by R E Gauthier
Rolling her eyes she wished she hadn’t told Rachel about her dreams but knew that she could trust her not to tell anyone.
Nikki approached the two women and by the concerned look on Mack’s face she knew what they had been talking about.
“Don’t tell me that Rachel has been browbeating you about not taking better care of yourself again. Seriously Rach, Mack is a big girl now and doesn’t need your lecturing anymore.”
“I did nothing of the sort. Tell her Kelsey, I didn’t lecture you did I?”
Smiling broadly and then laughing out loud she stood and chucked Nikki on her chin.
“It’s okay Nikki she didn’t browbeat too much,” she winked at Rachel. “Besides I much rather when you bawl me out for not having enough fun, between the two of you, you keep me sane.”
Nikki had hoped when she saw the worried look on her best friend’s face that it wasn’t too serious. She knew exactly what was coming up this weekend and tried to distract Mack’s mind.
“Well I love your hair like this,” Nikki plucked one of Mack’s raven curls and ran it through her fingers. “Keeping it short frames your face better and makes you more approachable. Speaking of which, even I could see how our young PIO looked at you this morning, Sara wasn’t it, Rach?” Nikki winked at the gray-haired woman with laughing blue eyes.
“Why yes I do believe she was quite captivated by you,” Rachel said as she winked back.
Kelsey watched the two women’s exchange and thought for a moment what they were saying. Sara Taylor had been staring at her but then she had grown use to people staring at her mainly because of her height. She towered over almost every woman and many men too. Shaking her head she knew the two women were up to their usual tricks to take her mind off of things. They had succeeded too.
“Do you know how much I love you two?” She stopped and thought where had that come from? Rachel and Nikki were the closest things she had to family over the years much because she had ran from her own, but still they brought out the best in her. She loved how Nikki could always goad their older colleague and how Rachel would always take the bait. Rachel helped keep her grounded and Nikki’s sense of humor and knack to have fun kept her sane.
“Well we love you too you big goof, so don’t look so serious. I know what’s been on your mind but we need our fearless leader on this case not an angry woman slipping back into the past and bent on revenge.” Nikki said punching her bicep.
“Nikki she doesn’t need to slip back into the past but she does need to face some parts of it so she can move forward,” Rachel said as she stood and took Kelsey’s hands into her own.
Glancing from one woman to the other she knew both were right, they needed and deserved her undivided attention and she needed to go deal with her family so she could give this case the much needed attention to solve it.
“Nae tae worry ah will be thare tae leid ye tae battle mah lassies,” Kelsey said with a thick Scottish brogue, just like her grandmother had taught her. Then she laughed out loud when both women looked confused.
“That’s Scottish and I did understand some of it but what the heck did you say, Mack?” Nikki asked as Rachel shrugged and both women looked to her to explain it.
“I said, Not to worry, I’ll lead you into battle my ladies.”
Chapter Four
“Always trust your first instincts because they never lie.”
She had left Rachel and Nikki after their lunch to go freshen up and clear her mind before returning to the briefing room. Looking out over the tops of buildings and down toward the Inner Harbor she wished she could open the windows to breathe in the sea air. Growing up outside of Pittsburg in the heart of a farming community in North Strabane she didn’t see the ocean but when she moved here to attend university she learned to love looking out over the water and breathing in the unique scent of the sea. Today she needed it badly to ground her, although the air outside would be stifling at this time of the day; she made a note to get out there tonight and walk along the harbor side.
Her meandering thoughts were abruptly impeded by the distinct feeling of someone nearby. The hairs on her neck stood up and she imagined she could see herself standing looking out over the harbor. What the hell?
The blonde head of Sara Taylor came into view as a small hand touched her forearm. She started and turned to look into the face of their PIO Sara Taylor.
“SSA MacGregor...., or can I call you Mack?”
Kelsey frowned but she didn’t want to totally alienate the Public Information Officer, so she forced a smile onto her face and took a deep breath.
“You can call me Kelsey if would... like.” she stumbled over the last words as Sara’s hand started to move up her arm.
“Oh I would like...most definitely I would...I just wanted to say sorry if I put you in an odd position earlier today...”
Kelsey cut her explanation off and jerked her arm away. The feelings the hand moving up her arm caused were too unsettling to deal with.
“Please Miss Taylor; I’d prefer that we keep our relationship professional and for me that means not infringing on my personal space.”
“Well I saw Rachel and Nikki touching you so I thought that....”
“Well you thought wrong,” she said not letting Sara finish her sentence. “I have friends and family who I don’t mind touching me, but in a professional setting such as this taskforce, I would prefer to keep my personal space intact if you don’t mind.”
“Well um...I would like to get to know you better if I could...” Sara stammered over her words.
Kelsey’s frown deepened and she took a few deep breaths as she chose her words carefully. She knew from the moment Sara Taylor had started staring at her she was going to need to have a talk with her, but she didn’t know it would be this soon.
“Miss Taylor I don’t know what you have heard or what you are thinking but I’m a very private person and I’m very uncomfortable with strangers touching me. I have little time for outside relationships and yes I do have friends within the FBI but these are friends I have known for years, I don’t make a habit of developing friendships or relationships on the job or within a case.”
“I understand ... I only thought... well I saw you looking at me and maybe my vibes were all wrong... you looked interested.” Sara rushed the last of the sentence, blushing.
Kelsey prepared herself for what she was about to say, she hadn’t dealt with many people interested in her; people usually were put off by her unemotional manner.
“I’m sorry Sara if you came to the wrong conclusion; when I am thinking it may appear that I am staring at you, but I assure you, in your case, I was not.”
“Okay I understand...I just...” Sara trailed off and frowned.
She thought back to earlier this morning when the taskforce members had been introducing themselves and she had seen the petite, blue-eyed blonde staring in her direction. Then as now the hairs on her neck stood up and it was not a pleasant experience. She was glad that as their Public Information Officer, Sara was only privy to the general case, not to any specifics about each murder or their investigation process. This protocol assured that no critical information would be accidently leaked to the press and as such she would also have little contact with the younger woman. As Liaison for the taskforce, Rachel would personally relay information to Sara. She knew she had to be diplomatic and not upset the young PIO because they still needed her to do her job effectively. She just didn’t need to have the younger woman believe there was something between them that wasn’t. Something about her rubs me the wrong way.
“From now on I would prefer that we have only a professional relationship, so if you would excuse me? I do have to get back inside so we can finish our briefing.”
Not waiting for a response she left the blonde woman standing at the long bank of floor-to- ceiling windows outside the conference room.
***
Inside the room Kelsey blew out a held breath and saw her two friends l
ooking at her with concern in their eyes. Still a bit shaken by her encounter with Sara in the hallway, she tried to appear normal so that Nikki and Rachel wouldn’t worry. She smiled and looked out over the faces in front of her and began her summation of their case and profile of their killer.
“This case is only just coming together and with four murders now we have a clearer view than we did even yesterday. All three of our women victims attended Kent Place School, an all girl’s private day school from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Also they were all members of the school’s Alumnae Mentoring Program. We’ll start looking at people who knew them in school; their teachers, fellow students, administration. This connection could lead us to our killer.”
Kelsey paused and asked Nikki to put up some photos on the monitor. They were of four young women hugging and laughing into the camera dressed in graduation gowns.
“I’d like you look at these young women because something they did before or after this day caused someone to target and kill them. We have identified all of our victims but the fourth one could be our killer or she could be another possible victim so the top priority is to identify and find this woman. Detective Freeman I want your team of investigators to go to the school and see if we can locate someone who will know who this woman is. We also need to find someone who can tell us if there were any incidents that stood out as reasons why anyone would want these women dead.”
“Yes Ma’am, when you say top priority do you mean you want us to get on this right away?” The calmer looking Detective Freeman asked.
Food in his stomach must have made him more docile. Or maybe the talk Rachel had with him helped. Both thoughts made her smile. Yet his demeanor still seemed unsettling.
“Yes I want you to lead a team of investigators at the school to do detailed interviews and locate someone who can help us identify who this woman is and what if anything these women may have done that caused someone to want to kill them.” Annoyance crept into her voice; where is that coming from? Shaking her head she pushed the emotion back down.
He mumbled something under his breath and she just ignored him. She didn’t have time to give in to his petty behavior right now.
“So to reiterate all of our murders were perpetrated leaving very little forensic evidence, no finger prints, no skin under the finger nails as all of our victims were killed with no defensive wounds, like they put up no fight at all. Natasha Beardsley’s case does offer us some viable explanation for this fact when the pathologist noticed a key piece of evidence overlooked in the other two women’s deaths, bruising on the right side of their necks.”
Nikki put up close up photos of all three women’s necks.
“You can see the distinct pattern of bruising on all of the victims except Jeremy but for this case and for forming a profile of our killer we will ignore his death for the time being.”
A disgruntled noise rose up over the otherwise silent room as everyone listened to her. She didn’t need to know who had made the noise. But thought she needed to explain why she had made the comment.
“As stated earlier we believe Jeremy Stanton was just in the wrong place at the wrong time so for the purpose of our case his death will be treated as collateral damage. So we won’t be using his victimology to develop our killer’s profile. Now as I was saying, the bruise pattern is unique and when asked what would have caused this the pathologist in Salisbury surmised that it could be caused by pressure exerted on the neck just above the carotid artery, enough pressure that he theorized that the victims would have been rendered unconscious by the pressure.”
“What would have caused this?” A woman detective asked.
Kelsey couldn’t remember her name but knew she was the lead investigator on the Salisbury case.
“Detective...” She started.
“It’s Norman, Detective Deborah Norman Ma’am.” She said looking directly at her.
She liked the woman immediately because unlike the detective to her right she looked her in the eyes when she spoke.
“Well Detective Norman we have our theories and one we have been throwing around is that our killer used an Ancient and lost Chinese Martial Art technique called Dim Mak.”
With that the room erupted into a clamor of voices and one sarcastic chuckle.
“You want us to believe that our killer is some Ninja?” Detective Freeman guffawed, shaking his head.
“No Ninjas are Japanese. What I am saying is that our killer didn’t use any other noticeable force to subdue our victims. She knocked Jeremy unconscious using a wall sconce but our women victims have no other visible bruising that would suggest she struggled with them in anyway. The use of zip ties to bind them would suggest our killer wasn’t capable of holding her victims still while she killed them. Our theory is she used the strike to the throat to surprise and caused our victims to go unconscious giving her the opportunity to bind their wrists and ankles so she could slit their throats.”
Nikki put up close up photos of the wounds to the throats and mouths of the three victims.
“We have been able to determine from the wound analyses that our killer is right-handed, cutting the throats of our victims from left to right. By the time she cut the left carotid our victims would have been bleeding out and then cutting their tracheas they would have been gasping for air. These murders were swift but brutal. Our killer likely holding them as they died in her arms.”
With that everyone started to talk and discuss this in length. Kelsey took that moment to gather her thoughts and when she saw that everyone started to calm down and look to her to continue she asked Nikki to put up the photos of the three crime scenes.
“Each of the crime scenes lends their own sets of difficulties for our CSUs and collecting evidence. As this morning’s case would show we should try and look at every case with a fresher pair of eyes. Two murders were perpetrated in buildings with extensive security measures in place. Both Cynthia and Kate lived in dwellings with cameras, electronically locked doors and motion detection. But no forced entry or evidence was found that the security systems were tampered with so we have reason to believe our victims may have known our killer, maybe even letting them into their homes. Natasha Beardsley jogged on the same trail for three years and she would know everyone who walked or ran on it, so we can reasonably agree she likely knew her killer as well. So at this juncture I would like to ask Dr. Thomas Branson to help me provide you with a profile.”
She knew she could introduce the profile herself but she wanted a moment to allow Doc to present some of his theories as well as she wanted to watch how the profile affected their audience.
“I’d like you to all give Dr Branson you undivided attention right now as he will help me present to you our working profile for our killer. I say working because at this time we are still working out all the nuances of it as the case unfolds until today we only had two murder scenes and the addition of Natasha Beardsley has only further complicated some items were working through. Doc if you will...”
Chapter Five
“When you believe in yourself, you’ll find your way, stop and you’ll be lost forever.”
She sat with a clearer view of taskforce members as Doc prepared to present the behavioral profile of their killer. Kelsey also had a moment to think about her encounter with Sara; what had she been playing at? Was their PIO fishing for more information on the case or had she really been interested as Nikki and Rachel had said? I don’t know but something about her is off and I’d rather stay as far away from her as I can.
Her thoughts on that matter were shoved out of the way when Doc stood and began to speak.
“Well as SSA MacGregor said this is a working profile and it may change over the course of this investigation as warranted by new evidence or facts that are discovered. But for today we have drawn up this profile. A copy of it has been sent to each of your devices so you’ll have it to refer to later.”
Doc told the audience they were looking for a woman in her mid to lat
e thirties with a higher than normal IQ likely even bordering on genius. This woman would have the knowledge to not only plan but carry out these murders without detection or leaving behind witnesses or evidence and have the skills and where-with-all to execute her plan to perfection.
Kelsey thought, Not really perfection, she had left a witness alive. She had almost corrected him and in many cases in the past she had but today she stopped herself, why?
“We have reason to believe our killer is working from a kill list that she has drawn up and plans each murder precisely to occur at a specific time and place. The fact she kills on the 15th day of the month may have some significance to her or her victims but it is significant.” Doc said before taking a sip of his water. “As the case progresses we may find out what that may be.”
“Why did the killer wait such a long time in between killing the couple in New Jersey and Natasha Beardsley? It’s been over a year,” Detective Norman said clearly directing her inquiry directly to their lead investigator.
Kelsey knew she liked this detective; she had a good head on her shoulders, already thinking more like a profiler and less like a small-town detective. She motioned for Doc she would answer the question herself.
“Good question Detective Norman and we theorize it’s because of geography and opportunity. As Doc Branson said, our killer is most likely hunting for her victims, once she has found them she stalks and learns all she can about them, their lives, what they do, everything. Then she inserts herself into their lives, getting to know them personally so she can plan their demise.”
“So she stalked Cynthia Trenton and it took her over a year to track down and carefully plan Mrs. Beardsley’s murder, is that right? So why did it only take her a month to kill Miss Montgomery?”
“Yes to your first question, our killer had to find her next victims but as we all know Cynthia had a large funeral and it’s likely her long time friends were in attendance, it would not have been hard for her to follow and observe Mrs. Beardsley and Miss Montgomery from the funeral. But it may have taken time and much planning to wait until the proper time to kill them. Doc, can you explain to everyone why she likely did this?”