Valerie couldn't help but smile. She was relieved that she hadn't been caught and continued to mop the floor until the nurse was out of sight. When she finished, she put the mop back on the cart, this time heading to Diane Asper's room.

  As Valerie opened the door to Diane Asper's room, a wave of relief washed over her as she realized that nothing had gone wrong. Now all that mattered was getting in and out without anyone noticing.

  Valerie stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. She could see a woman lying in the bed partially facing away from her. The woman looked to be in her thirties, with long dark hair cascading around her shoulders. Her olive skin was pale and smooth even after everything she had been through. Valerie could see that she was wearing a white nightgown and was connected to an IV drip by one arm.

  A sedative, Valerie thought. She knew it instinctively. All those times she had seen her mother and her sister sedated after an episode had made their impression.

  Valerie felt a wave of sorrow wash over her as she realized that this woman, Diane Asper, was never going to see her husband again. When she woke up, no amount of sedative medication was going to take the pain away, the memory of finding her own husband electrocuted by some unknown madman.

  "Mrs. Asper..." Valerie said softly. But the woman didn't respond.

  Valerie heard some footsteps pass the door behind her as a nurse walked by. If this was going to work, she'd have to act fast.

  "Mrs. Asper," Valerie said walking forward and putting her hand on the woman's shoulder.

  "She doesn't want to talk to you," a voice croaked as if coming from the woman. "Nobody wants to talk to you." Valerie closed her eyes.

  Leave me alone, she thought. You are not my mother!

  "Think all you want," the voice said, aping her mother's. "You've failed me and you'll fail this woman, too."

  Valerie opened her eyes and looked to see the woman in the bed staring at her in confusion.

  Valerie took her hat off and gently said: "Mrs. Asper... Diane... I am Agent Valerie Law with the FBI. I was hoping I could talk to you about what happened to your husband."

  Diane Asper's eyes darted around the room as if she was only now remembering where she was. She then looked at Valerie's clothes. She was clearly unsure of how to react to a person dressed as a janitor claiming to be an FBI agent.

  Valerie could see the confusion on her face and knew she had to act fast. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her FBI badge, holding it up for Diane to see.

  "I had to sneak in here because the hospital wouldn't allow it," Valerie said softly. "But I'm here to help you. I promise."

  Diane shook her head as tears began to fall down her cheeks. She then turned away, showing her back to Valerie.

  Valerie pulled up a chair and sat down in front of her. "Diane, I can't pretend I know what you're going through. But please..."

  "Leave me alone..." the woman whispered.

  "Diane," Valerie continued. "The killer is still out there. You might know something that could help us stop him from doing the same terrible thing to someone else."

  "Just leave..."

  "Before you... Got upset today... You told the officers at the scene that you’d had an argument with James last night, and that you spent the night with your sister."

  "I didn't do this..." she hesitated. "I wanted to fix things..."

  "I know you didn't," Valerie said, softly. "But it's possible it's someone you know."

  Diane turned around and looked at Valerie, anger in her face. "You think someone I know would do this?"

  "Maybe," said Valerie. "It could have been someone who knew you were having troubles. Someone who wanted to protect you from the sadness of a failing marriage."

  "The only person who knew was my sister," she said. "And she would never do something like this."

  "I have a sister, too," Valerie said, trying to make a connection. "I would never think she'd be capable of it, either. But sometimes people can be pushed by the situation."

  "I was with her all night," Diane said, raising her voice.

  "Okay," Valerie said. "What about someone James knew? It could have been someone who was aware James would be alone and that you wouldn't be home. Maybe a friend? Someone James would have confided in?"

  Diane shook her head. "You're not listening to me. No one we knew would do this."

  Valerie didn't want to push it too much. If Diane raised her voice in anger, it would surely alert the nurses. She changed tactic.

  "Was James ever involved anything illegal?" Valerie asked.

  Diane stared at Valerie with stone silence.

  Bingo, Valerie thought.

  "Diane, if you know something he was involved in, it could let us catch his killer."

  Diane broke down, sobbing. "He wasn't a common criminal or anything. But he... He sometimes handled things."

  "Drugs?" Valerie asked.

  "No," she said. "Not that I know of. It was more like... Like stolen goods. Appliances, that sort of thing. Occasionally he would keep something in our house or our garage. For a friend. Then he'd get a little bit of the money as a kickback. I hated it... But he said we needed the money."

  "Who was his friend?" Valerie asked.

  Suddenly the door to the hospital room opened forcefully. In stepped Doctor Milson and the head nurse on the ward. Both looked furious.

  "How dare you?" the doctor said, holding a large paper cup of coffee in his hand. For a second, Valerie thought he was going to froth out of the mouth. "I told you specifically..."

  "And I told you we're on a murder investigation," Valerie said. "And if we don't move quickly, more people will die, just like Diane's husband did."

  "We should call the police!" the nurse said.

  "They have their hands full," Valerie said, coldly. "Trying to catch a killer in the community."

  The doctor took a large, aggressive sip from his coffee cup. "I take it you work out of Quantico?"

  "By all means, give them a call. But if they take me out of the field, we'll lose precious time. And that will be on you."

  "On me?" the doctor said. "I think not. I'll have your badge for this."

  "Diane," Valerie said turning back to the victim's wife. "Can you give me the name of the man who hid stolen goods at your house?"

  "Won't I get into trouble?" Diane asked.

  "If you help, Diane," she said. "I'll do everything within my power to remove the possibility of you being charged with handling stolen goods when the police look into it. I promise you, I will personally vouch for you. The authorities will look kindly on that."

  Diane hesitated for a long moment, her eyes darting between the floor and the ceiling. Then, with a deep breath, she said: "The name you're looking for is Gareth Sheerin."

  "Thank you, Diane. I'll do everything I can to catch your husband's killer," Valerie said, turning to leave.

  The doctor stepped forward, coffee cup in hand: "Where do you think you're going? I'm calling security."

  Valerie quickly spoke up, "I noticed some patient waste in the storage room where I found this caretaker uniform- isn't that a health violation?"

  The doctor's face contorted as he stumbled for an answer, splashing coffee onto his shirt, and wiping it away with his hand. He cleared his throat and looked away at the nurse to his side, nervously, before turning back to Valerie.

  "You can't prove anything," he said, adjusting his glasses. "If you make any accusations about our hospital... I... I will bring down the full weight of my position against you."

  Valerie stood her ground and didn't flinch. She took out her phone and showed the photographs she had taken back in the supply closet. The doctor stared wide-eyed at them.

  "It's not me who should worry," she said calmly. "It's you who should worry if your hospital is found guilty of breaking health codes."

  The doctor's face contorted with rage and fear as it appeared to dawn on him that Valerie had out maneuvered him. He began to stammer excuses but Valerie cut him off quickly.

  "We don't have time for this," she said firmly yet compassionately. "Diane, you take care of yourself." Diane nodded quietly, then Valerie made her way out of the room, pointing to the doctor's coffee stain on his shirt as she left, saying: "You missed a bit."

  Valerie left the ward behind and then put the cart and uniform back where she had found it in the storage room. As she left the room, hoping her observations to the doctor were enough to keep him from calling Quantico, she thought through what she had found out.

  James Asper had a potential criminal connection. Handling stolen goods was often carried out as part of a larger network of criminal activities. Valerie wondered if James had been deeper than Diane had thought.

  Just as she took her phone out of her pocket to call Charlie and Will with the lead, her phone sprung to life.

  "Charlie?" Valerie said, asking.

  "Val," he said, his voice dark and serious. "You better get to Tulleyvalley morgue."

  "Why? What's happened?" Valerie asked, feeling in her bones that something terrible had happened.

  "One of the pathologists has been murdered here," Charlie said grimly. "He was..."

  "Electrocuted?" Valerie asked.

  "Yeah," Charlie said. "It caused a fire. The place is a mess."

  "I'll be there right away," Valerie said. It looked like her new lead had to wait.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Valerie drove into a parking lot in the town of Tulleyvalley, her heart heavy with dread. Smoke was still rising from the roof of the morgue and firefighters had just put out the blaze. The building looked like it had been hit by a disaster, but Valerie knew better - this was no accident; this was murder.

  She parked her car, feeling a chill run up her spine at the thought of what she might find inside. For a moment, she glanced in the rear view mirror and saw the faint outline of her mother grinning at her. Shaking her head, she looked again and the hallucination had passed.

  Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she got out and made her way over to where Charlie and Will were already talking with one of the firefighters.

  The man shook his head as he spoke: "It's an absolute mess in there - I'm not sure how we managed to contain it before it spread too far." He paused, then added grimly, "We got lucky, but the building will have to be evacuated completely. I don't know what they'll do with all the bodies being housed at the morgue."

  Charlie nodded grimly. "We have someone who can handle that," he said as Valerie stepped closer to them. She could see that his face was drawn and tired - this wasn't going to be easy for any of them.

  "Hi Val," Charlie said.

  "This is terrible," Valerie said, looking at the building.

  "Can we go in?" Will said quietly, looking at Valerie who nodded in agreement.

  "It should be okay, I guess," the firefighter said. "But if you feel a little woozy or anything, come out and get some fresh air."

  "We will," Charlie said.

  The three of them made their way slowly towards the entrance of the building and, without saying anything else to each other, they disappeared inside.

  The hallway was dark and the smoke still lingered in the air, making it hard to breathe easily. Her nose filled with the same terrible stench that she had encountered at the Aspers’ house. The smell of burnt hair was overpowering and Valerie felt like she might be sick. As they walked down the hallway, they could see the destruction that had been caused by the fire - charred walls and broken furniture filled with ash and soot. It was a miracle the entire place hadn't gone up in smoke.

  "The firefighters did well stopping this from spreading," Charlie said as they walked.

  "We should contact Todd Redding," Valerie suggested. "See if they have room at the Williamwood morgue to house the bodies from here."

  "Yeah, I've already messaged him," Charlie said. "They've put the wheels in motion."

  "There'll be one more body than they expected," Will said, his voice deadened by the burned walls.

  "The crime scene is at the entrance to the mortuary," Charlie said.

  Valerie, Charlie, and Will rounded the corner and came face to face with two forensics experts who were taking samples from a body lying in front of a large metal door. The body had been incinerated beyond recognition, a half-melted ID badge stuck to its chest, the name still legible.

  The remains were surrounded by an eerie silence that seemed to fill the entire hallway. The smell of death hung heavy in the air, making it hard for Valerie to breathe.

  Valerie felt terrible for the victim, for his family, for all those who had known him.

  "Is this..." Charlie said to one of the forensics team.

  "Dennis Newbury," the man said, picking up a case with samples in it. "He was the head pathologist here. Damn shame. I knew him, too. A bit feisty, but a nice old fella."

  "How did it happen?" Valerie asked.

  "We won't know until our investigation is concluded," the other man said. "But the firefighters who were here seem to think that an exposed wire in the wall touched a metal pipe. If you look up there at that open piece of wall, you can see it. Anyway, the pipe touched one of the screws from the door frame."

  "Why didn't the fuse trip?" Charlie asked. "Was the box rigged?"

  "No," the man said. "As far as we can tell, this place was falling apart as is. The wiring doesn't operate as it should... I gotta go and get this to the lab. Good luck."

  And with that, the last of the forensics team departed.

  "This was no accident," Valerie said as soon as they were gone.

  "We can't rule out the possibility," Will said.

  "No, I mean someone did this on purpose," Valerie said. "Someone who knew about the wiring in this building. Whoever it was must have some expertise in wiring to have pulled off something like this."

  Valerie looked around the hallway and shook her head. "But why set it up like this? Like it was some sort of weird accident?"

  "If this is the killer's work," Charlie offered. "Then maybe he's getting worried about getting caught. This time around, he switches from an obvious murder to one we can't entirely prove."

  "That makes sense," said Will. "But it seems to me that we must have an active watcher."

  "A watcher?" Charlie said. "You mean someone who returns to the scene of their crime, to relive the thrill?"

  "Yes," answered Will. "But in this case, it's possible he is watching the investigation into his killings. That would explain why he targeted the pathologist here."

  Valerie shook her head in disagreement. "I don't think so," she said. "This seems like more than a watcher to me. It's too elaborate for that, and it seems too well planned out. I think the killer must have targeted Dr. Newbury for another reason altogether."

  Charlie nodded in agreement. "It's possible," he said. "But why would someone target a pathologist?"

  "Maybe they wanted to make sure their previous kills wouldn't be linked," Valerie suggested. "The evidence from the previous victims might have been too incriminating, so they took out the one person who could make the connection."

  Will shrugged. "It's a theory," he said. "But without more information, it's hard to know for sure."

  Valerie nodded, feeling frustrated. She knew that this investigation was going to be difficult and full of twists and turns, but she hadn't expected this turn of events. It muddied the water.

  "Charlie, have Quantico run a background check on Doctor Newbury," Valerie asked. "See if he has any connection to an arsonist or someone with a history of violence. And let's see if there's any connection to the other two victims."

  "Sure thing," Charlie said. "But we haven't even looked over the victim yet, and the body will be in that room."

  "I hope the fire hasn't destroyed anything that might have helped us," Will said.

  "The victim was a man in his eighties," Valerie said. "He was killed by being connected to a power line out in a field. While we wait for Todd to go over that body and Doctor Newbury's body we could follow the lead I have."

  "What lead is that?" Charlie asked, surprised.

  "James Asper was involved in some sort of criminal activity," Valerie explained. "He stored stolen goods in his house for a man named Gareth Sheerin."

  "Ah," said Will. "It has been known for serial killers to kill several people with only one intended target."

  "You mean," Charlie elaborated, "that the killer could have murdered more than one person so that we wouldn't ever connect him to the real intended victim?"

  "Precisely," Will said. "Imagine this Gareth Sheerin killed James Asper, his intended victim. Then he kills another person with electrocution so that we believe we have a serial killer on our hands. That means we won't pay as much attention to known associates of the victims."

  "Because serial killers usually target people they don't or barely know," Charlie mused.

  "Exactly," said Will.

  "Then, Sheerin kills the pathologist here because he's worried he'll find something," Valerie expanded. "And that would explain why the setup was so elaborate! He wanted it to look like an accident so we wouldn't suspect he was trying to cover his tracks."

  "Do we have an address for Gareth Sheerin?" asked Will.

  "I got it from the FBI database," Valerie said. "He's got a criminal history of violence and coercion."

  "Then let's roll!" Charlie said, enthusiastically.

  "It's not exactly the sort of place you'd think anyone would live," Valerie tried to explain.

  "Why do I get the feeling we're heading somewhere dangerous?" Charlie asked.

  Valerie gave him a knowing glance. He was right. Gareth Sheerin lived somewhere very dangerous, indeed. And that was precisely where they were heading.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Valerie felt isolated as she drove down a lonely road, the sun setting behind distant hills. The sky was turning a deep shade of purple as the stars began to appear in the sky. A chill wind blew through the open window as Valerie kept her eyes on the horizon, searching for Charlie's car ahead.

 

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