Page 57 of Long Past Deadly

“Well, it’s his inner psychological workings, so it wouldn’t. You’re not going to identify every motive. It’s why you aren’t seeing it. Try focusing on where?” She bit the end of the marker and studied the board.

“I get where you’re going with this. Right side is the assassin. There’s seventeen cases where Hunt’s intelligence group identified his pattern. Not sure that tells us anything.” He studied Alanna’s face.

“He used the sniper profession to provide cover for his killing, yet we have so few cases to back up the premise. But the methods of the two are definite – sniper rifle and explosives, for one, then knives and physical violence for the other.” She drew another line on the chart, then stood motionless, frowning.

“What?”

“Two hours ago, I stayed away from the windows because of his sniper skills.”

“Prudent. Don’t second guess a gut instinct.”

“You’re right.” She popped the cap back on the marker.

“The left side is his serial killing, his compulsion.”

She pointed at the list. “To which we only have my verified incident with him and Esme. What we need is to backtrack his personal life – since we have his name, we can search locations, check police reports, and see if we can find other missing women. If we checked in Spain at the same time as Hunt’s mission and examined their missing, we might have somewhere to start, but we need to backtrack to his hometown and search there first. The compulsion started somewhere. Usually as a kid or in high school. Are you listening to me?”

Quaid swiveled in his chair and stood. He came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing at the tension there. “We’ve been at this too long, getting too close, and I’m not sure we have contacts in Spain. Grandfather has hotels there, but direct law enforcement connections? I don’t think so. It might be something Hunt’s intelligence unit can get at, though. I’ll ask.”

“Mercer was here in San Diego when I lived in the streets and as early as a month ago. Maybe we don’t have to extend our reach. We search San Diego. He has to have a house, an apartment, or a room he’s using for a hide when he’s here. There have to be other victims, too. Frank could explore cases specific to that information. It would give us a playing field. He attacked Esme here and yesterday attacked two thirteen year olds. Esme was sixteen, a year older than me. Where is Anders Barton from?”

Quaid dropped his hands and pulled his computer around to pinpoint Barton’s hometown. “Listed as Baltimore, Maryland.”

“Well, Whit was from San Diego. It’s why he came back here when he got out, so the military was their first meet.” She scribbled the note on the board. “Basic?”

“Yes. They split to Rangers and Green Beret after graduating. Their Airborne dates don’t even overlap.”

Alanna scribbled a list. Baltimore, Maryland, Fort Jackson, SC, and Fort Benning now Moore, San Diego.

“So they both went through Fort Jackson.” The fort name went on another list along with the other places Mercer had been.

Quaid scanned the board. “Let’s set this aside, and we’ll review it with Mackey. This was his entry route, too, I believe. Fort Jackson to Fort Benning to Fort Bragg now Liberty. He went Delta not Green Beret, but the pipeline is similar for all three.”

She started another list. Mackey and Frank’s names appeared. “Should we have had Kerry stop looking for Esme?”

“What do you think?” He wasn’t signing off on anything she still felt strongly about.

“She should work on some of these searches. She’s thorough and has a good sense when something isn’t right. She could also refocus on Tenney.”

“Up to you. Honestly, the search that is the most important right now is San Diego. We have two different times when he’s been here and looking for victims here makes sense.

“Depends on when he last killed, honestly.”

“Could the assassinations tide him over?”

“Possibly.”

“How did you decide he had serial killing tendencies? We have scant evidence of that here.”

“I’ve had years to analyze what happened. I talked to Whit once about it, too. He didn’t tell me much, but he warned me to stay away because Mercer was dangerous.”

“Warning of a protective guardian or was he a witness?”

“Might explain Iraq if Mercer tried murdering there, too. There’s too much of the trail missing. But if I stick to facts, we know he killed Esme, he’s tried to kill Whit.”

“And he tried to kill you.”

“I can’t figure that out unless he’s cleaning house and doesn’t want any witnesses left behind. But why now?”