"Thank you for coming." "I'm Greer, Jeff's sister." "Ray Bell." "I was a friend of your brother's at W.S.U." "You just missed your classmates." "Oh, I ran into them." "We're gonna get together later." "I" " I just can't imagine the gang without Jeff." "Yeah." "He was always talking about his college friends." "He" " He was always telling us about his family." " Really?" " Yeah." "It would be really nice for my mother to hear that right now." " She's kind of falling apart." " Of course." "Mom, this is Ray Bell." " He's a good friend of Jeff s from college." " Mrs. Cort." "I was just telling Greer how devoted Jeff was to all of you." "It's okay." "It's okay." "It's okay." "It's okay." "I hate to do this to you." "It'll be a beautiful ceremony tomorrow." "Why not go home now and get some rest?" " Thanks for getting here so fast." " I hope I can help." "You and me both." "Son died three days ago in a car crash." "The mother was found murdered after the kid's wake." "Can't get the father to stop yelling long enough to find out if he knows anything." "Think what he's going through." "Anger is a very appropriate response." "Yeah." "Just not very helpful." "Look, uh, Catherine... uh, I know I've been skeptical about Victim Services in the past, but..." "I'll see what I can do." " Who are you now?" " I'm Catherine Black from Victim Assistance." "What, a counselor?" "That's part of what I do." "Get that lieutenant back here." " Dad..." " Get him now." "Lieutenant Bletcher asked me to talk with you." " He thought I might help." " I don't need help." "I need to see my wife." " You haven't claimed the body?" " Don't they tell you anything?" " Dad, please..." " Your mother's body is not government property." "Mr. Cort, you're absolutely right." "But when a crime like this occurs... the victim is considered evidence." "Unfortunately, some people actually think about her that way." "We were married for 27 years." "They won't even let me see her." "You've got to let him see his wife." "I'm not jerking him around here." "She was cut up, viciously." "All the evidence is under wraps until I get my game plan in order." "It won't be real to him until he sees the body." "I seriously doubt that that's the way he wants to remember his wife." "Then don't expect his cooperation." "It would help to have him on your side." "Oh, I could definitely stand to have someone on my side." "Maybe somebody else should have picked up the phone when you called our house this morning." "The coroner wanted the woman out of here before the bugs got any worse." "Peter Watts is taking a look at her." "We made quite a few footprint castings." "Mostly grave diggers." "It'll take a while to sort them all out." "The body was covered with a fair amount of soil and organic matter." "Hair and fiber bagged some samples." "Fifty-year-old woman standing at her son's grave." "Hurts just to think about it." " Calla lily." " She brought it here." "Frank." "Nothing very useful off the body." "Looks like she didn't have time to put up much of a struggle." " What about the son?" " Run-of-the-mill tragedy." "Star running back celebrates big win with a blood alcohol of 0.27." " Hits a tree at 60 miles an hour." " Anyone else in the car?" "No, he was solo." "Look, I don't think the son's in the picture." "It's a woman in a secluded place at night." "Massive overkill." "That says random crime of opportunity." "That's why I asked you in, Frank." " He knew who she was." " Not many housewives make that kind of enemy." "It's not about her." "The killer's rage is directed toward someone else." "I agree." "The stab wounds were brutal but impersonal... clustered well away from her face." "So he knew who she was, but it wasn't about her?" "And he sliced her up, but it wasn't directed at her?" "Hey, I'm just trying to keep up." " You want to see the woman's body?" " No." "The boy's." "I understand, Mr. Cort, and we'll make all the arrangements." "Thank you very much." "I appreciate it." "Mr. Cort has decided to bury Jeff back east, by his grandparents." "Or do you have some claim on him too?" "Mr. Cort, Greer, I'm sorry we got off to such a bad start." "I'd like you to meet Frank Black." "He's a special consultant on your case." "I'm very sorry about your loss." "We just want to find who did this to my wife." "I'd like to talk to you about that when you're ready." "We're ready now." "I understand quite a few people came by yesterday to pay their respects." "Yeah." "Jeff was..." "loved." "Were there any strangers?" "People you didn't know?" "A group of his college friends came." "Dad, after they left, there was this other guy from W.S.U." "Um..." "Ray Bell." "I never heard of him." "I introduced him to Mom." "This stranger, was he standing close to your brother?" " At one point." " Can you show me?" "Like this, maybe." "I know this is difficult." "But we're looking for something that's changed." "Something that wasn't here before." "Or something missing." "His pin." "Someone stole his team pin." "You blew curfew last night." "Hey!" " Does anyone around here ever knock?" " Did you hear what I said?" "Yeah." "I'm sorry." "Yeah." "You're always sorry." "Who puts his butt on the line and checks you in, huh?" " You do." " Who takes care of you?" "I know." "Look, I got hungry." "I headed out." "You think I don't know what you're up to?" "You think it's not obvious, huh?" " Let go." " What's this?" "Where did this come from?" "Someone gave it to me." "Nobody gave you anything." "What are you even after out there?" "Do you ever even think of that?" "You're in bed tonight at lights out or else." "I'm not covering' for you anymore." ""So, it's nice to go far, and it's nice to go wide." "'But when gators are biting... you need someplace to hide. "" "'So whatever you do, girl, wherever you roam..." ""your family still loves you." "You can always go home. "" "She wanted to wait up for you." "How's the Cort family holding up?" "Oh, I don't know how to help them understand this." "The son dead, the mom butchered." " It's like Job." " Job endured." "I'm expecting a collapse after they see the mother tomorrow." "Anything I can tell them?" "Tell them we're still looking." "Frank, I don't want to add to the pressure on you." "You're not." "It comes from the outside." "The depravity." "You two make it possible to go on." "Hi, Daddy." "Hi, sweetheart." "What's 'pravity?" "This is the obituary of the boy who died." "It appeared two days ago." "Here's Ray Bell." "So he read the kid's obituary." "It's a starting point." "He's done it before." "You mean he just picks one out of the paper and shows up?" "Why would anybody go to a funeral they didn't have to?" " Watch people suffer." " He didn't watch." "He participated." " And you got this from reading one obituary?" " Not the obituary." " The lapel pin." " What about the lapel pin?" "He takes souvenirs from each funeral." "His performance with the mother was rehearsed... skillful, honed by repetition." "Frank, if anything ended like this last night, we'd have heard about it." "Last night he crossed the line into murderous violence." "Possibly for the first time." "Next time will be easier for him." "Oh, I-I'm sorry for intruding." "I" " I thought, uh..." "I don't know what I thought." "Are you okay?" "Oh, right." "That's a stupid question." "Um..." "I'm Tina." "Um, David and I were friends at college." "Eric." "So I guess you knew David from around here, huh?" " Since the fourth grade." " Oh." "Oh, you've got to tell me what he was like as a kid." "He..." "Are you..." "Are you really okay?" "Oh, when they say it hurts, they- they really mean it." "Yeah." "Yeah, it's- it's actual pain." "It's like you've been stabbed or something." "I think this house is getting to me." "Too many memories?" "Yeah." "I'd better go." "You need a lift?" "Um, I-I was leaving soon anyway... and the truth is..." "I'm driving his mother crazy just being here." "So..." "I could show you where, uh, David and I went fishing when we were kids." "David fishing?" "No way." "Oh, man." "David could skip anything." "You know, I remember one time we found this..." "Tina?" "Oh, I'm-I'm sorry." "I" " I shouldn't have..." "I can't believe that he's gone." "It's okay." "It's okay." "It's okay." " Eric?" " It's okay." "Eric?" "Eric?" "I'm sorry." "I..." "I'll leave you alone for a little bit." "I..." "So I heard a splash and I rushed over." "Some colored gentleman caught a rainbow this big just a few days back." "So I figured maybe I was due." "We already got a call in to a chopper on its way." "I made a cast, Edwin." "See it?" ""Stop looking"." "Does he mean us?" "we found two quality partials." "The same index finger." "Ester fuming developed the latent images, which we composited into a single print." "We're expediting it through AFIS." "That bow was underwater." "We've lifted prints off bones buried fifty years." "Detective Bletcher." "Communication." "What is he trying to tell us?" "I don't know." "But there's a message on the first body." "They checked." "There was nothing." "The carving is too elaborate for first-time out." "The acute angle of the'S. " He's thought about it." "Between the stab wounds and autopsy, if there was a message, it may be gone." " It's there." " Does he have any priors?" "It may be done hastily." "Even an afterthought." "I'll take a look." "Great." "Good work." "I think we got a hit." "James Dickerson." "Paroled at a Diebstahl Group Home." "It's a remand center for paroled convicts." " What is he in for?" " Juvenile." "Record's sealed." "Up!" "Get up!" "Get up, get up, get up!" "What, Connor?" "What are you doing', man?" "You've gone too far this time, man." " This is insane." " I don't want to hear it, man... 'cause then I'm an accomplice and they got me by the lips" " Go." "Hang on, I'm coming'!" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." " Open up!" "Police!" " Yeah, just a second." " Just a second." " Come on, open up!" " Come on!" " Just a second." "I'm getting' it." " He's getting' away." " Move back from the door!" " In on three." " I-I can't let anybody in or out after 8:00." " Please, let me call the director." " Three!" "Dickerson!" "James Dickerson!" "Room Three!" "Upstairs!" "Don't want any trouble!" " You guys take the ground floor!" " Got it!" " Back up!" "Back up!" " Report." "All of you back in your rooms!" "Go!" "That goes to the alley." "I think he's gone." "You scrape together 250 for a house... spend your weekends trying' to keep up with repairs... you got to wonder how the dozen convicts next door qualify as a single family residence." "Here's the bed check." "He was here five minutes before we were." " So can I ask what he did?" " You can ask." "Must be pretty bad." "You don't go storming' a place over parking tickets." "That's right." "Between you and me, James isn't programming." "I think he's got a lot of anger." " And what do you do about that?" " Not much you can do." "Ever heard of denial?" ""I don't have the problem." "You have the problem. " That's James." "So according to this, uh, bed check, James was all tucked in every night this week?" " Yeah, sure." " You saying' maybe he slips out?" "Anything's possible with that nutcase." "So help us out here, Connor." "Good deed time." "Okay, um, I don't go skeezing guys out." "That's not me." " But..." " Yeah?" "How'd you know about this?" "Some junkie thief that we bounced out of here last year, he hid his fix in there." "I figure maybe James heard about it." "I told ya." "I'm here to help." "So what we have here is a guy that goes to funerals for fun and kills people." " Plus carves them up." " Does social service have a name for that?" "He's a classic "lost child"." "And there's an army of them just like him." "Put up for adoption at one and a half... never placed, in and out of foster care, reform school, abuse." "He essentially raised himself." " And he didn't do a very good job." " They never do." "No one showed him how to connect with the world." "Odd as this may sound, going to funerals is his attempt." " Attempt at what?" " Finding human contact." "Family." "Family?" "Please." "Read his diary." "Decide for yourself." "But I'm telling you, at some level, he wants what we all have." "He wants to destroy what we have." "I read once the first two weeks of a kitten's life seal its fate." "If it has human contact, it's domestic." "If it doesn't, it goes feral." "Tough room." "You make anything of these?" "All "Return to Sender"." "Peggy Dechant." " What have you got?" " His mother." "She contacted Victim Assistance three years ago." "Hey, come on." "Ah, come on, you know me." "Here." "Shh." "Here you go." "Come on, come on." "Here, I got something for you." "Yeah, here you go." "Come on." "Come on." "Here you go." "Yeah, good." "Here you go, doggies." "Come on." "Come on." "Yeah." "Yeah, there you go." "Connor, is that you?" " Oh!" "Where have you been?" " Covering your ass with the cops, ditch weed." "Move." " Move over." " I feel like I'm trapped in here." "Yeah, what's the matter?" "You got nowhere else to go, huh?" "You think I don't know that?" "Hey, calm down." "You gotta chill out a little bit." "Here, eat something'." "I can't take this anymore." "Hey." "Come on." "It'll make you feel better." "Come on." " No." " Come." "Please?" "Come on." "There you go." "Here." "Here, here, here." " Here, a burger." " Mmm." "All right?" "Good, huh?" "Who takes care of you?" "Come on, who's your friend?" "Yeah." "Well, I thank you very much." "Thank you for your time." "Yes." "Hey, like old times, huh?" "You're still here when everyone else has gone home." "I just got off the phone with the Johnson's." "One of the families in the journal." "They lost a son about a year ago." " James spent a week in their home." " And they lived to tell?" "They described him as a very loving person who sustained them through a very difficult time." "Hmm." "What pushed that kid over the edge?" "I'm not sure the kid was pushed." "Frank, you were right." "I found something on the first victim." "Her skin was thoroughly distressed." "No message of any subtlety would have survived, so I turned to clothing." " What are we looking at here?" " Traces of pollen." " Calla lily." " There's a message." "I lifted the image electrostatically." " It's only fragments." " It's just too faint to see." "So I started a time exposure." "After about 50 minutes..." " There it was." " Hmm." "Uh, not to rain on anyone's parade here, but, uh, we already have this, right?" " " Stop looking. "" " Yeah, it would appear so." "I thought I recognized this "S"." "Connor?" "Oh, man." " Call an ambulance!" " Right away!" "Mrs. Dechant?" "Anybody home?" "Yeah, hello?" "I'm sorry about that." "I was just putting my baby down." "What is this?" "I'm Catherine Black from Social Services." "It's about James Dickerson." "You people said I'd never hear from him." "I know he sent you letters." "Letters?" "Three years ago he walked up that driveway, a complete stranger." "He says nothing, just hugs me." "And then he tells me, "I want to come home. "" "I'm still afraid to let Jason out of my sight." "Well, he's in custody now." "Good." "Keep him there." " He's been asking for you." " No." " I'm out of this." " Mrs. Dechant, he's your son." "He's not my son." "He's something that happened when I was a strung-out teenager." "You people said you'd find him a good home." "You never did." "Now you deal with him." "We are dealing with him." "But two people are dead." " He did that?" " I need your help." "So you found her dead." "I went, I went back to the car to get a coat." "Um, it was cold." "And when, when I returned," "Well, there she was." "Why didn't you try to revive her?" "She was cut up." "I was scared." " Too scared to come forward." " I told you." "I wanted to." " Yeah, that's..." " We're open 24 hours a day." "He says he didn't do it." "He may honestly believe that." "Call me when you find out what "Stop looking" means." "I got a 6:30 plane." "Yeah, you can say it." " How many times do I have to tell you?" " Are you uncomfortable with this?" " I could stay." " Not necessary." " Is he capable?" " Yes." " Does he fit the profile?" " Yes." "Have a safe flight, Peter." "Thank you very much." " Are we annoying you?" " Thank you." "Because I'm detecting something in your voice that sounds like annoyance." "Let's go over this again." "So when you left to find this coat... she already knew that you never met her dead boyfriend." "Is that right?" "Yeah, I guess." "I guess." "She didn't leave you much choice, did she?" "I didn't kill anybody." "I swear I didn't." "Yeah, well, James, Ray, Travis, Eric..." "You're kind of a professional liar, aren't you?" "Pathological prevarication." "That's what they call it." "Oh, yeah." "That's out there." " Can I help you?" " I came to get James." "Maybe he's busy, huh?" "You might as well go home." "No hurry there." "The director yanked my trustee privileges." " Do you think I could talk to James?" " Family only." " That'll be the day." " Frank?" "Hi." "This is Peggy Dechant." "This is my husband, Frank." " Thanks for coming." " Yeah." " Shall we go?" " Yeah." "You came." "I knew you would." "Mom, please tell them that I didn't hurt anyone, okay?" "Please." "You know I wouldn't do that." "Tell them." "They'll listen to you." "Would you stop it!" " Did you kill someone?" " No." "Tell them." "Please?" "I can't do this." "I don't even know him." "Mrs. Dechant." " Mrs. Dechant..." " No." "You people raised him." "He's all yours." "You want a confession?" "Okay." "Okay." "I killed 'em." "I'd do it again." "So, you did it?" "They're dead, aren't they?" "What's "Stop looking", James?" "Stop looking." "You found me." "How could anyone abandon a child?" "But millions of people do it." "Millions." "God, it's scary." "we have home after home filled with kids like James." "And we know they turn violent." "How do I tell the survivors that no one saw it coming?" " They're out there, Frank." " A thousand points of darkness." "People full of holes." "Like James." "Living off the fantasy that his mother will somehow make everything better." "Frank?" "It doesn't make any sense." "James never gave up." "He never stopped looking." "It was fantasy." "Stop looking is a message to James." "A warning." "Stop looking... for family?" "The trustee at the group home." " Who?" " Connor." "He wanted James for himself." "Fred?" "Fred?" "Is that you?" "Honey, are you home?" "Fred..." "Ow!" "Ow!" "Ouch!" "Wait for the ambulance." "We are on the scene." "Suspect has been apprehended." "Do you copy?" " Area is cordoned off, sir." " Get in here." " Hey, easy!" " Get in!" "It's that two-week window." "Feral or tame." "Take him!" " You should have waited for us, damn it." " She'd be dead now." "He should have waited." "You tell him." "I know." "I know you had to go in there." "Because of who you are." "Because you had no choice." "Frank, I can't lose you." "I'm not going anywhere." "Promise me?" "I don't want to ask myself, am I strong enough to be alone." "It's okay." "Nobody is." "It's okay." "It's okay." "It's okay." "It's okay." "Revision:" "Thor"