Page 48 of The Grave Artist (Sanchez & Heron #2)
“Well, at least we’ll go down together,” Carmen said as she put down her cola.
She sat across from Heron at a corner table in a small diner a few blocks from HSI’s Long Beach headquarters. They had agreed to have a private meeting to discuss their next steps. It had taken them less than three minutes to decide not to follow the deputy director’s absurd orders.
“The dynamic duo,” Heron said, touching the rim of his cup to hers in a mock toast. “Or maybe Thelma and Louise—this could go either way.”
Since HK had started his macabre spree, the two had eaten next to nothing, and presently were working on a BLT, in her case, and tuna salad in his.
Heron was sticking with coffee. She supposed the cola wasn’t good for her, but try telling that to a person who wears a semiautomatic pistol on her hip and, occasionally, uses it to defend herself.
“I just hope whatever charges of insubordination we face won’t blow back on Williamson,” she said. “Reynolds is out for blood.”
“I figure we have maybe a day before he catches on,” he said. “Let’s make good use of our time. So. HK. What do we know about him? Other than that?”
He was pointing to his tablet, on which the murder board was visible. She noticed his eyes lingering on a box in the lower-right-hand corner. It was devoted to the attack on Frank Tandy.
“You go first,” she said, aware his mind worked differently than hers and interested in hearing his current theory. “Let’s add to the profile.”
“I’d say right-handed, with an extremely high IQ. He has some money but he’s also successfully self-employed, works out regularly, is short tempered but struggles to control it.”
“How the hell would you know all that?”
“I study intruders for a living. And that describes HK to a T.”
“Explain.” She started with something provable. “How would you know he’s right-handed? I looked at the knife marks in Frank’s jacket. You couldn’t tell from that. Equal number right or left.”
“But the footprints. He was slightly to the left of Frank’s back.”
“Ah. Good.” She was impressed but annoyed she hadn’t tipped to it too—and that he hadn’t shared this previously. “And the high IQ?”
Heron shrugged. “His plans are meticulous. We only know of three people he’s killed, but there could be plenty more.
He’s figured out how to pass murders off as accidents.
It’s hard to fool detectives and medical examiners with all the forensic capabilities they have.
That’s also why I think he tries to control his compulsions. ”
“You believe something drives him to kill, but he puts a lid on it.”
“Yep.”
“Hm. All the careful advance planning means he forces himself to wait until the right moment when everything is lined up before he acts out.”
“Exactly.” Heron gave her an appreciative nod. “The temper part? He didn’t need to stab Frank—or me, if I was the intended target. But we pissed him off and a part of him, a small part, couldn’t let that go.”
“His resources?”
“It’s not expensive to travel to Europe—everybody does nowadays.
But to travel on your own terms—keeping a low profile?
Flying where you want, when you want? That takes money.
Now, hardly anybody’s independently wealthy, so he has to work.
And self-employed? I’m thinking that because he feels he’s above other people.
He’s special. Therefore, he feels free to take their lives.
Anyone that arrogant wouldn’t work for someone else. That would be beneath him.”
“And the regular workouts?” she asked. “Are you basing his physical fitness on the vague description we got from the witnesses in the cemetery?”
“Partly. I believe this is his calling. Like anyone else, he’s got to train for his profession.
Judging by the crime scene pictures at the Hollywood Crest Inn, the groom was knocked out and then thrown over the guardrail to fall from the cliff.
The victim was a large man. It took strength for that. ”
She was impressed. “Nice deductions, Sherlock.”
Heron finished his sandwich. “But even if I’m right, Watson, it only helps if we have a suspect.”
True. It was like having a DNA sample from a crime scene. If the sequence wasn’t in the CODIS database, it didn’t do any good without an individual to compare it to.
Her phone hummed. She glanced at the caller ID, hoping it wasn’t Reynolds checking up on them.
But it wasn’t.
She tapped the screen. “Go ahead, Mouse. You’re on speaker. I’m with Heron.”
Her voice was taut with strain. “Can you believe it? What Reynolds did to SSA Williamson?”
The answer was yes, Carmen absolutely could believe it. “You tried to give us fair warning.”
Recalling her assistant running along the corridor as they were about to enter Williamson’s office.
“I’ve called him three, four times. But he’s not picking up.” She added, muttering darkly, “I wonder if Reynolds turned his phone into digital oatmeal. Anyway, I’ve got news. And I’ve got you guys on speaker too.” A pause. Then: “Go ahead, Declan.”
Carmen and Heron had to share a smile at this.
The computer voice said, “I have discovered the identity of the individual you have designated Ms. POI.”
“Excellent,” Carmen said. “Go on.”
Declan continued, “First, I have a question. You’ll notice that I don’t always use the contractions we talked about earlier. Would you like me to use more or fewer?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Heron said bluntly. “Don’t focus on punctuation.”
“Jake, while contractions are formed by the use of punctuation, notably apostrophes, they are not themselves punctuation but rather—”
“Declan, stop generating. And give us the identity of Ms. POI.”
“Yes, Jake. Of all the individuals driving white Toyota Camrys in Southern California and western Arizona, there is only one individual who bears any relationship to the case involving the suspect known as the Honeymoon Killer that I could determine. Her name is Lauren Brock. And she’s the sister of the victim killed at the Hollywood Crest Inn on Saturday. ”