CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

As Riley walked toward Mason Eggers with mounting curiosity, she remembered something that Cullen had said about Eggers at the meeting …

“He keeps coming around whenever there’s a new case.”

She guessed that Eggers had either driven here as soon as he’d heard about the new murder, or he’d hitched a ride with the railroad police.

Cullen had also said …

“He’s always got ideas and theories.”

That’s what really intrigued Riley about him, and she wanted to hear what was on his mind. Mason Eggers seemed to be lost in thought as Riley walked up to him.

“Hello, Mr. Eggers,” she said.

He looked up from his notes, startled.

“Agent Paige,” he said.

He looked toward the body and shuddered.

“It’s so horrible,” he said. “I’d seen pictures of the other two victims. But being right here, seeing all this …”

His voice faded off for a moment.

Then he added, “Back in my day, railroad cops didn’t have to deal with this kind of intentional thing. What kind of a world are we living in?”

He shrugged and said, “But you’re with the FBI. I guess you’re probably used to this sort of thing.”

You never get used to it, Riley almost said.

Instead she remarked, “Back in Chicago, you said you were working on a theory.”

Looking down at his notebook, he said, “It’s not much. Nothing I’m sure you haven’t thought of already. And it might not mean anything. But now that there have been three victims, you’ve probably noticed a pattern or two.”

Riley nodded and said, “For one thing, the killings are moving westward. That might or might not be an actual trend.”

Eggers said, “Yeah, and I’m sure you’ve noticed something about the town names.”

Riley realized that she hadn’t had time yet to think about it. She ran the names in her head …

Allardt … Barnwell … Caruthers …

Of course! she thought.

Surely she and her colleagues would have noticed the same thing before too long. But this retired railroad cop had beaten them to it.

She said, “They begin with the first three letters of the alphabet.”

“That’s right,” Eggers said. “The idea started to hit me when I heard the first two names. I’m not sure why it did, just two names wasn’t much to go on. It’s just that … well, did you ever get one of those really strong hunches?”

Riley almost smiled.

Unexplained hunches were practically her specialty at the BAU.

Eggers said, “What do you think are the chances the town name will begin with a D the next time?”

“The next time,” Riley thought with a chill.

There’d better not be a next time.

Even so, she hastily thought it over.

She said, “We still can’t be sure that the alphabetical pattern isn’t just a coincidence. Even if we were sure, how could we narrow down which ‘D’ town to look for?”

“I know what you mean,” Eggers said. “We’re talking about towns to the west of here. Even narrowed down to those with train lines coming through from Chicago—towns that begin with the letter ‘D.’ I know the railroads through this region like the back of my hand. I can think of a bunch of towns like that right off the top of my head. And if it’s just a coincidence, it would be a waste of time to try to check out all of them.”

He looked at his note pad for a moment.

He chuckled bitterly and added, “You may have heard that I’m just some annoying old coot whose better days are long behind him. Well, you’ve heard right. And even in my better days, I never dealt with anything like this. Forget I mentioned it, OK? It’s just a harebrained idea.”

Riley felt a tingle of interest as he started to walk away.

“Wait a minute,” Riley called out to him.

He stopped and turned back toward her.

She said, “You’ve got another idea, don’t you? Aside from the alphabetical pattern, I mean.”

He shook his head.

“I haven’t really worked it out yet,” he said. “I’d just be wasting your time.”

“Try me,” Riley said.

Eggers looked reluctant, but walked toward Riley again, pointing to his notepad.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a sharp yell rang out.

“Hey! You crazy bitch! What’s the matter with you?”

She recognized the voice immediately.

It was Bull Cullen.

Riley turned around and looked. The floodlights displayed a truly bizarre scene.

Right near the body, Jenn and Bull Cullen were locked in each other’s arms, wrestling viciously while others stood around them gaping with surprise. Cullen was taller and heavier than Jenn, but she was obviously holding her own.

Bill stood nearby, watching but looking undecided about whether to interfere.

“Hey!” Riley yelled, striding toward the grappling pair.

Cullen managed to disentangle himself and threw Jenn down onto the tracks. But she was on her feet in an instant, backing away from him and holding out her hands to warn him off.

“Don’t even think about it, creep!” she snarled.

But Cullen ignored her warning. He raised his fist and lunged toward her. Jenn easily dodged his blow and slammed her own fist into his face. Cullen staggered away in pain.

“Ow! You broke my nose, you crazy bitch!”

Riley dashed between Jenn and Cullen.

She yelled, “All right, break it up, you two!”

Cullen was fingering his bleeding nose. He didn’t look at all eager to resume fighting. Calling out to the witnesses, he said, “Everyone saw that, right? She attacked me! For no reason at all!”

Riley grabbed Jenn by the shoulders.

She asked, “What the hell is this all about?”

Jenn pointed at Cullen furiously.

“He touched me! The bastard touched me!”

Riley said, “What do you mean, he touched you?”

The young African-American agent was shaking all over, apparently too angry to speak.

Meanwhile, Chief Tanya Buchanan seemed almost to be enjoying the situation. She walked over to Bull Cullen and took his face in her large, strong hands.

“Let me look at that,” she said.

“She broke my nose!” Cullen said.

“Naw, it’s not broken,” the chief said, examining his bleeding nose and speaking as if to a child. “It must hurt though, you poor little thing. We need to get some ice on it. Come on, let’s go to my van. I’ve got a first aid kit, I’ll fix you up as good as new. And I can get someone to drive into town and get you some ice.”

Thoroughly humiliated, Cullen yanked himself away from Chief Buchanan and stalked off on his own.

Chief Buchanan said to Riley, “I saw the whole thing. Your agent was crouched over the body looking at it real closely when that clown leaned down beside her and put his hand on her back.”

Bill added, “Not in an innocent way either, I can tell you that for sure.”

Riley could tell that Bill was amused at how the confrontation had played out.

Her mind boggled at Cullen’s stupidity. What was he thinking, making a pass at an FBI agent when she was examining a corpse?

And hadn’t he learned anything at all about Jenn by now?

She saw Cullen pacing a short way off, holding a handkerchief to his wounded nose.

Riley walked over to Jenn, who was standing stiffly with her arms crossed.

Jenn shuffled her feet and said, “I know what you’re going to say—we’ve got to work with him. I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not,” Riley said.

The truth was, Riley saw no reason why Jenn should be.

“OK, you’re right,” Jenn said. “I’m not sorry. But it won’t happen again.”

Riley glanced over at Cullen, who was now sitting on the ground looking thoroughly shamed and cowed.

Managing not to smirk, Riley said to Jenn, “No, I’m sure it won’t. He’s bothered you for the last time. I think we can all count on that.”

Patting Jenn on the shoulder, she added, “Now get your head back in the game.”

Jenn nodded.

“I’ll do that,” she said.

Riley quickly remembered her disrupted conversation with Mason Eggers. She looked over to where she’d been talking to him earlier, but he wasn’t there. She glanced all around and couldn’t see him anywhere. He seemed to have slipped away.

Riley sighed, remembering what Eggers had said about himself …

“… some annoying old coot whose better days are behind him.”

He certainly didn’t seem to have a lot of self-confidence. And that was small wonder, considering how Cullen had treated him back at the meeting.

Riley cringed as she remembered Cullen saying …

“Any ideas you’d like to share with us, Grandpa?”

Riley wasn’t really surprised that the old guy had gone away.

All the same, she wished he’d hung around. She wasn’t sure why she was so curious about his theories. But she didn’t have any of her own at this point. And she had a hunch that Eggers had more insights than anyone gave him credit for—including himself.

Just then one of the local cops yelled over to Chief Buchanan from the police barrier on the road.

“Hey, Chief! Come on over here! We might have a lead!”