Page 20 of Choosing Us

Agreed. I’m about to meet a colleague for a late dinner so I need to run.

The dots appear and disappear a few times until I can’t wait any longer.

Me

I’m really glad I texted you tonight, Harlow.

Harlow

…I was just trying to figure out how to admit that you texting me brightened my entire day.

Me

Yeah? Well, that makes two of us then.

Harlow Lane reacted to your message with a heart emoji.

Me

Enjoy your dinner and maybe we can talk another time?

Harlow

I’d like that.

Me

Then forget the maybe—we’ll talk soon.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“I’m sorry, I had to finish those notes for the case Chavez wanted me to give an opinion on,” I tell my teammates as I hurry into the conference room and slip in my chair. I’m only ten minutes late to the meeting, but I prefer to be punctual.

Walker nods, and I can tell he isn’t upset with my tardiness—it only bothers me. I really was focused on the notes for Chavez, but I also may have checked my phone a few times to see if I had any new texts from Ryan.

I’m a mere mortal, but I’m convinced that man’s smile may test my previously held beliefs regarding supernatural powers.

Don’t even get me started on that dimple.

“We were just going through updated CPM scores, and Mason was letting us know about a significant update for one of our high priority cases, a personal favorite of yours with the established nickname.” Walker indicates for Mason to continue, and I brush off the annoyance at hearing this killer glamorized with an alliteration nickname.

“Earlier this week, during a regional violent crime briefing in New York City, a detective from Boston’s Police Department was discussing the staging of The Carnation Killer’s victims. While presenting the known cases, a New York Police third-grade detective brought up a case that he believes is the same unsub, including the picnic blanket and carnation placed on the victim’s sternum.” Mason pulls up the images from the New York City case, and it looks eerily similar to the other crime scenes. It’s not enough to assume it’s the same unsub, but there are multiple similarities to our other crime scenes.

“How was this not on our radar? The secluded area, the picnic blanket. I mean, I can see the carnation from here!” Kelly raises his voice from the back of the room, but his anger isn’t surprising—or wrong.

“The initial investigation thought the flower was from an interrupted date or romantic setting, and the lead detectives on that case didn’t see the need to enter the case into ViCAP until they received the toxicology results, and their lab was backlogged,” Mason explains, pulling up additional reports onto the screen. “When the tox report came back and indicated ketamine usage, they should have put this information into ViCAP immediately, but…”

“But they didn’t,” Kelly finishes for him. “Listen, I get it. I’ve been where these guys are, but that doesn’t justify that we had an entire case, what, six months ago, that should have been on our radar?” Kelly hates bureaucracy, especially when it withholds justice.

“Mason, can you walk us through the entire case, please? Let’s score it and go from there.” Walker doesn’t address Kelly’s outburst, but he doesn’t need to because we’ve all felt that same frustration.

The suspect has a consistent pattern and a clear signature—highly organized, methodical. With the exception of the survivor, Monica Jackson, the killer has taken the lives of six known victims. At each crime scene, he uses a common picnic style blanket that can be found at most major big box stores and leaves a single carnation on the victim’s body. Each of the six victims were positioned with their hair brushed away from their face, clothing all intact and smoothed, and there was no evidence of sexual assault.

Prior to Monica Jackson’s attack in May of last year, the cause of death was positional asphyxia, but after she got away, the unsub escalated. Victims six and seven were both killed by manual strangulation in addition to being sedated at the time of death.

The method of killing wasn’t the only escalation after Ms. Jackson’s attack. He shifted from injecting his victims with valium—as was the case with Monica’s attack—to injecting them with ketamine. The shift is an escalation of behavior, giving him more control of his victims in a shorter time period, and minimizing the risk of another failed crime scene.

This supports one of my suspicions: I believe it is highly probable that this unsub works in the medical field, like a doctor, nurse, patient tech, first responder, or even a veterinarian. It’s not common for someone to have access to liquid forms of valium, but access to ketamine is even more limited. However, if they had routine access to a hospital or emergency room—human or animal—there’s a plausible explanation for how they obtain the drugs they’re using to incapacitate their victims.