A Profiler's Case for Seduction(73)

At the moment his first goal was to get this note into evidence with the others and find out if they’d all been penned by the same person.

He couldn’t get to the war room fast enough and when he finally arrived he found Richard the only person there. Richard looked up from his laptop as Mark came flying through the door.

“You look like you’ve just won the lottery,” Richard said.

Mark flashed him a grin. “Money never makes me this excited. Potential evidence is what makes a happy dance in my heart.”

“Potential evidence?” Richard closed his laptop and looked at Mark expectantly.

“I just finished doing a short search of Melinda’s office here on campus and I found this hidden in the bottom of a drawer.” Mark pulled the plastic evidence bag from his pocket and set in on the table next to Richard.

Richard stared down at the card with a frown. “‘Failu’? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I think she was writing failure and got interrupted.” Mark’s heart banged hard against his chest. “I think that card was meant to be left on my dead body.”

Richard shot him a sharp look. “Why would she think you’re a failure?”

Mark sat in the chair next to Richard. “Probably for several reasons. I’ve been a profiler without a profile, an agent coming after her but unable to connect all the dots.” He didn’t mention that Melinda could have found out from somebody that he was also a failure as a father figure in Grace’s life and completely stank at being what a woman needed.

“It makes sense if you remember that I got a warning note on my car that said I was in danger,” Mark continued.

Richard looked at the card in the plastic bag and then at the board that held photocopies of the notes that had been found on each dead man. Liar. Cheater. Thief.

Mark studied the notes, as well. Certainly failure worked into the basic theme of the other cards. They were all character flaws defined by a killer.

“It’s hard to tell just by looking if the writer is the same,” Richard finally said.

“I’d like this one to be sent to the lab and compared for handwriting analysis. If all four cards are written by the same person, then there’s no question that the person is Melinda.” Mark felt a burst of triumph wing through him. For the first time since they’d arrived in Vengeance, he smelled the end of the case with the guilty party behind bars.

“What about the fact that there was a man with her when she was kidnapped?”

“Her partner in crime,” Mark replied without hesitation. “I’ve narrowed it down to two men, either Ben Craig or Andrew Peterson. I think either of those males could have been easily manipulated by Melinda to do whatever she demanded of them.”

“But Andrew Peterson told us he and Melinda broke up before she disappeared.”

“He could have lied. The day we spoke to him, despite his protests about reclaiming his love for his wife and children, his obsession with Melinda was still there and burning bright. I think he would have done anything to continue to have her.”

“But we’ve had no indication of anything going on between them since the murders,” Richard replied, obviously playing devil’s advocate.

“Melinda’s smart, too smart to tie herself to her partner while we’re still here in town and have our eyes on her.”

“And yet she hasn’t distanced herself from Ben.”

“If she did, then it would look equally suspicious,” Mark replied. “He’s her assistant. He has a reason to be in her life. She couldn’t kick him to the curb without answering a lot of uncomfortable questions.”

“Is your gut telling you which man is guilty?” Richard asked.

Mark shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. But before we can really try to figure that out, we have to prove that this note and the others were all written by Melinda.”

Richard frowned thoughtfully. “I’ll have Lori see if she can dig up a couple of student papers that have Melinda’s writing on them and then she can take this card, along with the samples, to Dallas. It will probably take a day or two for us to get a definitive answer.”

Mark nodded. It would take some time to get information back from Dallas and one of the FBI handwriting specialists.

“Good work, Mark.”

Mark stood, unsure what to do next, but aware that he was too energized to simply sit. “Thanks. It’s not a solve yet, but the fact that we’ve found no connection to Melinda and the victims only makes me more suspicious and more inclined to believe she is incredibly smart.”