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Chapter 4

Rick Mathies had never expected to see Eli Glinn with such short notice. He had only contacted the man’s company the previous afternoon, and they had indicated that he was currently occupied with an important project and would be unable to respond to his inquiry for several days. Finally, Mathies had told the person who answered the phone to inform Glinn that he was merely “calling in a favor” and would hope to hear from him soon. Now here the man was, sitting in his office, looking as cool and calm as always. His condition, however, had startled and slightly unnerved Mathies. He struggled to begin the conversation.

“Eli, thank you for coming so...on such short notice.”

“If Rick Mathies’ is in such a crisis that he needs to call in a favor, I thought it best to respond in a timely manner.” Mathies thought he saw amusement in Glinn’s one good eye.

“Thank you. I...”

Mathies couldn’t stand it any longer. “What happened to you, Eli? The last we met, you were...well...”

“Able-bodied?”

Mathies flushed with embarrassment.

“We took on a project that proved to be much more difficult than we had originally anticipated.”

“You mean you failed?”

Glinn smiled thinly. “That project is...not yet completed. We expected to have it resolved in the near future.”

“Oh.”

“Now, what is this favor that you need to ‘call in’?”

Mathies felt relieved. Despite his physical appearance, Glinn was still confident and direct, just as he remembered him.

“When we last spoke, you mentioned that your company was developing a computer program for behavioral profiling.”

“Yes, that program now fully tested and operational. We’ve used it successfully in several difficult cases.”

“We have a case here that has been extremely difficult to resolve due to a severe lack of useable evidence. No trace, no DNA, and no witnesses to connect anyone to these murders. At this point, I believe that a forensic behavioral profile is our only option to get a handle on the killer.”

“You are referring to the murder of the Zoller family.” It was a statement rather than a question.

Mathies shifted uneasily in his seat. He had desperately tried to keep a lid on the case, but information on the case had made it to the wire services in spite of his efforts.

Glinn appeared to think for a moment. “Yes, I believe we can help you.”

Mathies felt a rush of hope. This had been much easier than he thought. Then he remembered something.

“About the standard contract: is the fee still...?” He didn’t dare say it.

“One million dollars? For normal cases and clients, yes. However, I am willing to make an exception in this case.”

Mathies was relieved. He had thought that just getting Glinn here would have used up the favor.

“What do you need to get started?”

“First and foremost, the case file.”

“No problem.”

Mathies rose from his desk.

“Just a minute”, said Glinn. “I would like to keep a low profile. I don’t want anyone else to know that I will be working the case.”

“I told some of my deputies that I had contacted you...”

“Tell them that I was unable to help. Continue your investigation as if my services weren’t available.”

“Eli, I’m under a lot of pressure here. I need to look like I’m actually trying something new and...”

“I understand. However, I believe that your movements are being monitored by the killer. We don’t need to give him an opportunity to flee prematurely.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Let’s just say I’ve done a little preliminary profiling on this case.”

Mathies was stunned. “You already knew why I called, didn’t you? You were waiting to be asked to take this case. Why?”

Glinn said nothing. Several minutes of silence passed, and finally Mathies spoke.

“What else do you need?”

“I will be working on entering the information on this case into the system, and will monitor the progress from my office. However, I have an associate whom I believe will be willing to help with the, ah, legwork. I will contact you and give you further instructions when he agrees to take the case.”

“Is he competent to work a case like this? I’m not sure how an engineer could help us.”

“He is not an engineer, and yes, he is very competent work a ‘case like this’. His methods are unorthodox, but he is very good at what he does.”

“Aren’t you worried that his presence will alert the killer?”

Again, Glinn said nothing.

Mathies’ sighed. “Alright, is there anything else?”

“No, I believe that’s it. You can FedEx the case file to my office. Remember: low profile.”

Glinn adjust the controls on his wheelchair and turned toward the office door. Mathies rose, walked to the door, and opened it. When they the outer moved into office, Quinn and Sherri looked up expectantly.

“Thank you Eli, for your time. I’m so sorry that you will be unable to help us.”

Their faces fell. Mathies felt terrible lying to them.

“I am sorry as well, Sheriff Mathies. Unfortunately I must follow company guidelines. Good luck.” He nodded to Quinn and Sherri with a slight smile, and headed for the door. Quinn jumped up to open the door for him. After Glinn had gone, he shut the door and turned to Mathies.

“What happened, Rick? I thought you said the guy could help?”

“Not enough evidence. A one-time crime doesn’t give enough for his profilers to work with, apparently. I didn’t really understand it either, but the guy seems to be a straight shooter. Back to square one, I guess.”

Sherri looked dejected. “Rick, Grayson Manning called again, and...”

Crap.

“OK, Sherri, I’ll handle it. Why don’t you take off early. Arlene will be here for her shift in an hour. I think I can handle it here until then, Grayson Manning’s problems and all. Charlie, why don’t you go give Ed and Frank and update, and we’ll meet again tomorrow morning.”

A look of weary relief crossed Sherri’s face. “You’re the boss.”

Quinn and Sherri gathered their things and left. Mathies waited until he saw their cars drive by the front window, then he went to the file cabinet and pulled out the Zoller case file. He removed the clips, set the file on the copier, and hit the start button. Five minutes later, the phone rang.

“Winstead Sheriff’s Office.”

“Rick?! It’s about damn time!”

Mathies held the phone away from his ear for a moment and took a deep breath.

I hope you’re right about this, Eli.



One hundred and fifty miles to the southwest, Brian Cambry guided his pickup truck up his driveway and stopped in front of his small single story home. He grabbed a week’s worth of mail and newspapers from the front seat, grabbed his suitcase from the bed of the pickup and headed up the front steps. Cambry was glad to be home after his vacation in Islamorada. He had been down to visit an old buddy of his and had spent the week charter fishing in the turquoise waters off the Florida Keys. The tropical climate and laid-back atmosphere of the Keys had been to his liking, but the steady flow of traffic down Route 1 and the harrowing drive back to Miami International Airport had strongly reminded him why he lived in the country.

As glad as he was to be back home, he was not looking forward to going through the stack of mail he had deposited on the kitchen table. Bills, bills, and more bills, he thought. Whoever said retirement was worry free was a freaking idiot. After surveying the pile of mail, he decided to catch up on his newspaper reading instead. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and the pile of papers from the kitchen table, walked into the living room, and settled into his favorite easy chair. With a contented sigh, he unfolded the paper and began to read. Halfway down the third page, the headline caught his eye: “Authorities still have no leads in grisly Ohio Crucifixion Murders”. A coincidence, he thought. He read further, as the writer outlined what was known about the murder of the Zoller family. A copycat. It must be. But how..? He searched through the papers until he had found and read all of the stories about the case. The details were sketchy, but the resemblance was there. For someone who had seen it all before, the resemblance was definitely there.

Not again, thought Cambry. Please, not again.

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