Page 20 of The Girl He Crowned

“What do youmean?” Christopher asked.

“To truly becertain about any patterns, it helps to have large datasets,” Paige explained.She winced at the thought that this wasn’t some scientific study, and in thiscase, each data point was a murdered woman. “Two isn’t enough to really draw apattern about anything. I thought that this was a killer who set traps inoutdoor locations. Now I’m starting to think that it’s just about the controlhe had over the location. If he knew that Melody was alone, maybe he chose toattack her at home because he knew he wouldn’t be disturbed.”

If that was true,then it meant that the location wasn’t important to the killer, so much as simplyensuring that it was somewhere he could work without any kind of interruption. Heneeded the control. That suggested just how important that precise, meticulousside to his personality was.

“Hopefully we’ll learnmore once we get inside,” Christopher said. He started towards the door to thehouse.

Paige made to followhim, but she had to stop after a pace or two because her phone was ringing.

“It’s Sauer,” shesaid, taking it out. “I’ll have to catch up.”

Christopher noddedand headed into the house with Sheriff May. Paige hoped that he would be ableto find something that would help them to identify the killer, but for now, shehad to deal with her boss’s call.

That left her morethan a little worried, because if her boss was calling, then it was probablyserious. Was it something to do with her performance review?

“Agent Sauer,” shesaid, picking up. “Is everything ok, Sir?”

“That’s what I wasgoing to ask you, Agent King. I’d like a report on your progress on the case,immediately.”

He hadn’t askedthem for that kind of report before in the middle of a case. In fact, he’dmostly been fine with Paige and Christopher conducting their investigations anyway they saw fit. That seemed to have changed, though, now that he was alreadysufficiently worried about their work to order a performance review.

“Sir, Agent Marriottand I are currently at another crime scene.”

“And I want toknow why that has happened. Report on your progress in the investigation sofar.”

Paige knew that itwas useless trying to argue with her boss about this. She wanted to be inthere, trying to learn what she could about the crime that had taken place sothat she could get closer to the killer, not out here, trying to defend thefact that she was doing her job to a boss who clearly wasn’t convinced anymoreabout her capacity to do it well.

“We arrived earliertoday. We’ve investigated the most recent crime scene, spoken to the coroner,and also met with an informant who gave us information on a potential suspect,”Paige said. “Sadly, that suspect appears to have an alibi, and the physicalevidence doesn’t connect him to the scene, so he’s probably not our guy.”

She tried to keepher report to her boss deliberately general. If Sauer heard that she’d chasedTom Wright across several yards and ultimately tackled him into a pool, when hehadn’t proved to be the killer, that would only give him more ammunition to useagainst her and Christopher in the performance review. It fit far too closelywith what he already thought about the two of them.

“So you’ve spentthe day going after the wrong suspect and now someone else has been killed?I’ve seen the news, Agent King.”

Paige tried tohold her temper in check, reminding herself that not only was this her boss,but that he was probably doing this deliberately, trying to find an excuse totransfer her out of the department. “Sir, we’ve been working this case for lessthan a day. We’re trying to make progress, and we’re at the crime scene now.”

“What progresshaveyoumade, Agent King? Have you at least come up with a profile forthe killer?”

“I’ve establishedthat he’s highly organized, likes to control the situation around him and isobviously concerned with things being precise,” Paige said. “He seems to beobsessed with time, and appears to plan his kills thoroughly beforehand.”

“Hmm,” Agent Sauersaid. He didn’t sound impressed. Surely, working in the BAU, he had tounderstand how profiling worked. “I was hoping for something more specific,Agent King.”

“I’m just about toexamine this scene, Sir,” Paige said. It was as close as she could come totelling her boss that he was interrupting and should let her get on with herjob.

There was a pauseon the other end of the line, obviously as Agent Sauer got the message.

“All right, AgentKing,” Sauer said. He didn’t sound entirely happy about it, but recently, hehadn’t sounded happy with much from her. “But I expect regular reports on yourprogress. I want to know that my agents are doing everything they can to stopthis killer from hurting anyone else.”

“I hope we’ll be ableto, Sir,” Paige said, and hung up. She didn’t add that she and Christophermight find it easier if their boss wasn’t looking over their shoulder,threatening a performance review the moment they got back to Quantico.

She headed insideinstead, knowing that she needed to focus on what had happened here if she wasgoing to try to catch the killer. Evidence teams were still working their waythrough the house, which meant that Paige had to move slowly and carefully,determined not to touch anything.

The interior ofthe house was decorated in precise, graduated shades of gray and white that lookedlike the work of an interior designer. Most of the furniture looked antique, soexpensive looking that Paige found herself wondering how anyone dared to sit onany of the chairs there, or touch any of the ornaments. A CSI unit was workinghard, looking for any evidence that might be able to tie the killer to thescene. Indoors like this, Paige hoped that there might potentially be sometrace preserved.

It was easy totell where the murder had taken place, because of the way the forensics teamswere focusing on the area around one room. That proved to be a plush sittingroom with antique leather couches dominating the space and paintings set aroundthe walls. One was a photorealistic portrait of a blonde haired woman in herthirties, with slightly angular features and deep blue eyes. A couple of smallstatuettes sat on stands, but one more had been knocked to the floor, a smalltable lying on its side. Paige guessed that they’d been knocked over in thestruggle, consistent with the kind of frenzied attacks that the killer engagedin once he had his victims where he wanted them.

A pendulum hung inthe middle of the room, dangling by a cord from a chandelier above, perfectlystill and pointing straight down. Christopher and Sheriff May stood beneath it,staring up as if there might be answers to be found in it somewhere.

“What did AgentSauer want?” Christopher asked as Paige approached.

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