Robert Walker - Grave Instinct

“ Which is it, Cahil? You did it or you didn't?” asked Eriq, tiring of the game.

“ If you're telling us the truth now, Daryl, which of your many cyber disciples do you suspect is the Skull-digger. Who do you believe sent you the brain tissue to frame you?”

“ Maybe the Seeker. He's the one I suspected sent me the Rheil. I said so on the site, in the caption I put on the photo of it.”

Jessica recalled the notation.

“ He's the most outspoken against me, against what I stand for, a symbolic method of glimpsing the eternal mind.”

“ I'm sure of it,” said Eriq sarcastically. “Why don't you let us talk to this Seeker character. Come on, bring him on.”

“ Why didn't you eat it?” asked Jessica. “The Rheil in your possession?”

“ I told you. I only do the symbolic thing now.”

“ Then who would carve your symbol on the victims?” “I told you already, the Seeker.”

“ Why didn't you just eat the evidence?” she pressed again.

“ I saved it for you, as evidence. I read that you were investigating the case, the FBI's most famous.” He paused to study the reaction he'd gotten from them both. Eriq had remained stolid and silent for a moment but now he stood and said, “We're going to book you for all four murders, Cahil! What do you have to say to that?”

“ You've got the right man, but you've also got the wrong man.”

“ Take this piece of human waste back to holding,” Eriq said into the two-way mirror.

Hanson came in and escorted Cahil out, Daryl protesting his innocence while Keyhoe asked for the death penalty.

Again they had ended where they had begun, and the day's long interrogation had come to a grinding halt.

“ Listen, Eriq, we have to match the DNA we took from the brain tissue to one victim's DNA. That single test alone may be enough to bury Cahil if it's a match. And I think we should follow up on what he said about all the victims having made contact with his site. Another nail in his coffin. And we need to look at this guy he calls Seeker that-”

“ This Seeker guy is likely another of his personalities. But you're right about checking on the computer habits of the victims.”

“ Lorena Combs is doing just that from her jurisdiction. She's got the cooperation of the Manning family and the Miller family. I'll call and ask how it's going with her. Meanwhile, I'll ask the Cyber Squad to do the same from here as soon as J.T. gets back with Cahil's computer. But I have to tell you, I have reservations about Daryl being our guy. I pictured a larger man with more strength.”

“ How much strength does it take to pump a syringe of Demoral into a woman's arm?”

“ I just don't want us jumping the gun on this, Eriq. We lock down on this guy as the Skull-digger, and maybe the real guy goes free and starts up someplace else-the West Coast or another country even.”

“ You mean this phantom Seeker that Daryl just made up? Jess, we need the Digger in custody, and we need it now.”

“ You have someone in custody. Patience, Eriq. Give us time at least to develop the evidence we have against Cahil.”

“ I guarantee you, as long as we hold him, Jess, the killings will end. I can promise you that much.”

“ Hold him on the animal-cruelty charges. That will keep him in limbo for weeks if not months.”

“ Animal cruelty. The press will laugh in our faces.”

“ You go ahead and charge him as the Digger then, Eriq. Go right ahead. I suspect that's what's going to happen whatever I say or do.”

“ I want you to back me on this, Jess.”

“ I have to exhaust all leads, Eriq, and I have my doubts about this guy being the Digger. You're a gambler by nature, Eriq, always have been. You want to gamble that at least one of his personalities is guilty, but suppose you're wrong?”

“ One of his personalities did it, Jess.”

“ My instincts are screaming otherwise.”

“ I need your backing on this, Jess.”

“ And you'll have it, as soon as I can give it in good conscience.”

He stormed away from her, obviously as frustrated as she over the direction the case had taken. Cahil had not been shaken by the Rheil tissue in their possession, confusing enough, but he also had given them no real indication he knew where on the bodies the mark had been left by the killer.

“ We both want the same thing, Eriq,” Jessica shouted after his fleeting figure, “to put an end to-” but he was gone.

A gut-gnawing intuition told her that Daryl simply didn't complete the picture, that he was possibly part of it, but not the whole. Cahil had shown little surprise when they put the sketch in front of him. And, if he truly wanted to confess, why didn't he take full advantage and divulge where on the skull the symbol was left. Why hadn't he known the location? Aside from this, his physical size was wrong. The shoe prints hadn't matched, and no weapon or van had been located. She knew she'd have to put all this in a formal report, and that by tomorrow Eriq would have to sober up and get off this addiction he had for Cahil as the Digger.

Although she harbored doubts from the moment she'd met him, Jessica had not completely given up on Cahil as a serious contender for the Digger. She reserved judgment, and after Eriq had left the interrogation area, she went back at Daryl later in the day and again asked him tough and uncompromising questions. After this, in spite of Eriq's lust for Daryl as the killer and what they had found in Morristown, she felt even more certain that if Cahil were involved it was not as the Digger but as an accomplice of some sort. Perhaps he arranged to set the victims up. She went over everything Cahil had said, and what he'd failed to say about the details of the killings. He had been unable to get the calendar straight, which victim came first, second, third and fourth. Dates were confused. Nothing added up.

She left headquarters for home, picking up a takeout meal from a Quantico restaurant called Mia's Place. Arriving at her silent house, she placed the food on hold and put in a call to Richard. They had a long conversation, both keeping to light subjects. When he brought up the case she was working on, she changed the subject to his own mission there in China. Everything was going well, he told her and changed the subject to a sporting event he was scheduled to see there. After exchanging words of love, they said goodbye.

She then called Lorena Combs, asking if she had any news on the computer habits of the Georgia and Florida victims. “Examine the E-mails for this E-address,” suggested Jessica, giving her Cahil's website address. “See if they ever logged on to the site.”

“ So, you're still fixed on the New Jersey Ghoul?” Lorena asked.

“ Not a hundred percent, but if we can make a connection with one of his victims having been in contact, we might more easily get a federal warrant to open and scrutinize all the subscribers to Cahil's site.”

“ I'll see what comes of it,” Combs replied and then said good night.

Jessica next located J.T. by phone. He finally had gotten back from New Jersey with Cahil's computer. She updated him on their interrogations of Daryl. “I doubt he's our primary target, and I'm beginning to doubt if he's involved at all, other than as a ready patsy.”

“ Funny, Eriq says it went well and that you guys nailed his ass to the wall.”

“ When did you talk to Eriq?”

“ Got a call from him while on the plane back.”

“ Cahil claims that all the victims had at one time or another logged on to his website.”

“ I assure, you, Jess,” he replied, “Cahil could not know that unless the individuals chose to reveal themselves to him by name. He's likely blowing smoke.”

“ Still, there's the possibility, right? Given the sheer numbers logging on, I must assume some foolish people find his computer persona somehow charismatic.”