March 13, 11.54 a.m.
The late morning light streamed into the small room off the investigation room that Denise was using as an office. The Sturbe profile had been going backwards and forwards between her and Aaron Goldenberg. They were starting to piece together a picture of Josef Sturbe.
Harper walked along the corridor, the next phase of the investigation clicking through his mind. He pushed open the door. Denise looked up.
‘I’ve been going through the profile again,’ she told him.
‘You need more time?’
‘You left me less than an hour ago.’
‘So did you get anything in that hour?’
Denise smiled and sniffed the air. ‘You could do with a new set of clothes, big guy. You smell like a night in a cell.’
He couldn’t say the same of her. Not at all. ‘Less of the advice, just talk me through this Sturbe profile.’
‘Initially, we thought Sturbe was chosen because he was a vicious Nazi who took the law into his own hands and murdered in his own way, in his own time. We thought this gave our killer validation as a model and an identity so that he didn’t have to think of himself as doing these things. But now we don’t think that’s what the killer is seeing. We think that Sturbe means something personal to him.’
Harper crossed to the window. ‘Is this going to be difficult?’ he said. ‘I haven’t eaten or slept, and my brain’s getting all dysfunctional on me.’
‘Be quiet and listen,’ said Denise. ‘You can sleep later. The killer is a neo-Nazi who executes people with a point-blank gunshot to the head. He has this neo-Nazi agenda, this Sturbe identity, but he is psychologically and emotionally motivated, not ideologically motivated.’
‘I understand, Denise, I’m not an idiot.’
‘Sometimes it’s difficult to tell.’
Harper gave her a look. Denise ignored it and continued. ‘We’ve been hunting for the political elements of the killing and missing some key details.’
‘Which are?’
‘The Sturbe link isn’t just political, Tom. This killer is acting out some ritual and the level of overkill is frightening. Sturbe isn’t one of your well-known Nazis. He’s been chosen for a reason. I don’t believe things are chosen randomly, and if it’s not random then the killer has some personal reason for taking Sturbe as his model. We’re trying to find where the profile of the killer and Sturbe meet. In simple terms, Sturbe is hard to research – so where did our killer come into contact with him?’
‘I understand,’ said Harper. ‘Well, soon as you’ve got something, let me know.’
Denise stopped. ‘You heard anything from the team with the children?’ she asked.
‘I talked to the head psych.’ Harper grimaced. ‘He was less than impressed.’
‘What did he say?’
‘Would it help catch the guy? I said no. He asked me in what universe was it a good fucking idea to show these children a photograph of Martin Heming, their mother’s killer?’
‘And what did you answer?’
‘The NYPD. It’s that kind of universe.’
‘He didn’t laugh?’
Harper shook his head.
Lafayette appeared just as Harper was about to leave. ‘How are you, Harper?’ He paused but Harper remained silent. ‘Okay, an easier question. What did Forensics find at the safe house?’
Harper rubbed his face. The whole team had been on the go all night trying to track the killer, but every lead had turned cold. ‘Look, crazy as it sounds, they’ve not been able to find a single piece of material evidence.’
‘What about the car?’
‘Nothing there either.’
‘This guy’s invisible. You sure they got nothing?’
‘They got all kinds of stuff, but it all belongs to the safe-house team, cops or the children. He must’ve tried real hard to keep things that clean.’
‘What about the leak? Someone gave the killer the location of the safe house.’
Harper looked out across at his team. They were a hive of activity even though nothing was opening up. He turned to Lafayette. ‘I’ve had all night to think about it. There’s not many cops who knew the whereabouts of those kids, but one of them, for some reason, let that information leak. I’m not saying it was deliberate.’
‘You got any ideas about this accident?’
Harper nodded. ‘The killer didn’t just know where the kids were, he knew that the second officer wasn’t there.’
‘You think it’s the second officer?’
‘I talked to him. He made a mistake. He knew he wasn’t going to make it on time so he radioed Candy Simons. He gave the street name and said he wouldn’t get there until midnight. All the killer would need was a scanner.’
Captain Lafayette shook his head. ‘Shit. I can’t believe that. You got a name? I’ve got to report this.’
‘I already told him to own up. Better it comes from him.’
‘Another fucking casualty of this thing,’ said Lafayette, and walked off down the corridor with heavy steps.