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."Hey, Gordo," he said, reaching back to the easel and tapping a pencil on the small rendering of Florida."I hope this map wasn't some kind of Freudian slip on your part."That brought the loudest laughter of the meeting and Thorson's face reddened, though he smiled at the joke at his expense.I saw Rachel Walling's face light up with delight."Very funny, Hazel," Thorson loudly retorted."Why don't you go back to analyzing the poems.You're good at that."The laughter dried up quickly and I suspected that Thorson had taunted Hazelton with a barb that was more personal than witty."Okay, if I can continue," Thorson said, "FYI, tonight we'll be alerting all the FOs, particularly in the West, to be on watch for something like this.It would help us a lot if we could get an early notice on the next one and get our lab into one of the scenes.We'll have a go team ready.But right now we are relying on the locals for everything.Bob?"Backus cleared his throat to continue the discussion."If nobody has anything else, we come to profiling.What can we say about this offender? I would like to put something on the alert Gordon sends out."Then came a procession of throw-out observations, a lot of them free-form non sequiturs, some of them even bringing laughter.I could see there was a lot of camaraderie among the agents.There was also some strife, as exhibited by the play between Thorson and Walling and then Thorson and Hazelton.Nevertheless, I got the feeling that these people had sat around the table in this room doing this before.Sadly, many times before.The profile that emerged would be of small use in catching the Poet.The generalities the agents threw into the ring were primarily interior descriptions.Anger.Isolation.Above-average education and intelligence.How do you identify these things among the masses, I thought.No chance.Occasionally, Backus would step in and throw out a question to get the discussion back on course."If you subscribe to Brass's last theory, why homicide cops?""You answer that and you've got him in a box.That's the mystery.This poetry stuff is the diversion.""Rich or poor?""He's got money.He has to.Wherever he goes, he's not staying long.No job-killing is his job.""He's gotta have a bank account or rich parents, something.And he's got wheels and he needs money to put gas in the tank."The session went on for another twenty minutes with Doran taking notes for the preliminary profile.Then Backus ended it and told everyone to take the rest of the night off before traveling in the morning.As the meeting broke up, a few people came up to me and introduced themselves, expressed condolences for my brother and admiration for my investigation.But it was only a few and they included Hazelton and Doran.After a few minutes of this I was left alone and was looking about for Walling when Gordon Thorson approached.He held his hand out and after hesitating, I shook it."Didn't mean to give you a hard time," he said smiling warmly."That's okay.It was fine."He had a tight grip and after the standard two-second shake I tried to pull away but he wouldn't let go.Instead, he pulled my hand toward him and leaned forward so that only I would hear what he had to say next."It's good that your brother isn't around to see this," he whispered."If I did what you did to get on this case, I'd be ashamed.I couldn't live with myself."He straightened up, always continuing the smile.I just looked at him and inexplicably nodded.He dropped my hand and stepped away.I felt humiliated in that I had not defended myself, I had stupidly just nodded my head."What was that about?"I turned.It was Rachel Walling."Uh, nothing.He just… nothing.""Whatever he said, forget it.He can be an asshole."I nodded."Yeah, I was getting that idea.""C'mon, let's go back to the Boardroom.I'm starved."In the hallway she told me the travel plans."We're leaving early tomorrow.It's better if you stay here tonight instead of going all the way back to the Hilton.The visitor dorms mostly clear out on Fridays.We can put you in one of those and have the Hilton just clear your rooms and send your stuff to Denver.Will that be a problem?""Uh, no.I guess…"I was still thinking about Thorson."Fuck him.""What?""That guy, Thorson, he is an asshole.""Forget about him.We're leaving tomorrow and he's staying here.What about the Hilton?""Yeah, fine.I've got my computer and everything else that's important already with me.""I'll see about getting you a fresh shirt in the morning.""Oh, my car.I've got a rental in the Hilton's garage.""Where are the keys?"I pulled them out of my pocket."Give them to me.We'll take care of it."23In the early hours, when dawn was still only a hint around the curtains, Gladden moved about Darlene's apartment, too nervous to sleep, too excited to want to.He paced through the small rooms, thinking, planning, waiting.He looked in on Darlene in the bedroom, watched her on the bed for a few moments and then returned to the living room.Unframed posters from old porno movies were taped to the walls and the place was filled with bric-a-brac souvenirs of a worthless life.There was a nicotine veneer on everything.Gladden was a smoker but still found it disgusting.The place was a mess [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]