Robert Walker - Grave Instinct

“ Fits the profile,” commented J.T. “Not unlike Cahil.”

“ Really. Of course, the juvenile-offender program of violent criminal activity. Why didn't we go there sooner?”

“ It doesn't come up on its own with VICAP requests. You have to key it in separately,” said J.T.

“ Oversight,” said Jessica.

“ Perhaps it wouldn't have been if I'd been able to get you more help down here.”

“ In 1984, at the age of sixteen, he was at the American Academy for Young Men in Lauralie, Massachusetts, when that private boys' school had something of a scandal involving the ingesting of cooked cat brains. Some other students in the dorm objected to the odors coming from Wells's room, where he often cooked on a hot plate. While the American Academy downplayed the incident, the state wasn't so willing to sweep the incident under the official rug. Still, after some initial moves against Wells to try him in juvenile court, it was dropped. However, the DA contacted the closest FBI field office and reported the incident, which was placed in our files more than a year after the incident. The man who sent in a report, an agent named Alvin Degrasso, interviewed the kid.”

“ What did this Degrasso find?”

“ He found that Wells roamed the campus and town of Lauralie for its stray cats, offered them a home and soon they disappeared.”

“ Another cat eater like Cahil, huh?”

“ When confronted with it, the young man had confessed to the headmaster to killing the cats, skinning and cooking their flesh and eating them. This included eating their brains. He admitted to doing the same with a dog as well.”

Eriq asked, “Why wasn't he expelled and sent packing?”

“ He was-for one term. Wells later went on to medical school at Northwestern, concentrating on pathology and forensics “He got into med school?” asked J.T.

“ Must have somehow gotten his record expunged, and like I said, it never went to court.”

“ But Degrasso made sure,” added Eriq, “that VICAP had his number.”

“ Degrasso hounded Wells for a time. In later years, discovering that Wells was marrying, Degrasso made it his business to inform his fiancee of Wells's earlier habits. The young bride stood by her man at the time, and she and hubby threatened a lawsuit against the agent for harassment. Degrasso was reprimanded and soon retired from the bureau. Urged to do so,” Jessica added, “I imagine. The wife left Wells soon after.”

“ You've done some digging,” said Eriq. “So, where's Wells now? Do we have him in our sights?”

Wells's case had intrigued Jessica more than the others on the list because so many serial killers began their careers as children who harmed animals. “He's a general practitioner in Elixir, Mississippi, but he hasn't been practicing for a year. He was brought up on some ethics charge involving a scam on Medicare patients. He was out on bail when he disappeared. The wife divorced him seven years ago. At the moment, we don't know his whereabouts, which is another reason we're looking so hard at him for the Digger killings.”

“ Anything else?” asked Eriq.

“ Every new lead and a lot of old ones are being followed. Agents across the nation are questioning suspects, and we've urged them to ask our targets if they have ever logged on to Cahil's Isle of Brainsite, to see what the reaction might be. At the same time, we realize that the Digger is a moving target, not likely a homebody.”

“ Why are we still waiting on AOC?” asked Eriq, pacing the computer-analysis room now. Stating the obvious, angry. “What kind of technical difficulties are they saying?”

“ Something lame about a problem with getting all the IDs to us on a continuous flow. They thought it best for us that way…”

“ Thinking kindly of us now that we've killed their sorry asses before a federal court?” Eriq sarcastically replied.

J.T. said, “We know this Wells character owns a Dodge van, and that he may have relocated to the D.C. area, which would give him quick access to Richmond and the other early kill sites.” “Wait a moment… hold on,” Jessica suddenly interrupted.

“ What it is, Jess?” asked Eriq.

“ We've been going at this all wrong… backward. Suppose we have a doctor who comes up on the tip list but not on the violent criminals file?”

“ I thought the idea was to cross-reference the three lists, VICAP, civilian tips and AOC, and if not, the two lists.” Eriq scrunched features displayed his confusion.

“ Yeah, that's been the plan, but suppose this Seeker guy has absolutely no record of any sort? Nothing on file?”

“ A killer like this Digger… He has to have had some run-in with the law somewhere,” said Eriq.

“ Not if he's been careful and lucky. Just suppose it's possible.. that he's avoided and eluded everyone around him… then…”

“ Then he wouldn't be on the list we just developed,” said J.T.

Jessica went to the computer technician, Dana, and said, “I know this is redundant, but I need a list taken from the civilian tips only to be crossed with the words we've been matching.”

“ I saved that list already when creating the crossover list,” she replied. “No problem.” E›ana stroked a few keys and in a moment the printer erupted and the list from all the civilian tips with their key words encrypted was complete. “Here you are,” finished Dana.

Jessica lifted the list. Only those on the civilian tips who were doctors and butchers in which the tip used the words, “brain,” “mind,” “soul” “isle” or “island.” The list was hefty at forty plus names, but it was quickly reduced as Jessica, with J.T.'s help, began comparing it with the ones on the VICAP list as well. J.T. called out the names from his list, and Jessica pencil stroked them off her list. This seems counterproductive,” said Eriq. “Subtracting the men who made the VICAP list.”

Jessica asked for his patience. “Once more,” she added.

Simon Wells, along with most of the others on the original list, were now hand stricken from the new list. Simon Wells had been put into VICAP by Degrasso years ago, and now he had come in as a tip from his ex-wife, who had hounded a field agent in Mississippi to take her tip to the highest authorities involved with the Skull-digger case. This had him on two lists. Jervis Swantor was also on two lists. Such names then were stricken.

Jessica hesitated over Swantor's name for only a moment, seeing his boat marina address in Grand Isle, Louisiana. She wondered how close his tie-up was to New Orleans. Still, having met the man, she decided the civilian tip and the VICAP registry had come from the same source-Swantor's ex-wife. She wanted only those not on the violent criminal program.

“ We want only those names gleaned from a tip alone,” Jessica said, finishing the list with J.T. “Anyone without a criminal history.”

J.T. said, “Swantor and Wells aren't carrying what you'd call a long criminal history, Jess.”

“ All right, we'll keep them on a secondary list. For now, let's be strict on ourselves.”

As a result, a number of new names appeared that had previously been eliminated because they'd not been placed on VICAP, as Swantor and Wells had. Those doctors and butchers who were never listed with VICAP, some twenty-six in all, accounted for a significant reduction of suspects, if Jessica's theory held up.

The remaining names were then broken down into two lists according to profession. Jessica handed the lists to Eriq Here's some that almost got by us,” she said, “the doctors on the tips list who have no previous record.”

“ Bring up the actual files on each tip, please, Dana,” asked Eriq.

The tips appeared in all cases but one to be feeble. The best tip, in everyone's estimation, had come from another physician. A Dr. Mitchell Erdman who claimed that he had worked with a Dr. Grant Kenyon at Mt. Holyoke Memorial Hospital in New Jersey, where he witnessed the disappearance of brains from cadavers.