Besides, Donner had access to the list. As did Jeremy. They could be involved. She’d thought it a hundred times since talking with Noah that morning, but it was no easier to believe. Donner was an academic, Lyons an annoying weasel. Neither of them looked like killers.
But then, neither had Rob Winters when she’d first met him. “Jose, can you divert Jeremy? I need to get out of here and I don’t want to deal with him.”
Jose’s eyes narrowed. “I hate that little troll. Just leave him to me.”
Jose blocked Jeremy’s view and Eve sailed by without detection, but once outside the building, the bubble of accomplishment popped. I don’t have my car. And then Jeremy was running out of the psych building, followed by Jose. Instinctively, Eve ducked around the corner, into the alley between their building and the next. From here she could listen and see without being seen.
“Where is she? Dammit,” Jeremy said angrily.
“She’s gone home,” Jose said. “Let her be.”
Jeremy looked afraid, and the hairs on Eve’s neck lifted. “I’m so dead,” he muttered.
It could have been simply an overused phrase, but Eve was taking no chances. Sticking to the alleys, behind and between the buildings, she began to run, her cell phone in her hand.
Chapter Ten
Tuesday, February 23, 8:45 a.m.
So this is all being done within a game?” Carleton asked incredulously. “This is… amazing. And certainly changes the nature of my profile.”
“How so?” Noah asked.
“There’s a level of intelligence, of order that I’ve never seen before. You say he’s able to go in and change these game characters-”
“Avatars,” Jack inserted.
“Avatars,” Carleton repeated. “He’s got technical skills or he’s able to learn them quickly. And then there’s the cruelty. I have to tell you, I haven’t been able to get that victim from yesterday out of my mind. That he went to the danger and effort of locating a highly venomous snake, immobilized her… I don’t even want to imagine what that poor woman went through. I have patients with snake phobias and they are very real.”
Micki glanced at Jack, looking chastised. “We’re still trying to find out where he got the snake. But why only the snake with Christy? Why change his MO now?”
“And how will he change it the next time?” Jack asked grimly.
“I don’t want a next time,” Abbott said. “Micki, anything else from the scene?”
“Yeah.” Again the cautious look at Jack. “The snake had just ingested a mouse.”
Jack grimaced. “Oh God.”
“It hadn’t digested it yet. It must have swallowed it right before the killer blew its head off. We found a puncture in the mouse. It had been dosed with ketamine as well.”
“Why?” Jack mouthed the word.
Remembering the snake bite on Christy’s foot, Noah knew why. It made him ill.
“The mouse would have remained alive, warm-blooded,” Noah said. “Attractive to the snake. The mouse just wouldn’t have been able to run away.”
“The mouse was bait,” Carleton said, his voice thin and horrified. “Dear God.”
Abbott cleared his throat. “Keep the mouse out of the paper.”
Jack pulled his palms down his face. “I don’t want to think about that. Give me a few minutes to pull up the all-night waffle houses in the area and we can roll.”
“Christy Lewis’s last meal was waffles,” Noah explained. “We figure she ate it in the middle of the night, so we’re off to check the twenty-four-hour waffle houses and diners.”
Faye, their admin, stuck her head in the door. “Call from Ramsey in the DA’s office, Captain. You got your search warrant for that apartment next to the Brisbane woman.”
“Thanks,” Abbott said. “I’ll have Sutherland and Kane do the search. What about Taylor Kobrecki? Do we know any more about him?”
“I met his best pals,” Jack said. “He might be hiding with one of them.”
“I’ll have them checked. We will hold a press conference this morning. We have flyers made up with the victims’ photos to give to the press. If somebody saw them the night they died, we can start retracing their steps.”
“What about warning potential victims?” Micki asked.
“Do we even know who to warn?” Carleton asked.
“We know who the study’s heavy users are,” Jack said. “They’re the likely targets.”
“Wait.” Carleton held up his hand. “How do we know who the heavy users are?”
“Our CI gave us a list of study participants, organized by usage patterns. Jack and I will dig up contact info on the heavy users, but which he’ll target next is anybody’s guess.”
Abbott hesitated. “How many people are on the list?”
“Five hundred,” Noah said, “but only sixty that are both women and heavy users. Five ultra-users, like Martha.”
“Give me the list,” Abbott said. “Let me think about it.”
“We’re off to interview the study supervising professor. He and his assistant have direct access to the list. Then we’ll check waffle houses.” Noah had pushed away from the table when his cell phone rang. Eve. “What’s happened?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“Do you know a reporter named Buckland?” she asked, her voice strained.
His heart sank. “Yes. I assume you do, too. How did he find you?”
“He saw my car at Christy’s. He paid me a visit today. He may be a problem.”
“Buckland’s already a problem. What did he say?”
“Oh, lots of things, but mostly he wanted to know about the murders. I didn’t tell him anything. Listen, I need my car. Is it possible someone could drive me up to get it?”
Noah frowned at the breathlessness in her voice. “Are you running?”
“Kind of. Dr. Donner’s assistant is out looking for me.”
“Define ‘out looking for me.’ ”
“When Buckland left, so did I. Donner’s assistant followed me outside. He’s checking buildings and cars, definitely looking for me.” There was fear in her voice. “I’m sticking to the alleys. Noah, this is like something out of a bad Jason movie. This is insane.”
It certainly was. “Can you get to the Deli?” It was a combination coffee house and sandwich shop near the campus. Next to Sal’s, it was a favorite cop haunt.
“Yeah. I’ll meet you there.”
“We’ll have a couple of officers there. You don’t have to sit with them, but they’ll be watching. Wait for me.” He turned back to the team. “Our CI’s run into some trouble.”
Jack was buttoning his coat. “I like the Deli. They have fantastic pastrami.”
“Wait.” Carleton stood. “I know you’re trying to keep your CI safe, and presumably employed. But I’m not the ethics police. I won’t turn him in. I may even be able to help.”
Noah was listening. “How?”
“If I don’t know who’s running your CI’s study, I’ll know somebody who does. If your CI is running into trouble, I may be able to smooth the way with his boss.”
Noah nodded. “Right now the issue seems to be with the boss’s assistant, but I’ll tell the CI you’ve offered to help. Thanks, Carleton. Really.”
“We’ll give you all the info soon,” Abbott added. “It’s not that we don’t trust you.”
Noah knew this had to be particularly awkward for Abbott. He and Carleton Pierce went way back. They all did. They’d used Carleton’s profiles to solve dozens of homicide cases over the years. But they’d promised Eve.
“I know that, Bruce. I don’t like it, but you obviously believe I’ll have a conflict of interest with this and I have to respect that. I’d offer to find another psychologist to do the profile, but you’d have the same issue with whoever had my role. Besides, this is a fascinating personality. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to study him.”