A Merciful Death (Mercy Kilpatrick #1)(16)

“I grew up in Eagle’s Nest. But I haven’t been back in fifteen years.”

Darby’s eyebrows rose. “No kidding. How was my population recap?”

“Excellent. Sounds like not much has changed,” Mercy said.

“It hasn’t,” said Jeff. “Bend has had huge population growth over the last thirty years, but Eagle’s Nest has stayed stable.”

Mercy leaned forward. “You’ve studied the locals, Darby. Who would attack preppers?”

Darby folded her printout three times, deliberately creasing the edges as she considered Mercy’s question. Mercy knew several intelligence analysts who could condense ten thousand facts into a concise summary with brilliant insight. Darby struck her as that sort of data nut.

“I don’t know,” replied Darby. “The silence after each killing is startling. Usually there is someone who talks when crimes like these happen. The guy who shows off his new gun to his friends . . . the guy who brags that so-and-so won’t cause them problems anymore. Something.”

“You believe it’s all the same killer?” Mercy asked.

Jeff twisted his lips. “We’ve got no hard evidence to tie the cases together. As of this morning, we know three different weapons were used—all different calibers. None of the fingerprints or footprints found at the scenes are the same . . . but who knows if the killer even left fingerprints. The common thread is the missing weapons and that the victims were known preppers.”

“Is it possible you’ve missed a victim?”

Darby shook her head. “Our murder rate out here is very low. There’re no other unsolved murders this year.”

“We just put the pieces together yesterday,” said Jeff. “We were aware of two men who’d been killed in Deschutes County, but neither the sheriff nor the police chief had asked for any help. And I understand why: they each believed they had an isolated murder case. The missing weapons from the first murder, Enoch Finch, weren’t brought up until later.”

“I noticed that,” said Mercy. “What happened?”

“Well, no one knew guns were missing because Enoch lived alone and kept to himself. A cousin came to town a week after the death to sort through the effects. He’s the one that claims weapons are missing. The county sheriff knew Enoch had one missing registered gun, but the cousin swears Enoch had shown him at least twenty rifles and pistols on his last visit.”

“I’m noticing a theme here,” said Mercy. “All of these guys had a lot more weapons than were registered.” She tapped her pen on the table. “Did the thieves know they were stealing illegal weapons?” A facet to consider.

“Anything else missing?” Eddie asked.

“The cousin wasn’t certain. The rest of the home looked okay to him.”

Mercy eyed Darby. “And once you heard of the missing Finch weapons, you started to wonder if the first two cases were related.”

Darby nodded. “And when I got word that a cache of weapons was missing from the third murder, I approached Jeff and he decided we needed more agents. This has the potential to blow up into a domestic terrorism nightmare.”

“My office is spread too thin,” said Jeff. “I don’t have a domestic terrorism agent on staff. I rely on Darby to keep us informed, but there’s something to be said for DT experience.”

“You know I’m originally from cybercrimes, right?” said Eddie. “I’ve been on temporary loan to DT for only a few weeks.”

“So you’re saying you might be useless?” Darby asked with a glint in her eye.

“Try me.” He grinned back.

Mercy jumped in. “So back to my question about a single killer,” she said to Darby. “What’s your gut tell you? Outside of the hard evidence.”

“I don’t know. Logic tells me it can’t be coincidence that three men were killed within two weeks in a county that usually gets three murders a year, and each time the only thing missing is a large number of weapons,” said Darby. She shifted in her seat. “To me, it doesn’t sound like the work of one person, simply because of the number of weapons. What’s one person going to do with that many weapons?”

“Maybe it’s a small group working together,” suggested Eddie.

“Where’s the chatter?” asked Darby. “Where’s the leak? Like I said, someone always talks.”

“It’s only been two weeks,” said Mercy. “Maybe with more time someone will talk.”

“I feel like we’ve dropped the ball by not making the connection between the cases earlier,” said Jeff.

“You haven’t dropped the ball,” said Eddie. “You called us in once you had concerns. We’ll investigate from here and keep you in the loop.”

The SSRA winced. “I still feel like I’m slacking.”

“Slacking?” Darby snapped. “I know how many active cases this office has. Poor Melissa can’t keep up. We should have more support staff.”

“Not in the budget,” Jeff answered.

Supervisors everywhere use that line.

Mercy had worked with seven different supervisors during her time with the FBI. On the basis of her experience, she was positive they rehearsed that line in supervisor class.