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The scene was every bit as gruesome as Detective Cuthbert described. Maybe it wasn’t as gruesome as Marcus Reeves’ torn throat, but Faith didn’t have to see that face to face. She was staring at an exploded eyeball dripping down Dr. Clement’s left cheek right now, and that was among the worst things she had ever seen at a crime scene.

“How long would it take to do something like this?” Faith asked.

"There aren't any hooks here," Cuthbert replied, "so that means he carried them out with him. That means that he probably held a few in each hand and twisted them to look like bird talons squeezing. Didn't do a very good job, but that's par for the course. He's the most incompetent murderer I've ever seen, who is somehow also freaking impossible to find."

“We need to figure out if any other researchers were caught up in the backlash when Dr. Clement went off the rails,” Michael said. “Then see if any of them knew our other victims.”

“That doesn’t seem likely,” Cuthbert said. “I mean, I’ll look into it, but the difference between Dr. Clement and Alison Chen is the same as the difference between me and a mental patient who thinks they’re Sherlock Holmes.” He looked back at the body. “Although I guess Dr. Clement was flirting with insanity herself.”

A thought occurred to Faith. “I agree with Michael. We should look into other wildlife researchers, particularly animal behaviorists.”

Michael’s eyes widened in surprise. He clearly didn’t expect Faith to agree with him. Cuthbert seemed surprised as well. He raised an eyebrow and said, “You guys are the serial killer experts. Tell me what I’m missing here.”

“I think our killer might be trying to modify human behavior the way Dr. Clement was trying to modify animal behavior. He’s killing his victims using the tools of the animals they worked closely with to send a message to others that abusing animals will only hurt us in the end.”

Clement still wasn’t convinced. “I mean… I see where you’re going with that, but you can’t really modify someone’s behavior when you’ve killed them. And these are not accidents. He has very much killed all four of these people.”

“Yes,” Faith agreed, “and I don’t think you can modify eagle behavior by shocking them until they learn to avoid pooping on cars and eating people’s pet cats. But if Dr. Clement was loopy enough to think she could, then maybe our killer is loopy enough to think that he’ll make a difference in the world by killing people who don’t behave the way he thinks they should.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve met a killer who thought that way,” Michael added.

Cuthbert shrugged. “Well, like I said, you guys are the serial killer experts. Council Bluffs isn’t exactly the murder capital of America, so I’ll admit I’m a little bit a lot out of my depth. I’ll go read some news articles.”

He turned to leave, pausing when he saw Turk sniffing carefully up and down the gate that led to the yard outside. He wisely kept whatever thoughts the sight gave him to himself.

When he was gone, Michael cleared his throat. “Listen, Faith. I’m sorry about—”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Faith said curtly, “and sorry won’t even be close to good enough.”

Michael lowered his head and didn’t reply. Faith looked down at her body and said, “See if you can figure out how this went down: how the killer entered, how he approached Dr. Clement, if she fought back, and so forth. Maybe we’ll gain some insight into the killer’s MO.”

“Sure. You got it.”

Faith left him and walked to Turk. “Hey, buddy.”

Turk looked at her and shook his head, groaning in frustration. Faith squatted beside him and stroked his fur. “It’s okay, buddy,” she said, fighting another lump forming in her throat. “You’re doing your best. You’re a good boy.”

Turk looked back at the fence and cautiously resumed his inspection. “Did you find something, boy?” she asked, hoping against hope that there might be some sort of logical explanation for his behavior.

Turk looked at her, then back at the fence. Finally, he snorted and dipped his head, then moved deeper into the aviary. Faith stayed where she was and watched him walk away. She lowered her eyes and stared at his pawprint in the dirt in between a couple of shrubs.

She had fought so hard to get his retirement postponed. She had gone to bat for him against three members of the Bureau so high-ranking that even the Boss was intimidated by them. All of that, and barely a month later, Turk was already nearing the end. She thought she would get at least a few more years with him. At least two.

You’re going to have to let him go someday, Faith.

The voice in her conscience was that of Supervisory Special Agent Gordon Clark, an old friend and mentor of hers who was one of Franklin West’s last victims before Faith discovered his identity as the Copycat Killer and drove him out of Philadelphia. Faith hadn’t thought about him in a while. Maybe it was because West had killed him to get her attention, and now the Messenger was out there killing people to get her attention.

“I know,” she said softly. “But…”

She let her voice trail off. Clark’s voice said, I know it’s hard. That’s the price we pay to have creatures as awesome as dogs. They don’t live very long. The fact is that Turk probably won’t see you turn forty and definitely won’t see you turn forty-five. It sucks. It’s hard. It’s terrible. It’s unavoidable.”

She lowered her head and wiped tears from her eyes. “I know. I know, I just hate it.”

Look, don’t give up yet. There’s a reason the Bureau allows retests. Humans make mistakes, and even good vets like David screw up sometimes. Let’s wait to see how Turk does with the retest. As for the smells here? Well, open your own nose. These scenes aren’t exactly the freshest.

She chuckled and wiped tears from her face again. “Yeah, I know. You’re right. Damn, I wish you were actually here right now. You understood me even better than Michael does.”

“Faith?”

She shot to her feet when she heard Michael’s voice. Her partner lifted his hands placatingly. “I think I know what happened.”

She took a deep breath and ran her hand over her hair. “Yes. Sorry. Talk to me.”

“Well, I think we’re on the right track that this was someone Dr. Clement knew. There’s no sign of forced entry here or in the house.”

“So he was let inside?”

“Yes. I believe he was let in through the aviary gate because there are actually working security cameras in the house.”

Faith’s spirits lifted when she heard that. That could explain why Turk was interested in the gate. Maybe his confusion came because the killer was masking his scent, and Turk couldn’t quite get a full whiff.

“And Grace didn’t see him?” she asked.

“No. And before you ask, no, she wasn’t the killer. The driveway cams capture her car pulling in about four minutes before the police were called. About twenty minutes before that, they show Dr. Clement reacting to a noise from the aviary and going to check it out.”

“That’s when the killer arrived.”

“Yes.”

“And there are no cameras in the aviary?”

“None here and none in the basement. I’m guessing Dr. Clement didn’t want a record of her research.”

Faith nodded. “So the killer was known to Dr. Clement. I wonder if he was known to the other victims?”

“Maybe. I don’t think so because there were signs of a struggle with Dr. Vasquez, but that could only be because she remained conscious longer. That’s the other big news. The first hook to Dr. Clement pierced her brainstem.”

Faith winced. “So she was dead before all the rest of the mutilation.”

“Yes. She didn’t suffer. That’s the silver lining, I guess.”

“Yeah. I guess lights out is better than a slow, cold descent. Good work, Michael.”

He gave her a half-smile, but she could see the pain in his eyes. Well, he deserved it. He’d said some really hurtful stuff, and it killed her that he would just decide to drive her to the airport without even a conversation first.

But she would deal with that later. They had a case to solve first.

Faith called to Turk, and the three agents walked into the house. Faith looked around for Detective Cuthbert, and Michael said, “He’s in the basement. I ran into him when I was looking at the cameras.”

They headed downstairs to find the detective looking through a sheaf of papers and taking notes. Faith glanced at the basement and had to agree with Detective Cuthbert. She didn’t know what all of the odd tables, cages, machines and other equipment did, but it looked an awful lot like a sanitarium from a horror movie. She wondered if Grace knew about all of this and genuinely believed the ends were worth the means or if this place was off limits to the assistant. That made her wonder if Dr. Clement’s motives were as noble as she claimed or if the doctor simply enjoyed the power she had over defenseless creatures.

Something to think about, Special Agent. Ask yourself if the world isn’t better off without them in it.

Detective Cuthbert looked up and said, “Good. I was just about to call you. I think we found our guy.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Dr. Victor Lawson. Also an animal behaviorist. Extremely well-regarded but suffered from the aftershock of Dr. Clement’s fall from grace.”

“They worked together?”

“Yes. It looks like Dr. Lawson was a mentor to Dr. Clement. Taught her a lot of his methods for interpreting animal behavior. When she started quoting his research in her defense of her behavior modification efforts, he cut off ties with her and denounced her methods as immoral. There was a brief back and forth between the two of them in a couple of publications before people finally stopped wanting to listen to Dr. Clement at all. It looks like Dr. Lawson is still getting good work consulting with zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, but the scientific community has pulled back. They haven’t abandoned him, per se. He still publishes, but it’s all his own research. He’s not working with any of the major universities or think tanks anymore.”

“Any sign that he blames Dr. Clement for his fall from grace?”

“Nothing explicit, but Alison Chen was his intern for a summer, and he was hired by Marcus Reeves when James Hawkins refused to train animals for him anymore. That didn’t work out either since Dr. Lawson was likewise appalled at the condition of the animals.”

“Let me guess,” Michael said. “He was involved with Dr. Vasquez too.”

“Yes. Personally involved.”

Faith raised an eyebrow. “Ah.”

"Yep. Left her when her drinking on the job became publicly known. That damaged his reputation for a little while, too."

“So why now?” Michael asked. “Some of these events occurred years ago.”

“Yes, but it wasn’t until last year when Dr. Clement burned him that he suffered any serious damage. People pretty quickly started to pity him for Dr. Vasquez drinking, and zoos forgave him for his actions when it became clear that Reeves was unethical. I don’t think anyone held firing Alison Chen against him.”

“So this was the straw that may have broken the camel’s back,” Faith summarized.

“Looks that way.” Cuthbert checked his watch. “We have a couple of hours of daylight left. You guys want to take a ride to Dr. Lawson’s property?”

Faith nodded and looked at Turk. “How about it, boy? Ready to catch a bad guy?”

Turk barked exuberantly.

“The leader has spoken,” Cuthbert said. “Let’s go.”

Faith cautioned herself not to get her hopes up too much. Their other leads hadn’t worked out. But she felt good about this one. She was sure they had the real killer in their sights.

She could only hope that this time, her intuition was telling her the truth.