Page 31 of Just Right

"I can. In fact, I'm finding too much. Take a look here. It seems that this writer had problems. And after he wrote this piece, these problems became serious. There's an article written on him, dated just a few months ago."

"Journalist Sentenced to Prison for Assault," Connor read, sounding surprised. "Journalist James McCallum, who worked as a freelance writer and reporter for a number of Illinois-based publications, recently was convicted for assaulting a colleague in a bar. This follows a string of offenses including DUI, petty theft, and additional instances of assault."

Reading on, Cami added, "'It seems that the strain of my job has ended up affecting my mental health.' That's what he said, Connor. That was his reason for going off the rails the way he did."

And he sure had gone off the rails. He'd committed a number of crimes that seemed to be escalating in seriousness. Topped off with a year’s prison sentence. That was significant, Cami thought.

"When did he get out of prison?" Connor asked.

"The article doesn't say," Cami said after checking it.

"Let me find out then."

Now, Connor turned to his own laptop, opening it and logging into the police database. Cami felt breathless with expectation as she waited. This could be the lead they needed. Perhaps it had been that family's death that had triggered James to change the way he had done. Perhaps it had caused a psychotic break, and he'd altered his mindset from a normal journalist to a psychopathic killer.

"He's been released on parole recently, there's a short paragraph indicating that," Connor noted.

"Being a journalist for online news sites, he would easily have the knowledge to identify and trace location pins," Cami said. "It's not difficult. He would have been able to track the victims that way, even with basic IT knowledge."

She looked at the photo of James, the writer.

He stared back at her from the shimmering screen. A man with a clean-shaven head, a frowning brow, and a cruel-looking mouth. Imagine if this was the man they'd been chasing so doggedly on his route south.

Was she looking at the killer? Had James decided to retrace or recreate the family's fate through a series of random murders?

She was sure that it was him. The more she looked at his dark, hooded eyes, the more convinced she became. He must have wanted to create his own legacy of death. And if they were right, then they were inside the mind of a serial killer.

"He looks like he doesn't like people," Cami murmured. "It all fits together. He was traumatized by the death of that family, and he suffered a mental breakdown. Then he went on a spree and killed anyone he felt deserved it." She took a deep breath. "And that's what he's doing now."

She could only imagine the darkness in this man's mind, the compulsion that he had to recreate a scene that had been so tragic, so traumatic, that it had caused his own psyche to crumble.

"Perhaps he's heading for that bridge again. If he's cutting a path due south, he might even be going back to it." She thought that was a brilliant suggestion, but Connor's headshake told her she was moving too far ahead.

"Don't jump to conclusions based on a photo," Connor warned. "He's got a long way to go before he gets to that accident scene. It's all the way south of Chicago, near the Illinois-Indiana border."

How many more kills might he need to make before he got there, Cami wondered with a chill, wishing Connor would be more open to her theory. He seemed to be far too restrained, given the urgency of the situation they were now facing.

"But it's obvious. He's working through the trauma that he suffered," Cami said, feeling frustrated that he wasn't as wedded to the theory as she was. Couldn't he see how clear the link was? "The trauma that caused this mental breakdown. He's using the people he kills to relive the experience of that family drowning. Reliving that trauma."

Connor nodded slowly. "He's a person of interest to us now, that's for sure. We need to take a closer look at him. We need to find him as fast as we can. And we need to speak to him, face to face. If he doesn't have an alibi for the killings, then we might have found our criminal."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"It looks like James McCallum went back to his original place of residence after being paroled," Connor said to Cami. She watched as he accessed the FBI database to get the latest address details for the troubled journalist.

"Where's his home?"

"I'm looking now." Connor tapped his fingers on the car's dashboard as the address loaded. They were sitting in the car, ready to go as soon as they had the information they needed. Cami was sure that he must live somewhere in the wider area. After all, he reported on local issues.

"I've got the address. We'll go there right away." Connor turned to her. "He lives west of Chicago. Seems like a normal residential suburb. And he lives alone. His divorce went through recently."

Cami guessed that the divorce had been a part of the downward slide that had seen James's life crumble around him. If he was the criminal they were hunting, she felt sorry about the circumstances and the trauma that had caused it, but it still did not justify him having become a relentless killer.

"It's about half-an-hour's drive. See if you can find anything else on him in the meantime," Connor directed Cami as he started up the car and headed to the main road.

Knowing his address and his locality made the research easier. Cami had a look, digging into the neighborhood, taking a look into the online groups she could access, seeing what mention there was of this man who had transformed from a seemingly solid citizen to a criminal.

"There are actually reports of one of his crimes on a local group," she told Connor. "They discussed it and referred to it as 'shocking' and 'unacceptable'. Most people, that is. Others seemed to think that he's just very broken and damaged, and they do refer to that article as the pivotal piece that changed him.”

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