Stranded

assistant director had made both his agents’ lives a working hell since he took over the unit. So she couldn’t help but be suspicious of Kunze’s motive, of his agreeing so easily to her being foisted on his team.
    “You’ve met Detective Julia Racine,” Kunze was saying. “The District was good enough to loan her to us.”
    Gwen also knew Keith Ganza, the director of the FBI crime lab. The tall, skinny agent wore a white lab coat, frayed at the cuffs. His long gray hair was tied back in a ponytail, adding to his look of a reclusive scientist. Gwen had often heard Maggie claim the man to be a mild-mannered genius who could see more in a piece of lint or a clump of dirt than any trace evidence specialist she’d ever worked with.
    Gwen had not, however, met Antonio Alonzo before. The handsome, young black man wore frameless rectangular glasses and a purple button-down shirt with the sleeves neatly rolled up. Kunze called Agent Alonzo a computer wizard, on loan from ViCAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). The young man seemed unfazed by the praise, which made Gwen instantly like him.
    For all the talk of technology, however, when Kunze finally settled in and started the session he directed their attention to the front of the room where an old-fashioned paper map of the United States—three feet tall by five feet wide—had been spread out and hung up on a poster board. Bright-colored stick pins marked prominent areas across the country, some clustered together, others alone.
    “Each of these pins represents a suspected murder victim. If they’re here it’s because they were found along our country’s interstatesystems in the last ten years. Or at least part of them was found. They’ve been entered into a separate database under the Highway Serial Killings Initiative.
    “Many of these victims are transients who lived high-risk lives—prostitutes, drug users and dealers, hitchhikers, runaway teenagers. But there are about two hundred who were ordinary folks, traveling from one place to another like Gloria Dobson and Zach Lester.
    “The idea behind the initiative was to organize a way to assist local law enforcement, to help them connect some of the dots. Until now it’s been tough for them to track since many of these victims disappeared from one state and their bodies showed up in another. The highway systems, by nature, create some unique challenges.
    “Think of it this way—the crime scenes are also transient. The interstate system provides immediate and easy escape routes. A killer can simply get back on the road and be three hundred to four hundred miles away before the body is even discovered.
    “Just since the database was created, two serial killers have been apprehended and convicted. Both long-haul truck drivers. We believe there are possibly several serial killers out on the roads using the rest areas and truck stops to supply them with easy targets.”
    “When you say ‘several,’ how many do you really suspect?” asked Gwen.
    Kunze didn’t hesitate. “Possibly a dozen.”
    Gwen glanced around the table. None of the others flinched at this number.
    “You can’t be serious,” Gwen said. “You’re saying there could be a dozen different killers—serial killers? Today? Driving thehighways, undetected. Stopping at rest areas and truck stops to find their victims? And essentially getting away with murder?”
    “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. We believe Agents O’Dell and Tully are close on the trail of one of them right now. The guy who killed Gloria Dobson and Zach Lester. We think he’s killed more. This particular task force is assigned to catch this guy.”
    Kunze rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. That’s when Gwen noticed the man’s fatigue and his attempt to downplay his frustration.
    He looked around the table at them and there was a hint of anger in his voice when he said, “He’s dared us to find him, to catch him. We probably have a window of a week or two before this bastard simply changes his route. Chooses another part of the country. Revises his killing pattern. And when he does, he’ll be gone again. But one thing is certain—he won’t stop killing.”

CHAPTER 14

    IOWA
    Maggie had already guessed what was inside the white plastic bag.
    She and Tully let the CSU techs take charge. They stood back with the others at the bottom of the dirt pile and watched as Ryan, the taller of the two male techs, carried the small bag.