Bailey pulled into the parking lot at the PAB. When we got back to her desk, she called the sergeant in charge at Evan’s house. It was Saturday, but you couldn’t tell. All hands were on deck, and they probably would be until we had the shooters in custody.
I sat down at a vacant desk nearby and called Eric on his cell. “You heard about Evan?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Terrible, just terrible. They got anything yet?”
I told him what Dorian had so far. “And Bailey’s checking on the door-knock. We need to get out ahead of this somehow, but we just keep hitting dead ends. It’s making me crazy.”
“Rachel, remember, it’s always like this until it isn’t. We run into walls until we find the door. All you can do is keep digging. In the meantime, don’t make yourself any crazier than you have to. I have faith in you. You’ll figure it out. You always do.”
I appreciated the support. I did. And I’d have found it reassuring but for one tiny fact: Eric didn’t know about the threatening letter yet. A pang of guilt made my throat tighten. I wanted to tell him, but I’d promised Graden I wouldn’t. I said nothing. When I ended the call, Bailey was off the phone.
“Just got the report from the unis who covered Evan’s ’hood,” she said. “Nothing from the door-knock. One of the unis contacted the paper deliverer, who said he thought he saw a white Corolla around the corner from Evan’s house around five a.m., but the uni didn’t think it was solid. Everyone in that neighborhood knows Logan drove a white Corolla.”
“The paperboy didn’t get a license plate?”
Bailey shook her head. “Another reason I’m not buying it. If Logan’s car had been around, we’d have more than this one sighting. But Nick’s got something for us. He’s on his way over.”
A few minutes later, he appeared holding a printout. He threw it down on Bailey’s desk. “There’s the reason you haven’t seen anything exciting in Logan’s emails.”
It was a few paragraphs of very fine print. “Enlighten me so I don’t have to strain my eyes,” she said.
“Sorry. I always set it to eight-point font to save paper.”
“You’re a tree hugger?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Like to hug lots of things.” Nick gave me a sly grin. I folded my arms and tried not to smile. Nick continued. “This email must have been written right when they first met. It was sent about the same time. Logan tells Evan not to put anything in an email he wouldn’t want the world to see because there’s no way to really hide it. Says the government is intercepting everything and keeping it in this huge storage place under a mountain in Utah. He’s got a link to an article that claims the government can intercept everyone’s email and that they plan to start real soon. Logan says they’ve probably already been doing it for a while.”
I picked up the printout. “Is that for real?”
“It might be. I know the government wants to be able to grab whatever whenever they want. Now does that mean the government’s interested in two high school kids’ bullshit? Probably not. But ain’t it typical of teenagers to think so?”
It was. And it did explain why nothing incriminating showed up in Logan’s email. After Nick left, we worked on our next move. With no solid leads, it wasn’t easy.
“What do we have on Logan’s past?” I asked.
“So far we’ve only gone back to the beginning of high school, but it shouldn’t be hard to go back further,” Bailey said. “And remember, Shane was in the military. So we’ve got military records and the records from the VA. They’re pulling it all together. We’ll have a full report soon.”
“But nothing that gave us any leads on where he might be?” Bailey shook her head. “Well, since we’ve got time and no better ideas, may as well go back further on Logan. Hit middle school and elementary school.” I thought about what Jenny had told me during an earlier phone conversation. “The underlying point of these shootings is to feel powerful, superior.”
“And to get famous.”
“Yeah, but according to the shrinks, power and control is the key. It was all over that letter.”
“True,” Bailey said. “So if school was a place where he got tweaked about feeling inferior or weak-”
“Then it becomes a proving ground. But it’s also a pragmatic thing. Logan knows the layout, and it’s a relatively easy place to score a high body count-‘fish in a barrel’ style. Plus, it’s where other shooters staged their scenes. So if they’re looking to beat out the other killers, that’s the optimal target.”
“Then Logan’s next target might be one of his past schools-”
“An elementary school. Or even a middle school.” Both were the sites of previous mass murders.
Bailey’s cell rang. She looked at the number and rolled her eyes. “The tip line, God help us.” She answered the call. But this time, she sat up and stared straight ahead, her gaze intense. After taking a few notes, she ended the call and swiveled her chair toward me. “Finally, a real one.” She consulted her notes. “Someone who fits the description of Shane Dolan was sighted up in Red Bluff-”
“Where the hell is that?”
“North of Sacramento. Up near Cottonwood.”
“Where was he?”
“Filling up at a gas station. They didn’t get the plate. But they did give a description of the car.” She picked up her notepad. “A blue Volkswagen Jetta with body damage to the right rear fender.”
We grinned and bumped fists. “We have ignition.”
I couldn’t believe how good it felt to finally get a break.
Bailey’s cell buzzed. “Text from Nick. They figured out where the letter was mailed.” She picked up her desk phone and punched in the number.
I sat up. If we could pin down where Logan-or the second shooter-had mailed the letter, we’d have another area to search. It was a very brief conversation. Bailey didn’t look happy. “It was sent from Boulder, Colorado.”
“Boulder?” I’d been sure he was still here, in L.A.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re in Boulder. They might just have someone there who was willing to mail the letter.”
And finding that person would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. A haystack the size of…Boulder, Colorado. I sighed. After the tip about Shane, I’d thought we might finally be on a roll. Two steps forward…
47
With no known ties between Logan and Boulder, the letter was a dead end. I’d had enough of those to last me a lifetime. I went back to the sighting of Shane Dolan. “They didn’t see anyone with him? Or did the PR say?”
PR, person reporting. “He didn’t notice anyone else. But the suspect was pumping gas, so our PR probably only noticed him because he was standing outside the car. I’d guess our tipster didn’t bother to look inside the car once he recognized Shane.”
“Assuming it was Shane.”
Bailey sighed and nodded. “But his picture’s been everywhere, so we’ve got reason to hope. I’m sending Harrellson up there with a couple of unis. If it’s a righteous tip, he’ll run it to ground.”
Harrellson was going to have a lot of miles on him before this was over. “Okay.”
Bailey hit a key to wake up her computer and pulled up the report. “But there is something we can do in the meantime. I’ve got the names and locations of Logan’s junior high and elementary school. They’re both local, so we could-”
“Say no more.” I stood up and grabbed my purse. We were looking for personal information on Logan. Something to tell us whether he’d had an experience at either school that might motivate him to stage another shooting there. But the incident we were looking for might only be something a teacher would remember under questioning-it might not have been significant enough to make it into any records. It was probably something a team of unis could handle, but we’d lose our minds if we didn’t get out and do something. “We’ll have to see if they’ll make time for us on a Saturday, but that’s a great idea.”