Blindside

to me like you’re really enjoying your hamburger.”
    Sam, who couldn’t speak until he’d swallowed the huge bite he’d taken, gave Savich a big, ketchup-smeared smile.
    Ten minutes later, when Keely and Sam were eating chocolate chip ice cream, focused on each other and the chocolate chips they were carefully picking from the cones, Savich said, his voice pitched low, “Jimmy Maitland called just a while ago. The math teacher killer hit again, and he wants us back on the investigation. They need fresh eyes and he says we’re the freshest eyes he’s got. He sounds more desperate than I’ve heard him in a long while. The media attention had died down after they’d thrashed over the second killing, but now, with the third, they’ll have ‘serial killer’ plastered all over the TV and the newspapers.”
    Sherlock said, “He also wants us to come back for a press conference at headquarters tonight. We have no choice at all in this.”
    “There are lots of good people,” Savich said, “but when you mix three different police departments and the FBI together and try to coordinate who’s going to be top dog, it can get ugly real fast.”
    Katie said, “I heard that after the second math teacher killing, the politicians started getting into the act.”
    “They’ll want to ban every gun in the universe, including the one the shooter’s using,” Sherlock told her. “I can just imagine how difficult it is for the local jurisdictions to deal with this, particularly when the politicians are competing for sound bites.”
    Sherlock sighed, her eyes for a moment on Savich’s plate, where most of his swordfish sandwich was left untouched. “One thing is absolutely true: Everyone is scared. Everyone wants to catch this guy, and the pressure keeps growing.”

    “Maitland said that the principals in the high schools in the killing areas haven’t put up any road blocks if the math teachers want to leave town for a while,” Savich said. “It’s rather like closing the barn door after the horses have run out.”
    “Three people dead,” Sherlock said, shaking her head. “Maitland scheduled the press conference late enough so we’ll have time to speak to the third victim’s husband beforehand.”
    “So what are you going to say at this press conference?” Katie asked as she sipped her coffee.
    Savich started to say he didn’t have a clue, but instead he suddenly just got up from the table and went outside. They watched him talking on his cell phone.
    “My husband just got a brain flash,” Sherlock said, amused satisfaction in her voice. “The last time it happened, Sean was sprawled on Dillon’s chest. Dillon grabbed him under one arm and took him to MAX. An hour later, the Detroit cops arrested a man who worked behind the counter at Trailways Bus in Detroit for the murder of three runaway teenagers, all of whom had left Detroit on Trailways. He’d followed all of them and killed them.”
    “Why, for heaven’s sake?” Katie asked.
    “He never really said, just cried so hard his nose was running. Even after six months of nonstop shrinks, I don’t think anyone ever understood what he was all about. He’s locked away now in a state mental hospital.”
    Savich came back into the restaurant, sat down, took a bite of his fish sandwich, and said absolutely nothing.
    Miles said to Savich, “So all of a sudden, your brain just announced —bang!— the killer was a counter clerk at Trailways?”
    Savich looked blank until Sherlock said, “I was telling them about the Detroit case, Dillon.”
    He nodded. “The cops had questioned all the employees at Trailways, but they didn’t spot this guy as a viablesuspect. Well, I’d just been giving it a lot of thought, that’s all, and I took a guess. I asked them to follow this guy for three days.”
    “What happened?” Katie asked, spellbound.
    “He picked out our undercover agent, who was really twenty-six years old but looked fifteen, as his next victim. We got him.”
    “Okay, Dillon, what’s the brain flash this time?”
    He smiled at Sherlock, then shook his head at the others. “Too soon for me to say. Now, the big question. It’s Tuesday, what do you want to do, Miles?”
    “I don’t know yet, but I guess I need to stay here for a while longer,” and he looked over at Sam and Keely.
    Savich saw that he was pissed, frustrated, and nearly at the end of his tether. “Both of you,” he said, “keep us informed.”
    Katie became suddenly