The Darkness of Evil (Karen Vail #7)(99)

“Can you handle that?”

“I can handle that. Now can I get back to what I was doing?”

As she walked out, Vail said, “Sexually abused offenders are also highly likely to have sexual conflicts, sexual dysfunction of some kind, and sexual incompetence. Those would be harder to determine without actually interviewing Gaines himself, unless he confided in someone at some point.”

“We can try finding that person,” Curtis said, “if he or she exists. But I don’t think we can count on that.”

“Hang on a minute. Just a hunch, but Gaines was picked up on a solicitation charge, right?” Vail pulled out her phone and started dialing. “I’m gonna see if Tarkoff can dig a little deeper, find out who the prostitute was. If we can locate her, she may be able to give us something on their interaction.”

“Find a prostitute?” Hurdle asked. “Bit of a long shot, no?”

“Maybe not. If I’m right, the prostitute will be male—in which case we can put our undercovers on this, the ones who’re working the gay bars. But if it’s a woman, we might be able to get something from her. If Gaines’s conflicted about his sexuality, he might’ve gone to a female prostitute to prove to himself he was heterosexual. Maybe he had a hard time performing.”

Rooney pursed his lips. “Worth looking into.”

Vail elbowed him. “I think you’ve kept me in suspense long enough. What’d you want to tell me? When you called.”

Rooney chuckled. “Sorry. This morning I ran a search in VICAP for offenders who used anesthesia during the commission of their crimes,” he said, referring to the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program database. “And I found something rather surprising. There was a case where the UNSUB used ether.”

Vail shrugged. “That offender isn’t the first, or only, one to use an anesthetic.”

“Ah, but it’s the only one that Thomas Underwood handled. Before he was a profiler. Right before the BSU was started, in fact.”

“That was Underwood’s case?” Where’s he going with this? “There’s more, isn’t there?”

“There is more. That same offender was later found to have started plying his trade as … anyone?”

Vail halfheartedly raised a hand. “An arsonist.”

“An arsonist.”

“And did he use ether as an accelerant?” Vail asked.

Rooney pointed at her. “Indeed he did.”

And now I can’t get in touch with Underwood. He said he was in Hawaii. But was he really? What are you thinking, Karen? Don’t be ridiculous.

“So where does this leave us?” Hurdle asked. “Sounds like you think Underwood might be involved in this in some way.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” Rooney said. “But I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that I didn’t start thinking what you’re all thinking right now. For a fleeting moment. Because there’s no way that Thomas Underwood is a killer. Serial, arson, or any other kind you can imagine.”

“You sure about that?” Hurdle asked, fixing his gaze on Rooney. “I think we need to ask him about it. Don’t you?”

Vail looked from Hurdle to Rooney, whose face remained impassive.

Hurdle spread his arms apart. “Let me put it another way. Can you guarantee me that Underwood is not part of this?”

Rooney snorted—but did not answer.

“Art?” Vail said.

Rooney looked away. “No. I can’t. No one can guarantee something like that. But—”

“Plain and simple,” Hurdle said. “Better not to assume. One of us needs to sit him down. Curtis, you worked with him.”

Curtis drew his chin back. “Well, yeah, but it’s not like I know the guy. We worked the case, what, ten years ago? We exchanged some ideas. I didn’t exactly hang out with him.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Vail said. “I left him a message earlier today but he’s out of town and hasn’t returned my call yet.”

“There are other explanations,” Rooney said. “That case with the ether is in one of Tom’s books. His first, Killer Instincts. Never read it, but when I googled the offender and victim, Tom’s name came up in a Miami Herald article. A quote from the detective who handled the case. He made a point of saying something like, ‘Agent Underwood’s thoughtful analysis of the arsonist’s motives put him on the right path.’”

“Why was the FBI involved?” Curtis said. “You said this was before the BSU started consulting on serial cases.”

“After quickly incapacitating the vics with the ether, the offender threw them in his car, injected them with a drug, and drove them from Florida—where he got his victims—into South Carolina, where he killed them. Crossing state lines.”

“And why is this relevant?” Hurdle asked.

Rooney spread his hands. “At the very least, if we look at the most logical or most likely scenario, it tells us that Roscoe Lee Marcks and/or his partner, assuming he has one, read Killer Instincts and took the idea for himself.”

“It also may explain why Marcks is wise to what we do and how we do it. Maybe he did read these types of books. True crime, case studies, that kind of thing, to learn how, and why, we do what we do.”