“He did,” Bailey said.
“But we’re being objective,” Michael said. “Evan’s psychological state is not conducive to objective thinking. Remember, all of these kids are extremely traumatized.”
“Right,” Jenny said. “Now imagine that on top of all that, you’re the last living person to speak to Logan. And what he tells you strongly indicates he was about to commit a massacre. The emotional conflicts would be massive.”
Michael nodded. “On the one hand, Evan feels guilty about not alerting anyone when Logan told him to skip school-”
“He does,” I said. “Which is crazy. No one could’ve known-”
Jenny held up a hand. “Again, we’re not talking about rational thinking here. And on the other hand, he’s scared for his own safety, for all the reasons we’ve discussed. Added to that, believe it or not, he probably also feels guilty for telling you about his encounter with Logan-”
Bailey nodded. “For betraying his buddy.”
“And they typically overestimate their own importance,” Michael said. “To put it bluntly, they’re self-centered. Evan’s statement isn’t huge in the grand scheme of things, but it is to him. And so he believes it must be to Logan-or maybe Shane-as well.”
“Still strikes me as kind of paranoid, don’t you think?” I asked.
Jenny tilted her head. “Is there such a thing as irrational fear when you’re dealing with someone who’s so irrationally violent?”
Touché.
I passed them the copies of all the email correspondence with Logan. “We’d like you to read these and get back to us by tonight or, at the latest, tomorrow morning with any ideas you may have about where Logan and his accomplice might be-”
Michael nodded. “I assume your people have already checked for any oblique references to a plan? Or some kind of code that might have been used?”
“Yes,” I said. “There was nothing they could see.”
Jenny frowned. “That’s very, very odd. I’ve never heard of a case where there wasn’t some evidence of preparation or planning. Typically written. Whether it’s in the form of poems to a teacher, drawings of some kind, or posting on the Internet or in some kind of journal. This type of killer is usually a copious writer. And it usually begins months before the event. It’s a form of ramping up, if you will. For a mass murderer-especially one as young as Logan-not to write or say anything about what he plans to do…it’s extraordinary.”
“But why would they want to write down their plans?” Bailey asked. “Why take the risk?”
Jenny nodded. “It does seem counterintuitive, doesn’t it? But these killers live in their heads a great deal of the time. They get a lot of traction out of their fantasies. Writing, for them, is a way of savoring those fantasies. Plus-and this is an important point-much of the thrill for this type of killer is the sense of power. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac for them. That’s why the killings are almost always set up ‘fish in a barrel’ style. They want to master the situation and terrorize a captive audience. That’s also why writing about their desires is perfect for them. When they write about their desires, they control it alclass="underline" the means, the location, and the outcome.”
“Writing or no, there had to have been a heck of a lot of planning,” Bailey said. “They didn’t just put that arsenal together over a long weekend.”
“Oh, no doubt they’d been planning this for several months, if not a year,” Jenny said. “I’m only saying that these killers need some outlet for all this homicidal energy that gets generated every time they think about what they plan to do. Writing usually provides that outlet.”
“They had each other to talk to,” I said. “Wouldn’t that have siphoned off some steam?”
“Some,” Michael said. “But they couldn’t talk about it whenever or wherever they wanted. Understand that this killing was something they both thought about night and day, every single day. Writing is something one can do at any time. No one overhears it. And if they’re careful, no one sees it. Talking is a different story.”
“Right,” Jenny said. “And given that there are no writings, it’s difficult to believe this boy, Logan, showed absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in the months leading up to the crime.”
“His friends did say he seemed wound pretty tight,” Bailey said. “He’d pop off at little things. But how would that tip anyone off that he was planning something like this?”
“Yeah, exactly,” I said. “What would tip you off? If a kid doesn’t already have a track record for violent behavior-”
“And these killers seldom do-” Jenny said.
“Then what would you expect to see that would make you suspect a kid would do something like this?”
Jenny sighed. “That is the classic question in these cases. So Johnny got into a fight, or stole someone’s cell phone. Or defaced school property. Why should that make us suspect he’s building bombs in the basement?” Jenny shook her head. “We have never been able to answer that.”
41
After the doctors left I started to pace. “You were right, we can’t put it off. We’ve got to tell them about the letter. Is Graden still with the chief?”
“I’ll find out.”
We were about to head out to his office when Bailey’s cell phone rang. She looked at the number and made a face. “It’s one of the guys manning our tip line.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Worse. This one really has the Looney Tunes coming out of the woodwork.” She answered the phone and listened. After a few minutes, she pulled out her pen and notepad and wrote. When she ended the call, she held up her notepad. “Want to hear what I’m talking about?”
“Sure.” I needed a good laugh.
Bailey read from her notes. “The second shooter is Justin Bieber. He and Logan are lovers.” I chuckled. She raised an eyebrow at me. “Oh, it gets better.” She continued reading. “The second shooter and mastermind is Alec Baldwin, and his next target is the paparazzi and tabloid reporters-”
“Go, Alec.”
Bailey threw me a look and flipped a page on her notepad. “Logan is in a hotel in midtown Manhattan-”
“Ooh, the St. Regis? Maybe we need to go and check this one out ourselves.”
“The caller didn’t name the hotel. However, he did opine that Logan is a Gemini and that therefore the second shooter has to be a Scorpio. Our next caller swears he saw Logan in Deer Valley, Utah. Skiing.” She turned another page. “Shall I go on?”
I shook my head. “I get the drift-no pun intended.” Bailey gave me a sour look. I remembered they’d just released the information about Shane Dolan at the press conference this morning. “What about Shane Dolan? Any sightings of him?”
“More of the same. Nothing that makes any sense. But I’ve got them checking out every lead. At least those on this planet.”
“I don’t believe they left the state. Though I don’t know why I think that.”
“Because given what the shrinkers said, it makes the most sense,” Bailey said. “They’ll want to aim for places they’re familiar with, where they can feel in control. And where they know the escape route. That is, assuming…”
They still planned to escape. We couldn’t even predict that with freaks like this. I started to go through a mental checklist of the evidence we’d collected so far. “What’ve we got on the guns they dropped at the school?”