“Can we have the address?” Dixon asked.
“It’s in Rockridge,” Kathleen said, then gave them the street and number. “Is he really a witness? Or a suspect?”
“We think he has answers to a case we’re working and we really need his help,” Vail said. The truth.
“Have you noticed any strange behavior the past couple of weeks?” Dixon asked.
She set both hands on her hips. “Now that doesn’t sound like a question you’d ask about a witness now, does it?”
Carondolet checked his watch. “Please, Ms. Sch-Kathleen. Just answer the question.”
“His behavior’s always a bit strange. I mean, people with addictions aren’t normal, are they?”
Depends on your definition. “Behavior that you’d consider outside Stephen’s norm,” Vail said.
“No. But I also have been trying to avoid him, so I’m not sure I can answer that.”
And that could’ve been his trigger. “Is he an empathetic person? Does he socialize well, form bonds?”
“Stephen does what he needs to do his job well. So he socializes when he needs to. But it’s an effort for him because he’s always been a pretty closed person. Sometimes it’s hard to get close to him. He shuts me out. And that was another source of frustration for me.”
She’s holding something back. Vail took a step closer. “Kathleen. Is there something else you’d like to tell us?” Vail held her gaze. Talk to me.
Kathleen looked beyond Vail at the men. They apparently got the message because Burden said, “We’ll wait outside.”
When the door clicked shut, Vail led her over to the couch. Dixon remained standing.
“There’s more to it than Stephen just being antisocial, isn’t there?”
Kathleen looked down and waited a moment before speaking. “Stephen has a dark side. That’s really why I left him. I mean the addiction was a big part, but…” She bit her lip. “He’s always been a little secretive, and when I’d call him on it, he’d explain it away. He’s a reporter, he’d tell me, and reporters sometimes work all hours, and go away for days at a time while they’re researching a story.
“I figured he was having an affair, but I found some…things in his locked drawer. He was in the shower and I grabbed his keys and looked. He had photos of naked women, as if he’d taken them with a telephoto lens. It looked to me like he was some kind of peeping tom. And then I found a ring. A diamond ring, from the looks of it. It could be fake, I don’t know. But it wasn’t mine, I can tell you that.”
A trophy? Or nothing?
“I put it all back then found a divorce lawyer. He doesn’t know about the lawyer, I just said I needed some time.”
“Does he know what you found?”
“I haven’t told him. I was afraid…I just didn’t even want to know what it meant. I’d been hurt enough. Once I made the decision, it really didn’t matter.”
“Thank you,” Vail said. “I know it wasn’t easy telling us that. We appreciate it.” She stood up. “Call us if you hear from him.” She handed her a card, then walked out with Dixon.
They congregated outside in front of Burden’s Taurus and Vail filled them in on Kathleen’s disclosure.
“What do you make of that?” Dixon asked.
“Maybe nothing, maybe something. The voyeurism could go with the addictive personality, or it could be more significant. Some psychopaths are substance abusers. But here’s where it’s important. Their psychopathy becomes more pronounced and they become more aggressive when under the influence. That said, what we see most of are psychopaths using drugs and alcohol to manipulate and compromise their victims-like slipping Rohypnol into their drink at a bar. Either way, given what we now know, we’ve gotta look hard at Scheer.”
“What about MacNally?” Carondolet asked. “We should have some stuff on him very soon, but I don’t think we should eliminate him.”
“Absolutely. We look hard at MacNally too.” Vail grinned. “From no suspects to two in a space of a couple hours. This is a good problem to have.”
“Let’s go by Scheer’s apartment, see what we find,” Carondolet said.
Yeung’s phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID and said, “Mike Hartman’s section chief.” He stepped away and answered it.
“We don’t have enough for a warrant,” Burden said. “If he’s not home…”
“We may be able to get one,” Dixon said. “If we get a judge who’s willing to stick his neck out a bit.”
Vail tapped Yeung on the shoulder, and then explained that they needed a warrant. Hopefully, the section chief had enough juice to get it for them.
Burden glanced around the quiet street. “At the very least, we should go over to Scheer’s place and see what we can stir up, talk to his neighbors.”
“A canvass at this time of night?” Dixon asked.
Yeung turned to face them. “His section chief said Mike had a personal phone. If we can’t find his Bureau-issue BlackBerry, his other cell may have something. I’ve got his carrier. Why don’t you three go to Scheer’s apartment and we’ll try to track down Mike’s BuCar in case his phone’s in there.”
“And the warrant?”
“Chief said he’d make a call. No promises.”
“We’ll be in touch when we know something,” Burden said.
They got in their vehicles and headed off.
As Dixon locked in her seatbelt, she said, “If Scheer’s the offender, does that make sense? Does he have a connection to Alcatraz?”
“Send it over to the interns,” Burden said to Dixon. “See what they can dig up.”
“Does he fit the profile?” she asked as she thumbed her iPhone.
Vail grabbed the door handle as Burden swung out into traffic. “Before we had that hit on MacNally, I was thinking we were dealing with a middle-aged man. That matches up. He’s educated and, based on what we saw of his workspace, it appeared to be neat. I didn’t get a sense that he’s psychopathic, but they can be very good at disguising it. His wife said he’s a closed person, that it takes effort for him to socialize. That could be pathognomonic of psychopathology. But it can also just be that he’s an introvert.”
“So you don’t know,” Burden said.
“Off the top of my head, no. I mean, the offender’s played it brilliantly. He kept us busy, he took our minds off the ball, processing and evaluating multiple vics, chasing cryptic clues that he kept feeding us, dealing with Friedberg’s disappearance. He totally knew how to work us. And unless something stands out, unless you pick up on some warning sign, you don’t think to look at the people around you.
“If it is Scheer, that’s a very bold strategy because we’ve had a lot of contact with him. Shit, Burden, you’ve known him for years. Not well, but if he is the UNSUB, he’s been killing in your backyard and you didn’t know it. That’d certainly fit his ego, to be around us at the height of a crisis and we’re still not seeing him. But I need time to look everything over, all the crime scenes, all the vics, and think things through. I’m a little overloaded with facts and the UNSUB’s subterfuge. I’ve gotta cut through all the shit and boil it down to an offender profile.”