A Killer's Mind (Zoe Bentley Mystery #1)(60)

“Thanks.”

“Sure. Just log off my computer when you’re done. And don’t read my emails.”

She grinned at him, and he left. She sat down in his still-warm seat and began to check the cases one by one.

She found what she was searching for in case number twenty-three.

On April 21, 2014, Veronika Murray, a twenty-one-year-old woman, had been found dead and decomposing in an alley. There were indications of postmortem sexual intercourse, and the cause of death was strangulation. The body had been found six days after the estimated time of death, and it was clear she had been dumped there the night before. The case was still open. The killer had not been found.

She had been found a few blocks from her home, in West Pullman, where just three months later, pets began to disappear.





CHAPTER 45

Maynard, Massachusetts, Monday, December 15, 1997

Zoe’s heart pounded as she sat in front of Officer Will Shepherd. He was busy writing something down, and when she tried talking, he asked her to wait. He was a plump man with a black, droopy mustache and a red nose. He kept sniffing and coughing, occasionally wiping his nose with a tissue. Zoe tapped her foot anxiously, waiting for him to finish.

“Okay,” he finally said, putting the form aside and laying the pen in front of him. “How can I help you?”

“I know who the serial killer is,” Zoe said in a rushed voice.

On her way to the Maynard Police Department, she’d had some time to imagine how this conversation would transpire.

In one version, the officer listened to her, writing down her testimony, then went to get an urgent search warrant for Rod Glover’s home. The police found all the evidence in his room, probably matched the underwear in the shoebox to the victims, and arrested Glover.

In the second, less optimistic version, the cops didn’t cooperate so well. They pointed out that it was a crime to break into Glover’s home. They said the evidence she found there was inadmissible. They interrogated her in a small room for hours, intimidating her. Finally, she got them to consider that what she said was true. They investigated Glover for a few days, maybe followed him around, and finally got what they needed to get a search warrant for his home. Underwear, shoebox, arrest.

What she didn’t expect was the tired, uninterested look the officer gave her.

“Who is it?” he asked.

“Our neighbor,” she said. “Rod Glover.”

If anything, he seemed even less interested. “How do you know?”

She laid it out carefully. She didn’t want him to think she was just some airhead teen who saw her neighbor doing something weird and decided he must be a serial killer. She explained how she had researched the subject carefully. She detailed the ways that she had figured out how Glover matched the psychopath traits. She told him about Durant Pond and then quoted the interview of “Son of Sam,” where he explained why he used to return to the scene of the crime. By that point, the officer seemed a bit disgusted—but interested, which was encouraging. She went on to explain how she’d poked around in Glover’s home. She stressed that she had the key, so essentially she hadn’t really broken into the house. She was pretty sure that wasn’t how it worked, but it felt like something that would cast her in a better light. She told him about the porn. The underwear. The shoebox.

“Uh-huh,” he said when she was done.

She blinked. She knew it was her word against Glover’s. She hadn’t taken anything from his home, but she assumed it was enough to capture the police’s interest. All they needed was to search Glover’s house.

“He might know I’ve been in his house,” she said. “So he could decide to get rid of the evidence.”

Officer Shepherd sighed deeply. “You shouldn’t go poking around in other people’s homes,” he said.

She was ready for this. “These were special circumstances,” she said. “I had good reasons to think he’s the killer.”

“Yes,” Officer Shepherd said. “You saw him in Durant Pond, where many people go every day, and then he told you about an office fire, which you think was a lie, but you can’t be sure. And, of course, you’ve read all those books, and so you got excited.”

Zoe’s face heated up. “There was no one in Durant Pond except me and him, and he was acting weird . . . but okay, never mind. His room—”

“Has porn and ladies’ underwear,” Shepherd said.

“The underwear had mud on it.”

“I can think of other brown substances that might soil a pair of underwear.”

Tears threatened. No. Not now. He’d never take her seriously if she began crying now. “His socks—”

“Were wet, yes. He definitely sounds like a slob. Listen, Zoe, I get that you’re afraid. The entire town is afraid. But if you let us do our job—”

“I want you to do your job,” she yelled, her voice breaking. She was coming apart. The tears sprang from her eyes, her voice becoming wobbly. “Just check him out! I’m telling you, he’s the guy. Maybe I’m wrong, but shouldn’t you at least check it out?”

He looked at her thoughtfully, as if considering what she’d told him. “Did you say Glover?” he finally asked.

“Yeah.” She wiped her eyes with her sleeve.