Page 5 of Line of Sight

Gary smiled. “For you? Several, especially after you did all this.” He gestured to the board.

“How did you find these cases?” Dan asked. “I mean, apart from the fact that they’re all unsolved and particularly gruesome.”

“Once I’d found all the unsolved murders, I ran them through my computer to search for anything else that linked them.”

“And what linked these?”

“The same names kept cropping up. Then I searched through tax records to locate those names and pulled up any murders occurring in the same vicinity. What made me stick with these? They were all motiveless.” Barry flung his arm out. “Et voila.” Then he gave them an apologetic glance. “And as for why I’m here. Much as I hate to increase your workload… I’ve found another one.”

Chapter Two

“WELL, AREN’Tyou the little overachiever?” Gary quipped.

Barry shrugged. “I know you said to start with Brad’s case, but something told me to double-check, so I went back a little further.” He handed Gary a manila folder. “And I found this. From January 1995.”

Gary opened it, and his gorge rose at the sight. There was no doubt the subject matter was as gruesome as the others.

“Great. Now I have to redo my board,” he declared with an eye roll. He wasn’t serious, but anything was better than dealing with another grisly death.

And this one was every bit as grisly as Brad’s.

Dan shook his head, picked up the eraser, and got to work. “So who was this guy?”

Gary peered at the sheet of notes in the folder. “Scott McCarthy, aged twenty-two.” He handed Dan the headshot. “Died January 13, 1995. Sure was unlucky for him. Must’ve been a Friday.”

“It was,” Barry announced.

“You sure there are no more before him? You’re not going to waltz in here in an hour’s time and tell me you’ve found three more cases?”

“I checked Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, you name it. These are the only ones on VICAP that fit your MO.”

Dan took the crime-scene photo and attached it to the board in the new section he’d added, along with the headshot. “These can’t be the work of one killer. Okay, so they’re all brutal, horrific even, but they’re all different.”

Gary stared at the image of a man seated in a bathtub, an ax planted in his face across his mouth, creating a bloody grotesque smile.

Scott McCarthy made it five.

“You said you had some names for us?” Gary murmured, unable to tear his gaze away from the photos.

“I went through the list of attendees at that charity ball.” Barry tapped the folder in Gary’s hand. “I’ve included some names I think you should be looking at.”

“How did you arrive at them?” Dan asked.

“I ran all the reports through my software. These guys kept turning up. You’ll see what I mean when you go into the cases. And now that I’ve given you more work to do, I’ll get my ass out of here. You need anything else, you know where to find me.”

And with that, Barry left the office.

Gary located the list of names in the folder. “Okay, we’ve got Amy Walsh, Jason Kelly, Greg Collins, Jennifer Sullivan.” He wrote them on the board. “One of those names is kinda familiar.”

“It should be.” Dan pointed to one of the victims. “Heather Kelly. If they’re not related, that’s one huge coincidence. And I’ve got the list of attendees here.” He picked up a folder from his desk, removed the stapled list Sean Nichols had given them, and perused it. “Yup. They’re all in here.” He replaced the folder on his desk, then folded his arms. “Okay, we need to make a start. Want to start with Brad’s case?”

Gary shook his head. “No, we’ll take them in chronological order. But before we do, let’s get our resident psychologist in to give her opinion.”

He couldn’t see a pattern either, but maybe Kathy Wainwright could.

KATHY STOODin front of the board for several minutes, examining each photo. Dan leaned against Gary’s desk, sippinghis coffee while Gary read through the notes they’d received for each case.

At last she shuddered. “Not something you see every day.” She turned her head to gaze at them. “I can’t see a pattern, except of course that they’re all horrific cases.” She frowned. “You think these are all committed by one person?”