This made Danny laugh harder. When he regained control, he blurted out, "When you said that thing about getting p.u.s.s.y and licked your lips, I thought I was going to lose it."

Rainey started chuckling and then fell into all out laughter with Danny. Once again, she was reminded how much she missed him. They had survived their stint in the BAU by making each other laugh.

"I'm not sure where that came from," she said, once her breathing returned to normal. "I swear it just popped into my head."

Danny's body shook again with another round of snickers. "The look on Dalton's face was priceless. He sure as h.e.l.l wasn't expecting that. It was certainly a side of you I had never seen."

"It's a side of me I've never seen. I think I might really be losing it."

"Those guards will be reviewing that piece of security tape for years. Bet it ends up on YouTube."

"Oh, my G.o.d," Rainey exclaimed. "You have to make sure that doesn't happen."

Her expression of horror made Danny laugh harder. When the laughter subsided, Danny grew serious.

"You know I should take your shield for threatening to kill him."

"You heard that? I thought I was whispering." Rainey wondered aloud, "Did the guards hear me?"

"No, I don't think so, but you need to rein it in a little bit. I don't want you accused of being a loose cannon."

Rainey turned in the seat so she was facing him. "I would, you know."

Danny took his eyes from the road and gave her a warning look.

"Don't look at me like that. If anything happens to Katie, I'll kill him. I don't care if you have to testify that I said it. I wouldn't care what happened to me after that."

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." Danny reached down and turned the radio on and the volume up, adding, "The radio is too loud."

Rainey knew it would destroy him to have to testify against her, so she took the hint and let it drop. She turned the radio off and changed the subject. "The first woman went missing a month ago. The second went missing two weeks ago this Sat.u.r.day. That makes his timeline ripe for another murder this weekend."

"Yeah, that's what I've been thinking. We need to stake out that bar and maybe get some cops on the inside."

"I'll go," Rainey said. "At least, no one would suspect anything. It was plastered all over the local news that I am living with Katie."

"Not a good idea," Danny stated, categorically.

"I'll take Sheila with me."

"She's a little old for you, don't you think?"

"It's not a f.u.c.king date, Danny."

"d.a.m.n, I was just kidding. Anyway, I think you should get Sheila to provide officers to go in undercover."

Rainey ignored Danny's not too subtle objection to her going in undercover. "I think we should go by the bar and talk to the owner, before we go in Sat.u.r.day. I would like a look at the place in the light of day."

Danny looked at his watch. "Okay, but first we have to go to the Sheriff's office. Sheila set us up in the conference room. I have some things I need to tell the team and I have to talk to Quantico. I want to know if they've found anything in the stuff I took out of Dalton's cell."

"Did you make copies before you sent it off?" Rainey asked.

"Yeah, the team is going over them now. I sent copies to Brooks, too. She's scanning them and running them through one of her magic programs. She'll call if she finds anything."

"I'll take a look. There may be something there that would be meaningful to me." Rainey paused, then asked, "So, what did we learn from talking to Dalton?"

"He's still a narcissistic puke."

"Well that, but what else? Let's see. He said I would be surprised at who the killer is. Why would he say that? Does that mean I know this person?"

"Or Katie does, possibly," Danny answered. "He also made it clear that she is this guy's first target, not you."

"He did repeat that several times, but I think it was to scare me. He couldn't get a rise out of me by threatening my life, so he tested the water to see if that would work."

"It worked all right. I could see your jaw muscles tighten every time he mentioned her. I'm sure he noticed, too."

Rainey was surprised. "I thought I covered my reaction pretty well, until the end when I threatened to kill him."

"Even if you think it's a threat to get at you, I'm going to talk to Katie. She needs round the clock protection. Do you want to go with me when I talk to her?"

Rainey thought about it and answered, "No, she doesn't like me much right now. I think she still loves me, but I said something I shouldn't have. I'd rather she listen to you than be sitting there thinking about how mad she is with me."

Danny didn't pry. He knew if Rainey wanted to tell him what happened, she would. He changed the subject. "If Dalton thinks you or Katie know this guy, then it has to be somebody from here. They didn't follow him down here from Virginia. That narrows it to what, nearly one million males in the Triangle area."

"You can narrow the search by age. I think this guy is probably Dalton's age or close to it. He's twenty-eight now. So, let's say mid-twenties to mid-thirties on the UNSUB. He isn't as smart as Dalton. He's been manipulated into becoming a killer. He's not a psychopath. He felt remorse on the first one. I think that's why he covered her in plastic. He couldn't look at her. I don't think he has the social skills that Dalton had with his victims, either. We should get the word out before the weekend."

"I'm going to talk to the media this afternoon, after we present the profile to Sheila's people. We'll warn the lesbian community to be on alert," Danny said. "How many more do you think he'll kill, before he comes for you or Katie?"

"He's cut off from communication with Dalton, his master. He's more likely to make a mistake, if he's stressed. He may panic and go for me sooner than he antic.i.p.ated. That may be how we catch him."

Danny took his eyes from the road, glaring at Rainey. She pointed at the cars braking in front of him. He slammed on brakes, avoiding a rear-end collision by inches. Neither spoke until the traffic began to move again.

Danny gripped the wheel tightly, keeping his eyes on the cars in front of him, his tone somber when he spoke. "You want me to let you set yourself up as bait."

Rainey could see she was going to have to sell him on the idea. "Let me draw him out. I won't be alone. Put a tech truck on me. Watch and listen. See who I see, listen to what I hear. You can help me find him. If what Dalton suggested is true, I might not see it coming, but you will."

Danny quickly replied, "I'm a little bit like Katie on this one. I've already witnessed enough of your near death experiences. You keep tempting fate and it's going to catch up to you one day. Setting yourself up as prey should be our last resort. Give us time to work the profile, before we do anything that risky."

Rainey stared straight ahead. "I don't have the luxury of time. People I care about are in danger. I'm not setting myself up as prey. I'm a.s.suming the role of predator and I'll do the hunting, this time. You can either help me, or take my credentials back and get out of my way."

Chapter twelve.

Danny's team was waiting in the conference room Rainey visited with Sheila, yesterday. Crime scene photos from the newest body find had been added to the wall with the previous victim's photos. Rainey scanned them quickly as she entered the room, before she began greeting her former teammates. The second victim bore a striking resemblance to Katie, which caught Rainey off guard. Danny had not mentioned the victim's description. She was taller and more muscular, but her hair and facial features were very close to Katie's. It shook Rainey a bit, and then she closed her Katie box. She had to focus and Katie had no place in this room.

Roger, the team member she had known the longest, was the first to reach her. He was a strong, quiet man, who looked a lot like Harry Belafonte in his older days. He hugged Rainey, saying, "It's good to have you back."

"Thank you, Roger, but it's just temporary. Good to see you."

James, the tech guru that usually traveled with the team, looked up briefly from his laptop screen and smiled. "Nice to see you, Rainey."

"You too, James."

Paula, a tall, Nubian beauty approached next. Rainey was surprised to see she was extremely pregnant.

"I guess you got busy after we last saw each other," Rainey said, indicating the other woman's protruding belly.

Paula rubbed her hands across the bulging fabric of her top. "Yep, this is my last case before I go on leave."

Rainey looked at her deliriously happy former colleague. "It's true what they say. You look positively glowing. I'm very happy for you."

"Thank you, Rainey. It's good to see you, again. Sorry it's under these circ.u.mstances."

Young Agent Curtis stepped forward, grinning from ear to ear. He captured Rainey in a bear hug. "So good to see you, Rainey. We missed you."

"Good to see you too, Curtis. How's your wife?"

"She's as fantastic as ever. She said to tell you h.e.l.lo."

Danny broke up the reunion, before Rainey could speak to Eric, the young trainee she met last summer. He nodded in her direction, which she returned, and everyone took a seat at the long conference table. Danny stood at the head of the table.

"Rainey and I just visited Dalton Chambers. Our suspicions were correct. He has communicated with this UNSUB. Rainey and Katie Meyers are the ultimate targets. That's about all we got out of him."

Roger asked, "Any idea if the UNSUB followed him here from Virginia?"

Danny answered, "No, we believe he's from the triangle area. This last body was found on a very remote trail. It would be hard for a person unfamiliar with the area to find the scene. Men, clearing the trail of winter debris for a riding club, found the body by chance."

Rainey picked up one of the folders on the table. She wanted to familiarize herself with the information again. James slid a tablet computer in front of her. A sticky note was attached to the top, saying, "This is a clone of your old computer. Your sign in and pa.s.swords restored, change them. File on desktop Chambers' Copycat."

Rainey flipped the cover open, typed in her information, and opened the file. Her mind and body remembered rooms like this, these people, and walls covered in pictures of victims. She felt very alert, which was surprising considering her hangover. Even so, Rainey poured a cup of coffee from the carafe, sitting in the center of the table, to ensure she stayed that way. She found the scanned doc.u.ments removed from Dalton's cell in the desktop file. Rainey lost herself in Dalton's correspondence while the others talked.

Rainey quickly went through the news articles written last summer. The story the Y-Man gave to a reporter detailing her attack was there. Dalton read it so often the smudges and worn spots showed up on the copy. There were dozens of pictures and print articles in Dalton's possession. The news media had taken the tragedies Katie and Rainey experienced into the realms of sensationalism. There had been a frenzy of coverage that died away only with the approach of Hurricane Earl. Rainey had never been so glad to know a hurricane was coming in her life. Reporters lost interest in her and Katie's personal lives and they were finally left alone.

Rainey read Dalton's fan mail and looked over the church bulletins and newsletters. She was reviewing the autopsy report on the second victim, when she heard Danny say her name. She looked up to see the admonishing look on his face.

"Rainey, I need you to engage here. What's your opinion? Who are we looking for?"

In an instant, she was back in the game, her mind clear. She knew the profile. The information she absorbed while the others were talking fell into place. She felt the rush of knowing this was the one thing she did really well. Behavioral a.n.a.lysis was Rainey's calling. She studied crimes of human wickedness and read them like a book, picking out the main player's motives. Rainey stood up and moved to the wall of pictures. As if the last two years had not happened, Supervisory Special Agent Rainey Bell commanded the room.

"Look at this first victim, Lisa Jones. She was 31, a nurse, not a big woman, but she was well built and from what I read, a regular visitor to the gym. Her friends described her as flirtatious, outgoing, and always willing to help others. The pictures we received from those friends show a socially adept, attractive, young woman. It's the same with the second victim, Kim McNatt; similar body types, personalities, habits. Without the heads, these pictures could be of the same woman. These were alpha females, high-risk victims for the UNSUB; they would fight for their lives. This matches Dalton Chamber's preference for victims."

Curtis interjected, "You left out they were lesbians." He was immediately embarra.s.sed, looking away from Rainey to his iPad.

Rainey smiled. "Yes, they were lesbians, which is different from Dalton's victims. There are two possibilities here. Either the copycat was directed by Dalton to kill lesbians as some sort of message to me, or it means something to the UNSUB. My guess is, the UNSUB's fantasies already included killing lesbians and Dalton exploited that."

"The second crime scene is more organized than the first," Paula commented. "From reading your murder book on Dalton, it appears the UNSUB got more of the details correct."

Rainey moved to the area with pictures of the first body. "Look here, see these shallow cuts on the neck. I think this is when he started to panic. He followed Dalton's instructions to the letter, up to the moment he had to kill her. Then he hesitated. Afterwards, the panic consumed him. He could not complete the tasks a.s.signed to him. He left the body for some time and then returned to dispose of it and the head. It was imperfect. The kill had not gone as he fantasized it would. He failed the master."

Roger spoke up. "So it was probably more the failure than remorse that compelled him to get rid of the body."

"Yes, I believe so," Rainey answered. "He would have preferred we did not find that one. Look at his second victim." Rainey moved to the photos of Kim McNatt's headless body. "This victim is almost exactly as Dalton would have left her."

Curtis, recovered from his earlier embarra.s.sment, asked, "You say almost. What's different?"

"He didn't play in the blood. He has no taste for it. Once she was dead, he disposed of the head, probably in the river, and left the scene."

"But he completed the task a.s.signed to him by his master," Danny added.

James looked up from his laptop, where he had been viewing the crime scene photos. "What's this hole in the ground in front of the second victim? It looks like a pole or something was shoved in there."

Danny answered quickly, "That's part of Dalton's instructions. He's practicing."

"What's he practicing for?" Curtis asked.

Rainey showed no emotion, when she replied, "That's where he plans to stake out Katie's head, when he kills me."

"Oh, my G.o.d," slipped from Paula's lips.

Eric's youth prevented him from having the couth not to say, "Wow. What did you do to this Chambers guy? You must have p.i.s.sed him off, big time."

Roger was usually the quiet voice of reason, but he snapped at Eric. "You stay around long enough, you'll p.i.s.s someone off, too. Right now you're p.i.s.sing me off."

Eric slumped back against his chair.

Rainey continued the profile. "We might want to look at this UNSUB as the subservient partner in a serial tandem. The crimes have both organized and disorganized behaviors, suggesting two minds at work here. One partner who is highly intelligent with psychopathic tendencies. The other, of average intelligence with psychological problems, rather than an antisocial disorder. If we look at it that way, then we're looking for an UNSUB who is approximately Dalton's age. He is physically fit and strong enough to control these women. He is not as socially adept as Dalton. He will have used a con to get these women to go with him, probably the "man in need of help" ruse. I don't think you'll find him unattractive, but he will not think he's good looking. He will be shy around these women, until the moment he takes control. He could display a tough exterior, but he is insecure on the inside. He has low self-esteem. He could not have done these crimes without his partner directing him."

Danny expounded on Rainey's train of thought. "The UNSUB would then be the disorganized partner. He will not have had a happy childhood and probably a missing or abusive parent. These types are drawn to groups like the military, looking for acceptance and guidance. They are rarely successful. He is easily manipulated by strong personalities. He'll have a job where he is never in charge, always following someone else's directions. If he is in a relationship, he does everything to please his partner, and most likely feels disappointed in his efforts. When he discovered Dalton Chambers, he found his soul mate. The one person who could relate to the fantasies that plagued him his entire adult life."

Paula interrupted, "If he fantasized about murders before he met Chambers, what does he get out of copying someone else's crimes?"

"He's pleasing the master," Rainey replied. "That's his satisfaction. Dalton Chambers represents to this kind of mind the type of person he wants to be. It's hero worship. The closer he comes to mimicking Dalton, the better his release, which he more than likely achieves reliving his successes while having s.e.x with his wife/girlfriend, or manually. That's why the first crime was different. It didn't hold up to the standards set for him, so he wasn't able to use it for relief of his frustrations."

"Okay," Roger said, "how do we proceed?"

"We recommend the locals canvas the area where the victims disappeared, extensively," Danny explained. "I'll make a statement to the media warning the lesbian community to be vigilant. We'll send in undercover officers and patrol cars at night, as well. Someone has seen this guy. Someone knows him. We just have to find that person."

There was a knock at the door. Sheila stepped in. "I've a.s.sembled everybody in the bull pen."

Danny looked around the room, before he answered, "We're ready. Just give us a minute."

Sheila left the room. Danny leaned down, placing his hands on the table, making eye contact with each team member, except for Rainey, when he said, "Rainey has asked to place herself in the line of fire, to use her presence to draw out the UNSUB. After what you've heard about her personal interests in this investigation, do any of you have any objections to her remaining involved?"

No one spoke. They all looked at Rainey. She stood in front of the backdrop of horrifying pictures. She eyed each individual. The look Rainey gave was meant to rea.s.sure them she knew what she was doing.