Page 7

He looked as though she’d surprised him with the question. “So far, all identified victims lived within an hour of where their bodies were discovered. Simard is an outlier. A Montreal resident found in Nova Scotia. We’re still waiting for an ID on one of the victims recently found in NewBrunswick.”
“Male?” At his nod, Alexa continued, “And another one not in RAFIAS?” The lack of a hit in the national fingerprint system meant he’d never been arrested like many of the othervictims.
“Hard to tell. His hands were burned so badly there was no way to pull a print fromthem.”
She recalled the photo from the file she’d looked at on the plane. “The UNSUB obviously wasn’t trying to prevent identification since he’s never bothered with the other victims.” She mulled the information over. “The file said the injuries didn’t cause his death. And the other man found in New Brunswick…Albert Norton. He had the number twenty-eight carved into his back.” She considered—and dismissed—the idea of a copycat killer. Ethan seemed certain the details about the dragonfly had never been made public. And the dragonfly was too specific to believe a second person would also useit.
She creased the wrapper in her hand with a thumbnail. Victim selection and offender motivation went hand in hand. Right now, both were puzzling. “Is he striking at random, with the intent to cover the entire country? Maybe to strike fear into each area. That might be about wielding power. No one is safe.” She was thinking outloud.
Nyle finally tore his attention away from the computer and straddled his chair to face them. “We’ve considered that,” he put in. “Because we can find almost no connections between the victims, the task force has long thought the offender might be someone who travels regularly. A salesman, a long-distance trucker, something like that. Years ago, they even got lists from trucking companies of employees who made long runs and tried to match them to the locations of the murders. Nothing came of it. As for salesmen,” he shrugged, “no way to track that, so it’s another unknown. And this case is chock-full of them.” There was an unfamiliar grim expression on his wide, normally genialface.
“All of the bodies are found near ponds, marshes, rivers or lakes. No oceanshoreline.”
“Of course.” She nodded at Ethan’s remark as she got up to cross to the trash to drop her wrapper in it. “And he takes some care with the dumpsites, doesn’t he? From the most recent crime scene photo, it appears he selected a placid area of the river, avoiding nearby rapids or the Bay of Fundytides.”
“It’s more isolated,” Ethan pointed out, finally putting the cell down to look ather.
“There’s that. But he also wouldn’t want the body disturbed by rising tides. He’s gone to a great deal of trouble with it. Hewantsyou to find the dragonfly. He likely sews the lips of the victims shut to make sure his calling card isn’t disturbed until the body is discovered.” Yes, that would be important to him, Alexa mused. To take credit for the kill, or to taunt police, perhaps. “He leaves victims in areas near bodies of water where dragonflies are normally found. Except,” she corrected herself as she made her way back to her chair at the desk pushed into the corner of the room, “you wouldn’t find this particular dragonfly there because they’re not indigenous to this part of theworld.”
“So why is that?” Ethan demanded. “What’s he telling us by leaving it with hisvictims?”
The question had nagged at her since first hearing about the case. “It could be any number of things,” she admitted, tucking back a strand of hair that escaped from the knot she’d fixed it in that morning. She saw Ethan track the action with his gaze and her fingers faltered. This collaboration wasn’t going to work if his every look threatened to yank her twenty years in the past. It took a moment to regain her focus. “Maybe he’s telling us where he’sfrom.”
“That lead was exhaustively examined at the beginning of the case. It didn’t goanywhere.”
She nodded, not at all bothered by Ethan’s curt tone. “TheRhyothemis fuliginosais beautiful. Exotic. The offender could be saying he’s exotic, too. Different from anyone you might have tracked before. Or he’s beautifying his victims. Dragonflies are symbols of transformation and rebirth. He might be saying that he’s giving his victims newlife.”
“By killingthem?”
Alexa inclined her head at Nyle’s question. “It’s a mistake to try to consider a serial offender’s motive through a rational lens. Often, it only makes sense to them. Canada has slightly more lenient policies about importing insect samples than does the States, but it’s heavily regulated and importation leaves a paper trail. Which I’m sure you’ve already looked into.” She didn’t wait for Ethan’s nod before going on. “That leaves smuggling, which would easy enough, given the size of the cargo and maybe that’s how he began. But now, he’s probably either breeding the dragonflies or getting them from someone who is. There didn’t appear to be any preservative substance on the sample at the morgue, although it will take more testing to be certain. It’s been dead only a few days.” She glanced at Ethan’s face and guessed, “You already knewthat.”
“They brought in a forensic entomologist from a university several years ago who ran tests and told us the same thing. It was his guess that the offender believed he was transforming the victims in some way, as you said.” Ethan stopped pacing long enough to slip out of his suit coat. He folded it and draped it over a chair before he began prowling the room again. “We have no descriptions of the killer. No witnesses. We’ve guessed he might be slight, shorter than average. He makes up for that disadvantage by attacking the victims from behind. At one time, we even considered with that manner of attack, the presumed methods of killing might mean we’re looking for awoman.”
“Except she’d still have to get the drugged victim to a vehicle and haul a body to the water…” The bothersome detail that had escaped her earlier finally snapped into place and she said slowly, “Or maybe it isn’t about transformation atall.”
She saw the look the two men exchanged as she surged from her chair, the act of moving helping to shift her thoughts into place. “Do you know what the fiercest predator on the planetis?”
“Uh…a lion? Maybe a cheetah. They’re faster,right?”
Unlike Nyle, Ethan didn’t hazard a guess. Just watched her with that pale unfathomable gaze. She strode across the room and back again, certainty growing with each step. “It’s adragonfly.”
Ethan snorted. “Abug.”
“You’d be surprised at just how vicious insects can be. In enclosures dragonflies are known to capture ninety to ninety-five percent of all their prey. They have the best vision on Earth. They’re doubly effective as a great white and four times more so than a lion,” she said with a nod in Nyle’s direction. “They can see every angle except for behind them.” She stopped behind Ethan. “And theirs is an ambush predation. They come up behind their prey and—” She reached out to gently touch him on the back of the head. Then snatched her hand away, her fingertips tingling from their gentle brush against his hair. “It never sees themcoming.”
Ethan turned his head to stare at her. “Blitzkrieg attacks,” hemuttered.
“Like the killer,” she agreed. She took a step away to increase the distance between them. Then another. “Maybe you’re right about his physical description. Similar to the dragonfly, he’s been dismissed. Underestimated. People don’t look beyond the surface to suspect what he’s capable of. Until it’s toolate.”
“An interesting theory.” There was no inflection in Ethan’s voice, but she could tell he was considering herwords.
“The dragonfly is about him. The second insect is about thevictim.”
“So what’s a bat bug tell us aboutSimard?”
“Something important the offender wants us to know about the man. I need pictures of the insects you took from the last two victims’ mouths. I assume the samples are at the crimelab.”
Ethan nodded. “All evidence goes toOttawa.”