Page 93 of Line of Sight

DAN STOODin front of the whiteboard, Greg Collins’s face staring back at him.

His poor wife and children.His heart went out to them. No one deserved to go through something so horrific. Most of the Homicide detectives seemed shell-shocked by the murder, but when one detective had made an ill-considered comment about the need for a closed casket, Travers had torn him a new one. So far they’d kept the murder out of the media, but the news blackout wouldn’t last long.

“Was Greg telling the truth when he called us?” Riley mused.

Dan had given that a lot of thought. “I think so. Don’t get me wrong. I believe the killer got him to make that call. It had to be something big to lure us to Dartmouth, right? And I’ll bet what he told us was all true. What Brad wrote in one of his books confirms the Secret Murder Club. As to whether Greg really was in fear for his life? Again, he had to say something like that to get us to trust him. But you know whatIthink?” He turned to face Riley. “It wasn’t just a line to sound convincing. I don’t believe he wasthatgood an actor. No, I think he really was scared. I don’t know what the killer told him would happen once he’d made that call, but I’ll bet whatever it was, it came as a total surprise.”

The door opened, and Gary entered. “Looks like we could have our killer.”

Riley’s face lit up. “Anthony King checked out, then?”

Gary nodded. “The Canadian police checked their unsolved murders and came up with five possibles. So unless it’s a huge coincidence—” He glanced at Dan, his lips twitching. “—you know, those things I don’t believe in.”

Dan picked up a pen. “When did the murders take place?”

Gary read from a sheet, and Dan wrote them on the board.

2001—Kevin Tyler

2003—Eliza Deacon

2004—Liam Anderson

2007—Amelia Hall

2009—David Bastien.

Riley went over to look at them. “The same MO? Based on thrillers?”

Gary replaced the sheet in a folder before handing it to him. “That’s foryouto tell us, Mr. Expert.”

Riley grinned. “I’m on it.”

“But one thing did stand out. Some of the bodies were skinned.”

“I wonder if he did as neat a job as he did with Greg?” Dan pondered. He stilled. “Maybe they were his first attempts.”

“Obviously, King wanted to keep his skills honed.”

Dan stroked his chin. “Thereisanother explanation. He missed it. The killing, I mean.” He jerked his head in Gary’s direction. “And now we need to find Senator Kelly and Jennifer Sullivan. Fast. They’re not stupid. They have to see what’s happening.”

“You mean they have to know they’re next,” Riley observed.

A thought occurred to him. “The Canadian murders… was King connected in any way to the victims?”

Gary shook his head. “It doesn’t appear so. It’s almost as if he picked them at random, on the spur of the moment.”

Dan wasn’t so sure. “No, that’s not it. This guy does plan, but they’re sort of… planned murders of opportunity. He probablywatches for patterns, but he doesn’t get to know his victims. He doesn’twantto know them.”

“I disagree.” Riley pointed to the original victims. “He had to know something about them. Sure, he could’ve watched Heather Kelly and noticed she usually worked late. But what led him to kill Mark Wilson in Acadia? Information. What led him to kill Scott McCarthy while he was out on one of his runs? Information.”

Dan nodded. “But those were sort ofmurders to order. What if the Canadian murders were all him?”

Riley handed him a sheet on which was printed Anthony King’s photo from his driving license. Dan stuck it on the whiteboard.

“So this is probably our killer.” He stared at the image, burning it into his mind.

Wavy black hair streaked with gray, swept up off his face. Dark brown eyes. A black-and-gray beard. An intense gaze.