Page 9 of Choosing Us

If you are not going to make visiting in person a priority, the common decency would be to at least answer me when I phone you.

Astor R. Morgan-Lane

I expect to hear back from you promptly. I need to know if you are planning on attending this year’s charity gala. I’m on the board and would think my own daughter would want to support my efforts.

Astor Rose Morgan-Lane is on every board every year, so why would this year be any different? I’m assuming it’s something for their country club, or her women’s society, or some other group of women raising funds for some noble effort while they drink expensive champagne and gossip about each other.

It may be strange to some people that my mother is in my phone contacts as her actual name, but she prefers that I only use that sentiment in front of her social groups. Otherwise, I am expected to simply refer to her as “ma’am,” but that is only a step above what she requires all their employees to call her.

I refuse to call my own mother Mrs. Morgan-Lane.

She has plenty of other requirements, like demanding my attention at her beck and call, but right now, my attention needs to be on these victims and the justice they deserve.

I mentally place my mother and the conversation I get to have later today in a box and put it away. It’s time to focus with my team, because our work never seems to stop.

That’s the thing about evil—it’s always lurking in the darkness until the light can expose and stop it.

In the last five months, we’ve had cases in Denver, New York City, Salt Lake City, San Diego, and most recently, Atlanta. While others enjoyed summer vacations, I’ve spent more nights sleeping in hotels chasing serial killers than in my own bed since April. We often travel, but it has been a lot lately.

The CPM is now integrated in a database Mason wrote so we can update information on cases as they evolve, and it automatically calculates any changes in scores. This also now allows us to pull up the database and see where each case we are monitoring is scoring at any given time. The CPM has evolved quite a bit since its inception eight months ago.

“We have a new case to run through the CPM.” Walker draws all our attention to the head of the table. “Chavez sent this over earlier this morning and wanted the team’s opinion.”

Walker could have just sent me the case, I would have been happy to give a preliminary score, but I also know that Walker likes to take a team approach, instead of just putting more work on my desk. He nods at Mason, who pulls up a report from the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program.

“How many victims?” Kelly asks, the jovial mood of our lunch banter completely dissipates from the room.

“Based on what we know from ViCAP, this individual or team has six victims to date. All are female, including five homicide victims and one survivor.”

That piques my interest. We don’t usually see cases with survivors when it comes to hunting serial killers, at least not at the level of depravity we face as a task force. “What’s the information on the surviving victim?”

And when can I interview her?

“Monica Jackson was leaving a bar in Worcester, Massachusetts in May of last year when she was attacked by an unknown assailant,” Walker explains. “The offender injected her with what was later identified as valium, but it was not the correct dosage and did not fully incapacitate Ms. Jackson. She came to after the perpetrator had moved her to a wooded area near the bar, but Ms. Jackson was able to scream for help, drawing attention, which forced the suspect to abandon her and what was clearly a planned kill site. Mason, can you pull up those files I sent you?”

A few concise clicks and we are looking at Monica Jackson’s nightmare. There is a red plaid picnic blanket set out, along with a single flower in a jar that is tipped over on its side. The blanket is disturbed, and a woman’s high heel lies on the far side of the blanket.

I hope she hurt him in the struggle, maybe even with the point of that heel. Reviewing the notes Mason sent to my tablet, I pull up Ms. Jackson’s victim statement. I exhale a frustrated sigh as I read that, unfortunately, she insists she did not get a good look at the perpetrator. She could tell he was a tall man, but it was dark, and he quickly fled when she started screaming.

“This sounds awful for her, but I’m not seeing why it’s coming to us?” Tara questions with genuine curiosity.

“The carnation in the vase tipped over. Detectives from the Worcester Police Department believe it matches the signature of other crimes mostly committed along the Eastern Seaboard.” Walker nods at Mason, who pulls up another case … and another … and another.

“How many victims match this exact staging set up?” I ask Walker.

“According to the file, I’m seeing a match for all six victims to date, including the one survivor.” Mason scrolls through the files on the projection screen for our team to see. Agent Mason Dunn may be the youngest agent on our team, but he’s brilliant when it comes to anything tech, and his extraordinary pattern recognition skills make him an even greater asset to our unit.

“Have the cases been localized or has he crossed state lines?” Kelly asks as Mason pulls up a physical map of the locations. Three of the cases have been in Massachusetts: Boston, Worcester, and Salem. The other three cases are in one-off states: Providence, Rhode Island, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Manchester, New Hampshire.

“It also looks like this unsub—and I know you hate when they give these guys nicknames, Harlow—but they’re being referred to as The Carnation Killer.”

I scowl at that.

Walker is right. I do hate when law enforcement gives offenders nicknames. Although it’s almost always inevitable when a big case gets media attention. It’s one thing for the media to do it, but when law enforcement personnel encourage it, it’s not only annoying, it’s dangerous. Killers like this are complex individuals and usually have a fragile yet exaggerated ego structure, especially someone who is displaying ritualistic staging behavior, which speaks to narcissistic personality attributes and a fractured ego structure. He likely has an inflated sense of self and thinks he is smarter than law enforcement. If they are referring to him as a nickname, it’s only a matter of time before that’s leaked to the media, reinforcing the unsub’s ego even more and letting him think he’s reached a level of notoriety.

It can encourage additional criminal behavior, which is never the goal.

We talk through the other known commonalities of the case, but there isn’t that much to go on, other than a strong ritual and pattern the unsub adheres to. He stages the scene, administers drugs to sedate the victims, and positions them in a way which creates conditions that result in positional asphyxia. The victim’s natural protective reflexes are disabled by the sedation, preventing them from repositioning to maintain their airway. The killer arranges the victims prior to death, and based on how the victims appear when discovered, it seems that he grooms them postmortem—hair is perfectly brushed, clothes smoothed, deep red lipstick carefully applied—creating a peaceful scene prior to their body being discovered.