Cut and Run 1 - Cut and Run

room, shutting the door behind him and turning the bolt. “Tell me,” he prompted.
    "We've been assuming he was playing games, flaunting how good he was and waiting for someone worth playing the game against,” Ty answered quickly as he began pacing again. “Burns said there was an overall feeling that the killer was depressed after we left, despondent and silent. We assumed—because we're FBI and ego is a requirement—that it was because he thought we were good enough to play the game. But why would he think that?” he posed as he stopped and looked at Zane. “We were here for a grand total of, what, seven days? We made no progress, no more than any of the others, and the only thing we succeeded in doing was almost getting killed. He's not trying to play . He's trying to please ."
    "Trying to please? You mean to keep us busy? To give him our attention? And then when he lost it, he was unhappy?” Zane asked.
    Ty shook his head. “You read crime novels and watch detective movies, right?” he said eagerly. “The stereotype in almost every one is a bored cop; he wants something exciting to sink his teeth into, wants action, wants ... a big case to work on,” he rambled almost excitedly. “Right? For all his intelligence and talent, this perp has bought into that image. He admires law enforcement officers,” he went on, beginning to form a new profile as he spoke. “His dad or father figure might even have been a security guard or some sort of pseudo-policeman type. That's why he became a Fed, if he is one. He admired them. He wants to please the people he admires, give them something worth their time.” He closed his eyes and lifted his chin, raising his face to the ceiling.
    Zane bit back a smile. He glanced to the stack of crime and suspense novels he'd bought. “Okay, I can see that. So, he's hoping to give us a good game. So if we figure it out, what's to stop him from changing the game?"
    "He has to change it. He'll be well-schooled in forensics and profiling. He'll think he's hiding by switching his MO, but he's still got that pattern. He may have picked it because it offered so many different methods. Or it may have more special meaning to him. He killed the Poe Toaster in Baltimore, we can be sure of that, either as a jumping-off point or practice. He had to have picked him because of who he was. Poe is the playbook he's sticking to in order to stay safe. He's not killing for the pleasure of the kill, not like normal serials. What he enjoys—his real ritual—is the after-effects,” Ty explained as the profile unfolded before him like a road map over his mental steering wheel. “What he craves is the attention of the authorities afterward. Not the press, not the public. Just the cops and Feds. He doesn't just return to the scene of the crime; he lives it. He soaks the mayhem in afterward, either by being physically present or thriving on the official reports. That's why he's sending stuff in the mail; he's helping the people he admires try to solve him."
    "So, it might not be someone at the Bureau, but maybe a cop from the city who's got access,” Zane realized. “Someone who works both sides of the case, although in a minor role. Like the Steves are attached to this case.” He tossed the cigarette pack on the table and sat back down on the bed. “I wish we had that damn list of all personnel who've touched anything to do with this mess."
    "The new profile screams cop with an inferiority complex,” Ty agreed. “But with the access he has, I'm still saying FBI. It also makes me think that something we did, the two of us, told him that we were enjoying what he was doing,” he went on more tentatively. “We may have expressed admiration for his skill somehow or shown interest in how or why he did something that none of the other agents had noticed. Whatever it was we did, he thought he'd finally found someone who was enjoying the fruits of his labor."
    Zane's face was blank and then he blanched. “So he's been doing this ... specifically to amuse us ? You and me?"
    "Not at first,” Ty answered with a shake of his head. “And not even now. To assume that would be to assume he knows we're back. The two of us, specifically. I think he heard somehow that the Bureau was sending in a new crew. That, back there? That was his welcome party."
    Zane closed his eyes, feeling slightly ill at the thought. That had been perhaps the most gruesome scene he had ever witnessed, and he'd seen a lot,