Chapter Fourteen

The stillness inside Janice Morris' residence was heavy. Almost suffocating, though neither Theo nor Special Agent Rick Tirelli made a move to turn on the ceiling fan. The faint odor of blood and decomposition still hung in the air, and the fan would only further spread the smell around the lower level of the house. The medical examiner and two forensic techs had processed the scene and removed the body after dusk through the back sliding glass door.

"I'm surprised that Sloane isn't here," Rick said, his silhouette framed by the doorway leading into the kitchen. He shifted his weight to lean against the archway, causing the material of his pants to rustle. The slight sound was amplified by the deep quiet. "Is she planning on joining us at some point?"

"No." Theo had moved a kitchen chair to the corner of the living room. His eyesight had adjusted to the dim illumination, though the moonlight streaming through the sheer curtains had aided such effort. The victim had opted for heavier drapes in the kitchen, but her choice of living room décor had been beneficial to the unsub. "Brook drove back to the rental house to work on the profile."

A dog could be heard barking in the distance, but neither radio that had been supplied by Tirelli to the other agents and officers had come to life. Their immediate surroundings were under surveillance by both local law enforcement and federal agents. Theo and Rick would be notified instantly should anyone attempt to approach Janice Morris' home.

"No offense, but I don't get the whole profiling thing. The odds are in every profiler's favor when they point to a Caucasian male with mommy issues."

Theo rested the back of his head against the wall. He had been a skeptic himself until he had the privilege of working with Brook in the field. His view on the topic had quickly changed upon witnessing the way she could gather evidence and transform what she discovered into a single personality trait of a killer. With each discovery, she was able to describe everything about the unsub but his name.

"Would you label our killer as charming and sociable?"

"Nothing surprises me anymore with these sick fucks," Rick muttered before smothering a yawn. "I deal mostly with counterterrorism cases. The shit we see on a daily basis makes me have little faith in humanity. I get what you're saying, but that's a fifty-fifty shot, isn't it?"

"We're searching for someone who has been able to take time off work without suspicion, which indicates the unsub has a white-collar job with the ability to work remotely. He observes his victims for weeks if not months. He spends time getting to know either the victims themselves or their friends and family members. The video that Mary Jane Reynolds posted brought the attention of the police, the FBI, and the press. The unsub looks at Janice Morris as nothing but collateral, but he was successful in monitoring the neighborhood for a couple of days. Long enough for us to know that he will be searching for another way to reach his target."

"DNA was retrieved from the previous crime scenes," Rick pointed out, as if such evidence could help them this evening. There hadn't been a match in the system. "With the new suspect list your team is gathering, you will have a pool of men to retrieve samples and eventually obtain a match."

"You've made up your mind, Tirelli." Theo didn't have to point out that they couldn't legally go around and collect every single male subject's DNA without a warrant. Tirelli was well aware of the law's limitations. "Either you'll gain more insight into Brook's methods of solving cases and attempt to incorporate them into your own, or you'll stick with your old procedures. No harm, no foul."

It had been obvious from the time that Tirelli had entered the residence that he was a talker. He would choose idle chitchat over silence every time. Theo had worked with different agents during his tenure with the Bureau, and each had their own quirks. He didn't mind one way or the other, but the way SE Investigations went about apprehending their targets wasn't up for debate.

Theo stretched his right leg, the sharp creak of the wood beneath him complaining with the movement. Sunrise was still hours away.

"Wait. Back up a second," Rick said as he glanced Theo's way. Particles of dust floated around his face which was captured in one of the angled moonbeams breaking through the middle of the curtains. "Is that why Sloane isn't here? She doesn't believe the perp is coming back here?"

"No, she doesn't," Theo replied truthfully as he switched to stretching his left leg. It wasn't like his answer would change their plans for the rest of the night. "I'm inclined to agree with her. The unsub realized right away that the community was close-knit. Nothing happens here without someone noticing, and the unsub was unfortunate in his choice of so-called collateral. Janice Morris preferred to be outside. It wouldn't have been long before one of her neighbors came to check on her."

"Well, shit."

Tirelli finally moved from his position, which gave him a view of both the front and back entrances. He had not moved far, though. Theo could hear what sounded like one of the three remaining kitchen chairs being moved from the table. Sure enough, the man's silhouette reappeared as he settled back underneath the arch dividing the rooms.

"You ever miss it? Working for the FBI, I mean."

Though the two men were close in age, they had been at the academy at different times. Theo had never met Rick Tirelli before this investigation, but rumors traveled fast through the Bureau. All Tirelli would have to do was place a single call to the West Virginia field office, which was where Theo had been stationed fresh out of the academy.

"I won't deny it was an adjustment."

The radio crackled, causing both men to tense. An exchange was made, but it was due to one of the officers noticing a vehicle entering the neighborhood. A quick license plate check verified that the car belonged to a local fireman who lived one street over.

"That doesn't answer my question," Rick pointed out as he leaned back against the chair, stretching out both legs so that he could cross his ankles.

"No. I redefined what was normal." Theo touched the band of his eyepatch. "If the Bureau called me back tomorrow—which I know would never happen—I'd turn them down flat. I'm where I need to be, and I'm grateful that Brook never doubted my ability."

"The two of you are close then?"

Theo could read where this conversation was heading as if a passage in a book had been marked with a yellow highlighter.

"I consider her my best friend," Theo replied, not seeing a reason to lie. "Tread carefully, Tirelli."

"I'm curious, is all. Sloane gave that interview a few years ago regarding her brother, so it's not like her childhood is some big, dark secret."

"Brook's past gave her a special insight into what makes a killer tick. Skills one can't learn from textbooks or classroom lectures," Theo explained as he stood from his chair. "Jacob Walsh is currently in federal prison, and Brook has her own life. There's no ground to cover, as far as I'm concerned."

Theo used the wall to help stretch some of his back muscles. Tirelli seemed to understand Theo had given all the information he was going to disclose on the subject. It was best to stick to the case.

"Sylvie and I will be driving to Ann Arbor either tomorrow or the following day to start interviewing the hospital staff involved with Mary Jane Reynolds' transplant surgery," Theo advised the agent, who was technically serving as the firm's FBI liaison. He would be looped in on the next steps of the investigation, anyway. "Considering the unsub wasn't sure which Mary Jane Reynolds was the recipient of the donor's heart, the answers could lie with the donor."

Tirelli snorted in humor, the sound filling the empty space of the living room.

"Are you telling me that we're looking for the son of a heart donor? A man who is pissed off that his mom's ticker is keeping someone else alive? Tell me again how wrong I am about profiles, Neville."

Theo shook his head at Tirelli's comment, not bothering to respond. Most of the cases that come through the doors of SE Investigation were serial killers in the typical sense, not someone bent on revenge or with a deranged sense of right and wrong. People reacted in many different ways to death, and it wasn't a stretch to believe that someone emotionally unhinged had lost all sense of sanity to someone's heart beating for another.

A loved one?

A son, as Tirelli had suggested?

Either theory was a possibility, but the team would still stick to their approach.

Theo slipped his phone out of his pocket. He had already made sure the display was on the lowest setting so that no one outside the house would notice someone inside. Once a message to the team had been sent that Theo or Sylvie should speak with the donor's family while the other questioned those involved on the transplant team, Theo accessed the two text messages that had come through no more than ten minutes ago.

"Tirelli?"

"Yeah?"

"That son theory might not be too far off." Theo slid his phone into the back pocket of his khakis before dropping into the seat. It was going to be a long night. "Only that doesn't really help us, because the donor was a foster mother. We'll need to weed through every child who lived under her roof over the past thirty years."