mother would have been an anomaly in that pattern?” “Yes, but serial killers

don’t always stick to a pattern. Sometimes they seize an opportunity.” “Which

you may be doing by latching on to this, Puller.” He stared down at her. “It’s a

potential lead, Knox. That’s all.” “And it’s a very cold case, so how do you

propose chasing this lead down?” “The police file would be a good start.” “And

will you approach the local police in your official CID capacity?” Puller didn’t

answer.

 

Knox added, “Because you’re not officially tasked to take on that case. And

you’re not officially working on this one, so I’m not sure how that would fly.”

“You could get those files.” “I probably could, but I’m not officially tasked to

do this either. I have superiors to answer to, just like you.” “Really? So

you’re here on vacation time and nothing else?” She stared at him and he just as

resolutely glared back at her. “We could run that in circles for days,” she

finally said. “I can run for days. How about you?” “You’re not making this easy,

Puller.” “Why should I?” “Well, I guess it’s hard to argue with that,” she said

sarcastically. “So you’ll do it?” “I’ll make a call.” “Say it may be in the

interests of national security. That’ll push you to the head of the records

retrieval line. Otherwise we might be waiting for months. Tell them you’ll send

a CID agent to pick them up for you today if they can have them ready.” “Phone

records from thirty years ago and now a file on four cold murders. My, how this

case has evolved.” “Cases always evolve, Knox. They’re like living things. And

sometimes they turn into something truly unrecognizable.” * * * Five hours later

Knox learned that the phone records from thirty years before were impossible to

access. But on the plus side, they were staring at ten file boxes filled with