Chapter 102

No sooner hadHartwell stormed out of the room, than Walsh's program began to bear fruit. An hour later, seven words were highlighted on her screen.

Infection, possession, vigilante, resurrections, reborn, sleepers, purge.

Dana couldn't ignore the chill in her spine. It felt like more than a coincidence that the pingback had only located seven words.

"What've we got?" Richter asked, looking over Walsh's shoulder.

"Lucky number seven, sir."

"How many videos did it locate?"

"Twenty-six."

"Now that's a number we can deal with," Richter said. "Let's go, team. All hands on deck. Queue up the videos, Walsh. Everyone take two, tag and highlight anything relevant to the case so we can add it to the board. We've got a killer to catch."

Dana wasn'tsure how long they'd been at it. Time held no meaning in the windowless room she'd locked herself in with Hartwell and the BAU team. She'd seen all the videos, some multiple times. Even with the voice distortion, Dana got chills each time one of the patients would slip into an alternate personality. She'd recognize that other-worldly voice anywhere. It was the same one she'd heard from Claire each time she'd watched her under hypnosis.

She heard it again now, speaking through at least five other people. Thanks to the code names chosen by each Passages patient, Dana had been able to help identify almost all of them since Dvita called them by that name in each session.

The smart board now held a new list.

Taft tapes = Congressman Norton Hayes. The first Reaper victim.

Lincoln tapes = Cash Holloway. The second Reaper victim.

Betty tapes = Kylie Marx. The third Reaper victim.

Nancy tapes = Claire Townsend.

Laura tapes = Meredith Kincaid.

"That's only five," Hartwell said, stating the obvious. "I thought you said there would be seven victims if the Reaper is trying to recreate this Seven Sleepers resurrection theory."

"We have to assume Dvita is the seventh and final victim," Dana replied.

"Okay, then who's number six?" Hartwell asked.

Dana rocked back on her heels, staring at the board. "I don't know."

"What about the Max kid who's still missing?" Richter asked. "What's his role in this?"

Another unanswered question. Dana hoped they'd have learned more from the tapes. But all they proved was that there was something truly disturbing going on at Passages.

"Well, it's not a smoking gun," Richter said, echoing her thoughts. "But these tapes cast reasonable doubt that Dvita is implanting subliminal murderous intent to his patients."

"So what? You want to get him on malpractice?" Hartwell grumbled.

"It's enough for a warrant," Richter said. "Who knows. We might get lucky."

"And find a shed full of scythes and black robes?" Hartwell scoffed. "Good luck."

"Stranger things have happened," Richter argued. "Got Ted Bundy on a traffic stop. David Burkowitz with a parking ticket."

Hartwell sighed in resignation. "Call for your warrant. But we keep working this case. Revisit crime scenes, reexamine evidence. And I want eyes on all the tapes. Not just the ones Dr Gray identified. This guy gets off on manipulating minds. He thinks he's smarter than us, but he's not. To beat him, we just have to think like him. Outside the box."