Allie said, “Unless he makes a mistake, right?”
“Right.”
Lacy said, “We think he’s made one, at his last stop. You asked about the FBI. They’re not involved in the investigation but they have found a clue. He left a partial thumb print on a cell phone. The lab in Quantico has spent months with it, run all the tests. The problem is there is no match anywhere. The FBI thinks he’s probably altered his prints.”
Herman shook his head in disbelief. “Well, I’m not a print guy, but I know that’s virtually impossible, without extensive surgery.”
Lacy said, “He can afford it, and he’s had plenty of time.”
Allie said, “I’ve checked around, talked to some of our experts. There have been a handful of cases where the prints were altered.”
“If you say so. I have my doubts.”
Lacy said, “So do we. If we can’t get a match, then the case looks hopeless. There’s no other proof, other than motive, and that’s not enough. Right?”
“I don’t know. I suppose there’s no way to get his prints, his current ones?”
“Not without a warrant,” Lacy said. “We have suspicion, but that’s not enough to convince a judge to issue one.”
“We need advice, Herman,” Allie said. “What’s our next step?”
“Where does the guy live?”
“Pensacola.”
“And the print is in Mississippi, right?”
“Correct.”
“Will the authorities there call in the Bureau?”
“I’m sure they will. They’re desperate to solve the murders.”
“Then you have to start there. Once our boys are involved, it’ll be easier to convince a federal magistrate to issue a search warrant.”
“And search what?” Lacy asked.
“His home, his office, anyplace there might be prints.”
Allie said, “There might be a couple of problems with that. The first is that this guy is capable of leaving no prints anywhere. The second is that he might disappear at the first whiff of trouble.”
“Let our boys worry about the prints. They’ll find ’em. No one is capable of wiping clean their home or office. As for the disappearing act, that’s a chance you take. You can’t arrest him until there is a match with the prints, right? No other proof?”
“So far, none,” Lacy said.
“There might be another problem,” Allie said. “Is there a chance the Bureau will decline to get involved?”
“Why?”
“The slim chance of success. The first six crime scenes yielded zero evidence. Those cases are ice cold and have been for years. You know the politics at Quantico. And you know how perpetually understaffed the BAU is. Is it possible they could take a hard look at this and pass?”
Herman waved off the idea. “No, I don’t see it. We’ve tracked serial killers for years and never found them. Some of the cases I worked on thirty years ago are still unsolved, always will be. That will not deter the BAU. This is their meat and potatoes. And, keep in mind, they don’t have to solve all of the murders. You just need one to put this guy away.”
Herman put down his pen and folded his arms across his chest. “You have no choice but to bring in the Bureau. I sense some hesitation.”
Lacy told the story of Betty Roe and her twenty-year quest to find her father’s murderer. Herman interrupted with “Is she looking for a job? I think the Bureau needs her.”
“She has a career,” Lacy said after a laugh. “She filed a complaint with the Board on Judicial Conduct. That’s where I work. She’s very fragile, and frightened, and I promised we would not bring in the police until we finished our initial investigation.”
Herman didn’t like this and said, “Too bad. She’s no longer a factor. You have a very sophisticated killer still at work, and it’s time to bring in the Bureau. The longer you wait, the more bodies they’ll find. This guy will not stop.”
32
On Tuesday, the Pensacola Ledger ran a brief story on page 5 of its news section. Mal Schnetzer, a local lawyer from years past, had been murdered the previous Saturday in a trailer in Sugar Land, Texas, west of Houston, where he had been living. The police gave the barest of details, saying only that he had been strangled in a trailer rented by a person who had yet to be found. The story recalled his days as a well-known plaintiff’s lawyer in the Panhandle, before he was disbarred and sent to prison for robbing his clients. There was a small photo of Mal in his better days.