Page 49 of Choosing Us

Under her hands is what appears to be an evidence collection bag—with a carnation inside it.

“He’s taunting us.” I start pacing as I put all this information together, and my team goes silent while they listen to me process.

“Initially, the unsub presented with a godlike complex. He didn’t kill his victims hands-on, but he put them in positions where they could either live or die, depending on what he decided. He held their fate and breath in his hands, although he may be able to absolve himself of guilt because he didn’t physically end their lives, he just didn’t step in to prevent their deaths after he set things in motion.”

But then he changed.

Because one of them got away.

“Until Monica Jackson. Her escape not only made him escalate from valium to restrain his victims, but he needed the control that ketamine would give him. But that wasn’t enough. Monica getting away did more than interrupt the ritual of the kill … No, it insulted him. It … it angered him and demanded that he no longer be passive in the compulsion.” I continue to pace back and forth along the edge of the conference room as my team waits on me.

“But then he went silent. It was … what, approximately seven months between his previous victim and this one? So, what is going on in his personal or professional life that would explain the extended quiet period?”

“Could he have been in jail? In a relationship? Traveling?” Kelly suggests.

“Maybe. The relationship would make sense if there were a sexual component to these kills, and if he’s able to find satisfaction some other way, it may have calmed his compulsion to kill, or at least for a short period of time. If he was in a relationship, either the sexual component is no longer enough for him, or that relationship ended, which could trigger him to kill again. It’s speculation, but it’s definitely possible.”

“But what’s with the bag? It’s like he’s mocking law enforcement, right?” Tara asks the table and I nod.

“Yeah, he still thinks he is smarter than law enforcement. He went from having a godlike complex of controlling someone’s fate, to being controlled by his compulsion and needing to quite literally be hands-on in the kill ritual. The clear bag is a direct message to us—he knows we are looking for him, and he thinks he’s smarter than us.”

“What about the potential profile of someone with veterinary access that’s lost a spouse within the region? Did that yield any possible suspects?” Walker asks me.

I shake my head. “Nothing yet. Mason has parameters set to alert us if someone matches, but the only viable leads so far didn’t seem likely to pursue.”

“Why’s that?” Kelly asks.

“One of them is an eighty-five-year-old veterinarian in upstate Massachusetts, but he lacks the physical strength to commit these crimes. The other one was a forty-five-year-old vet tech in Boston.”

“Was?” Tara asks.

I nod in response. “Was. He died of a heart attack in January.”

“Pretty solid alibi to be dead when some of the murders occurred. Were there any other anomalies to this case compared to the other ones?” Walker asks Mason as he combs through the files our team received.

“It looks like the toxicology reports are consistent with the presence of ketamine; the grooming ritual and scene set up were all a match.”

“Any explanation of why we are hearing about this now?” Tara asks Mason.

He nods. “It looks like the toxicology reports just came back as Massachusetts had a backlog in the crime labs.”

“But what does this escalation tell us after him being quiet for so long? Am I the only one that feels like I’m missing something?” Kelly asks.

I shake my head. “No, you aren’t alone in that, but I think he’s telling us more here than he intended. He clearly intended to tell us that he knows we are looking for him with the evidence bag, but we know he is still in the greater New England area, or at least he was five months ago. If his personal life didn’t have any specific stressors that triggered the decision to act, he may be feeling compulsion to chase the high of the kill, the moment he gets to decide if someone lives or dies.”

“Oh, shit,” Mason says under his breath.

“What do you have?” Walker asks.

“It looks like Monica Jackson gave an interview about escaping a serial killer to a podcast the week before Carmen Martinez’s murder.” Mason looks to me as I nod.

“There it is. That’s the trigger. Whatever he was doing, he was able to continue his daily life and stay in control of things, but somehow, he found out about that podcast, and it sent him spiraling. I’ll need to listen to the interview to know what exactly was said, but I think we have the trigger for this one at least.” I return to my seat, but mentally, I’m still pacing the room, because something is bothering me that I can’t put my finger on.

“Was there any trace DNA left at the scene?” I ask Mason.

“Better than that … they found DNA under the victim’s fingernails.”

“Bingo.” I nod at the confirmation that this was different all around. I open my blue notebook to make a note, but I’m not even sure what to write down in it because it’s just this feeling in my gut. I’m missing something here.