Page 44 of So Deranged

He pointed at a red dot near Philadelphia and said, “I’ve labeled every single known battlefield in the area with colored dots arranged in order of likelihood.Blue is most likely, green second, then yellow, then orange, then red, then black.”

“How did you determine the likelihood of each site?”Michael asked.

"How well-known the sites are.I admit that it's not a perfect means of determining the killer's knowledge, but many of these battlefields aren't publicly discussed, and I assume you've already vetted the employees at each dig site or you'd have arrested one of them already.So the killer must have heard about these battlefields from journals or news.That means he gets his information publicly, and—"

“Okay,” Faith interrupted.“Fair enough.Like you said, it’s not a perfect measurement, but it works.We’ll go with it.”

She looked down at the map and frowned.“Which means there are… Christ, how many dots are there?”

“Two hundred fifty.”

“Fucking hell,” Michael whispered, running his hand over his head.“How many blue ones?”

“Ten.Twenty green, thirty yellow, eighty orange, ninety red, and twenty black.”

“All right,” Faith said.“Here’s the plan.We’re going to enlist the help of every agency we can and place patrols near these sites.Since we know our killer is committing the murders elsewhere and transporting the bodies, we’re going to have patrols watching nearby neighborhoods as well.”

“That’s an awful lot of manpower,” Michael pointed out.

“I know,” Faith agreed, “but like you said, we’re out of options.”

Michael sighed and said, “I’ll start getting a list of agencies together.I’ll have to call the Field Office for help.We’re going to need some weight behind this request to mobilize so many officers.”

“Do the best you can,” Faith said.“See if they’ll let us use Danbury PD headquarters as the command center for the operation.”

Michael started typing the list into his laptop while Faith studied the map.Most of the green and blue sites were clustered along the Upper Delaware River, not surprising since that had been the site of both of their previous murders.The others were color-coded roughly based on distance from the river, but there was considerable overlap in cases where some battlefields were apparently lesser known despite being closer to the river.

Faith’s concern was that the killer wouldn’t follow the river.He had done it twice, but those two data points weren’t enough to prove that he would continue to do so.

She looked at the map, and her shoulders slumped.There was so much ground to cover.So many people whose lives were at risk.Their lives would now be in the hands of a reverse grid search.A grid stakeout.

“Do you think we’ll actually catch him?”Marcus asked.

Faith took a breath to settle her emotions, then replied, “That’s the idea.Just so we’re clear, though, there is no we.You have provided your help, and we appreciate that, but we no longer need anything else from you.”

Marcus blinked.“What?But… I can help you stake out one of these sites.I can look for the killer with you.”

“No, you can’t.You’re a civilian.It would be incredibly illegal of me to let you join a stakeout.”

“I won’t tell anyone!”Marcus protested.“I promise!I’ll just… Wait!It can be a citizen’s arrest!Those are legal, right?”

Faith sighed and met Marcus’s eyes.“Dr.Sullivan, once again, I appreciate your help, but this is not an adventure, all right?This isn’t ‘fun.’This is a very serious murder investigation, and while your expertise might prove invaluable to its successful conclusion, I am not going to entertain your childish need to feel important.”

He flinched and gave her a wounded look that only made him look more like a child.“I’m just trying to help.”

Jesus Christ, how old are you?“Thank you.We don’t need your help staking out the sites.In fact, thank you for your maps, but it’s time for you to leave.”

He jutted his chin out.“If you don’t let me stay, then I’m taking my maps with me.”

“Go ahead,” Michael said without turning from his laptop.“I already took pictures of them.”

Marcus blinked.He looked back at Faith, seemed about to say something else, then finally sighed.The pout left his face, and his tone became something almost reasonable when he said, “Like I told you before, I don’t feel like it’s too much to ask that I get some benefit from this.I am performing a valuable service to American history.I know you think I’m just selfish, and maybe that’s part of it, but I need to preserve these forgotten moments in our history out of respect for—"

Faith lifted her eyes to him, and he lifted his hands.“All right.I’ll sit quietly in this corner and just observe.”He sat at the head of the bed and folded his hands in his lap.“Is this okay with you?”

Faith would much rather he had just left, but she didn’t have the energy to argue further with him.“Fine.Just stay there.”

“Okay,” Michael said.“I have, in no particular order, the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York City field offices of the FBI, the state police of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Connecticut.I have the National Parks Service, the National Forest Service, the New York and Connecticut State Parks Services, and sixty different local agencies.We can start making our calls.”

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