Page 66 of Unbearable
If every school had been parochial, the saint medallions might make sense, but one was a science academy owned by one of the universities. There were a few things in common, however. All of the victims were men, they had been left on sports fields, and they were all last seen in a bar. Though never the same bar twice.
And then there were the medallions they wore. It was apparent that they were placed there by the killer, but what did they mean? Each one represented the business the men were in. No one, however, knew more than that.
Identifying where they came from had been a bust, as had finding any trace left behind on them. Were they simply a red herring to keep them chasing their tails?
“What am I missing?” she mumbled.
“Nothing,” a deep voice said behind her.
“Where have you been hiding?” She checked her watch realizing it had been hours since she lost saw him.
“I’ve been in one of the empty incident rooms working on a theory.”
“A theory about what?”
“I was studying the locations of the bars your people marked. I know they were looking for commonalities in them, but they’re overloaded at the moment. So, I took that information andexpanded on it. I just finished adding the most recent one. I think I’ve found something you and Dex should see.”
“At this point, I’ll look at anything.”
“Okay, I’ll find Dex and meet you next door.” She watched for a moment as he headed down the hallway. It seemed like he now had the run of the building.
With a sigh, she walked to the room next door. Inside, maps were hung at the front of the room. There were lines drawn on them and a list of facts spread across the closest tables. He really had been working hard on something.
Next to the maps were a set of numbers in dry erase marker on a board. She had never been good at math, and they looked as familiar as Sanskrit. Staring at them for a few minutes, she tried to make sense out of what they were. The answers didn’t line up with anything she knew.
“Those are probabilities,” Knox said as he walked in the room. Dex followed on his heels. “Let me explain. I started by marking all of the bars based on what your people had already done. Then I began trying to triangulate them, but that didn’t really work. So, I thought I’d try to determine how they were chosen.”
“There’s nothing we’ve found that link any of them together,” she said.
“I focused on what would make them appealing to our killers. To begin, I wondered how transportation would play into it. I studied the option of driving to the bars.
“Parking around most of these is a nightmare. If you can find a garage, it costs a fortune and would require dragging someone several blocks. There are also cameras in front of most of the buildings and in the parking garages. I don’t see that happening.”
“So someone would have to wait in the car and pull up where the cameras didn’t see them,” Dex observed. “That shores upour two unsubs theory. I also don’t see a woman being able to drag someone the size of Goodwin that far. Or any man for that matter.”
“Right. I thought the same thing. I, then, went back to the bartenders who remembered a blonde woman, and none of them said she came in with anyone that they could see. Nor did any of the patrons I talked to.”
“Damn. Have you considered changing professions?” Dover asked, truly impressed.
“Thanks, but I think I’d rather stick with teenage attitudes than serial killers. Though, they’re not that different. Anyway, let’s assume at least one of them has a vehicle, but they don’t travel together to the bar. That leaves a cab, which is expensive and easy to trace. A rideshare is a possibility, but I’d argue it’s also too expensive and traceable.”
“That leaves only two other possibilities. A bus or the train,” Dex said.
“These numbers show the likelihood of each mode of transportation. The one with the highest probability is the train. The bus has a lot more stops to navigate, but it’s possible. The train makes more sense though. I traced it from each bar to the possible stops hunting for which stops they have in common. There is only one.” He pointed to the train map. Both Dover and Dex leaned in for a better look.
“That station is down the street,” she said after a few minutes. “It’s the one someone coming to police headquarters would get off at. Shit, there are schools, businesses, and a ton of housing within that station service area.”
“I didn’t say it was going to close the case,” Knox growled.
“But it will help build it when we catch the accomplice. Or partner? I don’t know at this point,” she admitted. “That is really good work. Thanks.”
“If we get something on the camera at the last known for Hansen, we may be able match it to footage at that station,” Dex added. “It would be much easier to find a needle in that haystack rather than all of the Boston area.”
They stood in silence as they contemplated the map that centered around a T station not a block from where they stood now. Was it just possible that at least one of the unsubs had been right under their noses the entire time? If they could just get a hit off the video footage from the latest bar, they might have something to work with.
“If the medical examiner’s times of death are correct for each victim, that should narrow the amount of train station footage we have to comb through,” Dex finally said. “Especially based on any footage from the bar. We should be able to pin down the time in that station to within a twenty-four-hour period before each death.”
“Let’s wait to see what Jones and the tech guys find on those tapes first,” she pointed out. “I don’t want to spend more resources chasing something that we can’t be sure of. It pisses me off, though, that she could be right under our feet, and we missed her all this time. If nothing turns up, you really might have to start tailing people from the crime scene.”