“He knew he was being tailed and he jumped.”

“Probably.”

“Okay. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

After she disconnected she told this information to Madigan, who grimaced hard. “Hell.” Then he asked, “You had any evidence suggesting he’d become violent?”

“No.” Dance explained that she’d interviewed him, then added, “But people like that keep a tight lid on their emotions. Something can push them over the edge real fast.”

“Well,” Madigan said urgently, “I’m pretty worried about something. A half hour ago there were some postings on some of Kayleigh’s fan sites. Anonymous, but they were sites where Edwin has posted in the past. The posts were the same, saying something to the effect of, ‘Watch the news, Kayleigh. Maybe you’ll finally understand how much I love you.’”

“John Hinckley.”

“Yep. I remember what you told us in the first briefing.”

That occasionally a stalker had a total break with reality and when he gave up hope that he’d be with his love, he’d kill someone to cement himself in her thoughts forever.

“Here’s the URLs of those sites.” Madigan handed her a sheet of yellow-lined paper. “Have Computer Crimes track ’em down and see where they were made from.”

“Thanks, Chief.”

“No,” he said, offering a wan smile, “thank you, Deputy.”

She returned to the office and handed Dennis Harutyun the sheet of paper. “What’s this?” he asked.

Dance explained, without mentioning Madigan’s name, about the threatening posts. “We need to trace them. Edwin’s name doesn’t appear but these’re blogs and sites he posts to regularly.”

“Where’d you get the sites?” Amelia Sachs asked.

“Just some outside research.”

But Harutyun looked at the handwriting and frowned, perhaps recognizing it and deducing the source was his ousted boss. Still, he said nothing and called the office’s computer crimes operation and ordered them to locate the posts and try to trace them.

Crystal Stanning went online and reviewed the posts. O’Neil said, “It may not be him. Kayleigh has to have other obsessive fans. We can’t forget that.”

But a moment later Harutyun’s phone hummed. He looked down. “It’s Computer Crimes.” He took the call and listened for a moment. “Okay. Thanks.” He disconnected and slipped the phone away. “The posting was from Java Hut.”

Harutyun said, “At Fashion Fair. That’s where Edwin is right now.”

“Maybe he’s still there,” Amelia Sachs said and Harutyun called Dispatch to order deputies to the shopping center to find Edwin. He reminded them that he could be armed.

Stanning asked, “He’s thinking of a mass shooting at the mall?”

Sachs said, “That could be it but the typical stalker killing profile is more one-on-one. An assassination.”

“True,” Dance said. “And it’s usually somebody famous. So that he’ll get the attention of his object.”

“But who’s the planned victim?” Harutyun wondered aloud.

O’Neil continued to read the posts. “They don’t mention anybody in particular.”

Dance joined him, arm against arm, and they stared at the posts.

“There, that one,” Dance muttered, pointing. She read it aloud. “‘I’ve seen all your postings, about Kayleigh. You claim you like her, you claim you love her music. But you use her like everybody does, you stole Leaving Home to keep the hispanics happy. Your a fucking hypocrit.’”