Crush - Alan Jacobson [56]
“Back to the other question, then,” Dixon said. “Do we go along with what he’s demanding?”
“Yes and no,” Vail said. “I suggest we do just enough to keep the line of communication open. We negotiate. But the bottom line is we keep him talking to us. The more we learn about him from his communications, the better it’ll be for us. At some point he’ll give us something he’s not aware he’s giving us. And that could lead us to him.”
Brix looked around the room. “Comments?”
Fuller shrugged. “Vail was pushing for us to give this to the media, which would’ve been a disaster for the community. And instead of doing that, the guy contacts us.”
Dixon said, “What are you saying, Scott?”
“That maybe it’s not always best to listen to what she’s telling us to do. Before she got here, we did just fine handling murders.”
“You have, what, two murders a year?” Vail paused, realizing she may have inadvertently insulted them. She bowed her head and said, “Look, I’m only here to help. You can take my advice, or not.”
“Help,” Fuller said. “Now we have an arson to investigate, too. That kind of help we don’t need.”
“That’s not fair,” Lugo said. “She didn’t ask to almost be burned alive. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that we’re all here for the same reason. To catch this goddamn killer. Because I don’t know about you, but I think this is a big fucking problem. And if we’re not careful, this guy is going to go on a spree and then we won’t have control of anything. But we’ll have a lot of uncomfortable questions to answer.”
Vail didn’t agree with the “spree” terminology, but the sentiment behind Lugo’s comment was accurate. She decided to sit back and not force the issue; let them come back to her.
Timothy Nance, who had been stealthily observing the discussion, stood up and approached the table. “Congressman Church is very concerned about what’s going on. I don’t want to report back to him that his own Major Crimes task force is at odds about what to do. I need to tell him we’ve got things handled, and that you people are all on the same page and that you have a valid plan of attack. Now, I don’t know about you, but it seems to me the FBI’s had a lot of experience dealing with serial killers. And this guy is a serial killer, am I right, Agent Vail?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then I would like to see us seriously consider what she has to say. Let’s talk about it. Debate it. But in the end, I want what we decide to make sense, and leave the politics and egos out of the equation.”
Vail silently applauded Nance’s speech. Perhaps she had the guy pegged wrong. Perhaps he was merely providing the political voice his boss needed and expected.
“Okay,” Brix said. He approached the whiteboard. “This is what I want to do. We’ve got two investigations going, the murder and the arson. I want to make sure we handle both properly, but I don’t want one interfering with the other. So we’re going to split the task force: Gordon, you and Mann will run the arson investigation. If you need bodies, let me know and I’ll assign some people. Whatever you need, I’ll make sure you get it.”
“I think between us and CalFire, we’ll be fine.”
“Good. Check in with me regularly in case the two crimes were both committed by the same asshole. The rest of you, you’re staying on the Crush Killer with me.” He turned to his right, where an overhead projector arm was mounted to the desk. “Karen, bring that letter over here. Let’s look at these demands and figure out how we’re going to reply.”
DIXON SWUNG THE CAR along the curving road that led from the sheriff’s department building