Page 38 of The Perfect Crime

“Yes, after losing his job, he ended up working at a compounding pharmacy.That lasted six months before he was fired.And that appears to be when things really escalated.There’s the online rhetoric.And in addition to that first psychiatric hold, he’s had three more in the months since.”

“To me, Eric Sawyer doesn’t sound like another garden variety conspiracy theorist,” Jessie observed.“It seems like something chemical might be happening.”

“You appear to be correct, Ms.Hunt,” Jamil said somewhat sheepishly.

“What is it?”she asked.

“Please don’t ask me for the details of how I accessed this information,” he said, “but the last facility he was held at doesn’t do as great a job as the others at protecting patient confidentiality.It looks like Mr.Sawyer was diagnosed with symptoms of schizophrenia, including marked paranoia.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Jessie said.

“So he’s got what sounds like some real mental instability,” Ryan said.“Has his behavior ever gone beyond threatening?Any violence or criminal activity?”

"Not yet," Jamil answered."There's never been enough for an arrest.At one point, Prostanica filed suit against him for violating an NDA, but they withdrew it."

“Probably because they didn’t want their proprietary secrets litigated in open court,” Beth guessed.

“Regardless,” Jamil continued, “he has no record.”

“Maybe this is him moving on to the next phase,” Ryan suggested.

“Can we check his moments over the last few days?”Beth asked.“Obviously not a car GPS since he doesn’t have one, but maybe his phone?”

“He didn’t have one on him when we arrested him at the metro station,” Jessie said.

“That’s because he claims the government uses them to track us,” Jamil said.“It’s in several of his posts going back months.”

“Well, he’s not wrong on that one,” Ryan conceded.“We do it all the time.”

“Right,” Jamil said, “but he thinks the government uses them to track our brain signals and manipulate them.”

“Great,” Jessie sighed, setting that aside for the moment, “so we can’t confirm his movements.Ironically, his illness gives him an ironclad defense against most of the tools we use.”

“It’s like his paranoid concerns about how these tools might be used against him is working to his advantage now,” Beth noted meekly.

“A broken clock is right twice a day,” Ryan replied, unamused.

"There may be other ways to track him," Jamil said."He ran into a metro station when he tried to escape from you.With no vehicle, we can assume he used a lot of public transportation.They all have cameras, which means we can use facial recognition to find his location at various times.It'll just take a lot longer than having his geolocation at our fingertips."

“We should definitely pursue that angle,” Jessie said, “though I have my doubts that it will pan out.”

“Why?”Ryan asked.

"Because I'm having trouble seeing how Sawyer could have followed the victims so closely," she said."We know the killer snuck in soon after each couple got home, so he couldn't have been far behind them.But Sawyer couldn't have gotten a rideshare without a phone.And while the West Adams district where the Whitakers live is accessible by bus and the metro, the Vega's Hollywood Hills home is much harder to get to.In either case, how likely would he be to stay within range of them on a public bus?"

“What about a cab?”Ryan countered.“He could have paid for those in cash or with a credit card.”

"We can check that out," Jessie said, "But I'm not optimistic.The person who committed these crimes was in the restaurant with the Whitakers and in the movie theater with the Vegas.He had to be in order to poison the victims.What are the chances that he could get a cab in time to follow them home?He'd have to have one ready and waiting.That's not impossible, but it feels like a stretch."

“If he knew where they lived, he wouldn’t have to be in such a rush to follow them,” Beth ventured.

“But he’d have to get to their place fast,” Jessie said.“Both surviving spouses said the killer entered their home almost immediately after they arrived.Could he have secured taxis and gotten them there that fast?”

“Can’t hurt to run it down,” Ryan said.“At this point, that seems like our most realistic option.Beth can you send Sawyer’s picture to all the cab companies and see if any of their drivers recognize the guy?We can also run any credit card transactions he had, although I’m assuming he would use cash to avoid a record.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Beth said.

Jessie stood up, pretending to stretch.But it was really an excuse to step outside.She motioned for Ryan to join her in the hall.

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