"Your wish is my command," Kevin said, popping the ca.s.sette out.

We followed him down a long hallway to an editing room, which was windowless and quite chilly. A black male technician was on duty, and Kevin explained what we needed. The tech inserted the tape into a deck, then had us go into the next room, a brightly lit soundstage with a giant video monitor hanging on the wall.

"I'd like to watch football on that baby," Saunders said.

The frame we'd just been watching appeared on the monitor. Now, Bash and the four men looked larger than life.

"Would you look at that," Saunders said.

Standing next to Bash was the history professor who'd molested his student. The teacher wore a baseball cap pulled down low, but it didn't hide enough of his face. It was definitely him.

"Do you recognize any of the others?" Saunders asked.

I stared at the other three men. They were smiling and looked like a bunch of guys having a barbecue in someone's backyard.

"Can you make the faces lighter?" I asked the tech.

"Sure," the tech said from the other room.

The faces turned a few shades lighter. The guy to Bash's left wore shades and a leather bombardier jacket and was trying to look cool. He bore more than a pa.s.sing resemblance to Skell, and I looked at his hands. Fingers were missing on both.

"That's Skell," I said.

"Jesus, are you sure?" Saunders said.

"I'd bet my life on it."

"What about the other two?"

The third man's face was partially turned. Hispanic, broad-shouldered, with an ugly facial scar. It was the guy who'd pumped three bullets into my car on 595.

"This guy tried to kill me the other day," I said, pointing.

Saunders shouldered up beside me.

"What about the fourth one? Do you know who he is?"

The fourth man in the photograph was ten years older than the rest. He had meticulously styled blond hair and a beach-ball stomach. A thick gold necklace hung around his neck, and his watch looked like a Rolex.

"Never seen him before," I said.

Saunders looked at Kevin.

"How hard would it be for us to get prints of this?" he asked.

Kevin walked into the next room and spoke with the tech. A minute later Saunders and I were holding color prints done off a laser printer. As I stared at Bash and Skell and the other members of the gang, my hands started to tremble. Finally, after six months of scratching my head, I was beginning to understand what I was dealing with.

"I need to talk to Ken Linderman," I said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.

I have a theory I want to share with you," I told Linderman. have a theory I want to share with you," I told Linderman.

We'd driven back to the FBI building on Gray Street and were sitting in Saunders's office, talking on a squawk box.

"I'm listening," Linderman said through the box's speaker.

"I think Skell is part of a gang of s.e.xual predators," I said. "Skell, a shock jock named Neil Bash, a high school history teacher, and two other men lived in Tampa three years ago, and if my hunch is correct, they preyed on underage girls. When the history teacher got busted and went to jail, the remaining members moved on to greener pastures."

"You mean Fort Lauderdale," Linderman said.

"That's right," I said. "They came to my town and started abducting young women and having their way with them. They picked women who had no families and wouldn't be missed. They also chose women who were emotionally immature, so they could pretend they were underage and indulge in their fantasies."

"Like role-playing," Linderman said.

"Exactly," I said. "Pedophiles do it all the time. But Skell's group was different. Instead of letting the women go when they were done with them, they killed them. My guess is, they realized this was the best way to cover their tracks."

"Let me see if I get this right," Linderman said. "You think that Skell and his team became became killers in order to hide what they really were." killers in order to hide what they really were."

"That's right," I said. "They never stopped being pedophiles. They just found a way to satisfy their s.e.xual cravings with less fear of retribution."

Saunders was sitting directly across from me, hands on knees, listening intently to our conversation. He shot me a funny look.

"You think these guys kill their victims because it was less less dangerous than what they were doing before?" Saunders asked. dangerous than what they were doing before?" Saunders asked.

"That's right," I said.

"Don't you think that's a bit of a stretch?"

Before I could answer him, Linderman jumped in.

"Not really," he said. "The justice and penal systems are less harsh on murderers than on s.e.xual predators of children. This is especially true for first-time murderers. In terms of self-preservation, Skell and his friends made a wise choice."

Saunders leaned back in his chair and shook his head.

"Jesus," he said under his breath.

"I also think that the team divides up the duties," I went on. "Bash is the front man. He's a minor celebrity and gets them invited places. Maybe that's where they scout for victims. Bash also protects the other members if they get caught, the way he did with the history teacher, and the way he's doing now by attacking me."

"Damage control," Linderman said.

"Exactly. The Hispanic is the abductor. He works for a cable company. He goes to the victim's house and cuts the cable on a pole. Then he gets a call to fix the outage, goes back to the house, and s.n.a.t.c.hes the victim. There's never been a sign of a struggle at any of the victims' houses, so my guess is he's chloroforming them. I also think he's disposing of the bodies."

"Why?" Saunders asked.

"He has the truck, and works with a partner. It's just a hunch."

"What about Skell?" Linderman asked. "What's his role?"

"He pulls the strings and directs the action," I replied.

"The mastermind?"

"Yes. He's got a genius IQ, so it would make sense that he's calling the shots and orchestrating the show."

The laser print of the gang sat on Saunders's desk. Saunders picked it up and pointed at the blond guy with the perfectly round stomach.

"What about the fourth guy? What's his role?"

"This is just a guess," I said.

"I like your guesses," Linderman said.

"The part no one's figured out is how Skell selects his victims," I said. "How does Skell know which which women to abduct? My guess is, the fourth guy is behind it." women to abduct? My guess is, the fourth guy is behind it."

"Any ideas how?" Linderman asked.

"Maybe he owns a restaurant and is secretly bugging the ladies' room," I suggested. "I knew a restaurant owner in Fort Lauderdale who did that, and told his buddies what their girlfriends were saying about them behind their backs."

"What a sleaze," Saunders said.

"So the mystery man in our photograph is the information gatherer," Linderman said.

"That's right," I said.

"So we have a front man, an information gatherer, an abductor and disposer, and a mastermind," Linderman said. "This all sounds good, Jack, but can you prove any of it?"

"Not yet," I said.

"Then, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. The Broward County police charged Ernesto Ramos with Carmella Lopez's murder earlier today. Skell's attorney is standing right now in front of a judge, asking for Skell to be released from prison."

Something hard dropped in the pit of my stomach.

"Are the Broward police going along with it?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so," Linderman said.

"So, we're too late," I said.

"There is no timetable on justice," Linderman replied.

I folded my hands in my lap and did not respond.

"Jack, the FBI is behind you on this," Linderman said.

I glanced at Saunders, who nodded in agreement.

"Behind me how?" I asked.

"If Skell is released, he'll be watched twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, as well as have his phones wiretapped," Linderman said. "So will Neil Bash. We'll also take the laser print of the gang and compare the unknown men against photographs of known s.e.xual predators. a.s.suming we make a match, we'll watch those two men as well. Skell may have won this battle, but he won't win the war."

It all sounded good, but I wanted to ask Linderman how long he planned to tail Skell and his gang. A few months, a year? At some point the FBI would lose interest and move on to other cases. It was the single greatest weakness of any law enforcement operation. And once they did, a group of monsters would go back to work.

I looked at the wall in Saunders's office. It was bare except for a ticking clock. I found myself blinking. The photographs of Skell's victims that hung in my office had appeared. Chantel, Maggie, Carmen, Jen, Krista, Brie, Lola, and Carmella. Tears ran down their faces, and I wondered if I was seeing them from exhaustion, or maybe I was losing my mind.

Reaching across the desk, Saunders squeezed my biceps.

"Jack, you okay?" he asked.

"What's wrong?" Linderman asked through the box.

"Jack's looking a little pale," Saunders said.

"Give him something to drink."

Saunders rose from his chair.

"I'm okay," I said.

"You sure, Jack?" Saunders asked.

I nodded while continuing to stare at the wall. The photographs faded away, leaving only the ticking clock. It was a perfect metaphor for what was about to happen. With the pa.s.sage of time, the victims would be all but forgotten.

I thanked the special agents for their time and left the office.

I got into my car feeling angry at the world. Buster looked relieved to see me, and I scratched his head.

I decided to drive back to Dania and resume digging for evidence. It wasn't much of a plan, but I didn't see myself having any other choices. Rose was right. I wouldn't be able to live with myself until I knew what Skell had done with the victims.

As I backed out, my cell phone began beeping, indicating I had a message. I pulled my phone off the dash to see who'd called. Caller ID showed a number with a Fort Lauderdale area code. It wasn't one I knew.

I retrieved the message and listened. At first there was nothing. Then I heard a woman's voice. It was far away, as if coming from the bottom of a deep well.