“I already checked,” he said. “Your numbers are there.”
Ellington joined her and hunkered down for a look. He looked up at Mackenzie. “No clue what these numbers represent?”
“Nothing,” she said.
“I think this goes without saying,” Nelson said, “but this case is now going to take top priority over everything. Agent Ellington, how soon can we get some more bodies on this?”
“I can make a call and probably have a few more out here by this afternoon.”
“Do it, please. Any results from the lumber yard?”
“We got sixteen names,” Mackenzie said. “Most of them are construction companies. We have to check each one and see if they can offer any useful information.”
“I’ll get some men on it,” he said. “For right now, I need you and Ellington chasing down the more promising leads. You two are the point men on this thing, so do whatever the hell you need to do to get it wrapped up. I want this sick fucker sitting in an interrogation room by the end of the day.
“Meanwhile, I’m going to have my men go over maps of the surrounding hundred miles or so. We’ll split it up and start staking out isolated areas like this one, the field from the last murder, and cornfields that are easily accessed.”
“Anything else?” Ellington asked.
“Nothing I can think of. Just keep me posted on even the smallest detail you might come across. I’ll talk with you more about that in a second,” Nelson said. He then looked over to Mackenzie and gave her a nod of the head, toward the right. “White, can I talk to you for a second?”
Mackenzie stepped away from the post and followed Nelson off to the side of the dilapidated house, wondering what this was about.
“Are you comfortable working with Ellington?” he asked.
“Yes sir. He’s been on point and incredibly helpful in terms of talking things out.”
“Good. Look, I’m not an idiot. I know your potential and I know that if there’s anyone under my employ that can bring this bastard in, it’s you. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to just let the feds swing in and take it from us. So I want you working with him. I’ve spoken with Porter already and reassigned him. He’s still on the case, but I’ve got him helping with the door-to-door stuff.”
“And he was okay with that?”
“That’s not for you to worry about. For now, you just stick to this case and go with your gut. I’m trusting you to make the right decisions; you don’t need to check in with me on every little thing. Just do what you need to do to end this. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I thought so,” Nelson said with a little smile. “Now you and Ellington get the hell out of here and bring us some results.”
He gave her a gentle clap on the back which, all things considered, was nearly the equivalent of Ellington opening the door for her at the lumber yard. It was a huge stretch coming from Nelson and she appreciated it. They walked back to the body together and Mackenzie looked back at the numbers. She felt that there was something there, that the key to cracking this whole thing lay in those damned numbers.
A part of him, she sensed, wanted to get caught. He was baiting them.
“You okay?” Ellington asked, standing on the other side of the pole.
She nodded, getting to her feet.
“Have you ever been on a case like this before?”
“Just two,” he said. “One of them resulted in eight murders before we caught him.”
“Do you think that’ll happen here?” she asked.
She hated that the questions made her sound uncertain and maybe even inexperienced, but she had to know. All she had to do was remember how frightened she had been for several minutes in her own home, spooked at what had likely been an imagined sound of a creaking floorboard, to understand just how much this case was starting to affect her. She’d lost a boyfriend, she was slowly losing her cool, and she’d be damned if she’d lose anything else as a result of it.
“Not if we can help it,” Ellington answered. He sighed. “So tell me, what do you see here that’s new?”
“Well, the fact that the killer chose a road in the middle of nowhere seems odd. The chain across the road didn’t stop him. Not only that, but he knew it would be there. He was prepared to cut it down.”
“Meaning what?”
She knew that he was testing her, but he was doing it in a way that was not insulting her intelligence. He was challenging her, and she was thoroughly enjoying it.
“Meaning that the areas he’s choosing aren’t just random. He has chosen them for a reason.”
“So not just the murders are predetermined, but the locations as well.”
“Seems like it. I think I – ” she said, but then stopped.
To the right, at the edge of the thin forest, she saw movement.
For a moment, she thought she’d imagined it.
But then she saw it again.
Something was moving, heading deeper into the woods. She could make out just enough of the shape to see that it was a human figure.
“Hey!”
It was all she could think to say and it came out a bit excited. At the sound of her voice, the shape took off even faster, any attempt at stealth now gone as they snapped branches and rustled foliage while they escaped.
Acting on instinct, Mackenzie took off toward the woods at a sprint. By the time Ellington had caught on and followed behind her, Mackenzie was already out of the yard and in the woods. The trees around her seemed just as forgotten and colorless as the house that sat behind her, its black windows still gazing out at her.
She slapped branches away as she ran through the woods. She could just make out the sound of Ellington following behind her but she didn’t waste her time or effort looking back.
“Stop!” she demanded.
She wasn’t surprised when the figure continued to run. Mackenzie had estimated within a matter of seconds that she was faster than her objective, closing in with a quickness that she had always prided herself on. She caught a few branches to the face and felt cobwebs clinging to her skin but she blasted through the forest, undaunted.
As she closed in on the figure, she saw that it was a man dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt and a pair of dark jeans. Because he did not fully look back a single time, Mackenzie couldn’t tell how old he was, but she could tell that he was slightly overweight and apparently a little out of shape. She could hear him wheezing as she closed in on his heels.
“Dammit,” she said as she reached him, stretching out her arm and grabbing him by the shoulder. “I said stop!”
With that, she gave him a hard push which sent him down to the ground. He rolled once before skidding to a stop.
I got him, Mackenzie thought.
The man tried to get to his feet but Mackenzie delivered a swift kick to the back of his knee that sent him down again. He banged his face on a tree root as he fell.
Mackenzie planted a hard knee into the man’s back and reached for her weapon. Ellington finally arrived and he also pinned the man to the ground. Now that Ellington’s full weight was on him, he’d stopped wriggling. Mackenzie reached to her belt and retrieved her handcuffs, while Ellington pulled the man’s arms behind his back to yet another cry of pain. Mackenzie slapped the cuffs on and then pulled the man roughly to his feet.
“What’s your name?” Mackenzie asked.
She stepped in front of him and saw him for the first time. The guy looked harmless, overweight and probably in his late thirties.
“Aren’t you supposed to ask me things like that before you assault me?”
Ellington shook him a bit and applied some pressure to his shoulder. “She asked you a question.”
“Ellis Pope,” the man said, visibly shaken.
“And why are you here?”
He said nothing at first and in the silence, Mackenzie heard more commotion in the woods. This noise came from her right and when she turned in that direction, she saw Nelson and three other officers come scrambling through the thin trees and foliage.