Double Blind_A Novel

* * *

  LYNCH RAN ALONGSIDE Griffin as the two-dozen FBI agents ran across Juniper Street to the Brock Limited’s office building. Lynch nodded to a pair of agents with assault rifles. “You really think those are necessary?”

  “If I did, we’d all have them. But I know it’s a language Brock understands.”

  “Agreed.”

  The group moved through the building lobby and commandeered four elevators to the fourteenth floor. They burst into the Brock Limited lobby to the surprise and consternation of a pair of receptionists seated at a long granite counter.

  Griffin held up a badge and warrant as agents rushed past him to the offices. “FBI. I need to address everyone on this floor. Now!”

  With trembling hands, one of the assistants picked up her phone and punched a three-digit code.

  Griffin took the phone and spoke into it. His amplified voice echoed down the hallway. “This is the FBI, operating under the force of a Federal warrant. Everyone must immediately stand and step away from their offices. I repeat, everyone must immediately stand and step away from their offices. This is the FBI.”

  Vivianne Kerstine strode into the reception area, glaring at them. The Brock CEO was as strikingly attractive as Lynch had seen in photographs, but her expression was ugly.

  “What the hell is going on?” she asked.

  Griffin handed her the warrant. “Records and data seizure.”

  Her already chilly demeanor grew downright icy. “Why?”

  “It’s in the warrant. We suspect this office is in possession of material vital to a murder investigation.”

  “Ridiculous.”

  Brock employees spilled from their offices as FBI agents moved in. A second wave of FBI agents emerged from the elevator behind them with flattened cardboard boxes, packing tape, and hand trucks.

  “What are you taking?” she asked.

  “All computers, data, and paper records.”

  “This is a multinational corporation. We need these things to function.”

  Griffin nodded. “The sooner we find what we need, the sooner you’ll get them back. Some of them will even be examined here on the premises. You and your management can help by joining us for a discussion at our office. We have vans waiting downstairs.”

  She looked at him incredulously. “You’re taking us in?”

  “It’s in your best interest to talk to us,” Griffin said.

  Vivianne whirled and strode back down the hallway. Griffin nodded to Metcalf, who quickly followed her.

  Along with the dozens of curious Brock employees who appeared in the lobby, Josh Blake rounded the corner. He froze as he caught sight of Lynch. “Shit.”

  Lynch smiled. “Hi, Josh. Why, I thought you’d be at the training center again.”

  “No. I … no.”

  Josh awkwardly turned away.

  “Why, he looks like he’s seen a dead man,” Griffin murmured.

  Lynch nodded. “Exactly what I thought. But if Vivianne Kerstine was surprised to see me, she didn’t show it.”

  “Doesn’t mean anything,” Griffin said. “She’s smooth.”

  His mobile phone beeped in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the Caller ID screen. “That didn’t take long.”

  Lynch looked at the name. “Senator James Morant.”

  Griffin nodded. “Head of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Brock has friends in high places.”

  “It won’t be the last call you get.”

  Griffin put away his phone. “All in good time.”

  Vivianne Kerstine came back into the lobby closely followed by Metcalf. “I’m ready to go. Let’s get this nonsense over with.” She headed for the elevator. “But if you’ve notified the press about this indignity, you might be in for a reprimand. I won’t let my reputation be sullied.”

  “We wouldn’t think of doing that.” Griffin smiled. “Unless we found proof that it was ‘warranted’ I’ll see you back at the office, Ms. Kerstine. Metcalf will escort you.”

  Lynch entered the elevator at the last minute and moved to the back of the car. Vivianne Kerstine ignored him as if he wasn’t there. For that matter, Metcalf was getting the same treatment, he noticed.

  She strode ahead of them as they exited the elevator and crossed the lobby to the sidewalk. Metcalf had to hurry to catch up with her. “This way, Ms. Kerstine.”

  But she stopped as she reached the street. She was gazing at Kendra, who was standing outside her van watching the Brock employees stream out of the building.

  She didn’t hesitate but strode straight up to Kendra. “You’re Kendra Michaels, aren’t you?”

  Lynch stiffened and took a step toward Kerstine.

  But Kendra was staring directly into her eyes. “Yes, I am. Ms. Kerstine. Do you have something to say to me?”

  She stared at her for a long moment. “You’ve made a mistake.”

  She turned and let Metcalf lead her away.

  Kendra gazed after her. Then she shook her head as if to clear it and turned to Lynch. “Are you coming back to the office with me?”

  “I was thinking about it.” He turned back to the building. “But I believe I’ll go back upstairs and help with the search. It might be a good idea to have all hands on deck to find a way to eliminate that lady.”

  FBI Regional Office

  Kendra’s hands clenched on the arms of her chair in the lobby as Metcalf shrugged, shook his head at her, and then disappeared back into the interrogation room.

  This had been the fourth time in as many hours that ritual had been repeated. It was driving her crazy that Griffin had decided she was not to be allowed in there while the questioning was going on. She almost wished she’d stayed back at the Brock building with Lynch.

  Her phone rang and she jumped at answering it. “Lynch?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Trey Suber said apologetically. “I understand there all kinds of interesting things going on with you and the bureau today and I didn’t want to disturb you. But I’ve found something I regard as interesting as well and I wonder if you could come and talk with me for a few minutes?”

  She gave a glance at the closed door of the interrogation room. At least someone believed she could be of help, she thought in frustration. If anything broke, Metcalf would call her anyway. She jumped to her feet. “I’ll be right there. Where are you?”

  “Fifth floor conference room.”

  Three minutes later Kendra walked into the fifth-floor conference room, which was now entirely covered with freestanding billboards plastered with gory murder-scene photos. Trey Suber was seated at the end of the long table, hunched over his laptop.

  “I thought you’d take over this room,” Kendra said as she glanced at the posters.

  Trey stood and gestured around them. “This is pretty much where I live these days. And the possible connection with the Damascus and London serial killings has suddenly opened up our investigation quite a bit.”

  Kendra blanched at the sight of a particularly gruesome London killing. “You didn’t waste time tracking those photos down, Suber.”

  “Oh, I already had them all in my laptop.”

  Kendra smiled. “Of course you did.”

  “I knew the details of every one of those crime scenes, but there’s nothing so distinctive about them that they made me connect the Damascus, London, and San Diego scenes to each other.” Suber walked across the room, motioning toward the boards like an enthusiastic college professor. “Now that I can directly compare, I can see that the killer employed a frontal strangulation in the Damascus and San Diego killings accompanied by a knee against the chest. In London, it was left-to-right swipe across the throat with a nine-inch serrated blade. So of course, no one noticed any connections with that one.” He shook his head regretfully. “Though I wish I had. There has to be more connections here.”

  “If anyone can find them, you can.”

  Suber studied the boards. “I just wanted to make certain you knew how obsessed this killer is wi
th patterns in each series. Perhaps more than any murderer I’ve ever seen. It’s all about the pattern with him. He kills just long enough for law enforcement to recognize the pattern, then he stops. The medical school class in Damascus, the soccer team in London, and the wedding party here. The wedding party connection was recognized here sooner than it would have been, thanks to the video that was found on Elena Meyer’s body.”

  “You think he’ll stop here?” Kendra asked.

  “Hard to say. He’s obviously extremely disciplined, so that’s a possibility. But he may just look at it as a challenge and try to move forward anyway.” Trey shook his head. “I just don’t know him well enough yet.” He stepped back from the boards, trying to take them in all at once. “But I can’t help but think…”

  “What?”

  Trey took off his eyeglasses and wiped them on the tail of his untucked shirt. “A killer this pattern-obsessed would link each series of killings somehow. It may be here right in front of our eyes, but he doesn’t want us to see it yet. In his grand plan, there might be a common element that would be evident only after a half-dozen cities over a couple decades.”

  Her eyes widened. “A couple decades?”

  “Oh, yeah. Trust me. He’s just getting started,” Suber said soberly. “We have to find this guy. Fast.”

  “We’re trying, Suber. That’s the unanimous decision.” She turned and headed for the door. “But that pattern you’re talking about is getting more complicated all the time. Now I have to get back and see if Griffin has managed to find an answer.”

  * * *

  METCALF WAS JUST COMING out of the interrogation room again when Kendra arrived back at the lobby.

  “Anything?” Kendra asked. “Is she talking at all?”

  “Not a word,” Metcalf said. “Neither is Josh Blake. And we’re not going to be able to keep her from lawyering up for much longer. She’s had a crew of expensive lawyers waiting downstairs since we pulled her in. Hell, we’ve had her and Blake in that room for over five hours and she’s threatening a suit for false imprisonment.” He added grimly, “She’d win. Lynch called from Brock headquarters and said that so far they haven’t found a shred of evidence that would link her to anything illegal and certainly nothing about Derek. There have to be records, but she has to have them stashed so deep it would take a Geiger counter to unearth them.”

  “They probably are,” Kendra said, frustrated. “They learned their lesson when Elena Meyer blundered across that file on Derek. They must have scrambled to make certain nothing like that would ever happen again.”

  “We had a chance,” Metcalf said. “We’ll just have to find another way to go. Maybe this will discourage Brock from dealing with Derek.”

  “When he also has copies of the evidence that they hid so industriously? Not likely.” She shook her head. “It might just make them more eager to please the bastard.” She remembered that moment when Vivianne Kerstine had given her that fierce glare before she had been taken away. “Because she definitely didn’t like having her dignity ruffled when she was hauled off so unceremoniously.”

  “Yeah, I noticed she was looking daggers at you as we passed. I couldn’t decide why you were taking the heat.”

  She shrugged. “Because I’m a woman. She’s probably been fighting the male world all her life and winning. She wouldn’t think they were worthy adversaries anymore. But she’d accept that I might cause her trouble.”

  “If that’s true, then she might feel that she should get rid of a possible threat,” Metcalf said quietly. “Maybe Lynch was right about keeping you in the background. Her dossier is pretty impressive and she— Uh-oh.” His gaze was on the elevator doors that had just opened. “Here come the legal eagles. Griffin must have decided to give up on Kerstine and her crew.”

  Kendra watched the herd of sleek, expensively dressed men and women hurrying toward the interrogation room. “Shouldn’t you go back in there and help referee?”

  “Maybe,” Metcalf said. “But there’s not much use. The minute those lawyers get in there, their ‘innocent’ clients are going to be released and will be streaming back through here and be allowed to go back to Brock headquarters, smirking all the way.” He paused. “And I wanted to take a minute to talk to you and apologize for—”

  “I’m not ready to listen to your apologies right now,” Kendra said curtly. “Let’s just keep doing what we have to do to find Derek and keep him from killing Barbara Campbell.”

  “I just wanted to—”

  “Here they come,” she interrupted as the doors of the interrogation room opened and Vivianne Kerstine strode out, followed by her battery of lawyers. “As you predicted.”

  Vivianne must have heard her voice because she stopped and turned to the chairs where they were sitting. She lifted her chin. “I told you that you’d made a mistake.” She almost spat the words out. “I worked very hard to get where I am, Dr. Michaels. You should have thought twice before you tried to shred my reputation. There are always consequences.”

  “That sounded like a threat. I believe the only mistake we made was not getting to your files soon enough. We’ll know better next time.” She cocked her head. “And what do you think my mistake was?”

  Vivianne smiled sweetly. “Why the persecution of a perfectly innocent woman, of course. What else could I have meant?” She turned and sailed toward the elevator with her entourage.

  “She’s very sharp,” Kendra said as she watched the elevator doors close. “And she’s very angry. Where the hell are those records? Where would she think they’d be safe?”

  “We’ll try doing a search of other Brock locations in the area, but I can’t see her letting anything vital be taken too far away from her jurisdiction.”

  “Unless she had to find—”

  The text on her phone was buzzing. She didn’t recognize the number and she tried to turn it off.

  The text wouldn’t turn off. It kept on buzzing.

  What the hell?

  She pressed the access.

  Hello Kendra,

  You’ve had a busy day haven’t you? You’re proving to be very annoying. And my wedding arrangements have been going so splendidly up to now.

  Kendra dropped the phone.

  “What is it,” Metcalf asked, startled.

  “I’m not sure.” She moistened her lips. “I … think it might be Derek.” She forced herself to pick up the phone again and continue reading.

  But you’re forcing me to curtail some of the finer details and characters since you arrived on the scene. Not that I object to you causing problems for my friends, it rather amused me. But now they’re going to be nervous and that might cause me time and effort to correct. So I’ve decided that I won’t be able to let them take care of you. Unfortunately, I’m not sure they’re competent enough. I’ll have to do it myself. That’s not good news for you. You should really never have had the arrogance to accept this assignment that would pit you against me. But I do believe you should be given a lesson that only I can teach.

  She showed the text to Metcalf. “What do you think? It’s him?”

  He nodded. “I think so. Answer him.” He was hurriedly taking out his phone. “It’s a long shot, but may be it can be traced.”

  Her hands were shaking as she typed.

  Derek?

  Who else?

  Shock. She took a deep breath.

  Murderer. You can’t get away with this. You think you’re so clever. But you might as well return Barbara Campbell to us. Because I’ll never stop. I’ll be there behind you until you make a mistake and then I’ll take you down.

  His answer came quickly.

  I don’t like threats. But I’ll forgive you this time. And I am very clever. Because I wouldn’t have been fooled by all that flim-flam you all used to make my friends believe Facey and Lynch were dead. Though I understand you were very convincing. Is there some real feeling there, Kendra? I admit I’m disappointed. I don’t really believe in all that man-woma
n garbage. It’s too limited. There are so many more relationships that can offer me so much more. I was hoping for something more challenging.

  She glanced at Metcalf, but he was still talking frantically on his phone.

  Challenging? I don’t know what you mean?

  Derek’s answer didn’t come for more than two minutes.

  Of course, you don’t. And you’re trying desperately to keep me on the phone to trace this text. You won’t succeed, so why shouldn’t I accommodate you? I do get so bored, Kendra. Anyone with a superior intellect does. Don’t you find that? Not that you’re near to my capacity, but you’re close enough to be teachable. Challenging? My philosophy? The most exquisite thing on earth is power. The ultimate power can only be gained by inflicting the ultimate amount of pain. Because that’s what all human beings fear most.

  She typed quickly and with perfect truth.

  That’s totally sick.

  Another pause.

  You’re disappointing me again. I’ve let you into my world and all I get is scorn. That’s all right. As I said, you’re teachable. And there are so many other ways I can show you I’m right about the power and the pain. How does it feel to be the target, Kendra? If you were as smart as they think you are, you’d have already made that connection about me. But don’t worry, I’ve already started the process to show you the error of your ways. I look forward to completing it.

  The text ended.

  She whirled on Metcalf. “Did you get the trace?”

  “I don’t think so. They’re still trying. It was blocked.” He took a deep breath. “Shit,” Metcalf said. “I think we stirred up a hornet’s nest.”

  Kendra thought that, too. Her heart was pounding as she looked down at her phone. “But at least he responded. He gave us information.” And he’d given them an insight into how he thought that was chilling. Well, what had she expected? He was a psychopath and they were usually about pain. “I need to talk to Lynch. Where is he?”

  “On his way back from Brock headquarters, he should be here anytime.” Metcalf was frowning. “Can’t I help?”

  “Not this time.” She took out the burner phone Lynch had given her and pressed his number.