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“Right. We think he did it this time so we’d make nomistake it was him,” Yen said. “He wanted us to know he was picking back up.”
“You do know that he stopped when you went away, right?”Agent Whitmore said.
“Went away?” Morgan asked, angry. “I did a little morethan ‘went away.’” Looking away from Whitmore, she went on. “Okay, so we have anew lead and a new symbol. “What’s the plan from here?”
“We want you to lead this investigation,” Mueller said.
“Me? Why?”
“Because you’re the only one who’s ever been close tocatching the Seven Signs Killer,” Mueller said. “You know him better thananyone else in this bureau.”
“You understand I just got out of prison, right? Afterten years?”
“Yes. And we don’t think it’s a coincidence that hestopped when you were put in prison and picked back up just three days beforeyou were released. For whatever reason, he wants you to come for him.”
There was an obvious question to be asked here. But evenas the question formed in her mind, she knew the answer.
The question:So do we just give the maniac exactlywhat he wants?
The answer wasn’t quite as simple. Yes…they had to givehim what he wanted. If they wanted to know why he was doing this and to figureout how to stop him from killing even more people, there had to be a hunt. So,yes…he was calling her out and she was going to him. It felt a bit careless andrash.
But was there really any other way to get it done?
Morgan let out a sigh. She knew Mueller was right. Shewas the only one who had ever come close to catching him. But that was tenyears ago. She’d stayed in shape in prison, but…well, she was a differentperson now.
“Morgan?” Mueller said. “This is urgent. What do you say?”
“I say I need to know who to talk to about that facialrecognition software. And…what do I need to do to get a temporary badge andgun?”
Mueller looked uncomfortable at the very mention of this,but Morgan was a bit relieved to notice that Derik was smiling.
CHAPTER FOUR
The facial recognition software provided results fortyminutes later. In that time, Morgan had managed to secure a temporary badge, astandard bureau-issued Glock, and a complete file of all of the Seven SignsKiller’s activities from ten years ago.
Morgan felt as if she’d been swept up in a whirlwind.Less than twelve hours ago, none of this had been on her radar. She’d beenmostly concerned with just trying to reclaim her footing in the real world. Shestill had a house that needed to be properly cleaned and organized. She had adog that she needed to care for and spend time with.
But somehow, here she was, back in the one single elementof her life that had been responsible for putting her in prison in the firstplace. Things were a bit different, of course. She’d been gone for a decade,after all; she had no office of her own, so she found herself sitting in asmall unoccupied conference room, quickly signing several papers that made itlawful and official to head back out.
“I still can’t believe they’re just giving you a gun.”
She looked up and saw Derik standing in the doorway. Muchlike his visit to her house yesterday, he looked both elated to see her butnervous, too.
“They didn’t just give it to me,” she said. “Do you seethis ridiculous stack of papers?”
“I do. And Mueller just told me to tell you to stop. He’sgot the important one signed…the ones that give you permission to go out as atemporary agent.”
She tossed the pen down and looked up at Derik, trulytaking him in for the first time today. “And I assume you’ll be accompanyingme?”
He nodded and smiled. “Just like old times.”
“Which means I’ll be doing all the driving?”
“Nope. I don’t think you’ve signed that piece of paperyet. Here or at the DMV from what I gather.”
She didn’t know if he was being serious or not, but shefollowed him out of the room anyway. As she trailed behind him on the way tothe small garage on the northern rim of the field office property, the sightsand turns of the hallways all pulled nostalgia out of her. Some were pleasant,but there were a few landmarks along the course of the building that felt as ifthat same nostalgia was being torn at with hooks.
She passed by the hallway that led to the interrogationrooms—four distinct, small rooms where she’d spent a great deal of time. Whileinterrogation wasn’t by any means what she thought of as her sweet spot, sheknew she was good at it. She wassogood at it that she would be calledin for cases that weren’t even hers. Some other agent would simply give her acase file to study and then, a few hours later, she’d go in and mentally breakthe suspect down.
