Page 21 of The Last Close Call

Heidi was still watching him, clearly interested in the background now that it potentially involved her case.

“We had that one DNA sample,” Jack said.

“From under the fingernails.”

He nodded. “Victim two scratched him. After that, he started wearing long sleeves for the attacks. Of course, we had the sample analyzed and ran it through CODIS. But we didn’t have any luck.”

He wasn’t ready to tell Heidi about Rowan yet, not until he had more to go on.

“Another thing we did around then, we brought in a profiler.”

She looked surprised. “FBI?”

“Yeah. This guy actually flew all the way down from Quantico, and I drove him to the various crime scenes.”

Jack had spent a hot summer day with this guy tromping around the greenbelts and wooded creek beds near the victims’ houses. The man had taken photos with his phone and later wrote up a report that came to the same conclusion as Jack—the UNSUB surveilled the victims extensively and learned their routines before every attack.

“Did he come up with anything?” Heidi asked.

“Your basic rundown. White male, twenties to thirties, above-average intelligence, likely history of depression, yada yada.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “How informative.”

“Yeah, I know. But his take on the blanket thing was interesting.”

“Blanket?”

“Blanket, towel, T-shirt, whatever. This profiler said light is important to him. It’s part of some need he serves when he’s committing the act, part of the script he follows. He wants a dim light source so he can see her, but she can’t see him.”

“But she can’t see him anyway. He wears a ski mask.”

“Yes.”

She shook her head. “What a freak.”

“Yep.”

“Well, at least he’s a consistent freak. Gives us something to go on.”

The lighting thing wasn’t the only element connecting all nine of the crimes, but it was the most unusual. And it was the reason Jack had taken one look at Evelyn Wood’s bedroom and known his UNSUB was back.

“What about the strangling?” Heidi asked.

“That’s new.”

She frowned. “But I thought—”

“Not completely new. The victim from November, Evelyn Wood, he choked her, too. She said she truly believed he was going to kill her.”

He almost had, and Jack couldn’t shake the image of the angry red welts around the Evelyn’s neck when he had gone to see her in the hospital. After interviewing Evelyn, it was clear to him that their UNSUB had escalated during those missing years. His rage had expanded. He was fighting the urge to kill now, and he was losing.

And then eight weeks later, Amber Novak was raped and murdered, confirming Jack’s worst fears.

“So, if you’re right, then we’re screwed,” Heidi said bluntly. “We’re wasting our time on the ex-boyfriend, who happens to be our only suspect at this point.”

Jack nodded.

“Shit.” Heidi tipped her head back. Then she checked her watch. “I need to go. Cora’s sitter is going to quit on me.”

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