Killing Fear

TWENTY-SIX

Robin woke to the sun streaming in over her partition. Odd-she glanced at the clock. Nine fifteen! She never slept this late.

She rolled over, already knowing Will wasn’t in bed with her. She listened to the sounds of her loft. The faint tick-tick-tick of the clock in her kitchen. Water running in the apartment downstairs. The general buzz of traffic three floors below. The purr of Pickles at her feet.

She felt the sheets where Will had been sleeping. Cool. He’d left some time ago. Her hand touched paper and she opened her eyes again. It was a note torn from the notepad beside her bed.

Robin-

You are beautiful when you sleep. I had to go to a meeting, but I’ll be back at ten. I’ll be bringing Agent Vigo and Dr. Gage with me.

I love you.

— Will

She wasn’t angry that he’d left; he had work to do. Still, she wished they’d woken up together, to see him in daylight with a clear mind and heart.

For years it had been so hard to let go of the pain of the past, but last night erased barriers between them. Maybe they had a chance. If she could just forget that horrible conversation seven years ago, delete it like she deleted spam, with a simple click.

Right now, she wanted to savor this blissful feeling. She almost felt guilty for feeling happy. Almost. But after this week of hell didn’t she deserve a moment of peace? Of happiness? Of the idea that maybe something good might come of all this, this, this evil that surrounded Theodore Glenn?

Robin showered and dressed in jeans and a filmy white blouse, as if she were going into the Sin. She restrained from putting on her belt holster. She didn’t want to act paranoid in her own damn apartment. Sleeping with the lights on was bad enough.

Thinking about the Sin brought her back down to earth. She had to close her business, at least for the next couple days. The idea made her ill, but she had to think about her employees. Her customers. What if Glenn wanted to go out with a bang? Have a big hostage situation? Kill not only her, but everyone in the building?

She couldn’t run the risk.

She made coffee, anything to act normally.

Though she was expecting the company, the knock on the door startled her. She looked through the peephole, then opened the door unceremoniously.

Will smiled warmly at Robin. For the first time since he saw her on Monday, she looked rested. Rested and beautiful, even with the worry lines across her face.

“You remember Jim Gage, right?” he asked. “And Hans Vigo?”

She nodded. “I made coffee.”

“I’ll help,” Will said. The kitchen didn’t afford them any privacy, but at least he could say softly, “I’m sorry I had to leave, but-”

“I got your note. It’s fine.”

He wanted to say something else. Specifically, something to the effect of, We’re okay now, right? You’re not still mad at me? But he didn’t.

Will was uncomfortable in this position. He generally decided when to break off a relationship. While he often pursued women, they always wanted to be pursued. It was safe that way. But Robin had left him when he didn’t want her to leave, and now she was back but he didn’t know how back. Forever? For tonight only?

She smiled at him, but he couldn’t read anything in the smile.

Robin put a tray of coffee, cream, and sugar on the kitchen table, then sat down.

Will said, “Robin, you might want to step out of the room.”

“I’m okay.”

“We’re going to be looking at crime scene photos.”

“I’ve seen them.”

“Robin-” He stopped. “You can walk away anytime.”

She nodded, holding her coffee mug with both hands.

They were the only four in the room. Even Mario was outside the door. No leaks.

First, Will said, “Trinity agreed to run the report. Twelve o’clock news, with repeats in the evening.”

“What report?” Jim asked.

“We asked Trinity to run with the story of Glenn breaking into her apartment. Then she’s going to interview me at the station and I’m going to state categorically that we looked at the evidence, the Feds looked at the evidence, and Glenn is guilty, case closed.”

Jim frowned. “So if Glenn didn’t do it, what do you think happened? We processed that scene with a fine-tooth comb. After the Coleman crime scene, we had everyone breathing down our neck. You, Descario, the press. I even had to go up in front of the professional conduct board. I swear the scene was processed clean.”

“You’re not under scrutiny, Dr. Gage,” Hans said.

“Then what exactly am I doing here?”

Will didn’t blame Jim for sounding defensive. “We want to look at the crime scene photos and preliminary notes again. With Hans, who hasn’t seen everything. That’s why I asked you to bring the case files.”

“I don’t have any evidence, only the written reports and photos.”

“But you have all the photos, correct?” Hans asked. “Not just the ones that went to the jury.”

“True. I prepared a board for the jury to highlight the similarities between the four murders. As you know, because we couldn’t use the physical evidence in the Coleman homicide, I needed to establish a causal link between the Anna Clark murder-where we had physical evidence-to the other three homicides where we didn’t have physical evidence. That we could use,” he added.

Jim opened the box, took out files, and put them on the table. “You don’t honestly believe Theodore Glenn is innocent?”

“He killed Bethany, Brandi, and Jessica,” Will stated emphatically. “He didn’t kill Anna Clark.”

Robin sucked in her breath, but said nothing. Will went on.

“We have new evidence that Theodore Glenn was physically elsewhere during the narrow window of Anna Clark’s TOD.”

“Then you’re saying that someone planted evidence on the body? The victim had Glenn’s hair in her hands.”

“It could have been planted,” Hans said.

Jim scowled. “Did you testify for the defense in the O.J. Simpson trial?”

Will couldn’t help but grin, but when he saw Jim’s and Hans’ stern faces, he covered up his humor. “Look, Jim, I know this sounds wacky. But hear me out, okay?”

“Tell me straight.”

Will told him everything they’d learned so far about the time line, admitting to his relationship with Robin and why he believed Glenn told Trinity the truth the other night.

“But the clincher-if none of that evidence convinces you that we have a problem here-Glenn didn’t kill Anna’s cat. His previous history tells us he would have hurt the animal in order to torment her, but the cat was unharmed.”

“Maybe he didn’t have time,” Jim said.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Why would he lie about this?” Hans said.

“Because he’s a psychopath?” Jim said, running a hand through his hair. “If you believe that, then you also believe that someone planted evidence.”

Will nodded. “Yes. Someone involved in the investigation had to have not only killed Anna, but framed Glenn.”

“You can’t be serious, Hooper,” Jim said.

“I am. I wish we were wrong, but I don’t think we are.”

“Then who? Who would do this? Why?”

Jim was asking all the questions Will had been thinking about last night while he lay awake next to Robin. Who? Why?

“It had to have been a cop-or someone at the crime lab.”

Jim slowly rose. “What?”

“Sit down.”

“No. You’re accusing my crime lab of planting evidence. The next thing is you’ll accuse them of murder!”

When Will and Hans didn’t say anything, Jim’s jaw dropped. “You think one of my people killed Anna? Because we fucked up the Coleman crime scene and they wanted to get Glenn? That’s pathetic.”

“Actually,” Hans said, “we think that whoever killed Anna planned to kill Robin, but Anna came home unexpectedly. Either Anna interrupted the intruder, or the intruder was someone she knew and trusted enough to let in. There was no sign of forced entry.”

“Nor was there in the first three murders,” Jim said.

Will said, “Wouldn’t Anna have fought Glenn off? Not let him in? There would have been something. But we assumed that he was waiting for her when she got in. That he picked the lock or had a key, possibly stealing it out of one the girls’ purses while they were working.”

“He could have picked the lock at any time. Those old buildings had crappy locks.”

“Let’s look at the photos,” Hans said. “Maybe our theory is totally off. Maybe we’re wrong.”

“You don’t think you are.”

“We don’t,” Will said. He glanced at Robin as Jim spread the files on the table. Robin was holding it together, her mouth tight and face impassive. It was her large, round eyes that showed how tense she was.

Under the table, he found her hand and squeezed it.

Jim spoke as if he were on trial. “You can see from the photographs that each victim was cut dozens of times by a sharp instrument. Analysis determined it was an X-ACTO knife.”

“Was the weapon ever recovered?” Hans asked.

“No,” Jim said. “Based on the marks, we determined that the cuts were made with the exact same type of knife-a stainless-steel X-ACTO Number 5 blade. Each incision was made precisely. You can see the initial puncture here”-he pointed to what Will knew was the beginning of the incision-“is deeper than the rest of the incision. He punctured, then sliced. It was confirmed in the autopsy.”

“I see here that the first three victims were cut in excess of forty times, but the last victim, Anna Clark, was cut only twenty-two times.”

“But the incisions are the same,” Jim said defensively.

“It’s a common knife. You identified it immediately, correct?” Hans asked.

“But the same type of knife was also used to slit the throats of the victims-a double-edged blade, three-and-a-half to four inches long, stainless steel. Very likely a butterfly knife, but I couldn’t testify to that. Two killers with the same two knives?”

“Hmm.”

“What? You can’t see it?” Jim grabbed two of the photos. “We know Glenn killed Bethany Coleman, but our evidence was thrown out because of contamination. Look at the incision on her body compared to the incision on Anna Clark’s body. Same length, same type of puncture, same knife.”

As Jim looked at the photos, he frowned.

“Do you see what I see?” Hans asked.

“What do you see, Hans?” Will asked, honestly curious. He believed someone else killed Anna based on the time line. He hadn’t seriously thought that the evidence itself could have proved something different than what was presented at trial.

“It’s actually a minor point,” Hans admitted. “But the depth of the cuts in Anna’s body are shallower than in the first three victims. There are also hesitation marks on Anna, but not the others. On Bethany there were two hesitation marks-but all the rest were clean. No hesitation on Brandi or Jessica. But the last victim-virtually every incision had a hesitation point.”

“That doesn’t prove Glenn didn’t kill her.” Robin spoke for the first time.

Hans’ voice softened as he said, “No, it doesn’t. But I think Jim sees what I see.”

Will looked at the photos. At first he didn’t notice anything strange at all-only the sick perversion of a psychopath.

It was Brandi’s crime scene photo that gave him the first glimpse of something.

“Is that a pattern on her body?” he asked.

Hans nodded. “I think he left a pattern on each of his victims.”

Will rotated the picture. He saw it at the same time as Jim said, “T.A.G.”

“Tag?” Will asked.

“His initials,” Robin whispered. “T.A.G. He marked the bodies of my friends with his initials.”

“Robin, if you want to step out, Mario can take you-”

She shook her head rapidly back and forth, tears glistening in her eyes. “I need to see this.”

Will grasped Robin’s hand again.

Jim continued. “There’s a pattern on each of the first three victims, but on the fourth victim it’s completely random.”

“It would be virtually impossible to notice the pattern,” Hans said, “because each body has a different pattern. Nothing to connect the three, but when you turn the photos…” He took out a felt-tip pen and connected the marks.

Now Glenn’s initials were obvious. On all the bodies, except Anna Clark.

“I can’t believe I didn’t see this,” Jim said.

“It wasn’t clear,” Hans began, but Jim waved his hand.

“Look at this.” He pointed to a close-up of an incision on Anna’s body.

The cut had two hesitation marks, one at the beginning and one near the end. “What’s that striation?” Will asked. “It looks like a double flap of skin.”

“It is,” Jim said. “Whoever made this incision did it once-and hesitated twice here and here-then cut into the flesh again in an attempt to make the mark appear uniform. But the knife pulled off another layer of skin. If the medical examiner had been sharp, he would have seen something was off and further investigated the anomaly, and I think he’d have been able to tell the body had been cut postmortem. But it would be hard to prove in court because these cuts happened shortly after death.”

No one said anything for a moment. “Why?” Will asked.

“Whoever killed Anna didn’t want her to suffer,” Hans said quietly. “They killed her right there in the foyer, as soon as she came home. I think the killer surprised Anna, and was also surprised by her. He may not have known he hadn’t killed Robin until after Anna was dead.”

“But then she didn’t call Will?” Robin said. “That means the killer called Will. Why?”

The killer-instead of Anna-contacting Will gave him pause. Did he know the killer personally? If they were right about what had happened, it was most likely someone he worked with, someone he socialized with after work, who had killed Anna Clark, then planted evidence to implicate Glenn, showing not only a calm cold-bloodedness but premeditation.

“I don’t think we have enough information to know why at this point,” Hans said.

“You’re a profiler,” Will said, feeling the pressure. “Based on this evidence, what type of person killed Anna?”

“I think we need to approach this differently than a traditional crime scene,” Hans said. “Because evidence was planted at the scene that implicated Theodore Glenn. That means that the killer had access to evidence that only those directly involved in the investigation could access. The killer knew Glenn used an X-ACTO knife-and the exact type of knife. That was never revealed to the press until trial. Anna’s killer knew the type of double-edged knife used to slit the victim’s throats.”

“And the bleach,” Will said. “We didn’t say a word about the bleach until trial.”

Jim ran a hand over his head. “There were probably thirtysome people involved in the investigation who knew Glenn’s M.O., not including the D.A.’s office.”

“But they didn’t know about the patterns,” Will said. “They assumed-as we did-that Glenn was randomly cutting his victims as a method of torture.”

Jim said, “Because the marks in Anna’s case were made so soon after death, scientifically there isn’t much distinction between the cuts. And it would have been difficult to prove in court if we had reason to suspect another killer.”

“I agree,” Will said. “Jim, we’re not looking only at the crime lab-”

“Yes,” Jim said quietly, “you are. And now, so am I. Because your average cop isn’t going to have access to Glenn’s hair samples, nor know how to place them in a hand to make it appear that they were pulled out of the head in a fight.”

Hans said, “According to the reports, you took a DNA swab when Glenn was first arrested after Brandi Bell was murdered.”

“Yes,” Jim said. “We had a warrant.”

“And you searched his house.”

Will said, “We had a warrant to search the premises for any personal effects of the victims, an X-ACTO knife, blood evidence, among other things. It was extensive and thorough.”

“It would have been easy to remove hairs from his brush or comb,” Hans said. “Never logged it in.”

“It couldn’t have been logged,” Jim agreed. “I personally checked all the evidence after Will called me this morning. Nothing is missing.”

“If someone removed hair from Glenn’s house after the Brandi Bell murder,” Will said, “that means that he planned to kill all along, just waiting for the right time.”

“We need a list of everyone involved in the execution of the warrant,” Hans said.

“It’s right here.” Will flipped through the report and pointed to a sheet in his own handwriting. “I logged everyone who came in and out of Glenn’s house.”

Hans looked at the list. “You’re not here, Jim.”

“I had another case.”

“There’re only seven people on this list, plus detectives Hooper and Sturgeon.”

“What about Frank?” Jim asked. “He was an alcoholic-no offense, Will, but you know it was true. Maybe he was feeling guilty because he fell asleep the night of the Suarez homicide.”

“Frank didn’t have the wherewithal to pull something like this off,” Will admitted. “And we searched Glenn’s house before Jessica was killed. Something like this requires forethought and precision.”

“This is an organized killer,” Hans said. “The crime was planned well in advance. The killer was likely waiting in the apartment for Robin to return home after her shift. The killer was surprised by Anna, who wasn’t supposed to be home that night. Sliced her throat, laid her on the floor. Had to act fast. Put the hairs in Anna’s hand, closed it. Cut the body. Half as many times as Glenn. Because the killer knew he hadn’t gone deep enough, recut along the same lines to try to reach the same depth as Glenn. Same type of knife, same length of marks, but a little off. After, he poured bleach over the body to destroy evidence as well as mimic Glenn’s M.O.”

“And there was no pattern,” Will said. “If the killer surprised Anna, then the killer had to have paged me. Why?”

“That is the million-dollar question,” Hans said. “And I don’t have a good answer for it, not yet.”

“Does this mean I had two stalkers?” Robin asked, incredulous. “First Glenn, who seems like he was obsessed with me all along and not just a lunatic? Then someone in the police department?” She rose from the table, shaking her head.

“Robin,” Hans said, “you were in the public eye.”

“So it’s my fault…” she began defensively.

“It’s not your fault.”

“I should have seen something. Why didn’t I know something weird was going on?”

“We should have seen something,” Will said. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“Anna wasn’t supposed to die. I was.” She glanced from one man to another, her eyes resting on Will. She was trying hard to keep up her game face. “I need a minute.” Robin left the room and they heard the bathroom door, the only door in the loft, quietly shut.

“She’ll be okay,” Will said, though he wished she didn’t have to go through this particular hell.

“There are four cops and three crime scene technicians on this list who were in Glenn’s house,” Hans said. He read the names.

Jim shook his head. “I can’t believe-why?”

“I think this is one of the rare cases of we won’t know why until we have the individual in custody,” Hans said.

“Joseph Miller is no longer in my department,” Jim said. “He transferred three years ago to Los Angeles.”

“My office can investigate him,” Hans said. “It will be easier that way, if you agree.”

Will nodded. “And Officer Janice Bernstein moved up north. San Carlos, I believe. Near San Francisco.”

“And the other three cops?”

“Patrick Kincaid-I almost forgot he was a beat cop back then. I was his training officer, before I made detective.” Will smiled wanly. “I’ll personally vouch for Patrick. And it’s not like we’ll be able to question him, he’s in a coma.”

“Is he related to your partner?”

“Brother,” Will said.

“Officers Doug Holmes and Roger Supan-they’re still on the force,” Will said. “Supan may have made detective last year, I don’t remember. Neither are in my precinct.”

“Stu Hansen and Diana Cresson are both still in the lab,” Jim said.

“I suggest we move cautiously on this.”

“There’s no motive,” Jim said.

“That we know about,” Will clarified.