Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (38 page)

Ava rolled her eyes at her sister.

“
Don’t roll your eyes at
me!” her sister said. “I’m not Mom bitching at you about your boob
size. This is a case against a serial killer who killed over forty
children.”

“
I’ve met him,” Ava wrote
on the board.

“
Oh poor Amelie. She was
in the wrong place again and got in trouble. Boo hoo.”

Shaking her head, Ava walked toward the
door.

“
You’ve ruined the entire
case. That guy who hurt you so badly is going to get off,” her
sister said. Ava turned around to look at her. “Once again Amelie
does something rash and everyone suffers.”

Ava continued toward the door.

“
The DA is furious! He
yelled at
me
,
like it’s my fault you’re such an
idiot
,” her sister said.
“
My
career is on
the line because you couldn’t help but butt into something with
your Nancy Drew Girl Scout kit.”

Ava sighed. There was nothing her sister
hated more than being humiliated. The DA must have forced her to
come here. Ava gave her sister a smile.

“
Don’t smile at me,” her
sister said. “Give me something I can take back to the
DA.”

Ava held up a finger. She left the room and
returned with a framed certificate and her lab tech. She nodded to
her sister and her sister repeated the problem.

“
I understand the DA’s
concern,” her lab tech chuckled. “I’d worry if I was in his
position.”

Ava’s sister glared at the man.

“
Ava has a certificate in
DNA analysis from the FBI lab in Washington,” her lab tech said.
Ava held up the certificate. “She’s certified at the highest level
for DNA processing and analysis. There are only two other people in
Denver who have her qualifications.”

“
Why isn’t she at the DNA
lab?” her sister sneered.

“
Ava took a course from an
old man at the FBI,” her lab tech smiled. “He convinced her that
every forensics lab needs a backup lab, people to catch the
overflow. Every lab in the country gets backed up. A premium
overflow lab would have an expert in every field. When Ava was
assigned to
this
lab, she wrote a grant to create such an overflow lab. She
was able to train a few old timers and hired a few experts. We now
help CBI and DPD with their work. Right now, Ava’s working on DNA
from pending cases because the DNA lab is overwhelmed with Saint
Jude. The rest of us are working on the Saint Jude
case.”

“
Oh,” Ava’s sister said.
“So the results are for real?”

“
If I were her sister, I’d
be really proud of Ava and her work,” her lab tech said. “She’s
here today because our team can do more work than any other team
here. So, I wouldn’t let that DA run her down.”

“
Why do you work here?”
her sister asked.

“
My wife and I can’t make
it on my government retirement,” he said. “I thought we could but
we can’t. And, this is a dream job. I get to continue my work,
blood splatter patterns in case you care, in a great lab with nice
colleagues. I even get to wear this awesome hat.”

“
This is MY dream job,”
Ava wrote on the board.

“
Oh,” Ava’s sister
said.

“
Anything else? Because we
have a lot of work to do and your sister should be in
bed.”

Ava’s sister shook her head.

“
I’ll show you out,” her
lab tech said.

Ava’s sister hugged her and followed her lab
tech. At the door, Ava’s sister raised her hand in a kind of
apology. Ava waved her good-bye and wiped off the white board.
Turning toward the door, Ava whispered: “Bitch” and got back to
work.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday evening — 6:20 P.M

“
We’re ready to
meet.”

Alex Hargreaves yelled into the speakerphone
to Seth. She was patched into the radio frequency of the helicopter
racing Seth and Homeland Security Agent Arthur ‘Raz’ Rasmussen back
from their visit to Saint Jude’s home in New Mexico. When Seth had
arrived at the Federal building, Raz was waiting with a helicopter
ready to take them to Saint Jude’s home in New Mexico. Raz felt
unable to get a clear picture of the man without going there in
person. Seth was delighted to tag alone. Outside of travel time,
the men had spent the afternoon reviewing the room filled with
Saint Jude’s trophies and photographs.

“
Do you copy?” Alex
yelled.

The helicopter noise made conversation
almost impossible.

“
Copy that,” Raz
said.

“
The map’s done,” Max
Hargreaves said. “Jake, Mike and Charlie have gone through it with
a fine toothed comb.”

“
We’ve come up with some
possibilities,” Jacob said.

“
I’ll have the profile
ready,” Arthur “Raz” Rasmussen’s voice came over the
phone.

“
I transcribed Tunnel Rat
Mike’s notes about the coal tunnels,” Sergeant Margaret Peaches
said. “We have his microscopic detail on every segment.”

“
Valerie and I are ready,”
Delphie said.

“
What’s your ETA?” Alex
asked.

“
We just crossed into
Colorado,” Seth’s voice came over the phone. Speaking through the
intercom on the helicopter, Seth’s voice was barely
audible.

“
ETA one hour, sir,” the
pilot said.

“
See you in an hour,” Alex
said and clicked off the phone.

“
You think we’ll find
him?” Valerie asked.

“
We’ll find him,” Alex
said.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & FORTY-FIVE

The Plan

Sunday evening — 7:35 P.M.

“
I’m sure it’s no surprise
but I don’t agree with the FBI profile,” Homeland Security Agent
Arthur “Raz” Rasmussen said.

“
How so?” Lieutenant
Colonel Alexandra Hargreaves asked.

“
I don’t believe Saint
Jude is decompensating,” Raz said. “I believe he’s withdrawn and,
given time, will return to his former behavior.”

“
Slow down,” Seth said.
“Let’s start with a run down of Saint Jude.”

Raz looked at Seth and glanced around the
room. Delphie, Valerie, and Charlie looked confused. Jacob and Mike
looked puzzled. Max Hargreaves, Alex’s identical twin, and Colin
Hargreaves scowled. Sergeant Margaret Peaches looked up from the
journal she was working on and shook her head. Outside of Seth and
Alex, no one knew what Raz was talking about. He changed
direction.

“
We know now that the
killer we call Saint Jude was born as Henry James in Greeley,
Colorado on October 28, 1954,” Raz said. He flipped his laptop
around and pulled up Henry James’s high school graduation photo.
“His father was a butcher at one of the large slaughterhouses in
Greeley until the family moved to Brighton when Henry James was six
years old. The James family opened a butcher shop where they sold
meat from animals they raised on their property outside of
town.”

“
Celeste says their shop
was two doors down from her father’s convenience store,” Delphie
said.

“
Remind me. Who is
Celeste?” Raz asked.

“
She’s not living,” Jacob
said.

“
She’s the first person
Saint Jude killed,” Seth said. “She and her husband Mark Gilmore
lived in the Brighton mansion with their child, Nuala Gilmore, also
known as Nuala Norsen.”

Raz nodded. His eyes slid over to Alex. When
she nodded, he gave a slight shrug.

“
Did Celeste know Henry
James?” Raz asked.

“
They grew up together.
They even went out a few times,” Delphie said. “She knows him
better than anyone else probably did.”

“
It will be great to have
that kind of… assistance,” Raz said.

“
You don’t have to
believe, Mr. Rasmussen,” Delphie said. “But your Momma would love
to talk to you when we’re done.”

A look of unmistakable longing flashed
across Raz’s face. Clearing his throat, he looked at his shoes.

“
Delphie’s an oracle,” Max
said.

“
Good,” Raz’s eyes
returned to assessing the people in the room. “Does Celeste know
anything about James’s childhood that’s pertinent here?”

“
Like what?” Delphie
asked.

“
There’s something called
the MacDonald Triad,” Raz said. “Bed wetting, animal cruelty, and
pyromania are often exhibited by serial killers in
childhood.”

“
But,” Seth added, “It is
the animal cruelty and pyromania that seems to be a better
predictor than the bed wetting.”

“
Celeste says…” Upset,
Delphie flushed and shook her head.

“
Celeste says the James
family was cruel to their children and their animals,” Jacob said.
“Henry James liked to start skinning and butchering animals before
killing them.”

“
That’s monstrous!”
Charlie said.

“
She’s not sure about the
pyromania.” Regaining herself, Delphie cleared her throat. “She
doesn’t know about the bedwetting but says he was kind of a peeping
Tom.”

“
Voyeurism is in the
collection of behaviors common to serial killers,” Raz said. “He
sounds like a weird kid. Was he bullied?”

“
Celeste says Henry James
was bullied,” Delphie said. “One of the bullies, a kid named
Josiah, was the worst. Josiah threw rocks at the boy, took his
lunch money, and sometimes beat him up. He used to call Henry James
a filthy animal. This went on every day until Josiah’s brain was
destroyed.”

“
What does that mean?” Raz
asked.

“
Something happened to
him,” Jacob said. “No one ever knew what. One day the boy was a
bully, the next day he was virtually a vegetable. Asphyxiation or
something like that. There wasn’t a mark on him. Josiah lived in
the Brighton mansion.”

“
And you think Henry James
did this?” Raz raised an eyebrow.

“
Celeste does,” Delphie
said. “It was never proven but everyone thought he did it. Most
kids stayed away from Henry James after that.”

“
Well, thank you Celeste,”
Raz said. “Henry James legally changed his name to Thaddeus James
when he was sixteen years old. His family was Catholic and he was
born on the feast of Saint Jude.”

“
Right,” Delphie said. “No
one thought anything about his name change. Celeste says he was
super religious. His mother used to say it was Celeste’s fault that
Henry didn’t become a priest.”

“
Then something happens,”
Raz said. “I can’t tell what but something happens around the time
Henry James graduated for high school. Does Celeste
know?”

“
She says she met Mark
when she was seventeen,” Delphie said. “They met in her father’s
store. Mark told her later that he went in to rob the store and
stole Celeste. They met and got married in a few months. Henry
James went ballistic when he found out. She was so afraid of him
that she graduated early and they moved out of town.”

“
To the Brighton mansion,”
Jacob said.

“
Now we know what
happened,” Raz said. “Serial killers are usually very controlling.
Losing Celeste must have been a final straw for him. He killed
Celeste?”

“
Right after she had her
baby, Nuala. He made some efforts to steal the child but Celeste’s
father was certain the James family was involved in Celeste’s
murder. He left town the day after she was murdered. He and Mark
fled to Fort Collins,” Delphie said. “Henry James killed Mark about
a year later.”

“
He used to talk about a
baby,” Charlie said. “Razor used to joke with Jeffy about it. It
was like a modern day Jesus baby but born to destroy
evil.”

“
Nuala must have destroyed
his evil world,” Raz said.

“
Why did he go to medical
school?” Mike asked.

“
How did he even get in?”
Charlie asked.

“
Not all serial killers
are brilliant,” Seth said. “But he is.”

“
He was accepted to every
school he applied to,” Raz said. “He was initially on track to be a
surgeon but switched to psychiatry. He killed during this
time.”

“
According to his
records,” Seth said. “We’ll retrieve those bodies next
week.”

“
Can we get back to the
profile?” Alex asked. “Sorry, I’ve got to talk to the profiler’s
boss in an hour.”

“
The FBI profiler and I
agree that Thaddeus James… Saint Jude is a visionary serial
killer,” Raz said. “According to everything we found in New Mexico,
he believes he must find the child who will remove the evil from
the world. He kills children after discovering they aren’t the
‘one.’ From what I’ve read about that creature in Brighton, I
believe Saint Jude is ‘God mandated’ to find the one light that
will destroy that demon.”

“
God mandated is a type of
visionary serial killer,” Seth added. “They are God mandated or
demon mandated. And you don’t think he’s demon
mandated?”

“
No. He seems to select
people with an innate ability to resist the creature,” Raz said.
“Has Celeste met the monster?”