Sense of Evil - Kay Hooper [26]
“Yes, sir.”
When the young officer had hurried from the room, Isabel said, “Is this people starting to panic? I mean, is this an unusual increase in women reported missing?”
He nodded. “Oh, yeah. In the past three weeks, we've seen the reports jump tenfold. Most come home within twenty-four hours or are discovered visiting relatives or talking to divorce attorneys, or just at the grocery store.”
“Most. But not all.”
“We still have a few missing in the general area, but we haven't yet been able to rule out a voluntary absence in any of the cases.”
“We'll probably see even more of this,” Isabel commented.
“Problem is,” Mallory said, “we have to treat every report seriously, just as Rafe said. So we'll waste a lot of manpower searching for women who aren't really missing or who ran off and don't want to be found. Lady last week cussed me out good for finding her.”
“Motel?” Isabel inquired sapiently.
“Uh-huh. Not alone, needless to say.”
“Still, we have to look for them,” Hollis said.
Rafe nodded. “No question. I'm just hoping it won't muddy the water too much. Or deplete resources needed elsewhere.”
“In the meantime,” Isabel said, “those of us in this room at least have to focus on what we know we've got. Three murdered women.”
Rafe said, “You told me there's always a trigger. Always something specific that sets him off.”
“There has to be,” Isabel responded. “You said yourself that five years is a hell of a long cooling-off period for a serial killer; it is, especially after a fairly frenzied six-week killing spree. A gap that long usually means either that murders in another location have gone unnoticed or at least weren't connected to him, or that he's in prison somewhere or otherwise unable to keep killing.”
“I gather you're certain that isn't the case here.”
“When he hit in Alabama five years ago, we combed through police files of unsolved murders from coast to coast. Nothing matched his M.O. except for the series of murders five years before that. We were convinced he had been inactive during that five-year gap, yet there was also no even remotely likely suspect we could find who had been in prison for exactly that length of time. And according to all the information gleaned from databases we had Quantico double-check yesterday, he's also been inactive in the five years since Alabama. Until he started killing in Hastings a little over three weeks ago.”
Mallory rubbed her temple, scowling. “So something sets him off and he kills six women in six weeks. Then, apparently sated for the time being, vanishes before the cops can even get close to catching him. Why six women?”
“We don't know,” Isabel replied. “The number has to be important, since it's been exactly the same twice before, but we don't know how or why. We can't even be absolutely positive he'll stop at six this time. He could be escalating. Most killers of this sort do sooner or later kill more or get more viciously creative in the killing itself.”
Mallory shook her head. “Great. Because we didn't have enough to look forward to. So he kills at least six women. Moves on to a new location. Then waits five years—it's not exact, is it?” she interrupted herself to ask.
Isabel shook her head. “Not to the day, no. The gap between the first and second set of murders was actually four years and ten months. The gap between the last set and this one was five years and one month. Give or take a few days.”
“Okay. But he moves somewhere new after his six-week killing spree, settles down, settles in. Which has to mean we're looking for someone who's been in Hastings no more than five years, right?”
“Or someone who used to live in the area and has moved back. Or someone who works in Hastings but lives outside the town—or the other way around. Or someone who takes long vacations every few years; that's at least possible.”
“Goes on vacation to kill people?”
“We've encountered stranger things. He could scout out his hunting grounds in advance, maybe start picking