the other security tapes from the campus.
He may be seen leaving the campus in a car or we might catch him letting his
guard down in another part of the campus and get his whole face. Either way, I
want a few cops reviewing tapes around the clock to get through them as fast as
possible.”

Aurelio nodded and rose from the table to start her new
assignment.

“Just a second, Aurelio,” Lionel said.

Aurelio paused in the doorway. “Sir?”

“Let’s also get all the tapes from the campus starting the
day Diane Murphy’s body was found up through the day Lucy Kim disappeared.”

“Great idea,” Shawn said. “He probably started stalking her
as soon as he dumped Diane Murphy’s body. If he did, we might see him on an
earlier tape.”

“I’ll get a favor called in to start the work on a subpoena,”
Lionel said. “If Dean Reynolds doesn’t release the tapes willingly, let me know
and stay on her. With the evidence on this tape, we’ll have a subpoena within
minutes if it’s needed. I want you right there to get the tapes and bring them
back for review when the subpoena arrives.”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

After she left, Lionel leaned back in his chair and stared
at his half-eaten Danish.

“This could be the break we’ve needed,” Shawn said. “We have
one week to catch him before the feds come in. It’s a good thing for us if that
is him on the tape.”

“I know it’s him, but I also know he’s not going to show us
his face. It can’t be that easy, not with how careful he is.”

Shawn reached across the table and snatched the Danish. He
tore off the part where Lionel bit into it and stole the rest.

Lionel frowned, but didn’t confront him. They had been
partners long enough for Shawn to get away with a little thievery here and
there. They both knew Lionel had no intention of eating the rest of the pastry.

“When are Cassie and Emily coming by?” Shawn asked, with a large
bite of the Danish stuffed in his cheek.

Lionel consulted his watch. “In about twenty minutes.”

“Any idea how they fared at the memorial service?”

“Nope, but hopefully they got something for us to go on.”
Lionel lifted his coffee mug and swirled the cooling liquid around the bottom. “Why
did he walk around the library so many times? He risked someone seeing him and
calling security.”

“He was stalking her and she was in the library already,”
Shawn said. “He was completely fixated on Lucy Kim. She had to be his next
victim, and he was willing to take a risk that someone noticed him.”

“I guess if you think about it, a busy school campus really
isn’t that much of a risk,” Lionel said. “Unless a student passed by him a few
times, they might not even notice him. The kids we saw on the tape were solely focused
on getting to their destination.”

“It’s a good reason to choose that location,” Shawn said. “He
stalks the women so he knows they are what he wants, but he also stalks the
location where he plans on snatching them. He makes sure it’s the perfect spot
where he won’t get caught.”

“The school she works at said that she always leaves early
to go to classes on Thursday. Then she goes to the library. I bet she stays at
the library until closing every Thursday. He would have known that, but he
arrived at the library well before closing time, in case she altered her
routine and left early. He wanted to take her there, and he had to be sure he
would get her.”

“If she had left the library early, before he arrived, he
wouldn’t have taken her that night, but he also wouldn’t have waited another
week to take her from the library. He would have found another opportunity,
maybe even gone to her apartment.”

“No, he’s not a disorganized killer so he wouldn’t have
waited for a random opportunity.” Lionel pushed back his chair from the table and
stood up. Excitement coursed through his veins, fueled by the theory they were
forming. “But you’re right. He also wouldn’t have waited another week to take
her at the library. He would have had a backup plan. He doesn’t leave anything
to chance, so he would have made a contingency plan when he stalked her.”

“So let’s find out what that plan was.”

Lionel smiled. “He may have made a mistake when he was
scoping out a secondary location. Maybe there are cameras there as well.”

“But take it a step further. If he had a backup location for
Lucy Kim—”

“Then he had a backup location for the other women,” Lionel said.
“Pull a couple guys off the tip line and have them re-review the statements of
the families and friends. Let’s put together a detailed routine for each of the
women and identify where the secondary location to take them would have been.”
Lionel swallowed the rest of his coffee.

“We’ll check for cameras, witnesses, anything that can help.”
Shawn moved to the conference room door and paused before exiting. “We’re
getting closer,” he said. “We just need another mistake and we’ll get him.”

“Another mistake could mean another body. We have to find
him before that happens.”

Watching Cassie’s face as she examined
the photographs of a deceased Lucy Kim, Emily remembered why she didn’t want to
go to the police station that morning. The murders were like a toxic cloud that
floated over everyone who came across the case.

Just a half hour earlier, Cassie was bubbling over with
excitement at the prospect of seeing Shawn. In the parking lot, she had
adjusted the rearview mirror in her car to apply an extra sheen of lip gloss
and make sure every hair was in its rightful place. When they walked into the
conference room, her eyes expressed nothing but pleasure when Shawn greeted her
with a hug.

Cassie’s infectious smile disappeared upon opening the file.
Engrossed in the pages of reports and photographs, she didn’t notice Shawn
watching her with an unmistakable light in his eyes. Emily noted that Shawn had
just as much of a teenage crush on Cassie as she did on him, but neither one of
them were willing to make a move for fear of Lionel’s fatherly protectiveness.

Now was not the time for them to broach the idea of a
relationship or even a first date. The death of Lucy Kim drifted along the
thick, silent air in the conference room, and no one seated at the table dared to
speak. There was nothing anyone could say that would be appropriate at this
moment.

As Cassie examined the horrors contained within the flaps of
the case file, Emily reflected that the woman she heard calling her name just
two days earlier could very well have been Lucy Kim. The timing of her death,
as well as the murder of Diane Murphy, corresponded with the cries that invaded
Emily’s mind.

Combined with the automatic writings that were identical to
the message the killer left on the bodies, Emily could think of no other
explanation than it was the women calling out to her while being tortured. Yet based
on what Lionel and Shawn had told them about the murders, she had heard the
voices long after the women died, as if they were on some sort of psychic time
delay.

If the voices she heard were those of Lucy Kim and Diane
Murphy, then the voice she heard last night was a new victim who, while being
tortured, reached out to Emily for help. The automatic writing did not
accompany the voice, but the voice had been strong enough to get through on its
own. It caused Emily to become ill while a fog of darkness rolled through her
mind.

Since no body had been found, Emily surmised that the time
delay had been removed, and she heard the woman screaming while she was dying.
The darkness, however, perplexed Emily. It remained with her this morning,
clinging to the corners of her mind, but it was not propelled by one of the
victims. Emily shuddered at the thought that she might have opened a portal for
the killer. If he was like her, he was much stronger than any psychic she had
ever known.

Cassie closed Lucy Kim’s file, but kept her eyes focused on
the table. Lionel and Shawn watched her, waiting for a comment. When they first
arrived in the conference room, Emily declined the offer to look at the file. It
contained photographs of the body where it had been dumped, as well as autopsy
photographs, and Emily didn’t want to burn those images into her mind.

Cassie’s somber expression told Emily she made the right
decision. She was not easily shaken, but her pallid skin and repeated sighing expressed
that the images contained within the file were worse than she ever could have imagined.

She launched the file across the table in a swift slide toward
Shawn, who stopped it from flying off the edge. “I’ve seen a lot of dead
bodies,” she said. “With all the classes I took, we were shown some pretty
awful things. But that…” She pointed at the file and locked eyes with Shawn. “He’s
beyond sick.”

“I told you it wasn’t a good idea for you to look at it,”
Shawn said.

“No, I needed to see it. I might also need to drink a bottle
of vodka to sleep tonight, but it helps me better understand what we’re up
against.”

“So what are your thoughts?” Lionel asked.

“The profile the feds sent you is really good,” Cassie said.
“They are absolutely right that he’s a piquerist. A rather extreme case, but it’s
definitely piquerism.”

“What is that?” Emily asked.

“Piquerism is a type of killing style, if you will. It
describes the act of a killer who gets off on penetrating the skin of another. Sometimes
people include it in really crazy freaky sex, but for the most part when we
talk about someone being a piquerist, it’s in reference to a killer who stabs
his victims for sexual pleasure.”

“That’s what confuses me,” Shawn said. “We found no semen on
the body or at the dump site. None of the victims had any signs of rape or forcible
entry.”

“There doesn’t have to be,” Cassie said. “He would just need
to get some kind of sexual gratification from it. It’s possible he satisfied those
needs during or after the victim’s death, but washed off any of his fluids from
the body before dumping her.”

“Then maybe he could have done it later, and not near the
body so he could make sure no evidence was left behind by accident,” Emily
said.

“Anything’s possible,” Cassie said. “Whatever the case,
stabbing these women and slicing up their skin really turns him on. He gets
extreme pleasure from mutilating their bodies while they are alive.”

“When we spoke on Saturday, you also agreed with the feds
that he didn’t start killing here,” Lionel said.

“The pictures of the bodies only confirm that suspicion. His
earlier victims wouldn’t have suffered that much torture. As he killed more
women, he needed to go to greater lengths to satisfy his desires.”

“So he escalated to where he is now?” Emily asked.

“Exactly,” Cassie said. “From here, he will get bolder
because he’ll need more and more to achieve satisfaction. He might start taking
women in crowded places or in the middle of the day just to be more daring and
give him more of a thrill. Every part of the crime feeds his desires.”

“Some people theorize that serial killers might get tired or
they want to stop, so they purposely make mistakes to be caught,” Shawn said.

“This guy won’t stop,” Cassie said. “He doesn’t want to be
caught. He wants this to keep going as long as possible.”

“But becoming bolder may cause him to accidentally make
mistakes,” Lionel said.

“There’s something I don’t agree with on the profile the
feds sent over,” Cassie said. “They said he may be married or living with a
family member. They also said he may hold down a job. While those things are
true of a lot of organized killers, there’s no way this guy has a job or lives
with someone else. What he does requires not only complete isolation, but it
takes time. If he has a job and a wife, then he has the spottiest attendance
record at work and his wife probably suspects he is having an affair. I just
don’t think he can do what he does with those distractions. His whole life
revolves around these murders.”

Lionel scratched down notes on his legal pad of paper. “What
you’re saying makes perfect sense. I thought he also must live in a house
outside of the city, somewhere isolated.”

“We have a lot of that around here,” Shawn said. “But with
bodies being left in all parts of the city, there’s no way to tell in what area
he might be living.”

“You said that the message to the police was complete,”
Emily said to Lionel. “He carved ‘hear me’ on the bodies. If he isn’t going to
stop, does that mean there’s more to the message?”

Cassie shot Emily a look that told her she knew her question
was more than curiosity. “It’s possible,” she said.

“The guy has a plan,” Lionel said. “He has some sort of
mission or purpose, but we don’t know what that is. That’s what ‘hear me’
means. What he wants us to hear is still a mystery.”

“Do you have another body?” Emily asked.

“No,” Shawn said. “We’d like to keep it that way.”

Emily swallowed hard before her next question. Her questions
were a little too inquisitive and specific, but she had to know if her theory
about another victim dying last night was correct. “If he’s escalating, then
based on the timeframes of the other murders, is it possible he killed another
girl in the last 24 hours or so?”

“I really hope that he hasn’t,” Lionel said, “but I suppose
it’s possible.”

Cassie’s eyes drilled holes through Emily. They had been
friends for so long that one usually knew what the other was thinking, but she
had kept Cassie in the dark about the voices and the automatic writings. Cassie
would soon suspect something was wrong, if she didn’t already.

She needed to change the subject before Cassie got too
curious. “What else would you like us to help with?” she asked Lionel.

“We’re reviewing some family statements today,” he answered.
“We may ask you to interview some family members and see if you can get things
out of them that we didn’t.”

“I made a connection with Tara Murphy, Diane’s aunt,” Emily said.

Lionel wrote the name down. “Tara Murphy,” he said. “I don’t
recall that name from the family interviews.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Emily said. “From what she told
me, she’s the black sheep of the family. Diane and Tara were very close, even
if the rest of her family wasn’t accepting of Tara. If we need to interview her
family, then Tara is the one we would want to talk to. She knew Diane a lot better
than the rest of the family.”

“Great,” Shawn said. “I’m sure you two will do just as well
with the other families if we need you to talk to them.”

She realized Cassie had been silent for quite some time. She
appeared to be mulling over Emily’s questions and trying to derive some sort of
meaning. “Cassie, did you want to look at the rest of the files while we’re
here?” she asked in an attempt to engage her in the conversation and stop her
from overthinking.

“I do, but it’s a lot to go through. It may take a few
hours.” Cassie turned to Emily. “Are you able to stick around for that long?”

“I have, um, an appointment at eleven,” Emily said. “Do you
mind if I take the car and you can hitch a ride back with someone?”

“I can take Cassie back to your office,” Shawn said.

Cassie did a poor job at hiding her smile. “That works for
me, but don’t lie, Em. You don’t have an appointment. You have a lunch date
with a boy.”

Lionel flipped his notepad to a new page. “What’s his name?”

“Jake Hanley,” Emily said. She held out her hand to stop
Lionel’s pen from moving over the paper. “You don’t have to check up on him,
Uncle Leo. He works for Nathan Wolk and no one gets through those doors without
passing a very detailed background check.”

“Nathan Wolk?” Shawn asked. “Isn’t that a conflict of
interest given your history with him?”

Emily wanted to smack Cassie for bringing up the subject,
but she opted for verbal revenge. “Not any more of a conflict than you driving
Cassie back to our office.”

Cassie jumped to her feet and cleared her throat. “Uncle
Leo, why don’t I take a look at the other files now? If you do need us to interview
family members, I’d like to familiarize myself with them first.”

“Sounds good,” Lionel said. “Shawn, take Cassie to our
office and review the files with her. I’m going to check in with Aurelio and
see how we’re coming on those security tapes.”

Shawn motioned for Cassie to follow him, and then pointed at
Emily. “You let us know if that boy doesn’t treat you right.”

Emily couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ll make sure he knows
that.” She waved goodbye.

After they walked out the door, her smile faded. Even though
the meeting ended on a light note, the darkness still twisted in her mind. She wanted
it gone, and hoped eventually it would go away on its own, although she knew
better. She never should have opened up her mind in the first place.

“Are you okay, Emily?” Lionel asked. “You seem a bit
distracted this morning.”

Emily forced a smile. “I’m okay, Uncle Leo. I guess I’m just
a little focused on my date.”

“Is he a good guy?”

“The best. I think you and Aunt Barbara will really like him,”
she said without thought, the words surprising her.

“We’re already to the point of meeting the family?”

Emily scrunched up her face and red crept across her cheeks.
“I just mean if it gets to that point, you two will like him. Today’s only the
second date.”

“Sounds like he made quite the impression on you for only
one date,” he said. He studied her face for a moment. “If this case is too much
for you, just let me know. I won’t think anything less of you if you want to
walk away from it. Quite frankly, I’m worried about both you and Cassie being a
part of it. I shouldn’t have brought it to you in the first place.”

Emily hesitated. It was the out she had been looking for, and
Lionel was sincere with his words. “It is a tough case, but I think we’re okay.”

She cringed at her necessary lie. Someone wanted her on this
case, and now they seemed to be in her head. She feared if she walked away from
the case now, she would never discover how to get rid of the darkness.