The Competition - [66]

“Right,” Jenny said. “And given that there are no writings, it’s difficult to believe this boy, Logan, showed absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in the months leading up to the crime.”

“His friends did say he seemed wound pretty tight,” Bailey said. “He’d pop off at little things. But how would that tip anyone off that he was planning something like this?”

“Yeah, exactly,” I said. “What would tip you off? If a kid doesn’t already have a track record for violent behavior-”

“And these killers seldom do-” Jenny said.

“Then what would you expect to see that would make you suspect a kid would do something like this?”

Jenny sighed. “That is the classic question in these cases. So Johnny got into a fight, or stole someone’s cell phone. Or defaced school property. Why should that make us suspect he’s building bombs in the basement?” Jenny shook her head. “We have never been able to answer that.”

41

After the doctors left I started to pace. “You were right, we can’t put it off. We’ve got to tell them about the letter. Is Graden still with the chief?”

“I’ll find out.”

We were about to head out to his office when Bailey’s cell phone rang. She looked at the number and made a face. “It’s one of the guys manning our tip line.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Worse. This one really has the Looney Tunes coming out of the woodwork.” She answered the phone and listened. After a few minutes, she pulled out her pen and notepad and wrote. When she ended the call, she held up her notepad. “Want to hear what I’m talking about?”

“Sure.” I needed a good laugh.

Bailey read from her notes. “The second shooter is Justin Bieber. He and Logan are lovers.” I chuckled. She raised an eyebrow at me. “Oh, it gets better.” She continued reading. “The second shooter and mastermind is Alec Baldwin, and his next target is the paparazzi and tabloid reporters-”

“Go, Alec.”

Bailey threw me a look and flipped a page on her notepad. “Logan is in a hotel in midtown Manhattan-”

“Ooh, the St. Regis? Maybe we need to go and check this one out ourselves.”

“The caller didn’t name the hotel. However, he did opine that Logan is a Gemini and that therefore the second shooter has to be a Scorpio. Our next caller swears he saw Logan in Deer Valley, Utah. Skiing.” She turned another page. “Shall I go on?”

I shook my head. “I get the drift-no pun intended.” Bailey gave me a sour look. I remembered they’d just released the information about Shane Dolan at the press conference this morning. “What about Shane Dolan? Any sightings of him?”

“More of the same. Nothing that makes any sense. But I’ve got them checking out every lead. At least those on this planet.”

“I don’t believe they left the state. Though I don’t know why I think that.”

“Because given what the shrinkers said, it makes the most sense,” Bailey said. “They’ll want to aim for places they’re familiar with, where they can feel in control. And where they know the escape route. That is, assuming…”

They still planned to escape. We couldn’t even predict that with freaks like this. I started to go through a mental checklist of the evidence we’d collected so far. “What’ve we got on the guns they dropped at the school?”

“They’re not registered, big shock. The assault rifles were SBR AR fifteens. As for where they might’ve gotten the guns…Ed said it’s going to be tough to narrow down.” Bailey saw my frustration. “I know. He’s moving as fast as he can. But bear in mind, it’s entirely possible those guns went through a bunch of hands before Logan and company got hold of them.” Bailey looked at me. “And I doubt that any of those hands belonged to law-abiding citizens.”

“So beyond the initial sale from the manufacturer to the store, we might not ever figure out who sold to our guys.”

“It’s too soon to tell. But don’t forget, Shane Dolan might be our buyer. If he was buying and selling on a regular basis, he probably has his own connect.”

“Great. So all we have to do is find Dolan’s connect. Piece of cake. Except we can’t even find Dolan. How can it be that a shitbird like him doesn’t have a rap sheet?”

“He does, I told you.”

“Yeah, a DUI eight years ago.” I started to pace again. Another possibility occurred to me. “They dropped two assault rifles and two small-caliber handguns at the scene, and they used up a ton of ammo. Unless they raided an armory, they’ll need to buy more firepower if they’re going to strike again. Don’t you think?”

“Not necessarily. They might have a whole arsenal stashed away somewhere.”

“Yeah, but where?” Was I reaching? I didn’t think so. “Think about it: any place Logan had access to would pose a risk. Where would he put the guns? Not his house. And he didn’t have any friends who seemed likely to hold on to a stash of weapons. If he or Shane had rented a storage locker, we’d know it by now-”

“Unless they used a fake name-”

“Come on, we’re not dealing with the Mafia here. Where are they going to get ID solid enough to rent a storage locker? Those places are pretty tough these days.” So many of the people in need of storage lockers were in dire shape-the kind of shape that made storage locker payments very low on the to-pay list-storage companies practically required a blood test. “I’m betting they’ll need to score more guns and ammo-”