Chapter 45

After the meeting, the Chief invited Bruno to join him in his office.

“What do you make of all this?” asked the psychic.

“I think it’s connected. We now have three deaths. All of them senseless attacks on innocent young people.” He wrote a list: “GINNIE DOE—GUSSIE PARKER—ICKY,” adding, “Icky wasn’t exactly innocent. But … you know what I mean. They had no reason to kill him.”

Bruno nodded. “Plus Maggie. You don’t get more innocent than a dog.”

“Right.” The Chief added Maggie’s name to the list, with the designation “K-9” in parenthesis. “And don’t forget the threat against your niece.” He wrote “MIMI C-MCRAE” in brackets, continuing, “None of this fits the profile of a serial killer. There’s no sexual component. No pattern of physical abuse.”

“So where does that leave us?”

“My hunch is that the first murder is the key,” said the Chief, circling Ginnie Doe’s name on the board. “The rest of it’s all an attempt to distract us or cover up the first one.” He crossed out the other four names on the list. “That’s the one thing that is consistent, by the way, with serial killers. The first crime is the most significant, in terms of M.O.” The Chief circled Ginnie’s name yet again.

“Why’s that?”

“The killer reads what they’re reporting in the press. He knows what we’re looking for and deliberately alters the pattern to confuse us.”

“That’s why I wanted to talk to Peaches!” Bruno punched his right palm with his left fist, making a loud smacking noise. “Remind her that bad guys read the paper too.”

“Hopeless cause, in my book. I’d stay away if I were you.”

“I’m thinking we could feed her some information, you know, strategically. Throw her off the track. Use it to our advantage.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying to think of something. Maybe tell her Mayor Dove’s wife’s a suspect. Something like that.”

“Don’t. It could get us all fired. Speaking of which, did I ever formally re-hire you after the Mayor made me fire you?”

“I can’t remember. You did let me out of jail early, but I can’t remember if I’m officially working for you or not.”

“Well now it’s official. But you have to keep a low profile.”

“Tell me about it.” Bruno rubbed his battered forehead ruefully.

“Alison Wales is our best lead,” the Chief continued. He erased the list of names and wrote Alison’s instead in huge letters. “Ginnie Doe was wearing Alison’s clothes when Mimi found her. Remember, we were talking about that just before the building blew up? That’s the thread we need to pick up now.”

“You don’t think she was in the building?”

“We only found one body.”

“I heard there wasn’t much left of Icky.”

“Until we have evidence otherwise, Alison lives. She is our number-one person of interest.” The Chief circled Alison’s name several times, then capped and put away the marker for emphasis.

Bruno sensed the meeting was coming to a close. “Too bad Peaches is so unreliable …” He yawned and stretched. “With the right publicity, we could have the whole county looking for her.”

“That’d just ensure the bad guys would be looking for her too. I was hoping you could find her more discreetly.”

“Sure, I just need a recent photograph.”

“Good. We’ll see what we can come up with. It’s nice to have you back. But remember, your job right now is to make sure we’re the first ones to find Alison Wales.”