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Chapter 5

Eli Glinn waited patiently inside his custom equipped van. Twenty minutes previously, he had parked it at a rest stop off of Interstate 70, just west of Hagerstown, Maryland. His “associate” had arranged the meeting place, and Glinn agreed that if nothing else, it would give them a quite place to talk. Glinn was purposefully early for their scheduled appointment in order to take time to go over the plan in his head. While the man he needed to meet with was still something of an enigma, Glinn was fairly certain he would agree to take the assignment. He had previously indicated that he would be willing to accept a project with Glinn’s company should his particular talents be required, but he had also indicated that he wished to have some time to himself before starting such a project.

Glinn’s thoughts were interrupted when the side door of the van opened, and a tall, pale, black-clad figure climbed into the passenger seat. He shut the door and looked at Glinn. After several moments of silence, he spoke.

“Good evening, Mr. Glinn.”

“Good evening, Dr. Pendergast. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me on such short notice. I was sorry to interrupt your... rest, but a project has been presented to us that I believe will benefit from your assistance.”

“Not an engineering project, I would assume.”

“Correct. I need your experience in forensic profiling. The evidence which was provided for this case is, shall we say, extremely thin. I have the case report provided by the officer in charge, but it lacks... insight.”

“I was under the impression that your profiling program was more than capable of providing ‘insight’ in such cases,” Pendergast remarked, with just a trace of irony in his voice.

“It can, but I believe in this case the human element will be beneficial. I am capable of handling the computer-based profiling based on our present information, but I need someone to look into other aspects of the case which may have been missed by local law enforcement.”

“Who contacted you about this case?”

“The officer in charge, Sheriff Rick Mathies, asked for my help. He is an old acquaintance of mine.”

“I would have expected your normal fee would have bankrupted local law department’s budget.”

“I am taking on this project at no charge.”

Pendergast looked at Glinn with mild surprise. Glinn did not offer any explanation, and after several minutes of silence, Pendergast continued.

“Why do you need my talents in particular for this case?”

“I believe you may have some previous experience with a case of a similar nature.”

Glinn removed a thick folder from his briefcase and gave it to Pendergast. He opened the folder and began to read. After several minutes, he spoke.

“There are similarities between this case and one I examined about 12 years ago. It was in a small town in southern West Virginia. Most of a family was murdered, mutilated, and crucified. The local sheriff informed me that perpetrator had been shot and killed at the scene. The deputy who shot him found him with his last intended victim, covered in blood and holding the murder weapon. As is turns out, he was the youngest child who had apparently ‘gone insane and carved up his whole family’”.

“What was your assessment?”

“According to the townspeople, the boy was well liked by his family as well as the community, and displayed none of the behavior one associates with mental illness or violence. They all felt that it was unthinkable that he had committed such a crime.”

“I take it you agreed with them. Why were you interested in the case?”

“I learned that there had been one survivor, the youngest daughter. I went to interview her in the hope that she might have some information on whom I believed to be the true killer. Unfortunately, she still appeared to be in shock and due to her injuries was unable to communicate. ” Pendergast’s expression darkened. “In retrospect, it was misplaced optimism on my part. He would have never left a survivor.” He regained his composure and turned to Glinn.

“How did you know I had looked into the case?”

“One of the deputies remembered you. Apparently you made quite an impression.”

Pendergast was silent for several minutes, staring thought the window out into the darkness. Glinn waited patiently for his reaction.

“You believe that this recent case and that old case are the work of the same person. The police have not made the connection because the case from 12 years ago was essentially buried, so you want me to work with the police in order to bring both cases together and provide more information in calculating the profile.”

“You are partially right. However, I have done some preliminary profiling. The program suggested that the killer would be monitoring the progress of the police. Any sign of professional involvement and the killer might flee. Therefore I had to give the impression that I am not working this case to all but the sheriff, as he alone can be trusted.”

“Then why do you need my help?”

“In my experience, people are more likely to give you the information you seek when they do not know you are actually looking for it. I need you to gather information from both the police and the citizens of the town for the case, but in a less threatening capacity.” Glinn paused. “There is one other thing I need you to do.”

“What is it?”

Glinn prepared himself for the explanation. This was going to be the difficult part.

“I have an associate who does... contract work on certain parts of my projects: mainly on electronics and surveillance equipment. It has come to my attention that this person possesses some information which would be useful to you investigation. Unfortunately, this associate has some... quirks, and is difficult to contact directly. The quality of work this person produces negates these difficulties in ordinary circumstances, and in fact the self-imposed isolation has been an asset, but in this case we will require an actual meeting to exchange information. My associate absolutely refuses to leave home participate in such a meeting, and lives in an area of limited accessibility for someone such as myself. You do not have such limitations, and I understand that you can be very... persuasive.”

Glinn waited for Pendergast’s response. He suspected that Pendergast had not been fooled by his explanation, but was fairly certain that the man would still be curious enough as to his real motives to accept the project. Glinn was taking a gamble, something he hated to do, but he didn’t see that he had any other choice.

Pendergast remained silent, deep in thought. Finally he turned and looked at Glinn.

“Why is this case so important to you?”

I was right, Glinn thought, he wasn’t fooled.

“Let’s just say I hate to see something left unresolved.”

Pendergast nodded. “When would you like for me to start?”

Glinn more relieved than he dared to admit.

“Immediately.”

Glinn turned the key in the ignition, adjusted the hand controls, and guided the van out of the rest stop and onto the westbound highway. Pendergast sighed, leaned back in the seat, and closed his eyes.

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