Page 71 of Deadly Cry
‘Yeah, I get it,’ Kim said. She didn’t need those pictures in her mind.
‘The murder of the third victim needs to be communicated to the public, so this is an opportunity,’ Woody said, bringing the attention back to himself.
‘To do what?’ Kim asked. She didn’t like the way this was going.
‘To speak to him, to answer him. To show he’s got your attention,’ Frederick interjected before Woody offered him a look.
Some juvenile part of her wanted to bob out her tongue at Frederick.
He got the message and closed his mouth.
‘He’ll be looking out for any sign that he’s reached you. He wants a response from you. He needs you to connect, and we need to do everything we can to keep Archie safe.’
Kim said nothing, concerned that all this was on the recommendation of one psychologist that she’d never even met before today.
Woody nodded to Flora, who pushed the single sheet of paper towards her. ‘This is what we want you to say.’
Kim started reading. It was pretty standard stuff at the beginning: ‘body of a female…’; ‘condolences…’; ‘no stone unturned…’; ‘the full force of the law…’ and then she got to the third paragraph.
‘You’re kidding, right?’
Three heads shook in unison.
Frederick looked to Woody for permission to speak. Woody nodded.
‘Given the nature of his letters to you, we feel this is the best way to address him.’
‘You want me to berate him while he still has possession of an innocent little boy?’
‘We strongly believe that this man sees you as a figure of authority, a person to be admired and respected. We feel he will respond to a level of sternness that this message conveys.’
‘You don’t think there’s a chance it could have the opposite effect?’ she asked, and then began to read from the paragraph that horrified her.
‘“This is an unspeakable act carried out by someone with no conscience… evil individual… callous… unfeeling… deviant… punishment of the highest order… met with no mercy…”’
She paused. ‘Hardly sending him to bed with no supper. Why not just tell him we’re firing up the electric chair ready?’
Flora leaned forward. ‘Because that’s—’
‘Yes, Flora, I know we don’t do that any more, but even though I’d like to say all this and worse to him, I’m not sure it’s going to have the desired effect.’
‘And we are confident it will,’ Frederick said, folding his arms.
‘I think we have to do something, Stone,’ Woody said. ‘Three women dead in as many days and a child missing. Somehow, you have to reach him.’
Kim considered arguing further, but it was futile. Despite her own misgivings. These people were the experts and there were times she had to accept that someone else knew better than she did.
She just wasn’t sure that now was one of those times.
Fifty-Eight
‘So where are we, guys?’ Kim asked, entering the squad room. ‘What have you been up to?’
Stacey spoke first. ‘Waiting for an email from the network provider for the burner phone that called Nicola at nine this morning. Tried calling it a few times, but it’s going straight to voicemail. Really don’t think he’s going to answer, boss.’
Well, that was one way of communicating with him that wasn’t going to work, Kim thought, still holding the piece of paper from the meeting in her hand.
From the window at the top of the office, Kim could see the press starting to assemble outside the building.
