The Competition - [65]

We thanked Nick. He tipped an imaginary cowboy hat and left. A few minutes later, Drs. Malloy and Shelby showed up. Bailey had managed to snag us a small conference room in a private corner of the building.

“I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about Evan.” I told them about Evan’s encounter with Logan the morning of the shooting, his reaction to the photo of Shane, and his recent tweeting that we’d been harassing him. I gave them Bailey’s theory. “Do you think he’s trying to show Logan he’s not a threat?”

Michael Malloy nodded. “Seems likely. And probably your second suspect as well. Bailey’s right about his world being rocked. If a buddy he trusted can turn out to be a murderer, especially on this scale, then anything’s possible.”

“And remember, Evan was in that gym too,” Jenny said. “He’s lucky to be alive, and he knows it. I agree with your assessment of Logan’s point of view. From his standpoint, Evan might well appear to be his number one threat. Does that mean I think he would go after Evan? No. It’s too big a risk. And it’s not worth it. Evan’s information wouldn’t put Logan away. And much as I understand why Evan might be frightened by the revelation that Logan has teamed up with someone who looks as threatening as Shane, Evan’s certainly no threat to Shane. He seemed to be truthful when he said he didn’t know him?”

“He did,” Bailey said.

“But we’re being objective,” Michael said. “Evan’s psychological state is not conducive to objective thinking. Remember, all of these kids are extremely traumatized.”

“Right,” Jenny said. “Now imagine that on top of all that, you’re the last living person to speak to Logan. And what he tells you strongly indicates he was about to commit a massacre. The emotional conflicts would be massive.”

Michael nodded. “On the one hand, Evan feels guilty about not alerting anyone when Logan told him to skip school-”

“He does,” I said. “Which is crazy. No one could’ve known-”

Jenny held up a hand. “Again, we’re not talking about rational thinking here. And on the other hand, he’s scared for his own safety, for all the reasons we’ve discussed. Added to that, believe it or not, he probably also feels guilty for telling you about his encounter with Logan-”

Bailey nodded. “For betraying his buddy.”

“And they typically overestimate their own importance,” Michael said. “To put it bluntly, they’re self-centered. Evan’s statement isn’t huge in the grand scheme of things, but it is to him. And so he believes it must be to Logan-or maybe Shane-as well.”

“Still strikes me as kind of paranoid, don’t you think?” I asked.

Jenny tilted her head. “Is there such a thing as irrational fear when you’re dealing with someone who’s so irrationally violent?”

Touché.

I passed them the copies of all the email correspondence with Logan. “We’d like you to read these and get back to us by tonight or, at the latest, tomorrow morning with any ideas you may have about where Logan and his accomplice might be-”

Michael nodded. “I assume your people have already checked for any oblique references to a plan? Or some kind of code that might have been used?”

“Yes,” I said. “There was nothing they could see.”

Jenny frowned. “That’s very, very odd. I’ve never heard of a case where there wasn’t some evidence of preparation or planning. Typically written. Whether it’s in the form of poems to a teacher, drawings of some kind, or posting on the Internet or in some kind of journal. This type of killer is usually a copious writer. And it usually begins months before the event. It’s a form of ramping up, if you will. For a mass murderer-​especially one as young as Logan-not to write or say anything about what he plans to do…it’s extraordinary.”

“But why would they want to write down their plans?” Bailey asked. “Why take the risk?”

Jenny nodded. “It does seem counterintuitive, doesn’t it? But these killers live in their heads a great deal of the time. They get a lot of traction out of their fantasies. Writing, for them, is a way of savoring those fantasies. Plus-and this is an important point-much of the thrill for this type of killer is the sense of power. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac for them. That’s why the killings are almost always set up ‘fish in a barrel’ style. They want to master the situation and terrorize a captive audience. That’s also why writing about their desires is perfect for them. When they write about their desires, they control it all: the means, the location, and the outcome.”

“Writing or no, there had to have been a heck of a lot of planning,” Bailey said. “They didn’t just put that arsenal together over a long weekend.”

“Oh, no doubt they’d been planning this for several months, if not a year,” Jenny said. “I’m only saying that these killers need some outlet for all this homicidal energy that gets generated every time they think about what they plan to do. Writing usually provides that outlet.”

“They had each other to talk to,” I said. “Wouldn’t that have siphoned off some steam?”

“Some,” Michael said. “But they couldn’t talk about it whenever or wherever they wanted. Understand that this killing was something they both thought about night and day, every single day. Writing is something one can do at any time. No one overhears it. And if they’re careful, no one sees it. Talking is a different story.”