Strain clipped Kent’s words. “Of two serial killers with the same MO, wearing the same obscure brand of MMA fighting gear, operating at the same time.”
“Unless they were partners,” Wade said. “It’s happened before, serial killers working together.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “But it had all the earmarks of one perpetrator acting alone. I’m sure of it.”
“So was I,” Kent said. “Until now.”
“I’m missing something here,” Nina said. “Can someone loop me in?”
Buxton turned to her. “What do you know about the Beltway Stalker?”
She paused, remembering how the community had been terrorized by a brutal killer who preyed on teenage girls. “He was active when I was a patrol officer in Fairfax County. Because he hit multiple jurisdictions in Maryland, DC, and Virginia, we didn’t catch on that his killings were related until ViCAP matched some common characteristics in his MO.”
She didn’t add that the at-risk girls he chose as victims didn’t initially capture a lot of attention. “I think he had about twenty victims going back six or seven years before we put the pieces together, then the media went nuts. The next ten victims after that caused a shit storm of panic.”
“Do you remember how the case ended?” Buxton asked.
She paused as more details came back to her. “The Beltway Stalker committed suicide. His body was found next to his last victim, who was . . .” Her eyes snapped to Wade.
All the color had drained from his face. “Chandra Brown,” he finished for her.
They held each other’s gaze for a long moment. She struggled to imagine what was going through his mind. Chandra Brown had been the case that had derailed him for the better part of a year. Now she understood what Buxton had meant when he asked about the odds. She turned back to their supervisor.
“So if there aren’t two killers with the same MO, that can only mean one of two things.” She held up a finger. “We missed a partner who was working with him.” She raised a second finger. “Or we got the wrong guy, and the real killer has been at large for the past two years.”
“There’s more,” Buxton said quietly. “Agent Wade and the Bureau were both sued by the Brown family.”
“I remember that,” Breck said, strawberry-blonde brows furrowing. “CPS took her from her parents and turned her over to foster care due to abuse and neglect. Her bio parents hadn’t spoken to her or even asked about her welfare in seven years.”
“They certainly came out of the woodwork after she died,” Buxton said. “Their attorney blamed the system and everyone in it. They also sued the state for not providing better supervision.”
“And Wade ended up in their crosshairs,” Nina said.
“I made the wrong call,” Wade said. “Chandra’s death is on me. The description of the stalker didn’t match the one described in the Summers case, and his behavior pattern was different enough that I didn’t think it was related to the Beltway Stalker series, so I turfed it back to the Montgomery County police.”
No one spoke, giving him a moment before he continued in a monotone.
“Somewhere along the line, someone dropped the ball. No one ever followed up with Chandra. She was murdered two days later.”
Buxton took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The FBI’s reputation took a major hit every time the Brown family attorney held a press conference. What the lab just uncovered throws the whole investigation into question again.” He cursed under his breath.
“If it does, I’m responsible too,” Kent said. “Wade transferred out of the BAU, and I took over his caseload, including final analysis and wrap-up of the Beltway Stalker investigation.” His jaw hardened. “If there was an anomaly, it was up to me to spot it.”
So Kent had been the one to bat cleanup. She’d just begun her application process to become an agent when Chandra was killed and had never known who took over the investigation after Wade’s very public downfall.
“No,” Wade said. “You came in late because I transferred out. I’d been working the case for years. I was the best one to spot a problem, and I wasn’t there to do it.” Sweat beaded on Wade’s forehead. “Excuse me.” He stood and walked down the aisle toward the bathroom.
“The cases spanned a ten-year period,” Kent said after Wade was out of earshot. “The killer used a wide variety of methods. Strangulation, blunt-force trauma, cervical spinal fracture. Some victims had been beaten, others cut, but he didn’t use messy options like shooting and stabbing to kill them. Took a long time to verify we had a series. He was careful. We never got any DNA.”
“How did you connect the cases?” Nina asked him.
“Through trace evidence. There were unique fibers recovered at several scenes. There may be more victims out there. What we have is based on how the local police forensics units collected, processed, and preserved evidence in each case.”
Nina tried to keep up. The FBI hadn’t shared all their leads with the locals at the time, so she hadn’t heard these details before. “How were the fibers unique?”
“After ViCAP gave us our first match on the fibers, we sent out a request to local police agencies for samples from unsolved homicides with victims that fell within the general description.” Kent leaned forward, emphasizing his point. “Serial killers can change their MO, but they can’t change their motive.”
“How so?”
“A killer’s modus operandi is how they commit their crimes, their methodology, which can change as they learn from experience. Their motive, however, is why they kill. The underlying compulsion that is unique to each killer. I call it their itch, and it never changes.”
“Their itch?”
“When the brain sends a signal along a nerve that causes an itch, that impulse may be satisfied in several ways. You can pinch the skin, hit it, tap it, or scratch it. You might even be able to will it away. But as you’ve probably found, once you start scratching, it’s very hard to stop. The itch keeps coming back.”
“So what makes serial killers different from other murderers is that they have to keep scratching their itch after the first time?”
“Exactly. That’s why it’s critical to analyze the first murder carefully. The killer hasn’t perfected his crime, or refined his MO, so his motive—the itch he was trying to scratch—is easier to pick out. Once you understand that, you have a much better chance of identifying the unsub.”
“What did this have to do with the Beltway Stalker case?” Nina said.
“That’s why Wade was so angry with himself. He told me that he focused too much on MO and not enough on motive or victimology. The Beltway Stalker preyed on at-risk teenage girls, but the methods of the murders varied widely. That’s why it took over twenty murders in DC, Maryland, and Virginia to realize we had a series on our hands.”
Kent had given her new insight. She considered what Wade had been up against. “Wade assumed the victims were similar because they were easy prey for the Beltway Stalker and were less likely to be reported or noticed missing until they’d been gone for several days.”