Page 11 of M for Murder

‘So, what are the FBI doing in town?’ she asked lightly, trying to change the subject.

‘Business,’ Sutton told her. ‘We’re thinking that the guy you found in the sewer was the victim of a serial killer.’

‘Really? How come?’

Sutton gestured to Krigg, who passed him a pile of photographs from his desk. He in turn handed them to Rebecca. The top photograph was of Scott Jagger, the guy they had found in the sewer. He was alive in the picture and she guessed that it had probably been taken from his high school yearbook or driver’s licence. The following three pictures were of his body, taken by the coroner.

It was the last one of the three that caught Rebecca’s attention. Scott Jagger’s long hair had been cut away and the picture showed the back of his neck. The letter J had been roughly cut into his skin. She looked up at the two agents.

‘We never noticed this.’

Hickok raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. ‘We didn’t expect you would,’ he said bluntly.

Rebecca stared at him, a little taken aback. Evidently Special Agent Hickok didn’t have a very high opinion of the police force. She found it hard to believe, though, that he was rude enough to show it. Determined to remain professional and not sink to his level, she declined to comment and instead fixed him with an icy smile.

Sutton produced another photograph. This time he didn’t hand it to Rebecca but held it up for Vic to see as well.

‘Recognise this guy?’ he asked.

The picture was of a man in a suit. He looked to be in his mid-forties, a few years younger than Sutton, but much better groomed. His auburn hair was combed back neatly; his thin lips half smiling, half taunting; his eyes were stone-grey, and they held no warmth. He looked vaguely familiar to Rebecca, but she couldn’t quite place him.

Vic was also studying the picture intently. He looked up at Sutton. ‘Another victim?’ he guessed.

Sutton shook his head. ‘I’m surprised you don’t remember him, Officer Boaz. This is Professor Rodney Boone. Back in the summer of ’89 he killed eight students at Juniper College; would have made it nine if the victim hadn’t fought back.’ He glanced at Rebecca.

‘Do you remember the Alphabet Killings, Officer Angell?’

Rebecca nodded. ‘Yeah, I remember them,’ she said, stealing another glance at the picture of Boone, secretly pleased that Vic had just made himself look stupid.

She cast her mind back. The Alphabet Killings had happened just after she’d graduated high school. She could remember learning bits and pieces of information from the news. Boone had been a college professor and had picked his victims from the student register, killing them in alphabetical order of their surnames. Had it really happened only eight years ago?

Vic looked at Sutton. ‘You never got that guy, right?’

Sutton smiled thinly. ‘Correction, we never got what was left of him. The vic got away and called the cops; said she thought she’d killed him. When they got there, the house was in flames and there was no sign of the body.’

‘So you think he’s still alive?’

‘It’s possible. There was a huge manhunt and the case is still open. It was a bad fire, so if he did get away there’s no telling what kind of state he’d have been in.’

Rebecca was thoughtful for a moment, trying to make sense of what Sutton was saying. ‘But you don’t consider him a viable suspect for Scott Jagger’s murder?’

‘No, we don’t,’ Sutton told her. ‘Admittedly there are a lot of similarities between the killings that we can’t ignore. Jagger’s body was found stripped naked, as were Boone’s victims. He was strangled. Boone’s victims were either strangled or suffocated. He was killed in one place and his body dumped in another. Same pattern again. And then of course there’s the initial carved in the back of his neck.’

‘J for Jagger,’ Rebecca said quietly.

‘Exactly. But like I said, the guy we’re looking for isn’t Rodney Boone.’

‘How can you be so sure if you never found his body?’

Sutton shook his head. ‘Well, for starters, while there are plenty of similarities, there are also a couple of things that this killer has done differently. Boone wrapped all of his victims up in a sheet of plastic before dropping them in the sewer. Like I already said, Jagger was found naked, but he wasn’t wrapped in anything. Then there were the pills and alcohol found in his system.’

Rebecca raised her eyebrows. ‘Pills and alcohol?’

‘That’s right. I know that our vic was a healthy twenty-year-old male who probably liked to party, but the mixture of vodka and sleeping pills found in his bloodstream suggests that he had someone with him who wanted to get him that way. Boone never drugged his victims. He was a thrill killer who fed off the pleasure of watching his victims die. The guy who murdered Scott Jagger seems to have been acting as more of a missionary, a clean-up killer. If we’re right, he’s not doing this to get pleasure; he just wants to finish up Boone’s dirty work.’

‘Why would anyone want to do that?’ Rebecca asked, shaking her head disbelievingly. ‘Surely the only person who’d want the Alphabet Killings to continue would be Rodney Boone.’

Sutton flashed a toothy grin, looking amused that she was challenging his theory.