The Darkness of Evil (Karen Vail #7)(28)

“So where the hell did Marcks get one of these?” Hurdle asked.

“You can get ’em anywhere,” Ramos said. “There are several manufacturers that put their own spin on the design. Just about any store or website that sells knives has them now.”

Morrison leaned back in his chair. “You think Marcks left the karambit behind at that crime scene on purpose?”

“We didn’t think so,” Curtis said. “It wasn’t anywhere near the body. It was in the grass, about ten yards away, like he dropped it on the way back to his van.”

“Obviously he replaced it,” Ramos said. “But why’d he choose such an unusual knife in the first place?”

“We never found out,” Vail said. “We can read into something like this, and we did, but bottom line is it could simply be that a friend told him about it. Or he saw it used in a movie, or whatever, and he thought it’d fit his needs. Might not be any meaning to it at all other than it came across his desk, he tried it, liked the way it felt, and started using it on his vics, got excited by it. Or it related to something done to him as a kid.”

“What he’s doing with these cuts,” Tarkoff said. “Is it like him leaving his signature on Greeling’s body? Like, claiming it as his kill?”

Vail bobbed her head. “Kinda. Sorta. But it may not be something he’s aware of to that extent. I mean, he was aware he was doing it, but he may not know why he needs to do it. And I doubt he realizes that it’s helping us connect these murders to him.”

“Where’s Jasmine Marcks in all of this?”

“Fortunately, she got away,” Curtis said.

“When the neighbor found Greeling’s body and screamed,” Vail said, “maybe it scared him off. We won’t know until we can sit down with Jasmine. I’m going to call her on the way home, see if I can set something up for tomorrow.”

Hurdle set his iPad on the worktable to his right. “Okay, here’s our fugitive playbook. In the Service we call it a quality of life survey. A lot of you are familiar with some of this as your basic criminal history checks. We’ll run his sheet. Sift through any court documents that list addresses, phone numbers, associations. Who posted bail? Social media—Facebook, Instagram, phone records. Who’s he talking to?

“We’ll assemble a top 10 list. Look at people who visited him at Potter and everyone he had contact with during the last three months before he was arrested.”

“That’s at least seven years old,” Vail said.

“Doesn’t matter. Marcks is on the run and he needs help. Shelter, food, money, sleep. And it’s friggin’ cold outside. Unless he goes to people he doesn’t know—which is possible—it’s only logical he’s going to lean on those he does know, or knew. Some of them may owe him a favor, some of them may be afraid of him and help him out because they fear what’ll happen if they don’t. Point is, these are the people we focus on.”

“We’ve got the names of three guys he’s friends with, according to Jasmine.”

“That’s a start. Share those names with us. But from this top 10 list we assemble, we’ll branch out and start looking at other people who associate with those people. Where they work, who they’ve had contact with, where they live, previous contacts and correspondences. Interactions they’ve had. So if they’ve been arrested with someone in a car, we want to look at them, too. Sometimes we find relationships we didn’t know existed because these are all people in a loose nexus with the fugitive. Then we look at family members.”

“What about hangouts?” Walters asked.

“That’s next,” Tarkoff said. “We’ll look at where Marcks liked to smoke, or drink, or watch a ballgame. Places where he spent his time when he was a free man. Big picture, we’ll be focusing on people, money, and residences.”

“What about ex-girlfriends?” Vail said.

Hurdle pointed at her. “Yes. That’s a biggie. A guy who’s been behind bars for seven years wants his *. And he wants it sooner rather than later because he doesn’t know which day is gonna be his last.”

“Ex-friends, too,” Tarkoff said, turning to Vail. “Those names Jasmine gave you will be important. Interviews with these guys sometimes nets us useful information. If Marcks is an * who burned bridges and was generally disliked, he won’t have many. That obviously makes our job tougher. But if we’ve got three to start with, that’s something.”

“They’re not gonna want to rat out a friend,” Vail said, “so it has to be done surreptitiously. I can help design an approach if anyone’s got a lead that’s promising.”

“Neighbors, too,” Hurdle said. “Some may’ve moved since he was arrested, but it’s worth a shot. Same with social media, as I mentioned before. Normally this can yield us some good intel, but I can’t remember what year Facebook caught on.” Tarkoff looked around. “Anyone know?” There were no takers. “Pretty sure Instagram wasn’t around then. What about WhatsApp? We need to see if he had an account with them. Twitter?”

“Doesn’t strike me as a Twitter kind of guy,” Vail said. “For that matter, he’s not social to begin with. I’m not sure this is going to get us anything.”