Split Second

The first thing Tully noticed was the young woman’s long blond hair. Immediately, he thought of Emma. He could see over the Dumpster’s edge easily, but waited as Cu

Though covered in garbage, Tully could tell the woman had been young, not much older than Emma. And she had been beautiful. Discarded lettuce and spoiled tomatoes clung to her naked breasts. The rest of her was buried in garbage, but Tully saw glimpses of thigh, and then realized she wore only a blue baseball cap. He could also see that her throat had been slashed from ear to ear, and there was an open wound in her side, almost at her lower back. But that was all. There were no severed limbs, no bloody mutilation. He wasn’t sure what he had expected.

“She looks like she’s in one piece,” Cu

“Not sure. Looked like a bloody glob to me. Doc can probably tell you. He’s over in the van.”

He pointed to a dusty silver van marked with the Stafford County emblem on the side. The doors were open and a distinguished gray-haired man in a well-pressed suit sat in the back with a clipboard.

“Doc, these gentlemen from the FBI need to see that special delivery.”

The detective turned and started to leave just as a media van pulled into an adjacent parking lot.

“Excuse me, gentlemen. Looks like the zoo visitors have arrived.”

Cu

“Hello, Frank.” Assistant Director Cu

“I don’t know if this is your man, Kyle, but when Detective Rosen called me, he seemed to think you might be interested.”

“Rosen worked in Boston when Stucky kidnapped Councilwoman Brenda Carson.”

“I remember that. What was that two, three years ago?”

“Not quite two.”

“Thankfully, I was on vacation. Fishing up in Canada.” The doctor cocked his head as though trying to remember some sporting event. Tully found everyone’s ease, all the casualness, a bit u

“This guy’s complicated, Frank. The ones he collects are the ones we rarely find. These women…these are his rejects. They’re simply for sport—for show-and-tell.” Cu

Tully stared at the pizza box on the floor of the van. Despite the scent of pizza dough and pepperoni, he recognized the acrid scent as blood. So much for eating pizza ever again.

“Nothing happens in this quiet little suburb,” Dr. Holmes said while continuing to jot details on the forms he had clipped to his board. “Then two homicides in one day.”

“Two?” Cu

“I’m not aware of another homicide, Frank,” he said when the doctor took too long to offer an explanation.

“Well, I’m not sure the other one is a homicide, yet. We never did find a body.” Dr. Holmes finally put the clipboard aside. “We had an agent on the scene. Maybe one of yours?”

“Excuse me?”

“Yesterday afternoon. Not far from here in the nice quiet neighborhood of Newburgh Heights. Said she was a forensic psychologist. Just moved into the victim’s neighborhood. Very impressive young woman.”

Tully watched Cu

“Yes, I did hear about that. I had forgotten her new neighborhood was in Newburgh Heights. I apologize if she got in the way.”

“Oh, no apology necessary, Kyle. On the contrary, she proved very helpful. I think the arrogant bastard who was supposed to be investigating the scene may have even learned a thing or two.”

Tully caught the assistant director with a smile at the corner of his lips, before he realized he was being watched. He turned to Tully and explained, “Agent O’Dell, your predecessor, just bought a new home in this area.”

“Agent Margaret O’Dell?” Tully held his boss’s eyes until he saw that Cu

CHAPTER 11

Tully followed Cu

Tully had seen plenty of crime scenes, severed limbs, bloodied walls, mutilated bodies and sick, disgusting killer signatures that ranged from a single long-stemmed rose to a decapitated corpse. But all those scenes, up until now, had been only in photographs, digital scans and illustrations sent to him at the FBI Cleveland Field Office. He had become one of the Midwest’s experts in developing precise criminal profiles from the bits and pieces law enforcement officers sent him. It was his accuracy that had prompted Assistant Director Kyle Cu

Tully knew Cu

The unofficial word was that O’Dell had burned out and needed a break. Rumors suggested that she had lost her edge, that she was combative and reckless, that she had become paranoid and obsessed with recapturing Albert Stucky. Of course, there were also rumors that Assistant Director Cu