Page 28 of The Devoted Game
“Devoted Fan thoroughly erased his digital footprints again,” Worth said to those present in the conference room. “Quantico can’t give us a profile on the unsub until we can give them something to work with. We’re still pretty much left in the ‘react’ mode.”
Ryan, like the others, listened patiently. Worth had insisted on daily briefings that included Aldridge, Pratt, Schaffer, and Davis, though Schaffer was missing in action. The briefings were a good idea. These agents were his and Grace’s backup, Ryan didn’t expect them to be left in the dark. The goal, however, was to keep as tight a lid on this operation as possible, using local law enforcement only when necessary. The Bureau didn’t like airing its dirty laundry in public, most especially when it involved an ex-agent whose departure from service had already caused a considerable scandal.
Ryan’s interest slid across the table to Grace. The silver top she wore beneath that black jacket sported a scooped neck thatalmostgave a hint of cleavage. When she’d unbuttoned her jacket and taken a seat across the table from him, he had been pleasantly surprised. Her hair was restrained in a shiny silver clasp that held it ponytail-style at the nape of her slender neck. Maybe the lady really wasn’t the ice princess he had first labeled her.
Or maybe he’d succeeded in setting her thermostat to thaw.
“Davis, where are we on that list of names?” Worth asked.
Ryan’s focus snapped back to the head of the table. This was the first he had heard about a list of names. He shouldn’t be surprised. What the hell had he expected? He wasn’t going to be treated like an equal. There wasn’t anyone in this room who wanted him here. His participation was a necessary evil.
Davis shuffled the pages in front of him. “We’ve come up with more than five thousand hits.”
Worth rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you brief everyone about this list and we’ll do a little brainstorming to see if we can come up with some criteria for narrowing it down.”
Davis glanced at Ryan as if he dreaded explaining himself. “SAC had me come in at five this morning and start pulling together a list of names in the Bureau’s incoming mail database.” Davis tugged at his collar as if he needed to make room for spitting out what came next.“Letters and emails either addressed to McBride or with a subject line that related to him or one of his cases.”
Grace leaned forward to look past Aldridge. “And there were over fivethousand?”
Guess the lady didn’t fully comprehend just how popular Ryan once was.
Davis nodded. “And I only got it down to five thousand after I narrowed the search parameters to work-related emails. There were a lot more asking for dates and ... offering marriage.” Davis tapped the stack of pages and smirked. “You had yourself a regular fan club, McBride. Just like a rock star.”
That explanation didn’t appear to sit too well with Grace. She leaned back in her chair, her face impassive, as if she couldn’t care less. “Shall we differentiate the sexes?” she suggested to Worth, not sparing Ryan a glance. “Are we operating under the assumption that our unsub is male or female?”
“Considering the rats,” Ryan said, waiting for her to meet his gaze. She refused. “I’d lean toward male, but that’s just me. Maybe I prefer to believe my female fans wouldn’t be quite so hardcore.”
She looked at him then, her dark eyes flashing with disdain. “I’ve met one of your female fans, McBride. I wouldn’t rule out that possibility.”
Obviously she was still ticked off about the shoe comment. He angled his head in a gesture of touché, and she redirected her attention to the SAC.
“It just so happens,” Davis piped up, “that I did that. Eighty percent are female.” He looked at Ryan now with something that resembled admiration.
Clearly not impressed and certainly not in awe of Ryan, Worth asked him, “Any other parameters you’d recommend for narrowing down the list?”
“Go backward,” Ryan suggested.
Worth looked skeptical. “Backward?”
To Davis, Ryan explained, “Look for repeat offenders. Whoever Devoted Fan is, male or female, this unsub has followed my career for some time, not just one case.”
“And how do you know that?” Worth challenged. “Other than that one line where he referred to you as his ‘old friend,’ what else is there?”
“Forty-one,” Grace said, with an I-got-this-one look at Ryan. “That’s the number of high-profile cases you solved during your career.”
There had been a lot more than forty-one cases, but she was right, there was exactly that number that had captured the media’s as well as the nation’s attention, spanning from year one all the way until the curtain call. Tragedy TV. There were those who couldn’t resist watching ... like passing a car wreck ... the horrors.
“I thought it was strange,” Ryan said, his gaze lingering on her then looking from her to Worth, “that the unsub would select forty-one hours as the allotment of time for rescuing Alyssa Byrne. Most of these scumbags are rather anal. They work with nice round numbers, like twenty-four or forty-eight. Forty-one was a clue. We just didn’t see it right away.” By “we” he meant Worth, but no need to piss the guy off this early in the day.
“Secondly,” he continued, addressing Davis with this part, “look for mail with northern Alabama, southern Tennessee, eastern Mississippi zip codes. Our unsub isn’t far away.”
“That may be a waste of time,” Grace countered, “if the unsub has moved in the past three years.”
“True,” Ryan agreed, “but it’s a usable parameter that could be advantageous.”
“What about relatives or close friends?” Aldridge spoke up. “Is there anyone you can think of who would want some sort of revenge for the Bureau’s decision three years ago?”
One corner of Ryan’s mouth twitched. “You mean, besides me?”