River was stunned by the man’s declaration. Was this for real, or was this guy delusional? “If you thought your son was killing people, you had a responsibility to call the police right away,” she said. “You could be charged with a crime for withholding information like this.”
Edmund nodded. “I realize that.” He wiped away more tears from his face. “When Brian was young, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I think that may have been a correct diagnosis, but since then I’ve done some research. I think he also suffers from something called synesthesia. It’s a condition that confuses the senses.” He frowned. “It’s hard to explain, but smells, colors, words . . . can all get mixed up. Say Brian sees a cookie. He might not smell the cookie. He might smell something different. Maybe something unpleasant. But he could also experience a strange aroma from a picture, or a person with dark hair . . . even a certain word. I mean, I don’t really know how it works for him, but I know he used to see words and colors—like they were floating around him. He would try to wave them away.” Edmund looked down at the floor. “My wife saw him as a damaged child. An embarrassment. We put him in a mental institution when he was nine years old. We’d had two other normal children. My wife accepted them and rejected Brian. To my shame, I allowed her to do that to him. I regret it every day. That decision finally destroyed our marriage. It took me a couple of years, but I finally located him here—living in a boarding house. I moved there a few months ago so I could be near him. I was afraid to tell him who I was until I was certain he’d accept me. I’ve changed quite a bit, but I also dyed my hair and got contacts. Grew a mustache. Wore glasses. I wasn’t sure it would fool him, but it did. Of course, he’s probably worked hard to wipe me from his memory. I can’t say that I blame him.”
“But how did you figure out he was killing people?”
“After I moved into the boarding house, I started following Brian, trying to learn more about him. I wanted to find a way to relate to him.” He stopped talking for a moment, and his voice cracked with obvious emotion. “He doesn’t even try to socialize. He has no friends. And because of his mother and me, no family. I’m sure he feels completely unaccepted by people. I also believe he has bouts of rage toward anyone who makes fun of his idiosyncrasies.”
“Maybe I’m dense,” Tony said. “But why do you think your son might have killed this missing boy?”
“When I found your card, I needed to know why he might be angry with you. To be honest, I’m not certain he knew you were trying to find out what happened to Chris. I believe he resented you because . . . maybe because you’re investigators. Brian’s paranoia probably kicked in. If he’d known the truth, he would have tried to hurt you.” He frowned. “Has anything happened to either one of you? Have you felt threatened?”
River didn’t answer him. She didn’t trust him and wasn’t about to tell him about the LSD. “You still haven’t explained why you think Brian killed Chris.”
“Even though I wasn’t in Brian’s life, I did keep tabs on him. An old friend of mine was at the concert the night Chris disappeared. He called to tell me he’d seen Brian and that he was acting . . . strangely. Then when I looked through your file, I saw that you were looking for Chris, and I put two and two together. You see, Brian used to threaten our other children with violence. It was one of the reasons I went along with my wife’s decision to have him institutionalized. I didn’t want to see them hurt. To be honest, I tried to tell myself that he wouldn’t have followed through with his threats, but I realize now that we’re lucky nothing tragic happened. Look, a lot of this was just conjecture—until I followed him the night the insurance agent disappeared.”
“Did you see Brian kill him?” River asked.
“No. But he waited for him outside a bar the night he went missing. I couldn’t stay there too long because I was afraid he’d see me. And to be honest, I wasn’t certain why he was there. Maybe he was going in. Maybe he’d finally made a friend . . . besides me. I . . . I didn’t know. I still wasn’t convinced he’d hurt Chris. I was just . . . suspicious.”
“And then the insurance guy disappeared,” Tony said.
Edmund nodded. “That’s when . . . That’s when I began to believe that Brian was killing people. That he may have hurt Chris.”
“And you came to see us.”
“Yes. I just felt that . . . Well, I needed help. You were looking for this Chris kid and Brian was there. And then the insurance guy . . .” He shook his head. “I wish I’d just been honest with you.”
Tony suddenly jumped to his feet. “Oh no,” he said. “We’ve been so stupid.” Edmund and River just stared at him. He took his screen and turned it toward Edmund.
“This is Brian, isn’t it?” he asked.
Edmund nodded.
Tony shook his head. “Oh, River. We missed it,” he said. “Who’s the one person no one ever notices? The person who slips in and out without anyone really looking at him?”
She frowned at him until he turned the computer screen toward her, and she gasped. “Why didn’t we put two and two together? We should have.”
“We even noticed him waving his arms around once, remember? He must have seen these pictures. He knew we’d recognize him.”
“He’s the one who put those drugs in our coffee pods,” River said, feeling sick to her stomach..
“What?” Edmund asked.
Tony quickly explained what had happened with the pods. “He either did it to kill us or at least to cause us to back off on our investigation. And he took the photos.”
“I’m so sorry. If I’d said something sooner . . .”
“Yeah, instead of protecting your son, you could have tried to protect other people from him.” River tried to reign in her anger. She realized that Edmund had been in a terrible situation and was trying to do the right thing now. She couldn’t imagine how difficult this was.
“You’re right,” Edmund said. “But I want to find him now and make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
“When you were pretending to be a psychic you mentioned the letter B,” Tony said. “You also told us the answer was closer than we realized. It just wasn’t enough for us to take seriously.”
“At the time I planned to come back and give you more. I realized that what I said was cryptic, but I did it on purpose. In my mind, if I was too clear, you’d suspect me of being involved. I . . . I hoped the letter B would make you look at Brian.”
“We didn’t know his name,” Tony said. “And we had no reason to suspect him. Your clues didn’t help us at all.”
River looked at Edmund through narrowed eyes. “You told Tony that she forgave him. Why did you say that?”
“I’m sorry. When you challenged me I said the first thing that popped into my head. I read something once about supposed psychics. How they fool people by being vague, and that everyone had someone they felt they’d wronged.” He stared at Tony. “I don’t expect either one of you to ever forgive me.”
“But we will,” Tony said softly. “Because God forgave us so much.”
Edmund lowered his head and sobbed. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t rejected my son. If I’d been there for him . . .” He looked up. “People are dead because of me.”
“Mr. Walker . . . Edmund,” River said, her previous tone softening, “Brian is mentally ill. I doubt that you could have stopped this. Besides, he’s not a child any longer. He’s an adult and is making his own choices. Tony and I worked as behavioral analysts for the FBI. We’ve seen this kind of thing more than you can imagine. We’ve profiled serial killers from good homes where they were loved. It isn’t always the result of a broken or abusive home.”
“Thank you for that.” Edmund wiped his face. “But I truly did fail him. Maybe what he turned out to be wasn’t my fault, but I certainly wasn’t there for him when he needed me.”
River had told him the truth, but most of the time, violent killers were abused, battered, or unloved children. She was trying to be kind.
“I still can’t believe we didn’t look at Brian more closely after you were drugged.” Tony turned toward River. “Some detectives we are.”
Edmund shrugged. “No one notices janitors. They clean your office, but they’re like part of the furniture.”
“We’ll never make that mistake again,” River said under her breath.
“Where do you think he could be?” Tony asked.
“I honestly have no idea. I’ve only been in his life a few months now. The only thing I can be sure of is that he won’t look for his family. He feels we abandoned him, and being honest, he’s not wrong.” He sighed. “I’m going to stay at the boarding house in case he shows up. As far as I know, he doesn’t have any money to live on. His choices are limited. And there’s one other thing I should mention, although I doubt this will enter into the situation. Years ago, not long after Brian was institutionalized, I found that one of my guns was missing. A pistol. I only mention it because it’s bothering me.”
“I don’t see how Brian could have smuggled a gun into the hospital,” River said. “Someone would have found it. It would have been confiscated. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Edmund nodded. “You’re probably right. We had a gardener who turned out to be a thief. I think he took it, but it was never found, and he swore he didn’t steal it. That doesn’t mean he didn’t.” He met River’s eyes. “After finding out what Brian was capable of, the missing gun popped into my head. You can probably understand why it’s been worrying me.”
“Does Brian know anything about guns?” Tony asked.
“As far as I know, he doesn’t. He was never interested in my gun collection . . . or anything I tried to teach him. He spent all his time playing alone—or with his dog, Buddy. He loved that dog. I know it hurt him to leave Buddy behind when he went into the hospital.” Edmund’s eyes flushed with tears. “Buddy looked for him for a long time before finally giving up. He never took to our other children the way he did to Brian.” He cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders. “Sorry. Still makes me emotional.”
“You mentioned a hospital,” River said. “Where was Brian hospitalized?”
“Hedgecliff Mental Health Facility.”
“We’d like to talk to the staff there,” Tony said. “Maybe you could give us permission to see his files? Learn more about him? It might help us to find him.”
Edmund shook his head. “It shut down a few years ago.”
There was a knock on the office door, and the building owner stepped inside. “I’m sorry to bother you,” he said, “but I’m checking with all the tenants to see if they’re missing anything. We’ve got reports that money has disappeared from several of our offices.”
River leaned back in her chair. “That means Brian could be anywhere. It’s going to be tough to find him now.”