Michael Connelly - The Scarecrow

“When did he come to work for Western Data?”

“Also three years ago. It looks like he split Chicago and almost immediately ended up in Mesa with the new name.”

“So McGinnis already knew him?”

“We think he recruited him. You know, it always used to be an amazing thing when two like-minded killers would hook up. You would think, What are the chances? But the Internet is a whole new ball game. It’s the great intersection, for things good and bad. With chat rooms and websites devoted to any fetish and paraphilia imaginable, we have people with similar interests hooking up every minute of the day. We are going to see more and more of this, Jack. Where they take it out of fantasy and cyberspace and into the real world. Meeting people with shared beliefs helps justify those beliefs. It emboldens. Sometimes it’s a call to action.”

“Did the name Freddy Stone belong to somebody else?”

“No, it looks like it was fabricated.”

“Any history of violence or sex offenses back in Chicago?”

“When he was arrested three years ago in Chicago, his computer was seized and they found a lot of porn. I am told it included a few Bangkok torture films but he wasn’t charged with anything. It’s too hard to make a case because the films carry disclaimers that they’re all actors and nothing is real, even though it most likely is real torture and pain.”

“What about stuff with leg braces, that sort of thing?”

“Nothing like that on the record but we’ll look into all of that, believe me. If the link between Courier and McGinnis is abasiophilia, we will find it. If they met in an iron maiden chat room we will find it.”

“How’d you make Courier’s ID?”

“The handprint stored on the biometric reader on the entrance to the server farm.”

I finished writing and checked my notes, looking for my next question.

“Will I be able to get a mug shot of Courier?”

“Check your e-mail. I sent one before I left. I want you to see if he looks familiar.”

I pulled my laptop across the bed and logged on to my e-mail. Her message was on top of the pile. I opened the photo and stared at a mug shot of Marc Courier from his arrest three years before. He had long dark hair and a scraggly goatee and mustache. He looked like he would fit in seamlessly with Kurt and Mizzou in the bunker at Western Data.

“Could it be the man from the hotel in Ely?” Rachel asked.

I studied the photo without answering.

“Jack?”

“I don’t know. It could be. I wish I had seen his eyes.”

I studied the photo for a few more seconds and then moved on.

“So you said you had good and bad news. What’s the bad news?” “Before he split, Courier planted replicating viruses in his own computer in the lab at Western Data and in the company archives. It chewed through almost everything by the time it was discovered tonight. The camera archives are gone. So is a lot of the company data.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means we’re not going to be able to track his movements as easily as we had hoped. You know, when he was there, when he wasn’t, any sort of connections or meetings with McGinnis, that sort of thing. E-mails back and forth. It would have been good to have.”

“How did that go unnoticed by Carver and all the safeguards they supposedly have in place there?”

“The easiest thing in the world to pull off is an inside job. Courier knew the defense systems. He built a virus that navigated around them.”

“What about McGinnis and his computer?”

“Better luck there, I am told. But they started on that late tonight, so I won’t know more until tomorrow when I go in. A search team was at his house all night as well. He lives alone, no family. I heard they found some interesting stuff but the search is ongoing.”

“How interesting?”

“Well, I don’t know if you want to hear this, Jack, but they found a copy of your book on the Poet on his bookshelf. I told you we’d find it.”

I didn’t reply. I felt a sudden heat on my face and neck and was silent while I considered the idea that I had written a book that might have in some way been a primer for another killer. It was by no means a how-to book but it certainly outlined how profiling and serial killer investigations were carried out by the FBI.

I needed to change the subject.

“What else did they find?”

“I haven’t seen this yet but I am told they found a complete set of ankle-to-thigh leg braces designed for a woman. There was also pornography dealing with the subject.”

“Man, this is one sick son of a bitch.”

I wrote a few notes about the findings, then flipped back through the pages to see if anything prompted another question. Between what I knew and had seen and what Rachel was telling me, I would have a hell of a story for the next day.

“So Western Data is completely closed down, right?”

“Pretty much. I mean, the websites that are hosted at the company are still operating. We froze the colocation center, though. No data is going in or out until the EER team completes its assessment.”

“Some of the clients, like the big law firms, are going to go ape shit when they find out the FBI has custody of their stored files, aren’t they?”

“Probably, but we’re not opening any stored files. At least not yet. We are just maintaining the system as is for the time being. Nothing in or out. We worked with Carver on a message that went out to all clients to keep them informed. It said that the situation is temporary and that Carver, as a representative of the company, was observing the FBI investigation and ensuring the integrity of the files, yada, yada, yada. That’s the best we can do. If they go ape shit, then I guess they go ape shit.”

“What about Carver? You checked him out, right?”

“Yes, he’s clean, all the way back to MIT. We need to trust somebody inside and I guess it’s him.”

I was silent as I wrote a few final notes. I had more than enough to write the story the next day. Even if I couldn’t get through to Rachel, I was sure my story would lead the paper and draw national attention. Two serial killers for the price of one.

“Jack, you there?”

“Yeah, I’m just writing. Anything else?”

“That’s about it.”

“You’re being careful?”

“Of course. My gun and badge are being overnighted to me. I’ll be locked and loaded tomorrow morning.”

“Then you’ll be all set.”

“I will. Can we finally talk about us now?”

I was suddenly speared through the chest with anxiety. She wanted to get the work-related discussion out of the way so she could get to what she really wanted to say about our relationship. After all the unanswered phone calls, I didn’t think it was going to be good news.

“Uh, sure,” I said. “What about us?”

I got up off the bed, ready to take the news standing up. I walked over to the bottle of wine and picked it up. I was staring at it when she spoke.

“Well, you know, I didn’t want this to be all business.”

I felt a little better. I put the bottle down again and started to loosen the spear.

“Me, too.”

“In fact, I was thinking… I know this is going to sound crazy.”

“What is?”

“Well, when they offered me my job back today, I felt so… I don’t know, elated, I guess. Vindicated in some way. But then when I got back here by myself tonight, I started thinking about that thing you said when you were joking around.”

I couldn’t remember what she meant so I played along.

“And?”

She sort of laughed before answering.

“And, well, I think it really could be kind of fun if we tried it.”

I was racking my brain, wondering if this had something to do with the single-bullet theory. What was it I had said?