Page 27 of The Perfect Revenge
“Okay, now you’re both starting to freak me out,” Jessie said.
"It's nothing bad," Jamil promised."It's just that I uncovered something, but it's not related to this case."
“He’s worried that you’re going to think that he divided his attention,” Beth explained.“But I told him that it’s not up to him when he has a breakthrough.”
“Dear lord, whatever it is, please just tell her,” Susannah pleaded.
“It’s related to Mark Haddonfield and the whole incel thing,” Jamil finally said, his eyes on the floor.
“What are you talking about?”Jessie asked.
Jamil nervously clenched his hands into fists and then released them.It seemed to be a relaxation technique.She wondered if she should try it too.
“Do you remember how you asked us to look into the people who sent ‘fan’ letters to Haddonfield when he was in prison?”
"Sure.I remember that there were dozens of letters, but three in which the writers made specific credible threats and seemed to have information about me and my family."
“Correct,” Jamil said, his nerves fading away as he focused on the details he was about to share.“You’ll remember that one of the three was quickly caught because he did a terrible job of hiding his identity.But the other two were clearly much more adept at that sort of thing.”
“I also remember that Dr.Lemmon used the letters to build profiles of the suspects,” Jessie said.“Based on the use of language in them, she was 99% certain that both of them were male and felt confident that each was from Southern California.”
"Yes," Jamil said."And she was working on age ranges, too.She had trouble nailing down how old one of them was, estimating that he was between 20 and 55.But she was more certain on the other one."
Jessie remembered that too.
“The guy who insisted that he’d be the ‘tip of the spear’ on behalf of Haddonfield.”
“Yes,” Jamil said excitedly.“She felt sure that he was in the 18 to 22 age range and likely white as well.That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“I’m listening.”
“Well, it occurred to me that whoever this guy is, he was probably in high school when Haddonfield first became a public figure.That’s when his idolization would have begun.”
“Okay,” Jessie said.She had no idea where he was going with this.
Beth, sensing that Jamil wasn’t effectively making his case, jumped in.
“Jamil came up with a great insight,” she said.“If this guy was fixated on Haddonfield in high school, maybe he made some kind of comment to that effect.Who knows if he was quoted in a school paper or on a campus news broadcast.”
Jessie was intrigued but skeptical.
“So you’re looking for any white male Southern California high school student since Haddonfield became infamous who said something positive about the guy?”
“Or commented on him at all,” Jamil said.“ Maybe he wouldn’t even be overtly positive, just Haddonfield-curious.I figured that knowing the names of area serial killers probably isn’t a high priority for high school kids.So anyone who did might stand out.That’s why I’m doing a database search for anything in that universe.Like I said, school newspapers and broadcasts, but also yearbooks, and even small community newspapers.”
“Have you gotten any hits?”Susannah asked.
"More than I expected," Jamil conceded."About 250.But I've been filtering through them, and a lot are just passing mentions.I figure that in the next few days, I'll have a tight list for you of people who are worth looking at more closely."
“That sounds good.Keep me posted.”Jessie said enthusiastically, though she was still dubious that this would lead anywhere.“But no ideas on the other incel?”
“Not yet,” he conceded.“I agree with Dr.Lemmon’s analysis.Whoever that person is, they’re more sophisticated than our possible high school guy.They were very careful in the language they used.It’s like they knew the techniques we’d employ to catch them and carefully avoided falling into any traps.”
"Speaking of traps," Beth said suddenly, "It looks like we've got Dr.Andrew Brennan cornered, bureaucracy-wise at least.Warrants just came in for his medical records and his geolocation data.We can pull up the location info online right away, and your officers at the fertility clinic can start sending stuff over to us, too."
Jessie sensed a weight lift.Even though they were in for a lot of work in the next few hours, she felt like they were finally about to make progress.They’d be able to track Brennan’s movements for the last few days.And they’d be able to see what secrets lay in the files of Veronica Sterling and Maggie Caldwell.Things were finally looking up.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
