He was supposed to meet Julianne at nine. That gave him nearly fifty minutes to get to the dock where he’d arranged to see her, where he would find out if he was guilty of the things he knew he was capable of.

Even with traffic, leaving within the next ten minutes or so should give him enough time to make it.

He would see what she had to say and then decide what to do.

With her. What to do with her. You’ll need to decide what to do with Julianne Springman.

“I won’t do anything.”

She’s dangerous. Take a knife. Just in case you need it. Or better yet, a letter opener.

Timothy wasn’t going to, but when he went to get his car keys, he noticed the steel letter opener on his desk and slipped it into his jacket pocket before he left to speak with the woman who photographed the dead.

29

After nearly an hour, I still had nothing specific to link the suicide victims, even after carefully comparing their locations and the dates and times of their deaths.

Three states. Nothing, as far as I could see, that the victims had in common.

Though the face was indistinguishable, upon further investigation I noticed him scratch his jaw with his left hand at least once in each video—a mannerism that, although by no means definitive, was distinctive.

Mannie had said to remember death, and in this investigation, that was all too easy to do. Did he say that because that’s what these videos were a way of doing? Were the deaths related to him and his escape?

I wanted to know more about his background.

It took a little work, but I was able to dig up that he was from the Gambia. Apparently, he’d traveled to the United States a week before an African warlord attacked his village. The villagers held them off with arms and mercenaries provided from one of Blake’s front companies.

Mannie’s wife was saved.

Her name was Hope.

However, later, according to the information we had, on the way to the airport to flee to the States, she was killed.

So maybe that’s why he was so committed to helping Blake—a sense of thankfulness or indebtedness for the weaponry and manpower that had helped to initially protect his wife.

Although that seemed like a possibility, it was in the realm of motives and there was no way to verify it. Still, it was helpful background information to give us the context to understand Mannie’s past and his loyalties.

Whatever Mannie’s involvement and motivation, this was clearly a lot bigger than just the senator and his son. From all indications, someone was convincing men and women to kill themselves in graphic and disturbing ways and then standing by and watching it happen.

Why these people?

Why were they chosen?

And, of course, who was this observer?