Free Abomination by E. E. Borton Page B

of their files is real,”
explained Tom. “The crime scene photos, the police reports, witness accounts,
and even the coroner’s reports are all real. The interesting part is, I believe
they’re all the same killer. All the data points to one guy.”
    “We fully expected the information in the reports to be
fabricated,” added Michelle. “A made-up crime scene, a fake police officer
making a fake report, and so on. But they seem to be legitimate. From a
profiling standpoint, it’s as if they carbon copied one suspect four times.
Now, taking what we know about Arrington, we can rule him out as the suspect.
That narrows it down to Richard Elliot, Derek Mathews or Joshua Bell as the man
behind the murders. Well, at least the killings in these files.”
    “Okay,” exhaled Ryan. “Working off what we do know, we
can establish we have at least two killers. Arrington being one, and the other
being the unidentified suspect responsible for the murders in these reports.”
    “What I don’t get is why somebody wants us to believe
Arrington is responsible for Syracuse.” said Dallas.
    “I believe it’s because they wanted to make us angry,”
replied Ryan. “And it worked. I focused most of my energy on locating Arrington
and very little on figuring out why he’s killing. They want us to discover
where he is, not what he is.”
    “No offense, Boss,” said Dallas. “But you make that
sound like a bad thing. I really don’t give a shit which part of his brain
misfired. I just wanted to stop him, and if it meant killing him, then so be
it. After we get the rest of them off the streets, we’ll let the Toms and
Michelles of the world pore over the reports to determine what made good men
turn into bad ones.”
    “Because we’re not hired thugs, Dallas,” replied Ryan.
“I personally put three bullets into Peter Arrington and gave the order to kill
him if he tried to escape. If I’m going to kill a human being, I need to know
why. You should want to know why. I’m not a hit man for the government and
neither are any of you.”
    “I don’t like getting played either, but the bottom line
is that Arrington won’t be cutting the throats of any more women,” said Dallas.
    “But the other three will be,” said Tom. “If we could’ve
interrogated Arrington instead of cutting him down, he may have disclosed some
information that would’ve helped us find the others. Establishing a pattern
allows us to anticipate movement, and there’s always a pattern. Even seemingly
random events or taking victims based on opportunity versus stalking are
patterns. The more we know about them, the more we’ll know about how to stop
them.”
    “That’s the reason you and I are going to Baltimore,” said Ryan. “According to Scott, Kristina Anderson worked with all four Marines
since the program’s inception. I believe she’ll be able to shed some light on
their progression from squeaky clean soldiers into what they are now. I’m also
hoping she’ll be able to tell us another way to go at Elliot instead of waiting
for him to take another victim.”
    “That part I get,” said Dallas. “I don’t see going toe-to-toe
with any of them as a smart option. Other than carrying a rocket launcher, we
don’t have much of an advantage in a straight shootout. Imagine the damage
Arrington could’ve done if he had gotten ahold of a weapon.”
    “Not that taking Arrington was easy, but I have a
feeling the others are going to be much more difficult,” continued Ryan. “Scott
alluded to the possibility that all four are somehow communicating with each
other. If they know we’re closing in on them, they’re going to be better
prepared. I don’t think the others will be leaving any doors open for us like
Arrington.”
    “Understood,” replied Dallas. “What’s the plan in
Baltimore?”
    “I’ll figure that out on the way there, but we need to
check in at the field office before we head to the airport. I want us to be
seen by