Ailes speaks up. “Jessica, do you think this is the last we’ve seen of the Warlock?”

I glance at Dr. Chisholm. “I think your division and the people at behavioral analysis would have a better answer than me.”

Chisholm gives me a smile. “We have our thoughts. But I’d like to hear yours.”

I’m still in the spotlight. The room is looking at me, expecting me to pull off another stunt. I’m not an expert on behavior and hate to be put on the spot for something outside my expertise. I go with my gut. “No. This isn’t the last. He’s just getting started. This is how a magician gets your attention. The website defacement was the poster calling us to the show. The Chloe murder is his opening effect, something quick, to the point, which tells us to take him seriously. Now he’s going to follow through with something else. Something bigger. You saw the news today. This is only the start.”

Chisholm nods his head. He knows this too. “Why do you say that, Agent Blackwood?”

“Because he’s that second kind of magician. The dark kind. He doesn’t want us to show that he’s a fake. He’s the kind of magician that thinks he’s special, that despite the trickery there’s something about him that is magical. Jim Jones used to do mentalism and hypnosis. That’s how he got nine hundred people to follow him down to the middle of nowhere. Their kind only get stopped one of two ways. They either get exposed or they die.”

“Either way is fine by us,” replies Knoll.

I shake my head. “I don’t think you understand. The ones that die without being exposed have religions built around them. I can name a handful of religions that really took off when their founder died. In a sense, they became immortal by dying. That’s what the Warlock wants, what every dark magician is after, to be thought of as a god. And gods don’t care how many people they kill.” I shut up and sit back in my chair.

Chisholm follows up my comments with some analysis about the Warlock being obsessed with the occult and the suggestion that Chloe and her double were meant as a kind of sacrifice to demonstrate his powers. People keep glancing my way, expecting me to say something or add on to what he’s saying.

I focus on Chisholm as he recommends looking for possible connections between the victims and the Warlock through occult online groups and related subcultures.

As the meeting is about to wrap up, a young agent barges through the door and whispers something into Knoll’s ear and hands him a note.

Knoll tells us to stay in our seats. “They exhumed the coffin and found something else.” He checks the note again. “Sand. From initial inspection it doesn’t appear to be from the Michigan area. Apparently it’s still damp and smells like salt water.”

The blond agent raises her pen. “Wet sand in a coffin that was supposed to have been buried for two years? How is that possible?”