CHAPTER FIFTEEN

They write up the Gesak interview on Monday night.

Cooper doesn’t even have the consideration to collect their report in person but dispatches Betty, who accepts the paperwork and gives them paperwork in return: class assignments. Bell is gratified, Emma appalled at the idea of more wasted time. They’ve entered the second week of June. Cooper hasn’t yet discussed the idea of another visit to Simon Gutmunsson, and Emma sits, tight-lipped, through Tuesday sessions on Legal Search Procedures and Quantico Library Orientation, then a two-hour introductory lecture on Miranda Rights.

She knows that the legwork on the Pennsylvania case is ongoing, just out of her line of sight. Forces are mobilizing. Reports are being typed and submitted. There’s more data now than is contained in the slim, static file she and Bell have been allowed, and it frustrates her that they don’t have access to any of it. She beats some of her frustration out on the Yellow Brick Road on Wednesday morning, her footfalls thumping on the pine-needled path.

There’s only one avenue open to them, one line of inquiry they’ve been permitted to pursue. As much as it unnerves her, she’d rather plunge in than sit around waiting for the next bodies to surface.

She talks it out with Bell on the firing range. He’s not enthused, but he agrees to help her bring it up with Cooper. When they arrive at the office after lunch, the man himself is there, leaning against the desk.

Emma takes her chance. “I want to see Simon Gutmunsson again.”

“You’re okay to go back?” Cooper’s version of surprised is so low-key it’s barely discernible. He must be great at parties.

“We already said we’d play—so let’s play.” Emma looks at him more closely. “Wait. There was something in our report on Gutmunsson, wasn’t there? Something important.”

Cooper stands. “It was the comment about the hair. The most recent female victim, her hair was trimmed. We figured it out from photos and then we confirmed with the parents.”

Emma glances at Bell. His eyebrows are raised, and she remembers: If the killer’s next victims show up with their hair cut off, Cooper will have you back at St. Elizabeths faster than you can say “teenage sociopath.”

Bell was right. But this makes things easier, in a way. She doesn’t need to upsell. “Okay, great. Simon obviously has more information and I want to find out what it is. But if we’re going to do it, let’s do it. I want to go today.”

Cooper considers, one elbow cupped and his other hand knuckled under his chin. Even overworked and under pressure, he’s still meticulously dressed. Emma wonders for the first time if he’s married, if he has a wife at home who presses neat creases into his suits.

“Okay,” he says finally, “I’ve got a meeting at the Scientific Analysis lab in Washington, so I can drive you up. But if the rest of Gutmunsson’s information proves useless or misleading, we cut off communication. And don’t give him any personal details. You don’t want that stuff floating around in Simon Gutmunsson’s head.”