Gallery of the Dead

Thirty-Eight

At the end of their meeting, it was decided that instead of cramming everyone into a cell-sized sweatbox at the Police Administration Building (Hunter and Garcia’s office), it would be better for everyone to coordinate their joint investigation from the Los Angeles FBI Headquarters in Westwood. The original suggestion had been to move the whole operation to Quantico and into the offices of the NCAVC, but Captain Blake put a swift end to that conversation. Unless absolutely necessary, she needed her detectives to stay in Los Angeles.

‘Jesus!’ Garcia said, sitting back on his chair and rubbing his tired eyes with his thumb and forefinger. ‘The sheer number of documents in these files is mind-boggling. How can they accumulate so much in only two months?’

‘Well,’ Hunter said, without diverting his attention from his computer screen. He had already told Garcia about the private conversation he’d had with Kennedy during his cigarette break. ‘Adrian has had an army of agents working the case from the get-go.’

‘Yeah, well that certainly shows,’ Garcia came back. ‘I’ve been reading solidly for the past three hours. My eyes are about to melt in their sockets here and I’ve barely made a dent in either of their two murder investigations.’

Hunter was beginning to feel just as frustrated. In accordance with their payback theory, the NCAVC had compiled a list of all the investigations Adrian Kennedy had personally been a part of in the past twenty-five years — four hundred and forty-four cases. From that list they’d conducted a staggering number of ‘whereabouts’ checks, interviews and surveillance operations. If Hunter and Garcia were to read every record... every transcript word for word, it would take the two of them a month just to get through the interviews, never mind the remaining documents.

‘This payback theory of theirs,’ Garcia said, opening two documents on his screen at the same time. ‘They just didn’t want to give up on it, did they?’

‘Apparently not,’ Hunter said.

‘Completely understandable at first,’ Garcia agreed. ‘After all, someone had murdered the niece of an FBI director, so payback would be the first theory on any investigator’s mind, but check this out.’ He repositioned himself on his chair. ‘Just a little over a month later, as we both well know, they were presented with their second victim — Albert Greene. Same MO. Same signature, but a new message, which we all know isn’t that unusual for a serial murderer. After the FBI turned up in Wichita and scrutinized the whole scene for a full day, there was superficial talk about this being the work of a serial killer. Superficial.’ He looked at Hunter sideways. ‘What they concentrated most of their efforts on was expanding the payback theory so Albert Greene would fit into it.’

Hunter nodded. ‘From payback murder to payback rampage.’

‘Exactly,’ Garcia confirmed. ‘A killer trying to punish not only Director Kennedy, but everyone who worked on a specific investigation. Everyone who the killer considered responsible for either sending someone to prison, or to his/her death.’

‘Which to be fair, Carlos,’ Hunter came back, ‘was still a very plausible theory. The NCAVC helps countless law-enforcement agencies all over the country every year. Not to mention the cases that they take on by themselves. In any one of their investigations, a number of special agents, detectives, officers and people from the District Attorney’s office will get involved.’ Hunter got up and walked over to the coffee machine. ‘Revenge, as we both know, is a very powerful motivator. If in his mind the killer really held Adrian responsible for the outcome of an investigation, it stands to reason that he would also hold everyone else linked to that investigation responsible — or at least the main players.’ He poured himself a fresh cup. ‘Coffee?’ he offered.

‘No, I’m OK, thank you,’ Garcia replied. ‘I’m definitely not arguing that point, Robert. Yes, payback rampage was still a very plausible theory, but they plowed through Albert Greene’s family tree to see if he was directly related to anyone in law enforcement, or even to someone in a District Attorney’s office, and they got nothing. No matter which way they looked at this, they just couldn’t slot Albert Greene into their theory. So one would’ve thought that they would finally push that theory to the sidelines and start considering other possibilities.’

Hunter had a sip of his coffee before going back to his desk. ‘But that’s what they did.’

Garcia chuckled. ‘Yeah, they came up with a spinoff of the payback theory. The possibility that Mr. Greene’s murder could’ve been a “throw-off” — something to get the NCAVC off the path they were pursuing. In short, they began investigating the chances of this killer going after a complete stranger, in this case, Albert Greene, using the same MO and signature used to kill Kristine Rivers, just so it would look like her murder had been the work of a serial killer.’ With wide-open eyes, Garcia held Hunter’s stare.

‘I can see how most people would think that that was a crazy thing to do,’ Hunter said. ‘But if you take a second, it isn’t nearly as crazy as it sounds.’

‘And how’s that?’

‘You know how united the LAPD, or any PD in the country gets as soon as a cop-killer surfaces, right? The entire department would stop at nothing to chase him down.’ Hunter shrugged. ‘You kill the niece of an FBI director and there’s no doubt that you’ll get the wrath of one of the most powerful law-enforcement agencies in the world chasing you with everything they’ve got — every resource, every ally. And Adrian Kennedy won’t give up... ever. But if you make it look like she was the unfortunate victim of a fanatical serial killer, in time the whole thing might just become another investigation in the FBI archives. See the logic?’

Garcia chewed on that thought for several long seconds. ‘OK, I admit, it makes a weird sort of sense, but not enough for the FBI to make it their top theory. They spent two months and countless man-hours talking to the wrong people and looking in the wrong places. There’s a reason why Director Kennedy told you that they haven’t moved an inch since they’ve begun investigating this.’

‘I know,’ Hunter replied. ‘And yes, they’ve made mistakes, but we’ve all been there before, Carlos. Adrian admitted that he was blinded by anger and, unfortunately, that anger stirred the investigation the wrong way. But talking about what should’ve been done won’t help us. The only thing we can do now is forget about those mistakes and move on.’

PING.

The text-message beep came from Garcia’s cellphone. He interrupted their conversation and quickly checked his display screen.

‘Oh shit!’ he said. The look in his eyes was pure fear.

‘Everything OK?’ Hunter asked.

The message Garcia had just received had come from his wife, Anna, and it contained three words, followed by an angry emoji.

Are you coming? ☹

‘I’m dead,’ he said. ‘I’m so dead they’re going to have to bury me twice.’ He quickly typed a message back.

On my way. ☺

‘What happened?’

‘I’ve got to go.’ Even Garcia’s tone of voice had changed. ‘I’m supposed to be having dinner with the in-laws tonight and I completely lost track of time.’

Hunter checked his watch — 7:12 p.m. He too hadn’t noticed the time go by so fast.

‘This is going to be like the tenth time I’m late for dinner with Anna’s parents.’

‘Oh, that can’t be good.’

Garcia reached for his jacket. ‘Are you staying?’ he asked as he got to the door. ‘It’s past seven, Robert, and it’s been a hell of a long day for everyone, not to mention that you got no sleep last night.’

‘Yeah, I know. I’m going to stay just a little longer. There are still a few more things I want to go over.’

‘You’re not superman, you know? You need to disconnect and give your brain some breathing time before that big vein across your forehead pops. Plus, your eyes are tired. I can tell. You look like you’ve just smoked a big doobie.’

‘Really?’ Hunter tried to catch his reflection against the window glass.

‘There’s no point in exhausting yourself on the first day of an investigation. I know we’re starting from the beginning again, but the forty-eight-hour rule doesn’t really apply to this guy. He’s been killing for months.’

‘I know, but I’m really not going to stay long.’ He tapped his watch with his index finger. ‘You, on the other hand, better get going.’

‘Yep. I’m out of here.’

‘Say hello to Anna for me, will you?’

‘I will, if she’s still talking to me, that is. By the way, if I disappear without a trace, please check my backyard for a shallow grave. If not, I’ll see you tomorrow at the Feds.’