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There were subdued murmurs from the rest of the officers. “Tough break on Lawler,” Ian McManus said, and the other two agentsnodded.
“It was. We had the people out on the street, in the clubs, but…” Ethan shook his head. “Hard to know whether we missed her in the crowds or if she’d left by the time we hit theplaces.”
“To be that close,” muttered Steve Friedrich, who was clean-shaven today, but somehow still looked slightlydisheveled.
“Pretty damn frustrating,” Ethan agreed. “Some of you have updated me throughout the day, but to keep everyone on the same page, why don’t you summarize yourfindings?”
Ian McManus started. “Jonah and I caught up with an ex-girlfriend of Norton’s.” The second New Brunswick victim, Alexa recalled. With the assassin bug in his mouth. “And there’s a reason for she’s an ex because she hates the guy’s guts. She clapped when we told her he was dead. Claims that she didn’t know anything about how he made a living. Said when they were living together, he’d sometimes disappear for days and then reappear, saying he’d been ‘working.’ She did know that whatever he was doing during that time, he got paid in bitcoin forit.”
He looked down to consult some papers in front of him before continuing. “Five years ago she says he claimed someone was trying to blackmail him. He wouldn’t tell her for what, but he was stomping around and threatening to kill whoever itwas.”
“That sounds like what Fornier told us about Anis Tera and Simard,” Nylesaid.
“That’s what I thought. We found two computers at Norton’s apartment when we searched it, so hopefully, the forensic IT guys will find something on the oldermodel.”
Jonah Bannon spoke next. “I spent the day interviewing Henry Paulus’s colleagues and the chief at the fire department where he worked. The chief was real defensive about any hints that Paulus might have been a firebug. Guess he figures that reflects on him since he hired the guy. We didn’t get too much from the other firefighters, except two who admitted that they’d heard Paulus make some remarks that had them wondering. Edmonton had a half-dozen suspicious fires the previous year, all businesses. For every one of them, the owner was alibied tight. Out somewhere in public surrounded by people the night their places burneddown.”
“You think he was an arsonist forhire?”
Jonah nodded his shaved head at Ethan’s question. “Both of his colleagues brought up the possibility without any prompting fromme.”
It was Steve Friedrich’s turn. “I chased down the latest leads from the tip line we set up for anyone who might have seen our white cargo van in the vicinity of Fundy National Park while Paulus was there. It was a bust, asexpected.”
“As always, I appreciate your efforts. We got the go-ahead for a province-wide stop-and-search of every older white Econoline van. You can track the ones in New Brunswick. We’re looking for alibis for all four recent homicides.” The three Mounties nodded in unison. “Nyle has finished with the toll-road cameras which catch vehicles entering Nova Scotia from New Brunswick on both driving routes. He’ll pass those on. Same protocol. Any of the owners farther than a couple of hours away from can be left to local RCMPdepartments.”
“Did you find anything of value at the crime scene?” McManusasked.
“The forensic ident unit got clear casts of tire marks left by the van,” Ethan told them. He told them about the witness who’d led Nyle and Alexa there. “We also got some tire prints from what might have been a dolly and some footprints behind it. He would have wheeled the body through the woods and down to the water’s edge. It’s all more evidence to build the case against the offender, once he’s incustody.”
He looked at Nyle, who took the opportunity to fill in the other men about the delivery to Alexa thatday.
“This isn’t good, Doc.” The two older men flanking Steve nodded at his statement. “I mean, I’m not the profiler here, but once this guy starts engaging with a member of the task force, stuff getsfreaky.”
Smiling slightly, Alexa said, “That’s a pretty good description of today’s events.” Not for the life of her would she show just how much the delivery had shaken her. “But I look at it a bit differently. An offender changing his behavior after sticking with it so rigidly for years is indeed alarming. It can precede an escalation, or make him harder to predict. But it also offers opportunities to get inside his head a bit more. One thing I gleaned from his written communication today is that we might have an offender who believes he’s doing God’swork.”
The expressions on the officers’ faces showed just how unimpressed they were by that. “They all have some cop-out motivation,” Jonahremarked.
“Yes, one that absolves them of responsibility. But I want to tug on that thread a bit more. I might be able to use it when I communicate with the UNSUB directly. This deviation is useful to us because he’s now taking risks that he never has before. To have that…object delivered today, he had to linger in the vicinity of the dump site. Or he returned to the area,” Alexa corrected herself. “We have no way of knowing if he went back to his lair first. He spoke to someone who can offer a description. We may yet find a local business that picked him up on a security camera.” She and Nyle had gone to all the local businesses and asked them to check their feeds for the van or a man fitting Patrick’s description. “When he strays outside his usual comfort zone, he’s more apt to make mistakes. And one of them might help us catchhim.”
“He’s using a disguise, as I’ve noted in the update I sent you,” Ethan put in. “And according to our young witness, he has a limp. Right leg. That’s a detail we didn’t havebefore.”
Alexa wondered for the first time if the injury to the UNSUB’s leg came at Fornier’shand.
“Are you having a forensic artist work with the wit?” This fromJonah.
Ethan nodded. “The boy’s parents agreed to bring him to Halifax RCMP tomorrow morning for thatappointment.”
“Maybe you’ll get it in time to include it in tomorrow’s pressconference.”
“If it’s available we’ll use it. Even with the wig and mustache the offender sported, it gives us another drawing of the guy. The more accurate the sketches are, the more he’s going to feel like the walls are closing in on him.” Ethan’s voice held a note of certainty. “We’ve got descriptions of him and the vehicle he drives. The net is getting tighter, gentlemen. When he realizes that, he’s going to panic. And when that happens, we’ll bethere.”