Page 71 of Cold Threat

“Because she might know something that could help us,” River said. “She’s the only victim still alive. She’s all we have.”

“River...”

“I know, I know. Your father’s the detective. Not us.” She leaned forward and gazed into his eyes. “Look, I realize we’re not investigators here in Iowa, but if we were, what would you do now?”

Tony ran his hand through his thick hair. “I’d tell Donnie that he should warn any foster parents in the area to be careful. Especially those who may have had complaints charged against them.” He shook his head. “But I can’t do that, River. My dad would have to make that call.” He was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “I’ll phone him and tell him what we found out. He can decide what to do.”

“That sounds good. Then we can finally finish this constantly changing profile.”

Tony took out his phone and punched in a number. He listened for a while and then said, “Dad, will you call me when you can? We learned something from Donnie that has us concerned. We’d like to talk to you about it.” He disconnected the phone and said, “I got his voicemail. Hopefully, we’ll hear from him soon.”

River sat down at the desk, opened her laptop, and pulled up their profile. She was tired of adjusting it. And now, no matter how objective she wanted to be, she could only see Michael Wilson in her mind’s eye.

“Let’s go through it again,” she said to Tony. “If I read something that’s changed, we’ll adjust it.”

“We can try,” Tony said, “but I feel like we’re profiling Michael and Stacy Wilson.”

River had to laugh. Tony looked at her, his eyebrows raised.

“I swear you’re reading my mind,” she said. “I was just thinking the very same thing.”

“We have to try to get Michael Wilson out of our heads. If we don’t, we’ll gear this thing toward him. That’s not what your dad needs.”

“But we both believe it’s him,” River said.

“I know.”

They stared at each other for a moment. “So, what do we do?” River asked.

“We act like the professionals we were trained to be. We can’tprove that Michael Wilson is behind these murders. Until we do, we continue to profile this as an UNSUB.”

“You’re right.”

River knew what Tony said was correct. But she was also aware that their training had supplied them with good instincts about unknown subjects. She would have bet every penny she had that the police were looking for Michael and Stacy Wilson. But like Tony said, it wasn’t a fact ... yet. They had to continue as if they didn’t suspect who might be behind the killings.

She sighed and began reading through the profile again. She felt as if she could close her eyes and recite it. Antisocial personality, narcissistic, angry, but. ... She stopped suddenly.

“What?” Tony asked.

“We talked about mixed messages. Fire is an expression of anger, but the crossing of the hands and feet and the insulin overdose show someone who isn’t really comfortable with what he’s doing. I mean, his anger is there, and he wants to express it, but we wondered if he was carrying out these ... judgments ... in the name of someone else.”

“Don’t go there.”

“Look, I know what you’re saying, but ourwhat ifmay have been right about Michael Wilson avenging his sister.”

Tony got up and walked over to the window. He just stared outside, not saying anything.

“I’m sorry,” River said. “I’m just thinking out loud.”

“No, don’t apologize. It makes sense. Let’s just finish and try not to mention his name until we’re done.”

“Okay.”

“River, there’s a car outside. Parked down the street. It’s been there for a while. I noticed it when we got back from seeing Donnie, but I didn’t think much about it.”

“You don’t think it belongs to one of the neighbors?”

“No. I saw it today for the first time.” He turned back to look at her. “I can see someone sitting inside, smoking.”

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