Free Rise of The Iron Eagle (The Iron Eagle Series Book 1) by Roy A. Teel Jr.

later, a front page article appeared in the Times with the heading. ‘The Iron Eagle, Serial Killer or Vigilante?’ While I was misquoted several times in the article, the comparisons drawn by the reporter to the behavior of The Eagle was rife with accuracies, so I didn’t request a retraction. Since then, The Eagle has killed several more times, but it doesn’t receive the press that it did then.” Janet stood up and said, “So the bottom line is this guy is some kind of vigilante?” Steve chimed in, “The Eagle has…to our knowledge… only killed other serial killers. He has never killed anyone else.”
    Jim interrupted, “That’s not true Steve. We have been able to connect him to the recent murder of U.S. Marshal Jill Makin and to the murder of Barry Mullin who turned out to be her grandfather.” There was a moment of silence, and Janet spoke again, “So this guy kills indiscriminately? If he had killed others, then they seem like random acts of violence. Perhaps it’s only a coincidence that the people he has killed, with the exception of the last two, turned out to be serial killers.” Steve chimed in, “No…while it is true that the two most recent murders attributed to The Eagle are non-serial killers, his motive is vigilante style justice, and his killings, to him, are justified.” Janet flung her head back, flinging her long black ponytail with it, her brown eyes glaring at the whole room but fixed mostly on Steve. “How can this guy know that his victims are serial killers? We don’t know that we are dealing with serial killers a majority of the time until links or patterns start to appear.” Steve stood up and shrugged his shoulders, “Janet, that’s a hell of a good question, and I wish I had an answer for you. All we know for certain is that he has gotten to several serial killers that local and federal law enforcement have been looking for, or he located them before we have been able to connect the dots. Sometimes law enforcement didn’t know they existed at all.” She got an indigent look on her face, “I have to say that the nonchalant attitude given to this killer is disturbing to me.” “It’s not nonchalant…we have been actively seeking him for over a decade. I inherited him from my predecessor, and I hope that I catch him before I hand off the assignment to the next behavioral science investigator.” She sat down.
    Jim stood up and said, “Well, it’s been fun kids. It’s always nice to take a walk down memory lane; I have been hunting this killer from day one. I can tell you that I have had and I have heard many, many ideas of who the killer is, or who he might be, and so far none of the ideas have panned out. As the person in this room with the most experience with this guy, I can tell you that he is going to be one hell of a hard guy to catch.” He started toward Steve and muttered loud enough for the room to hear, “Like we ever want to catch the guy; he’s doing us a favor.” That brought a great deal of anger from those in the room including Steve. He settled them down and walked Jim out. “Did you really have to go there?” Jim pulled the cigarette from behind his ear as the two men entered the parking lot. He pulled his Zippo from his pocket, and the flame lit his round face as he bent his head forward to light the smoke. The cherry on the tip of his cigarette was all that Steve could see as he stood there in the dark. “Someone had to say it, Steve; the guy’s doing us a favor.” “What about Barry and Jill? They weren’t serial killers, and he killed them.” Jim took a drag and exhaled a white cloud into the night air. “Well, I figure they either did something we don’t know about yet, or they got too close, and he had to eliminate them.” “Jesus Christ, Jim…do you know what you’re saying? You’re saying that this son of a bitch will kill anyone who tries to stop him.” Jim opened his car door with his smoke clenched between his teeth.