Page 7 of Pose for Me
When we get back to our field office, we debrief with our Special Agent in Charge before we head to our shared office and go over theories.
What sticks out the most is how the eyes were removed. It took surgical precision to get such a delicate part of the body out in one piece. I’m not sure it could have been done so effortlessly by an ordinary person. They’d have to have some surgical know-how.
Leaning back in my chair, I tell Brock, “We need to focus on medical personnel. Maybe a failed medical student. Someone that doesn’t have much to lose if they’re caught. No way a professional with an established career could be The Poser.”
“Okay,” he says. “What do you propose we do?”
“Find anyone in a one-hundred-mile radius that either failed or dropped out of medical school. Lean on them hard, find out?—”
“Lane,” Brock interrupts in a gentle tone. “Do you think that’s the best course of action?” When I don’t say anything, he shakes his head and sighs. “You can’t go off on one of yourharebrained ideas that have no basis in fact. You remember what happened the last time we had a case like this with no evidence.”
I sit back and bite my cheek until I taste blood. Yeah, I remember all right.
On one of our high-stakes cases, I thought the neighbor of one of our victims, Alexi Wilson, was the killer. Never mind the fact he had an alibi for at least two of the murders. The guy was weird and gave off a vibe I didn’t like.
Turns out, he was just obsessed with his neighbor and would watch her constantly—though that’s a crime in itself—and was distraught when she was murdered. To cover his obsessive tendencies, he tried to pull on a mask of indifference when questioned, like he didn’t know or interact with her.
I put pressure on him, and word got out he was suspected of being a serial killer. He was shunned by his community, fired from his job, and his wife left him, taking their three children with her.
He tried to commit suicide because of it.
Two weeks later, we found the real killer after he was pulled over for running a red light.
That was a dark time in my career. I was almost canned for that stunt and was only kept on because of my impeccable track record. I went directly to Alexi and apologized for my transgressions. I also cleared his name publicly in a press conference. He’s gotten his life back, but I almost cost him the chance to see his children grow up.
Running my hand through my hair, I agree with him. “Fuck, you’re right. I just need a fucking win with this case.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll get them. You’re too fucking stubborn not to.”
We go back to discussing the evidence and theories for another few hours, then head to the morgue to see if Dr. Miller, the medical examiner, has anything.
Dr. Miller agrees with my assessment that whoever removed my victim’s eyes had medical training. “There are no hesitation marks,” he says, pulling up the eyelids carefully. I have to swallow thickly so I don’t vomit.
I’ve never seen anything like this. So diabolical, so heartless.
When I have control of my lunch, I ask, “Anything else?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing so far. I’ll have an autopsy report in the coming days.”
After speaking to the medical examiner, I’m even more convinced the person we’re after has medical training. Despite Brock’s warning, I know I’m on the right track.
When we get back to our office, I start flagging individuals that live in the area that went to medical school and either failed out or withdrew on their own. One of them has to know something.
One of them has to be The Poser.
Four
Ryell
He’ll get me,he says.
I’m not invincible, he says.
I might not be, but I’m invisible. To him anyway.
When I’m not at work, I’ve been following Agent Lane Bauer for the past week, and he hasn’t spotted me. He doesn’t move like a man that has a killer on his trail. He moves fluidly, laughs freely, and travels without care.
He has a standard routine: work, where he stays for hours after most people leave, then to a bar called Drab Dragon if he’s had a long day, then home to his lonely apartment. Like most of my other victims, he almost makes stalking him too easy.
