Page 13 of In His Sights

“Possibly. There’s another possibility, though. What if he contacted themoutsideof the app? WhatsApp maybe? Conversations are encrypted, so we wouldn’t see those—unless we had their phone.”

Lewis scowled. “Do you know how many guys there are so far on our crossover list? Two hundred, and they all hooked up with each victim. Two hundred profiles to go through, interviews, alibis to check….”

“And one mystery guy who could be our man.” Gary pointed to the slip of paper Riley had printed and stuck on the board. Kris Lee Arill. His name had shown up in the Grindr records for all the first four victims—only as messages expressing interest, no requests to meet—and they wanted to find the guy, if only to eliminate him from their inquiries, but there was a problem with that.

Kris Lee Arill didn’t exist.

No phone records in that name, no address, no social security, nothing. He was on Grindr, but the account was fake, and the photos on his profile were images from the internet. Fake accounts were nothing new—especially if an individual was trying to track down some Grindr troll—but Grindr was obliged to comply if the police or FBI wanted to know what email address was associated with the account in order to trace it back to the originator.

Kris Lee Arill’s email was fake.

Gary and Riley had come up with a workable theory. Grindr usually asked for an email or a phone number for verification when setting up the account. The fake email would have been jettisoned as soon as the account was verified, and if need be a phone number added that would not need verification. The jettisoned and deleted email could still be used as the login. The phone number could be a burner phone account, prepaid in cash and signed for with a fake name and ID.

“If our victims got together with this Kris, he was careful not to set up meetings in the app. So he had to have found another way to contact them.”

Riley came back into the room with three steaming cups. “So far we’ve assumed there could be a legitimate reason why our Mr. Arill is hiding his true identity,” he mused. “He could be a married man with a family, and he doesn’t want his secret life getting out. If his wife or partner checks his phone…. A lot of gay guys come out late in life. Maybe hecan’tcome out. Maybe he’s in the public eye, and he thinks this could harm his rep.”

Gary nodded. “That makes sense.”

“And I’ve been thinking.”

Lewis chuckled. “Did it hurt?”

Riley ignored him. “Our guy’s setting us a puzzle, and this one’s got a few pieces. Firstly, the same items have been found at every crime scene—the GHB, rope, and cuffs. We all agree they’re important.”

“Maybe Del Maddox is correct, and they’re a message,” Gary suggested.

“But then there are the letters. So what if his name is another puzzle?”

Lewis frowned. “What do you mean?”

He sat at the desk, grabbed the Scrabble bag, and tipped more tiles onto the wooden surface with aclack. Riley spelled out Kris Lee Arill, then proceeded to move the tiles around. “TheKmakes it a little easier. I mean, how many twelve-letter words contain the letterK?”

Lewis got onto his phone. He snorted. “About ninety-nine.”

Gary stared at the tiles. “Who’s to say it’s one word? It could be two, three, four….”

Riley nodded. He pushed four tiles out on their own, spelling K-I-L-L. “There’s the most obvious four-letter word. Except he’s not gonna bethatobvious, right?” He went back to shuffling the tiles.

“Why haven’t we done this before?” Lewis demanded.

Gary knew the answer to that one. With each new victim, they’d identified men who had been in contact with them, but there was no evidence to point to them meeting their mystery man, so that was what he had remained—a mystery. They’d exhausted all the genuine leads, and there was nothing to go on with Arill.

A dead end.

“You’re right, you know,” Riley murmured. He raised his head and stared at Gary. “Heislaughing at us.” He shivered.

Goose bumps broke out on Gary’s arms. “What is it?”

“I take it back. Heisthat obvious. And it’s two words.”

Gary frowned and walked around the desk to stand behind him. He peered at the tiles, and his stomach heaved. There was a sour taste in his mouth. “He’s not planning on stopping anytime soon, is he?”

Riley shook his head. “You’re not getting it. His name is linked toallthe victims.” His eyes were wide. “Don’t you see? He knew what he was going to do, right from the start.”

The black letters were stark against the white plastic.

S-E-R-I-A-L K-I-L-L-E-R

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