Already Trapped (Laura Frost FBI)

This person who had taken her in—she had no idea who it was. Whether it was even a man or a woman, a couple or a single person. Someone with other children, or with none of their own. Whoever it was, Laura couldn’t shake the bad feeling that Amy shouldn’t be with them.

She should be with someone who could really care for her. Someone like…

And Laura had to pull herself back from that thought, because it wasn’t right. It wouldn’t work, at any rate. She already had a little girl to be a mother to. Lacey needed her. The court case was getting closer and closer every day that they spent out here in Milwaukee. Laura hadn’t even had a chance to prepare, and if she wasn’t prepared, it could go badly.

And there was the possibility she didn’t want to face: what if she was still out here when the custody hearing was due to start? Could she get back there in time, handle the hearing, and then return to solve the case? What if she was right on the killer’s heels? Could she be selfish enough to let people die so that she could get a formal visitation agreement for her daughter?

Could she take the risk that Marcus would still allow her to see Lacey if she didn’t show up, even if it meant letting people die?

Laura closed her eyes, trying hard to think. It was so noisy here, in the bullpen. On top of that, she felt like everyone was watching her. Not only was she the highest authority in the room, and an out-of-towner for them to gawk at, but there had also been the argument with Nate. They were probably all talking about her behind their hands.

She had to get out of here, go somewhere she could try to find some kind of center, focus down again.

She got up, leaving the files and her phone behind. She just needed a minute. Just a minute. She’d come back for it all later.

Laura headed right for the interview rooms, where she had taken Dr. Fairmont before. She knew there was a whole row of them. She found one that was unoccupied, stepped inside, and closed the door firmly behind her. No one would barge in with the door closed, in case they might compromise the interview.

She sat down at the table, resting her head in her hands. Trying to get clear. If she could only figure out something from her visions… she went over them again and again, trying to pick out any identifying features for the street, the café. Even the station had been out in the darkness to the point she couldn’t see the name.

The visions were getting her nowhere. And maybe her earlier thought had been right. Maybe she’d been relying too much on them. Getting lazy. Unable to figure anything out unless it was given to her on a plate.

Maybe it was time she tried to be a detective, not a psychic.

Laura stood up and started pacing, trying to think. Trying to clear away the visions from her mind and the information that didn’t help. There was no knowing who the next victim would be, if she didn’t have the visions to go on. That area was a total blank.

But the killer—that was who they had information on. They had seen him strike three times now. Laura started to think over what they had for sure: he was a man. He was bold. He was tall enough to climb the railings, and to drop the distance between the windows without injuring himself. Strong, too—enough upper body strength to pull himself up and let himself down.

And they knew, for sure, that he liked to target identical twins. There had to be a reason for that. With no link between the three victims except from their doctor—whom Laura had absolutely no reason to suspect anymore—it had to be that the attacks weren’t personal. They were based on type, not individual. And the type was identical twins.

What would possess someone to go around a city, finding and methodically slaughtering identical twins?

Laura knew the answer to this. Of course she did. This was perp psychology 101. The FBI had practically invented this kind of suspect analysis.

He went after identical twins because he had a reason to. He was targeting them to either right some wrong he perceived had been done against himself, or because he was trying to recapture something. Or capture it for the first time—a fetish, maybe.

But there were no signs of sexual gratification at the crime scenes, and he’d gone after both men and women. Bisexual killers were notably rare, and while it was always possible for something to be happening for the first time or a rare case to come up again, Laura held by the old adage. When you heard hooves, you didn’t assume zebras. You assumed horses.

So, what reason would a man have for wanting to kill off identical twins?

There was the possibility that he had been victimized by twins himself. Bullied, maybe. A pair of older brothers. A parent who was a twin, and who turned abusive. But it seemed tenuous. Laura had heard of plenty of cases where killers went after middle-aged women, say, because the person they really wanted to end was their mother. But for both twins to be targeted, it must have been something against two people.

If both twins were being targeted. Laura kept having to come back to that, to the idea that maybe it wasn’t a given. Kevin Wurz had survived. The killer hadn’t gone back to the apartment. Gausse had had someone sitting there this whole time, and they had never once reported an intruder. No one had seemingly gone looking for Kevin. If the killer knew he was in police custody still, that could explain it, but how would he know if he wasn’t watching them all the time?

And he wasn’t. He’d moved on. He was stalking someone else now, looking for another option. Maybe the next victims, or victim, that he had planned all along.

Laura tapped a finger against her mouth thoughtfully. Why would you want to kill both female twins, and yet leave one male twin alive?

He was a male himself.

What if he was recreating something?

If he was a twin himself…

Laura found herself standing stock-still, floored by the realization. That could really make sense. If he was a twin himself, then it could easily feed into whatever kind of mania or aggression was fueling this killing spree.

Especially if he had been a twin—but was now alone.

There was a disconnect somewhere, a reason why he’d kill both women and not both men. Maybe it was because his twin’s death had something to do with a pair of female twins… Maybe they were to blame in the killer’s twisted mind. She didn’t know how it would fit. But it was a theory she could follow, and that made it something she needed to follow, even if it went nowhere.