Allison Brennan - Cutting Edge

“Is the letter ‘M’ wrote important?”

“Possibly.” He handed her a copy of the letter. “We dusted the original for prints. We have a few partials from two different individuals, but they’re pretty degraded. Quantico is working on enhancing them, but it’ll take time.”

Nora read the letter. It was undated, but based on the content it was given to Anya around the time Maggie left Rose College last December.

Dear Anya ,

How could you choose him over our cause? I’m very disappointed in you. Don’t you care anymore? Don’t you want to be part of the solution? Your boyfriend yaks it up like he cares about the cause, but he’s part of the problem. He’s Establishment. He’s never done anything to help. You know it. He talks and talks and likes everyone to think he’s this big, noble Progressive Environmentalist who cares about the earth and animals that the Industrial Complex is killing so the masses have soap and makeup to disguise their ugly hearts.

Fuck you both!

“M” had crossed out that last line, but Nora noticed that while the text started out small and tight, it grew bigger and tilted more to the right-retaining the same tightness but with sharper points and more pressure on the pen. The letter continued with smaller script, but still with the heavy-pressured rightward slant.

I’m sorry. Anya, I love you. I wish you were my sister. You know about mine. I can’t even talk to her. I wish we could be friends again, friends like before. I’m going to miss you, but I have to go. I hope someday we can do everything we planned. Don’t listen to that jerk. He’ll be screwing around with another student soon enough, then you’ll see him like I do. A walking penis. He was in his office for a long time with that whore Ashley Corman on Monday. I’ll bet they weren’t talking about midterms. Ask him. I dare you. Or would you rather be ignorant and used?

We can do so much to really change the world and make a real difference. We can do it, Anya. Believe. I’m the only one who understands how you feel. Remember when you cried in my arms when that mama bear was killed by an SUV? She was just protecting her bear cubs. You cried and I told you we’d fix it. We’d make it right. And we did, didn’t we?

He wouldn’t do that for you .

I’ll be thinking about you. We have more to do. You promised. Call me .

M

“She’s certifiable,” Duke said.

“Maybe,” Nora muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Hooper said. “Does something stand out in the letter?”

“First,” she said, “her sister. We need to find her sister. Maybe that’s where Maggie’s hiding out. Rachel’s at Rose College, we need that warrant ASAP.”

“I’ll call the U.S. attorney myself,” Hooper said. Nora smiled. Hooper had connections that most FBI agents didn’t have.

“What else?” Duke said. “You look worried.”

“I’m very concerned. Look at the writing. She’s like a tightly wound clock ready to break. She’s impulsive and angry. She’s young, which is why she’s been able to get away with it. Parents and teachers tend to let young people get away with erratic behavior thinking they’ll grow out of it. I don’t think she’d be able to hold down a job for long. I doubt she has much control over her outbursts, though she is able to rein herself back in. Like a three-year-old who pushes down a kid and takes their toy. They’ll give it right back when they’re told to, but they were unable to control the impulse to take it in the first place. That’s learned behavior, to resist taking what we want when we want it. I don’t think our Maggie has control over that.”

Hooper said, “I’ll put out some feelers about that bear story. She mentions they ‘fixed’ it. Sounds like something that might be an unsolved crime.”

What would people like her mother do under those circumstances? She said, “If the identity of the driver who hit the bear was made public, that’s who they targeted.”

“You don’t think they killed him?” Hooper asked.

“Not Anya, if we’re to believe what Leif Cole said about her. If she was truly that upset when she thought that Jonah Payne had been killed by accident, then she couldn’t have participated in cold-blooded murder. But that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t destroy property he cares about. Like the offending SUV.”

“I’m on it.”

“Can I keep this?” She held up the letter.

“Sure, it’s a copy.”

She stared at it again and frowned. “There’s something familiar here. I’m wondering if we’ve seen similar letters come through our squad. The use of the word ‘Establishment’ stands out. That’s a clear anarchist statement. But ‘Industrial Complex’ sounds out of place, almost like she felt like she had to put it there to sound like she knew what she was talking about.”

“You don’t think she’s a true anarchist?”

“She is. She believes in her cause, but her cause is not solely extreme environmental activism. It’s more focused.”

“You can tell that by this letter?” Duke asked.

“Some,” she said. “And thirty-seven years of experience, on both sides of the law.”

“I’m going to have Jason work on finding out about that case and seeing if there was any retaliation,” Hooper said. “Duke.”

There was a silent exchange between them, and Hooper left.

“What was that about?” she asked.

“You aren’t blind to the fact that something’s going on here. You heard the profiler yesterday state that the last letter was focused on you . Then his opinion today about the suicide note. I was in that conversation. Three handwriting experts confirmed that whoever wrote this”-he tapped the letter from ‘M’ in her hand-“wrote the fourth letter, which specifically mentioned cases you worked.”

“You and Hooper spoke to Dr. Vigo about my case? Without me?”

“You were at the morgue. Why is it so hard for you to accept help?”

Duke was challenging her. She was completely out of her element, psychopaths and revenge. “I don’t have any problem accepting help. I have my entire squad hunting down pieces of this puzzle, and I let you come on board as a consultant. So don’t tell me I don’t accept help.”

“Let me rephrase it. You don’t want anyone singling you out for special consideration. You don’t want personal protection. But you’ve got it. Hooper and I agree that this woman has some reason in her head for not liking you. Until we find her, we need to be cautious.”

Nora didn’t like the direction this conversation was going. “Let’s be logical about this. If someone had a vendetta against me, they’d come after me, right? Personally. I don’t know Maggie O’Dell, I’ve never met her. Why would she come after me?”

“Why would they go after the driver of an SUV because he accidentally hit a bear? He certainly didn’t do it on purpose, his car was probably totaled and he’s lucky to be alive if he hit the poor animal with any speed. And why would this woman kill Jonah Payne? There’s no logical reason. And her friends-she probably killed those three college students, kids she knew, a girl she said she loved like a sister. So don’t think for a minute that you’re not at risk!”

Nora was taken aback by Duke’s passionate anger in getting his point across. She pulled at her hair, never feeling so out of sorts. “It doesn’t make sense. It has to make sense!”

Duke firmly rubbed her arm. “I’m not a shrink, but I know people pretty well. Some of them just aren’t very nice. Maybe this game she’s playing is as much psychological as it is physical.”

“I don’t have any personal connection with the people she’s suspected of killing.”