Next Girl On The List - A serial killer thriller (McRyan Mystery Series Book)

by Roger Stelljes

  Yet here he was, for the second time this week on national television.

  Why?

  • • •

  Galloway provided some preliminary information regarding the second victim Audrey Ruston, setting the table and then said, “At this time, I’d like to turn this over to Agent McRyan who has some comments to make, and then he will take some questions.”

  Mac stepped to the stand of microphones. “As you know, the killer we’re looking for targets a very specific kind of woman. These are women that have been commonly referred to as Rubenesque. In the day of the painter Peter Paul Rubens, women of this type were described as voluptuous. Today the term people commonly use to describe Rubenesque women is plus-sized. I know some may take offense to the use of that term but please understand that is not my intent. My intent is to alert certain women in the Washington DC area to the absolute fact that a predator is out there and he has already selected his prey. Not just his next victim, but I believe he has selected his last two victims. He has a very specific and intricate plan in mind and wheels for that have already been set in motion. His next victims are identified and he is most likely at this very moment setting them up. He already knows when and where he will kill those women. Let me say that again—there are two more victims and he knows exactly when and where he will kill them.”

  “Agent McRyan, Heather Foxx, NBC News. How does he identify these women?”

  That a girl, Heather, he thought, the perfect softball to get things started. “He methodically hunts them.”

  “How? How does he hunt them?” Heather pressed.

  Mac liked the follow-up as well. He detested formal press conferences. Informal conversation he much preferred. “Ms. Foxx, we think it’s a very involved process, so I ask all of you to please bear with me because this may take some time but I think it’s important.

  “The killer we know as Rubens didn’t just arrive in Washington recently. It is our belief that he has been here for a very long time identifying targets for this sick game he plays. There was nothing random about Lisa White or the victim we found earlier today, Audrey Ruston. They were prey specifically selected by the killer named Rubens only after he conducted thorough research. I have no doubt he followed Ms. White and Ms. Ruston for quite some time before he ever engaged with them.”

  “Are you saying he spends time with these women, even dates these women before he kills them?” a local television reporter asked.

  “We think that’s likely, yes.”

  “How do you know that?” a reporter holding a FOX News microphone interrupted.

  “We know it because of what we do know for sure about our victims. The victims all have a certain profile. Now, people tend to focus almost exclusively on the specific body type of the victims, and that’s very important, but there is so much more to it than that.”

  “Like what, Agent McRyan?” This reporter held a CNN microphone.

  “Let me start by explaining who he doesn’t target. He doesn’t target women who are confident and outgoing. He doesn’t target women who have had many relationships with men, women who are married and have families. He doesn’t target women who work in high-profile or high-pressure environments, whether they be blue collar or white collar. His targets are not doctors, lawyers, saleswomen, waitresses, bartenders, cops or nurses—women who would be likely to smoke out his B.S. in a minute.

  “The women I just described are not his targets because they would be women who have a large social circle, close friends and family. Those are women who scare him. Why? Because if he tried to get close to a woman like that she would talk about him with her friends. Not only that, she would introduce him to her friends. Friends and family create witnesses, and in all the years of hunting Rubens, there has never been a good description of him. In fact, in many instances with our victims the people who do know them suspect their friend had a new man in their life, yet not once in over ten years and fourteen victims have any of those friends ever met Rubens. Not a one.”

  “So who does he target?” Heather Foxx asked.

  “The exact opposite,” Mac answered. “All of his now fourteen victims seem to fit a very specific profile. The women he targets are certainly Rubenesque from a physical standpoint. But it is really the mental aspect that he preys on.”

  “How does he prey on them mentally?” a local reporter asked.

  “As women his victims are not social, outgoing or confident. They are women who are not regularly the targets of male attention or affection. In fact, most victims rarely, if ever, had any relationships with men until the one they may have had at the time of their death. All of his victims are women who were shy, reserved and seemingly had few, if any, close friends or family. For lack of a better term, they were loners.

  “They were women who worked lower profile jobs in a support or administrative capacity. Positions for which you can work but you don’t have to be assertive, confident or outgoing. These women worked in the background, the shadows, punching the clock and doing their jobs quietly and conscientiously. They were people we don’t really notice, yet rely on every day. They had jobs where they could work proficiently but quietly and then they went home to their books, art, gardens, movies, television shows and pets.”

  “How would he identify these women?” another voice called out.

  “We think by trolling bookstores, museums, art galleries, art supply stores, pet stores, arboretums, places where these women went to find the things that interested them but also where they were comfortable, where they felt safe. I think he identifies women who fit the profile at these places, at least in part because those are topics in which he is also truly interested and can speak fluently on. He doesn’t fake it.”

  “So he approaches the women, gives them a line and then he’s in?” a reporter blurted.

  “Not necessarily. In fact, we think that once he identifies a possible victim, he doesn’t approach them immediately. Instead, we think he spends time following, observing, researching and methodically hunting them. He learns about them, what they like, what their interests are, what their life experiences have been and what their dreams are. Then once he’s done that, once he’s determined a woman is a possibility, then and only then does he make his approach.

  “It’s probably slow to start because these are women who are naturally suspicious. They wonder why this man is interested in them. They don’t have a history of success in this regard, and in many instances, they’ve had bad experiences. For example, Audrey Ruston was divorced from a husband who was a domestic abuser. She moved here ten years ago from Tacoma, Washington, to get away from him. So the victims are initially wary, but not because they perceive our killer as a physical threat, but because the man is interested when no others have been.

  “So we think he takes it slow and easy, a cup of coffee to start, then maybe a lunch, slowly but surely building their trust so that they let him in. So that he can get close. Many of the murders have happened in the victim’s homes. In those cases, there is no evidence of forced entry—he’s been invited into the woman’s home where he then has them at ease and they trust him. They simply don’t sense the danger.

  “They feel safe, comfortable and maybe even loved. That’s when this killer strikes.

  “Rubens has the victim completely comfortable. She has these feelings of happiness that a man is interested. The victim, someone like Audrey Ruston last night, thinks he cares for her and maybe even loves her. The victim is completely exposed and open and it’s at that very moment, when she is most relaxed, happy and vulnerable that he slips a date rape drug into their glass of wine. The drug incapacitates them. Then, once the woman is incapacitated, he kills them so that he then can, in the safety of the victim’s own home, take the time to intricately stage their bodies like the women portrayed in the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens.”

  “Why does he stage them like the women in the Rubens paintings? What is the significance of that to him?” the CNN reporter asked.
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br />   “We don’t know that yet,” Mac answered. “I do want to know that. It’ll be the first question I ask him when we catch him. But today I’m more concerned about the potential victims. So I want to speak to them directly. I want women to be honest with themselves and ask, do I fit this profile I’ve described?

  “Do I look like a voluptuous, Rubenesque woman? Am I a person who typically spends a lot of time alone? Do I enjoy art, painting, books, museums, theatre, the symphony and the like and otherwise live a singular, quiet life? Do I have a poor history with men? Yet, despite that history, has a new man now entered into my life? If so, you need to ask yourself— are you being set-up?” Mac paused. “Because you could very well be the next woman on the news.

  “If you find yourself in this situation, or even think you could possibly be in this situation, we want you to call us. So that is one kind of woman I want to hear from, but there is also another kind.”

  “What kind of woman is that?” Heather Foxx asked.

  “He chose four victims but I’m betting that he initially identified several more than that. I’m betting there might have been others that he thought were possibilities, that he spent time with before, perhaps deciding not to pursue the relationship. So again, I ask, are you a woman who fits the profile? If so, did a man recently come into your life? And in your case, did he then suddenly, inexplicably disappear? Maybe by chance a friend or family member met him? It could be that someone you know saw him with you. Perhaps someone paid too much attention to him when the two of you were together. Whatever the reason, one day he was there, the next day he was gone. If that sounds like you, I want you to call the FBI field office.”

  Mac gave out the number.

  “I’m not trying to alarm women, but at the same time,” Mac sighed for effect, “you need to be vigilant. I beg of you, if what I’ve described could be you, swallow your pride and call us.”

  • • •

  Rubens sat back in the chair.

  McRyan had just made a move.

  It was a good one.

  He was now compelled to counter.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Isn’t it funny how that works.”

  After the press conference, they went about working on another whiteboard for Audrey Ruston. The autopsy was fast-tracked and the read at the scene was correct: she was smothered. While testing was taking place, it was determined that one of the couch pillows was likely used based upon small threads found in Audrey’s mouth and nose. A toxicology screen was also being fast-tracked to determine if she was drugged. It was strongly suspected she was.

  That information would simply confirm that Rubens continued to use tried and true methods. What it didn’t do was tell them anything about who was next.

  Coolidge rolled into the conference room a little past 7:00 P.M. and plopped himself down into a chair. “My feet are killing me,” he moaned. Coolidge was a snappy dresser: sharp pinstriped suits, bold ties, flashy shoes and the occasional fedora, but a male model he wasn’t. The man was carrying significant weight on his short round frame. His legs and feet were bound to give out at some point.

  “Anything?” Mac asked.

  “Maybe,” Coolidge answered as he flexed his legs. “At Ruston’s home, we interviewed everyone on the block, and we’re spanning out still. At this point, other than the one neighbor who had a key to her place, few people knew who Audrey Ruston was, let alone actually knew her in any meaningful way. And the few that did never recalled her talking about a new man in her life, saw one or even saw evidence of one. Her one neighbor friend said it was rare for her to have company and never recalled seeing any man hanging around, and certainly not one recently.”

  “Not a surprise, given our victims,” Mac answered. “How about her work?”

  “I just left there to come here. Now, we might have a little something there. I interviewed all of the employees at the museum and they liked Audrey, thought she was a good employee, but they really knew very little about her.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” Mac remarked edgily. “I’m still waiting for the little something you teased.”

  “I’m getting to it,” Coolidge smirked. “He’s not terribly patient, is he?” he asked Wire with a wink.

  “Try spending your entire day with him,” she answered with a smile.

  “Wow,” Mac complained, “harsh.”

  “Sometimes you have to let the drama build, my boy,” Linc suggested. “Audrey’s co-workers didn’t know her well but they do suffer from a basic human trait.”

  “Which is?”

  “They’re nosey. Audrey shared an office with two other women. Basically, in this larger interior office, a quad of cubicles was set up. The two ladies, just ‘minding their own business’, thought they overheard Audrey having recent conversations, excited conversations with someone. The other day they thought they heard something about the Vietnam Memorial.”

  “The Vietnam Memorial?” Mac asked.

  “She apparently had an uncle who was killed over there in 1971 and his name is up on the wall.”

  “And what day did this call happen?”

  “Monday.”

  “And what did they hear?” Wire asked as she sipped from a Diet Coke.

  “I’ll meet you there.”

  “And how did she say it?” Dara pressed. “Was it a bland ‘I’ll see you there, buddy’, or excitedly as in ‘I’ll see you there’.”

  Coolidge smiled. “I asked that very question, my dear Special Agent Wire, and according to her colleagues, it was definitely the latter. That’s why they noticed it because it was so out of character.”

  “They learned all that from minding their own business, huh?” Mac asked, smiling.

  “Isn’t it funny how that works?” Coolidge quipped in reply.

  “She had a date,” Wire replied with a grin, looking to Mac.

  “And was this conversation on her cell phone or work phone?” Mac asked, also sensing some possible light.

  “Work phone,” Coolidge answered. “I checked both and I have the printouts here. But on her work records, see these three calls I’ve circled here?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve already checked because this last one tracks with the day of the Vietnam Memorial call. It’s the number for a burner phone and our guy has a history of that, so that’s probably Rubens. I would also note that as far as I can tell he never called her cell phone.”

  “Because if he did that, she’d turn it into a contact,” Wire speculated as they had with Lisa White.

  “That’s what most people do,” replied Coolidge. “Our boy is very careful.”

  “It’s probably one of his rules,” Mac stated grumpily as he called Galloway into the conference room. “Let’s see what we can do with these phone records, tracking that burner phone number that’s circled. Then I need you to have people grab every camera in the vicinity of the Vietnam Memorial and see what turns up.” Mac explained to Galloway what they had.

  “Linc, did she walk or drive to the Memorial?” Wire asked.

  Coolidge flipped into his notes. “They say she was gone at least two hours. That’s a fairly long walk from the museum to the Memorial, so maybe that explains the timespan.”

  “You can do more than that in two hours,” Wire answered. “If I’m a woman, I’m not satisfied with a stroll through the Vietnam Memorial. That’s a little morbid if you ask me, uncle or no uncle. After that, I want coffee, lunch, something, especially if there is a gentleman caller involved. Especially if this is with a guy who’s interested in me, I’m doing everything I can to stretch that out.”

  “If you’re right and they went somewhere, we’re probably talking someplace near the Memorial if not perhaps closer to the museum,” Coolidge added.

  “That’s a lot of possibilities,” Mac stated, getting out of his chair and going to a large map of Washington DC up on the wall. He ran his finger from the museum to the Memorial. “It’s a lot of area to cover.”r />
  “We’ll just need more guys,” Galloway suggested, unconcerned. “I’ve got a green light for whatever we need. Agents I can get and local cops outside of the district have been volunteering to help. What do we have them do?”

  “Get every piece of camera footage from the museum to the Vietnam Memorial. Then we need agents going to every possible coffee shop, restaurant and mobile souvenir, food or drink stand remotely within the area of the Memorial and then between there and the museum.”

  “It will take some time, but we’re on it.” Galloway handed Mac a report. “These are the financials on Audrey Ruston, last six months. Credit card report, a Visa, is the first set.”

  Mac and Wire started working through the credit card report when Galloway stuck his head back in the room and handed Mac a slip of paper. “What’s this?” Mac asked.

  “A call we received. This woman watched your press conference this afternoon.”

  “And?”

  “She says she might know who Rubens is.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “I have a master’s degree in screwing up my life.”

  There had, in fact, been a number of calls to the field office following the press conference. After a phone screen, agents were dispatched to learn more. Caution was being exercised and all calls were being followed up on by agents in the field conducting interviews, although Galloway wasn’t optimistic on most. “Our people who are screening don’t think they’re dealing with Rubens or even potentially dealing with Rubens on most of the calls,” he explained. “But we’re checking each and every one, no exceptions.”

  “Cover your ass?” Mac asked.

  “CYA is one of my specialties,” Galloway retorted.

  “Okay, but why are we following up on this one?” Wire asked.