Nina leaned against the headrest, processing the information as the van sped through the thickening traffic. “So now we have a killer, possibly with a high IQ, who believes he’s superior to everyone else?”
Wade answered her. “If his parents told him about the clinic, then yes.”
“Which makes him all the more dangerous,” Buxton said, putting words to the thoughts swirling in her mind. “Let’s meet first thing tomorrow in the briefing room.”
“How are the other teams progressing, sir?” Nina asked, hopeful the task force had made progress on other fronts during their absence.
“Crypto is still working on the poem,” Buxton said. “No breakthroughs yet. This isn’t a mathematical equation, an anagram, or a code, so it’s really not their bailiwick. You all should put your heads together on the drive back. Maybe you’ll come up with something.”
She would make it her mission to figure out that stupid rhyme before they passed through the checkpoint at Quantico.
“Did you get any photographs of Anna Grable, Agent Breck?” Buxton asked.
“I got six before she caught me,” Breck said. “I’ll work them into the computer image we have, using predictive algorithms to further enhance it. By the time we arrive, we’ll have a better image to go with.”
“Should we show it to Sorrentino?” Nina asked, anxious for progress.
Wade answered immediately. “Not a good idea. I don’t trust him not to talk. He’s not above blackmailing someone if he recognizes the image or taking a bribe to lead us down the wrong path. I also don’t recommend showing it around the fight club. We all know what happened the last time we started sniffing around over there.”
He didn’t have to mention Chandra Brown by name for everyone to get the message.
Breck nodded her understanding. “The image should be good enough to help the team reviewing the fight club leads to eliminate some of them. I’ll shoot it over to them as soon as I’ve finalized it. I think this is the best we’re going to get.”
Guilt swamped her. She had been so determined to pursue these leads, and now they had lost a whole day. She had to make up for it. “Sir, I’d like to DM him again.”
She cringed inwardly at the thought of what he would say to her. His last messages had been crude and provocative. Now that he had shown the first minute of the video, he would taunt her relentlessly. But she had made up her mind that she would take whatever he dished out, as long as it got her one step closer to putting him behind bars for the rest of his miserable life.
To her surprise, Buxton readily agreed. “I’ll have Cyber get him back online,” he said. “It’s been radio silence from him since the video, which is disturbing because it means he’s likely busy doing other things or he’s created new profiles we don’t know about yet.”
“Unlikely,” Breck said. “If he created a new profile, he wouldn’t have his audience. His followers couldn’t find him unless he made it clear he had migrated over, and in that case, we’d find him too.”
Kent weighed in. “I think he’s been active offline, which is not good for us. I say let Guerrera reach out, but go ahead and reactivate him tonight. He may do something to tip us off.”
“Let’s hope something breaks,” Buxton said. “His deadline is coming at us like a freight train. We need something to throw him off track before it hits us square in the face.”
Chapter 36
Nina sank back in the van’s cushioned seat, grateful for Buxton’s generosity. Arranging for a driver and one of the Bureau’s nicest fleet vans provided the space and privacy they needed to move the investigation forward while in transit.
“Let’s flesh out the profile,” Kent said to Wade. “We’ll have more to give the team working on the MMA fighters.”
“We can be more definitive about his age now,” Wade said. “Based on the years the clinic was open for business, he’s between thirty-two and thirty-four years old.”
Which meant the Cipher had been anywhere from twenty-one to twenty-three years old when he had attacked her eleven years ago. Had she really been his first victim? She kept her thoughts to herself, listening to the two profilers bounce ideas off each other.
Kent flicked a glance at Breck, who was sitting beside him. “The computer-generated image from his DNA profile and Guerrera’s memory also tells us he’s a white male, approximately six feet tall, with fair skin and blue eyes. That would match his sister’s coloring.”
“What’s the fastest way to narrow down Sorrentino’s list?” Nina cut in, anxious to move the discussion from theory to actionable information. “Any red meat for the task force to chew on?”
Wade spoke quickly. “Once they eliminate everyone who’s not in the correct age range, doesn’t match the physical description, and wasn’t fighting during the attacks, they should look for a man who’s not in a stable relationship, is a loner, and has a job well below his capabilities despite his IQ.”
Kent nodded. “His temper would prevent career advancement.”
“He will be aggressive toward others in the club,” Wade continued. “Even in the locker room. He’s arrogant and lets everyone know he’s superior. He’ll also really get off on the crowd’s reactions. They should look up fan favorites.”
“He had to keep a low profile when he was the Beltway Stalker,” Kent said. “So he probably fed off the spectators during his matches, but now that he’s changed his MO, he doesn’t have to hide anymore. The need for adulation has always been a part of his character, though.”
“He needs adulation?” Nina said, curious about this aspect of her adversary. He had always seemed supremely confident to her.
“Despite his arrogance and feeling of superiority, he’s deeply insecure,” Wade said. “Which makes him want to dominate everyone around him. Violence in the cage matches is a way for him to assert control over other men, but there is no socially acceptable way for him to physically dominate women.” He raised his brows. “And he feels a lot of anger toward females.”
“Why?” She wondered what could have driven him to such rage.
“He might have been rejected by girls beginning at a fairly young age, he may have watched his father abuse his mother and came to believe that’s how women should be treated, or his mother could have mistreated him.” Kent lifted a shoulder. “Whatever the family dynamics were, it’s safe to assume he had a dysfunctional relationship with either one or both adoptive parents.”
Unable and unwilling to delve deep enough to empathize with a sadistic killer, she left the profilers to their skull digging. She sidled onto the bench seat next to Breck, who had already sent the updated computer-generated image to the task force and was munching her way through a bag of mixed nuts.
She remembered her vow to get to the bottom of the rhyming clue before they arrived. “Can you pull up that poem? I’d like to see if anything we discovered today jars something loose.”
“Sure.” Breck seemed happiest with her laptop up and running. She propped it open so Nina could see and clicked an icon on the desktop.