Bring Me Flowers (Detectives Kane and Alton)

Sick to her stomach at the memory of Mrs. Rogers’ blue face surrounded by blood-stained carpet, she gaped up at him. “That is so gross. What kind of human being does such a thing?”

“You can’t think logically when dealing with a psychopathic mind. They don’t have emotions like we do; they are narcissistic and have no compassion, so trying to talk them out of murder never works. You can’t reason with them because they see a victim as an object not a person.” Kane’s forehead wrinkled into a frown. “It’s all about them, their needs, and their desires. As an example, think how we would regard soda in a can—once consumed, we toss away the can, it has no value. That’s how a psychopathic killer regards their victims.”

“So why display them, what does he get out of the shock value?”

“It’s a ‘look at me’ syndrome in the narcissistic part of their personality. I would say he feeds off the girl’s terror and gets some sort of extra thrill with the shock value he generates. This killer is making a point.” Kane’s blue eyes settled on her face. “It all goes with the makeup on the face and the mutilation. Each girl he kills is a symbol of the person who damaged him so bad it triggered his behavior. He is punishing a woman and sending a message to others. It’s not over, he is escalating, but it looks like he is sticking to the same group of friends. We have to figure out which one of them will be next.”

The interview with Aimee’s parents slammed into her brain. “Oh, Jesus—she was speaking to Emily online last night.”

Forty-Seven

Kane met Wolfe coming out of the forest. “Is Emily at home? Jenna told me she was talking to Aimee online last night around six. As this lunatic seems to be moving through a group of friends, we need to be worried about her safety.”

“I’ll call her.” Wolfe tore off his face mask, displaying a grim expression. “Not that she would go out again alone.” He removed his protective gear and pushed it into a plastic bag Jenna held out for him.

“She is a sensible girl. I wish she would join the sheriff’s department once she has finished school.” Jenna’s smile reached her eyes. “I need a female deputy.”

“She has bigger plans, I’m afraid. She will walk through a forensic science degree and will be joining me here as an M.E.” Wolfe’s tone made it clear Jenna’s suggestion would never happen. He dragged out his cellphone and turned his back, displaying a large patch of sweat. He paced up and down then turned to face them. “I’m sorry but there is no easy way to say this to you. Aimee is dead and I understand you spoke to her last night?”

Kane observed the changes of expression on Wolfe’s face during the conversation. The man was blunt and did not pulled any punches with his daughter. When Wolfe finally disconnected, Kane waited expectantly. “What did she say?”

Wolfe held up one large hand as if halting traffic and stared at the ground for some moments as if considering what to say. His large frame expanded as he drew in a big breath then let it out slowly. “I know how the killer lured the girls to the murder scene.”

“What?” More than a little interested, Kane moved closer to Jenna and stared at him. “How?”

Wolfe’s steel gaze swept over Kane and he grimaced. “He is manipulating the damn game they play on their cellphones. Emily said Aimee rushed off to meet Julia. Emily tried to stop her and threatened to tell me but Aimee pulled the peer-pressure card. She said Julia had apparently left Aimee a message to say she’d found three rare characters on the edge of Stanton Forest.” He gave him an agitated look when he opened his mouth to ask a question. “The game involves collecting digital images of characters projected in real time through a cellphone’s camera to move forward in the game.” He rubbed the blond stubble on his chin, making a rasping sound. “Emily tried to contact Aimee about eight thirty this morning to smooth things over and when Aimee didn’t pick up, she assumed she wasn’t speaking to her, so she called Julia.” His stone expression met Kane’s gaze. “Julia didn’t send Aimee a message last night.”

“How is he impersonating the girls?” Jenna’s blue eyes widened. “I mean, a phone number comes up to identify people in messages.”

“Emily mentioned the group of friends use an online messaging system via the games room to contact each other. Aimee told her it stopped her parents from snooping.” Wolfe raised a blond eyebrow. “I assume they made a habit of checking her cellphone messages. This means the killer is hacking the online games room. My guess is he is using the kids’ usernames to post messages, which would point straight to Provine. He is the person who gave each of these girls a toggle to interact with them online.”

Mind reeling, Kane gaped at him. “Yeah, but without the boyfriends having a toggle, could he hack into their accounts as well? I remember in Chad’s statement he mentioned Kate sent him a message to change the time of their date through the games hub.”

“If the killer is capable of remotely manipulating a single player’s game interaction, hell yeah.” Wolfe’s expression was bleak. “He is good, damn good. I am surprised he hasn’t tried to breach my firewalls on our cellphones or the department’s mainframe, but right now, it is as safe as the Pentagon’s security system. If he had as much as tried to tamper with anything we would be lighting up with alerts.”

“Where is Lionel Provine? Have you been keeping tabs on him?” Jenna?

??s eyes flashed with anger. “The weasel. Did Emily connect her laptop to his damn circle of friends or whatever?”

“Yeah, she did, but only so I could monitor everything he was doing. I’ll check the logs again the moment I get home, just in case he opened a connection last night, but so far, Provine seems to be quiet. As far as I know he didn’t trigger the alarm I set on her firewall and he hasn’t moved from his apartment either, unless he found the tracker.” Wolfe’s brow wrinkled as he pressed buttons on his cellphone. “Nope, according to the app, his car is still in the same place. If either of our suspects had driven anywhere, the trackers would have alerted me, which means Provine could have an alternative means of transport and Rogers could have walked here.” He cleared his throat.”

Pulling out his cellphone, Kane scrolled down his list of contacts and found Provine’s number. He shrugged. “I’ll call him. You never know, some of these ass—Ah, Mr. Provine, this is Deputy Dave Kane. I am just looking over our budget for the rest of the year. I wondered if you could arrange a discount for the sheriff’s department if we buy in bulk?” He winked at Jenna. “You can, that’s great. I’ll speak to Deputy Wolfe and we’ll drop by next week. No, thank you.” He disconnected. “Well, he is in the store. I can hear games in the background and voices.”

“Smartass.” Wolfe removed his hat and used wipes from his bag to clean his sweat- and mud-streaked face. “He thinks he is invincible and untraceable. If he is involved in these murders, he has to make an error either online or at the scene. I found hairs and fibers this time. He didn’t wash the body and is getting careless in his rush for a fix.”

“We’ll need to keep him under surveillance.” Jenna pushed a strand of black hair behind one ear. “I wonder if he is going to be at the dance at the fairgrounds tonight.”

“If he isn’t, we’ll have to arrange surveillance.” Kane rubbed the back of his neck. “I think he’ll take the opportunity to kill again while everyone is at the dance. It wouldn’t be too difficult to lure a girl away in a crowd, and the fairgrounds are filled with places to hide.”

“Count me out.” Wolfe’s eyes narrowed. “I’m taking Emily and I don’t break promises to kids. After working since before six this morning, setting up tests on the evidence, and doing two PMs, I’m owed the time.”

“We planned to go too but watching Provine is more important.” Jenna bit into her bottom lip. “I do understand you are working two jobs and I don’t expect you to pull extra shifts. You had better get going. We’ll finish up here. How long before we have any DNA results?”

“On the evidence we found on Aimee, three days. The other victims’ samples should be ready this afternoon.” Wolfe’s mouth twitched into an uncharacteristic smile. “I’m hoping I have enough to convict the killer. I did find cells on Kate’s hands, most likely sweat dripped from the murderer.”

“Brilliant!” Kane bent to gather all the used equipment and pushed everything into a bag. “Can you call me after you inform the sheriff?”

“Yeah, not a problem.” Wolfe’s nostrils flared as he stared at the large bag of stinking discarded coveralls, gloves, and booties. “I need to make a new rule as M.E. I want all contaminated materials from a crime scene placed into an incinerator, not into the garbage. I’ll take it with me. There is one at the funeral home but I’ll ask the mayor to have one installed at the sheriff’s department. The contaminated trash can you have there is an environmental joke.” He grabbed the bag Kane held out for him and headed toward his SUV. “I’ll catch you later.”