Макс Коллинз - No One Will Hear You

Harrow said, “Happy to help.”

“Glad to hear that,” Rousch said cheerfully. “We would ask one favor...”

“Shoot.”

“Take a break.”

“A break? What kind of break?”

“Take your show off the air till we catch these crazies.”

“Are you kidding?”

“We have two homicidal nutjobs who are competing for air time on your program. Let’s remove the program... for now. That may remove part of the problem.”

Harrow let out a bunch of air he’d been holding in. “First of all, Mark, I don’t have the authority to pull the show. Second, there’s a scrap of paper with something called the First Amendment on it you may wish to refer to.”

Rousch raised a palm as if he were swearing in in court. “This comes from higher up. Don’t kill the messenger.”

Anna closed her eyes, understanding the awkwardness of that remark, since it invoked the murderer of Harrow’s family. And Harrow had in fact killed him...

“You’re former law enforcement, J.C. You’re well aware the First Amendment doesn’t cover yelling ‘Fire’ in a crowded building.”

“It does if there’s a fire.”

“You can make the case to your network president — what’s his name, Burnside? Who better to make an eloquent, reasoned argument for putting Crime Seen on temporary hiatus?”

Harrow’s laugh was abrupt. “You can’t really think either of these madmen will stop just because the show isn’t on?”

“The brain trust at the BSU thinks Crime Seen is inflaming the killers.”

“Want to see them inflamed? Take their platform away.”

The agent frowned. “Then you won’t talk to Mr. Burnside for us?”

“His name is Byrnes, and with all due respect, Agent Rousch, make the case yourself.”

“J.C.,” Anna began.

But Harrow had already taken off down the corridor. When he got to the stairs, he went down, listening for anyone following — no one was.

In the parking lot, he got Jenny on the cell. He filled her in on the new Billie Shears kill.

Then she asked, “We have anything beside the name Kyle Gerut?”

“He’s dead and he was gay.”

“Hate crime?”

“Billie Shears seems to be an equal-opportunity hater.”

“Probably hates himself most.”

“Pretty sure it’s herself , Jen.”

“Thought you said Gerut was gay.”

“Yeah, but I think we have a real cute killer here. Playing us for chumps.”

“We aren’t chumps.”

“That’s good to hear. Listen, run Eric Stanton, too.” He spelled it. “That’s the name used at check-in.”

“Okay, boss. We have security video?”

“Maybe not. The LAPD is working with the FBI now. They’re talking like we’re still on the team, but I have reason to doubt it.”

“Okay,” she said, not asking why, and they signed off.

He turned and found Anna there.

“And just the other day,” she said, “I was telling somebody how diplomatic you could be.”

“He pissed me off.”

She shrugged. “The Fibbies wrote the book on patronizing pricks. Listen... I didn’t know Rousch would pull that. I didn’t walk you into an ambush. Anyway, I didn’t mean to.”

“I know. And maybe I’d feel the same as Rousch in his place.”

“No you wouldn’t. Don Juan and Billie Shears are just looking for an excuse to escalate, and the show going dark would only hand it to them.”

His cell phone throbbed and Harrow checked caller ID — ANDERSON.

The youthful Southern-tinged voice said, “So Billie Shears struck again, I hear?”

“He, she, or it did,” Harrow said. He filled Anderson in, leaving out his confrontation with the FBI agent.

“Man, is this a grim one,” Anderson said.

“And not in the fairy-tale way.”

“Don’t know if it’ll help, boss — but I ran that hair that Lieutenant Amari gave us from the first Billy Shears crime scene?”

“And?”

“It’s human, all right, but I couldn’t get DNA.”

“How’s that possible?”

“The follicle is missing. Michael Pall took a swing at it, too, came up the same.”

“So what’s the explanation?”

“From a wig.”

“A wig! How can you tell?”

“Sucker’s soaked in acetic acid.”

“Vinegar?”

“Bingo, boss. Human hair used for wigs is sometimes soaked in an acetic acid solution — to remove nits before the hair is woven into a wig? I thought Lieutenant Amari would want to know, soon as possible.”

“Good work, Chris — she’s right here. I’ll tell her. Keep digging.”

“Yes, sir.”

Harrow clicked off and turned to Anna. “The hair found at the first Billie Shears crime scene—”

“Came from a wig.”

“... Yeah. How d’you know?”

She smiled. “Figured it out from your end of the conversation. I know some about wigs. My mother died of cancer.”

“Sorry to hear.”

“Long time ago. But when she was going through chemo, we got to know all about wigs.”

Once the crime scene was wrapped, Anna, Polk, and Rousch followed Harrow back to UBC. They met up with the Killer TV team in the conference room, the three officers on their feet while Harrow took his seat at the table’s head.

He introduced Rousch, then — to help get him caught up — had Jenny show the latest Don Juan video on the big screen.

As they got near the first blow from the knife, Choi said, “Here comes the new part—”

The camera moved ever so slightly, a flash of blade and another of red cloth, and the woman’s neck erupted with blood.

Choi said, “The camera moved.”

Rousch frowned. “You mean somebody bumped into it?”

“No,” Choi said. “It moved.”

“As in someone moved it,” Anna said, getting it.

Choi turned to Jenny, “Run the last part again.”

This time, Rousch saw it.

“Camera definitely moved,” Anna said.

The FBI agent remained confused. “So it moved — what does that mean?”

Harrow said, “It means Don Juan has somebody running camera for him.”

Choi said, “We figure it’s a hidden camera, behind a two-way mirror or a peephole. We doubt these victims were participating in some kind of porno session, with a cameraman out in the open.”

Chase said, “But it’s possible.”

Choi said, “Possible but not probable.”

“And that means,” Harrow said, “Don Juan has an accomplice.”

“Holy shit,” Rousch said. “Two are in on this?”

Harrow nodded.

“That could change everything ...”

“It does change everything,” Harrow said, and leaned forward, eyes traveling from face to face. “We thought we were looking for a single serial killer. This new perspective gives us a fresh start.”

Choi said, “If Don Juan’s had help through all of this, maybe we missed something — something that could lead us to the accomplice, if not Don Juan himself.”

Rousch, impressed, said, “It’s a breakthrough.”

Harrow said, “You’re welcome... Laurene, where are we with the roses?”

Chase said, “They’re rare, but not impossible to find — we’re still running down the leads.”

“Keep at it,” Harrow said.

Anna asked, “Any luck on the computer front? Tracking the cyber theft side?”

Jenny shook her head. “Guy could give me lessons.”

Everybody on the team gave her an astonished look — that was quite an admission.

Harrow said, “Might be we’re looking at this bass-ackwards. He’s choosing single, at least semi-successful women — what do they have in common?”

Jenny said, “They all were, or wanted to be, actresses.”

“So Don Juan likely got to them by saying he was in show business, too — right?”