Page 38 of So Deranged

Faith’s shoulders tensed.“Well, he’s recovering from the Messenger’s attack.He’s probably not at a hundred percent yet.I know he passed his physicals, but he’s probably got a little way to go before he’s back at his peak.”

“Yeah.”Michael lowered his gaze.“Look, I fought for you two to stay in the field because I think it’s best for you, but if you really feel that Turk needs to be put to pasture, I won’t stand in your way again.”

Faith sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.“Let’s not talk about this right now, okay?”

“Okay,” Michael said.“I just realize I was being kind of selfish before, and I’m sorry for that.”

“So beunselfish and focus on the case,” Faith snapped.

“Right.Sorry.”

Faith felt immediate guilt for snapping at Michael, but she really wasn’t ready to have another heart-to-heart about the future.And it was frustrating.He was the reason she was still here.She had one foot out the door, and Michael pulled her back in.It was too late for him to have second thoughts about this.

Don’t blame him.You didn’t want to leave.You were just scared.He reminded you what the future looks like if you give into fear.

And now she was fixating on exactly the subject she didn’t want to fixate on.She took a deep breath and pushed forward.“I think we’ve chased the thread of the locations as far as we can.I think we should focus on the victims again, especially now that we have a good picture of our killer.”

“What else is there to know about our victims?They both pretended to be happy when they were actually dying inside.The only difference is that Paul showed his happy face to his wife and enjoyed a good marriage while Kevin showed his depression to his wife and lost his marriage.”

His eyes widened.“Actually, that could be part of the killer’s motive.Not the marriage part, but the dying inside part.Maybe that’s why he chose these victims.He could feel like he was responsible for helping them because no one else knew the struggle they were facing.He had to kill them because he was their only chance.”

“I think you’re right on the money,” Faith agreed.“But for the killer to know that about the victims, he would have to know them personally, and we’ve got alibis for everyone close to them.”

Michael stroked his chin.“Maybe it’s a therapist.He could have heard both of their woes and elected to provide them with a compassionate death.”

Faith tensed slightly.That made a lot of sense.After all, she knew all about therapists who moonlighted as killers."Let's look into the victims' backgrounds and see if anything comes up.Since the victims were murdered, we can ignore HIPAA concerns and get their insurance companies to provide the information we need."

“I’ll take Paul Martinez, you take Kevin Barnes?”

“Deal.”

The two of them got to work, calling the appropriate VA contacts and determining if the victims ever shared a therapist.This turned out to be a more difficult task than Faith had anticipated, not because the VA was uncooperative but because neither victim had attended therapy for any length of time, and they didn’t seem to have ever seen the same therapist.In a bout of frustration and desperation, they just asked for the entire VA and military history of both victims, anything on public record.

That didn’t yield a common contact, but it did yield an interesting fact.Both men had lost people under their command in combat.Paul Martinez was an Air Combat Controller who’d lost his entire platoon in a Taliban ambush outside of Mosul.The vehicle in which Barnes’s squad was travelling had been destroyed by an IED leaving him the only survivor.

“Well, that adds another layer to the motive,” Michael said when they had finished sharing their findings.“He’s not just targeting veterans.He’s targeting survivors.”

“Specifically survivors who show survivors’ guilt,” Faith said.“But whythese two?”She sighed and dropped her chin into her hands.“Two men from two different branches of service working two different jobs: an Air Combat Controller and an infantry squad leader.”She shook her head.“Who could have seen both people?”

“A general, maybe?”Michael asked.“Or another high-ranking officer?”

Faith shook her head."It's extremely unlikely that anyone high enough up the chain of command to have authority over units from multiple branches would have any kind of face-to-face contact with first- or mid-rank NCOs."She crossed her arms."It's like we keep learning more and more about the why, but we still can't figure out the who.We know why the locations, we know why these victims, we know why the MO… but who?Damn it,who?”

She got to her feet and started pacing.After a minute or two, she sat down again.She was exhausted, mentally and physically.It was nearing midnight, and while they knew much more about the case than they did at the start of the day, they were still no closer to finding their killer.

“I say we call it for tonight,” Michael said.“We’ve dug as far as we can, and we’re hitting a wall.If we keep banging our heads against it, all we’re gonna get is a migraine.”

Faith scowled.“We slept last night and woke up to another body.”

“I know.I’m not happy about this.But I can’t think where else to look right now.Can you?”

She shook her head slowly.

“Exactly.Let’s get some rest, and in the morning, with fresh eyes, we’ll start again.”

Faith’s jaw tightened until it hurt.She held that tension for a moment, then relaxed.“All right.”

Michael squeezed her shoulder, then headed to the shower.

---