In the conference room, Lassiter stared at the note, the second note from the Aurora Killer, that Buzz McNab had just placed in his hand. "Why me?" he asked. He shouted, "Why me?" He wondered if he could shout loud enough for her to hear him. Maybe she already could.
He smacked the note down on the conference room table, then kicked the chair next to it, needing an outlet for his frustrations.
"But this doesn't make any sense," said Juliet. "If she wants you to chase her, why didn't she leave you a clue or something? It just doesn't add up."
"There's something we're missing," Shawn said, pacing back and forth. "Something the spirits don't want to reveal to us... I need more! I need more than what she's been giving us! I need to feel and see and touch, but Aurora hasn't left me anything to divine with!"
"With which to divine," Gus corrected. "Maybe we're not looking in the right spot. Are you sure there isn't a pattern to the places she strikes? Maybe it's not completely random."
"It is, Guster," Lassiter said. "Six different cities. Seven victims per city. All across the span of six years. And no one has found any pattern at all. The cities all are different sizes in different places and they all have different demographics. This has all been discussed before, and there isn't an answer yet."
"Wait," Shawn said. "How can she afford to kill people? She poisons them, right? Where does she get the arsenic?"
"Rat poison?" Gus suggested. "It's not that hard to find if you know where to look."
"What about all that other stuff? The syringes, the sedatives?"
"She'd probably have to get it from a pharmacy or a hospital."
"But she couldn't have bought the sedatives without a prescription, right?"
"I doubt it. She probably stole them."
"So what we need to do is figure out which cities have had pharmacies robbed!" Shawn said.
"There wasn't a pharmacy robbery in Santa Barbara before the murders started," Lassiter said, an inkling of an idea beginning to dawn in his brain.
"Which means," Juliet continued, "that there probably weren't robberies in any of the other cities, either."
"And if we can figure out which cities were robbed around the time murders started in other cities, we might be able to find a pattern!" Gus finished.
"Wow," Shawn said. "You guys really don't want me to have a big reveal moment today, do you?"
"I'll get the papers," Juliet said, stepping toward the door.
Lassiter held out an arm to stop her. "No, I will. I'm the one who's confined to the station. I need something to do. You go out and keep working. I'll let you know when I have something."
Rebecca was at her desk answering a phone call when Lassiter left the conference room and found her.
When she put down the receiver, Lassiter said, "Williams, I need all the records of pharmacy robberies in cities near the ones where the Aurora Killer struck."
"Um...okay. I'll check the database. Do you have a lead, then?" she asked.
"Maybe. There isn't a pattern to the cities where the murders take place, but there might be a pattern in the places she gets her supplies. If we can find the pattern, maybe we can trace her next moves."
"But that would only help you predict the next city. It won't help you with this one."
Lassiter didn't have a response to that. She was right, and she could tell by the look on his face that he knew it.
"We'll start small," she said. "Right? Maybe one thing will lead to another. No point in freaking out before we have to. Keep Calm and Carry On! Right?"
"Right," he answered.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry for the long wait! Finally finished YJAM. :-)
Now I need to refresh myself and get back to work!
Now I need to refresh myself and get back to work!
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