The Perfect Husband - Lisa Gardner [36]
“This may not sound like much, but it gives us a lot to work with. First, this is not an unsub who will hole up. His need for companionship, sex, and interaction means he’s out there right now, moving among us. He could be the security guard applying for a position at a small Vermont college or the new hire of the Connecticut Highway Department. His disguises will be ‘macho’—look out for firemen, construction workers, security guards, cowboys, etcetera. He lies easily, which means sooner or later he may trip up and give himself away.
“Second, he is highly materialistic and image-obsessed. Before, he maintained his perfect house, perfect clothes, and perfect car through supplementing his cop’s salary with credit card fraud and theft. He’ll utilize those skills now, probably stealing cars, wallets, etcetera. Remember, Bundy was first pulled over in Florida on suspicion of auto theft and stolen credit cards. If you receive calls of a middle-aged white male or pretty blond female involved in auto theft, jump.
“Third, we have Beckett’s need for women. In prison he hooked up with a young blond groupie named Shelly Zane from the Walpole area. She hasn’t been seen since the day of the prison break. Most likely she’s his accomplice. In your files you’ll find copies of all the letters he sent her. Mostly your generic pornographic prison stuff, but searching Shelly’s apartment has already given us our first big break. If you’ll turn to the section marked ‘Possible Aliases’ in the binders on your desk . . .
“We assembled this list based on researching Shelly’s last two weeks in Walpole. According to her phone records, she made calls to several medical supply stores, different states’ motor vehicles departments, and various county records offices. We believe she was helping Beckett create a new identity by researching how to get a new birth certificate. One option, of course, is to order blank certificates from a medical supply store, then forge a doctor’s signature and county stamp. That level of forgery would probably hold up to get a license and a social security card.
“However, Beckett will eventually need to leave the country, and birth certificates are checked out when someone applies for a passport. As anyone who’s worked fraud here knows, there’s only one good way to get a ‘real’ birth certificate. You go to the local library and on microfiche, read the obituaries until you find a kid who was born the same year as you but died in a different county or state several years later. As long as the counties don’t cross-reference birth and death certificates, the birth certificate will still be on file. You simply request a copy of that birth certificate from the county and assume it as your own.
“Sure enough, the local librarian told us Shelly had spent four days reading the microfiche of old newspapers. Going through the same newspapers, we found only four names that would fit the criteria for Jim Beckett: Lawrence Talbert, Scott Hannah, Albert McDougal, and Thad Johnson. We’ve notified the passport office to contact us should anyone request a passport for those names. There’s a good chance Beckett will want that passport sooner or later. When he does, we got him.”
A hand came up in back. “Why are you so sure he’ll leave the country?”
“Good question. That brings us to the unsub’s last major weakness: his ex-wife, Theresa Williams. As you heard on the tape, Theresa played the key role in Jim’s identification and capture. He’s never forgiven her for that. Each day in prison he wrote her a letter and in each letter he described exactly how he was going to kill her.
“The women of New England may be terrified now and they may be locking their doors, but frankly they’re pretty safe. Beckett is going to kill again, yes. And most likely, Shelly Zane will be his first victim, once she is no longer useful to him. But his real target, his ultimate goal, is Theresa.
“He’ll kill her. He’ll find their daughter,