“What’s up, Doc?” Lily asked.
My lips twitched at the joke. “Everything quiet?”
“As a graveyard,” she said. “You on your way in?”
“No,” I said. “Jack thinks we need to focus on the information we already have.”
“Makes sense,” Lily said. “He’s hitting you with a fire hose by moving so fast. Better to analyze what you already know. Sheldon is embalming Louise Chalmers as we speak, and Brian Dunnegan came in and filled out all the paperwork on Juliet and wrote us a big check. She’s ready to be cremated, and someone from the crematorium will be here to get her in the next hour. Then we’ll have a little extra space in the cooler.”
“Will you do the autopsy on Jody Burkett?” I asked.
There was a short amount of silence before she asked, “Are you for real? You want me to do it?”
“I know you can do the job. I’ve seen your work.”
“I know,” she said. “It’s just that you’re so particular when it’s a crime scene. And this is connected to the other three. What if I miss something?”
“Every victim that comes across our table is an individual case,” I said. “It’ll be good for you to look at it with fresh eyes. Maybe you’ll find something that connects them all that I missed.”
“I’ll give it my best shot,” she said.
“When you’re done, just lock up and meet us at the house,” I said. “You can bring your findings with you.”
“You got it,” she said, the excitement clear in her voice as she hung up.
“I keep going back to Bruno,” I said. “Trying to see if I can see him in character, so to speak. He’s got a connection to both Juliet and Jody Burkett. He’s got motive with Juliet. She jerks him around for the last twenty years and he’s sick of it. Maybe he did know about the baby. Heck, maybe they all knew. She was just starting to show. A lover would’ve noticed the changes in her body.”
“He seems like a crime of passion kind of guy,” Jack agreed. “But is he desperate for the spotlight? You heard what the killer said in the last letter. He’s a psychological test study. He’s the underdog. Probably always overlooked or told he’s never good enough. By parents or by teachers. He’s the loser. And he’s tired of being the loser. It’s his time to shine in the spotlight.”
I studied Jack’s profile and could practically see the wheels turning. “What are you thinking?”
“About dancing with the devil.”
He didn’t speak on the rest of the drive home, but if dancing with the devil caught us a killer, I was more than ready to learn to two-step.
It was almost dusk when Jack hit the remote on our gate. I noticed the crime scene tape across the driveway of Jody Burkett’s house, and I couldn’t help but shiver at the thought that our killer had been so close over the last couple of nights.
Our driveway was full of police cars, and Jack parked off to the side so he’d have easy access in and out and wasn’t blocking anyone else. Before Jack could turn off the car the front door opened and Cole stuck his head out, waving his phone at us to hurry inside. Jack and I vaulted out of the Tahoe and ran up the front stairs.
“Sheriff just walked in, Carrie,” Cole said. “I’m going to put you on speakerphone.”
Jack looked at Cole with brows raised, and Cole mouthed, “Carrie Colson.”
Carrie was the anchor for the local news channel, and she was young and hungry, and so far had been good to work with. Considering our normal media interaction had been with Floyd Parker, almost anyone was a step up.
“What’s going on, Carrie?” Jack asked.
“I just had a package delivered here at the station,” she said. “Looks like it came through a courier service, and it was marked urgent.”
“Was it a letter?” Jack asked.
“Yeah, and a video on a flash drive,” she said. “I downloaded it and am sending it to you now. What the hell is going on? And why have I not heard anything about all these murders being linked?”
Jack looked at his phone and hit the play button on the video she’d sent. Chills went down my spine. It was a video of Jody Burkett. Very much alive. She was smiling and laughing. There was no fear in her expression like the one frozen on her face in death.
Just as quickly there was a glitch in the video and gone was the carefree, laughing face. Instead was the woman we’d found bound to the chair, terror etched in her expression.
I heard someone whisper a prayer in the background, but I wasn’t sure where it had come from. Probably Plank. We were all huddled around Jack’s phone, watching a fate we already knew the end to.
“Jack,” Carrie said. “What’s going on?” But he didn’t respond. The bag was being put over Jody’s head and the zip tie tightened around her throat.
“What did the letter say that came with it?” Jack asked.
“The people have a right to know what’s going on here,” Carrie said, not answering the question. “For their own safety. This was sent to me and it’s my duty to make it public.”
“This is evidence to an ongoing investigation, and if you put it on air you won’t ever get cooperation from anyone at the sheriff’s office again,” Jack said, his voice harsh. “What did the letter say that came with the video?”
“Believe it or not, I understand what not to share on air,” she said stiffly. “But you need to release a statement. It can either come from you or from me. Your choice.”
“Fine,” Jack said. “I’m sending a deputy to come pick up the letter and packaging.”
“I’ll hand everything over to your deputy,” she conceded. “He wrote the letter on lined paper torn from a notebook. There’s pencil drawings on this one and what looks like a kind of word search.”
“BTK Killer,” Jack said. “He’s a copycat. What does it say?”
“How many do I have to kill before I get the recognition I deserve? How do I control the monster? He’s in my brain. There are four people dead. Five is in process and six has already been selected. The show must go on. The monster never sleeps. Maybe you can stop him. I can’t. Good luck hunting.
Carrie stopped reading and a heavy silence hung in the room.
“What do I tell the people?” Carrie asked.
“You report exactly what I tell you for the six o’clock news,” Jack said. “And I’ll give you everything we have once we catch this guy.”
She was quiet for a few moments, weighing her options. “I want an interview with the killer.”
“Once he’s done in interrogation he’s yours,” Jack said immediately.
“Deal. The six o’clock broadcast is less than twenty minutes away. Start talking.”
I understood what Jack had meant by dancing with the devil after he finished filling Carrie in on the plan. I had to give Carrie credit, she hadn’t backed down and she’d promised to report the story with integrity and sensitivity to the victims’ families, but she was adamant about reporting whatever information she deemed would help the public.