Chris Mooney - The Secret Friend

'Darby has a valid point,' Bryson added.

Chadzynski put on her glasses. 'How many times have you spoken with Malcolm Fletcher?'

'I spoke with him inside Emma Hale's home,' Darby said. 'So far, he's called me twice – Saturday afternoon while I was at Judith Chen's and then later while Tim and I were at Sinclair.'

'And he hasn't called you since?'

'Not yet.'

'Do you think he'll call you again?'

'I think it's a strong possibility.'

'What do you base that on?'

'He's inserted himself into our investigation. He led me to Sinclair where we found, in a room inside an area where they supposedly held violent offenders, a picture of a woman and a statue of the Virgin Mary – the same statue we found inside the pockets of Hale and Chen.'

'Where did he get the statue? Do we know?'

'We have no idea.'

'And the woman in the photograph,' Chadzynski said. 'Is she connected to these strangled women from Saugus?'

Bryson answered the question. 'Cliff Watts passed her picture around the Saugus station. They don't know who she is. She's not listed in any of their missing-person cases. I'm going to give a copy of the picture to our Missing Persons Unit after this meeting.'

'My understanding is you searched the hospital and failed to find anything else,' Chadzynski said.

'We only managed to search part of the hospital,' Darby said. 'The basement itself is a maze. Some sections are sealed off because they're unstable. Other areas are locked. The place is massive, and it took a good amount of time to map out the areas we searched. We only had a day and a half.'

'So you think we should continue the search?'

'I do.'

'Tim?'

'I don't see the need.' Bryson explained his position.

Chadzynski turned back to Darby and said, 'What do you think Malcolm Fletcher wants you to find? You can't honestly believe a living woman is trapped inside the hospital.'

'The last time I spoke to Fletcher, he mentioned a quote by George Bernard Shaw – "If you can't get rid of the family skeleton, you might as well make it dance." I don't think he was being clever. I got the sense he was warning me. He mentioned opening Pandora's Box. I think there's something inside that hospital, and he wants us to find it.'

'Or, as Tim suggested, Fletcher is simply jerking us around.'

'That very well may be true,' Darby said. 'The fact is he's involved himself in this case. He left us the same Virgin Mary statue we found in Hale and Chen's pockets. I'd like to know where he got it.'

'You think he wants to help our investigation?'

'I don't know what the man's motives are,' Darby said. 'What little I know about him came from the FBI website, which isn't much.'

Bryson said, 'There's also another theory: What if Malcolm Fletcher murdered Hale and Chen?'

'That's not Mr Fletcher's style,' Chadzynski said.

'Do you know something about him?'

'How many people have you told about Malcolm Fletcher?'

'I told Watts,' Bryson said, turning to Darby.

'Jackson Cooper and Keith Woodbury know,' she said. 'I haven't told anyone else.'

Chadzynski crossed her legs. 'What I'm about to say I'd like to stay inside this room.'

'This is the second time Malcolm Fletcher has resurfaced in Boston,' Chadzynski said. 'The first time was roughly nine years ago. Do you remember the Sandman case?'

'It was big news.' Darby had followed the story in the papers.

A serial murderer named Gabriel LaRouche had murdered a family in Marblehead, a North Shore town north of Boston, and called the police. LaRouche, watching the house through sophisticated surveillance equipment, waited until all the police were gathered inside and then detonated the bomb he had left at the crime scene. Two more families were killed before he was captured.

'Do you know Jack Casey?' Chadzynski asked.

'The former profiler,' Darby said. 'He's the one who caught Miles Hamilton, the "All-American Psycho".'

'Yes. Casey had retired from the Bureau and was working as the chief of detectives for Marblehead, where the first family was murdered. Boston SWAT was called in at one point – there was a hostage situation on a highway. I have a personal friend at the Bureau, someone who works in Investigative Support. Jack Casey brought Fletcher in as a behind-the-scenes consultant. After the Sandman case was solved, Casey left Marblehead and hasn't been seen or heard from since. Fletcher disappeared. Several years later, he was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted List.'

'Fletcher attacked the agents in eighty-four,' Darby said. 'Why did the Feds wait so long to place him on the list? Do you know?'

'The Bureau wanted to handle the matter quietly.'

'What a surprise.'

'Malcolm Fletcher was one of their best profilers,' Chadzynski said. 'His clearance rate is unprecedented. The problem was he crossed the line into vigilantism. The last dozen or so serial cases he worked on, each killer died. The last four cases he worked, the suspects disappeared. My friend didn't say how long this had been going on, but when the Bureau found out, they sent in three agents to apprehend Fletcher and you know what happened next.

'After the FBI placed him on their list, a task force was formed to apprehend him. The problem, from my understanding, is that nobody knows much about him. For a man on the run, he lives quite well. He stays in good hotels. He enjoys fine wine and cigars. He prefers driving luxury cars.'

'The security guard at Sinclair said Fletcher drove a Jaguar,' Darby said.

'He's also a clothing snob,' Chadzynski said. 'I remember my friend saying Fletcher was ordering hand-made suits and shirts from a well-known tailor in London's Mayfair district. Nobody knows anything about the man's family life or if his eye condition was caused by some genetic defect or disease. I was told the man isn't a psychopath. He kills for specific reasons. Are you familiar with The Shadow?'

'The movie with Alex Baldwin? It wasn't very good.'

'Actually, I was referring to an old pulp-magazine character. The Shadow was a vigilante. He skulked around in the dark, fighting for justice.'

'"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows,"' Bryson said. He saw Darby's expression, and with a slight grin, added, 'Before your time.'

'Malcolm Fletcher is the same way,' Chadzynski said. 'He only targets people whom he believes have committed some grievous offence. I heard speculation – and, at the moment, that's all it is, idle speculation – that Fletcher was working independently on some of his unsolved cases. Maybe these Saugus cases are connected to Hale and Chen in some way. I'll need to make some phone calls.'

'You're going to bring the Feds into this?' Darby asked.

'We need to consider the possibility. They have access to information about the man that we don't.'

'I think that's a mistake.'

'I agree with Darby,' Bryson added. 'The Feds will come in, take over the case and when things go wrong, they'll start pointing the fingers back at us, get their PR machine to cover their ass.'

'Let me call my friend and see if I can make some subtle inquiries,' Chadzynski said. 'I doubt the task force would come here based solely on a sighting. They'd want concrete evidence before they mobilize. In the interim, we need to take some proactive measures. Darby, since he seems to be focused on you, with your permission I'd like to place a trap-and-trace on all of your phones. I'd also like to place you under surveillance.'

Darby nodded.

'Tim, you have surveillance experience,' Chadzynski said. 'Can you head it up?'

'I'll take care of it.'

'Good. As for continuing to search through Sinclair, I'd like to suspend the operation until we have something more concrete. I want our focus on Judith Chen.'