The deputy's eyes widened and he looked alarmed.
"It's a case of a serial killer starting a spree after some kind of triggering event, we believe," May added. "We know what professions he might work in, and we know where we need to hunt for him. It's not a lot. But compared to where we were, we're getting somewhere."
"It's enough for us to make a start," Owen added reassuringly.
May hurried through to the back office. They set up shop, got their laptops open, and started to compile the lists of people who would fit in with the parameters Kerry had set out.
May knew they had to be extremely thorough. They could not afford to miss anyone. A slip-up now would mean the killer escaped their net.
They worked in silence as they compared the lists, noting down every doctor in the area, every funeral director and pastor, and every paramedic, cemetery manager, and priest.
It was slow, painstaking work, but May was focusing on it, trying to do it as fast as possible.
"I guess we have to use a wide radius," May said. "Probably, a twenty-mile radius."
That widened the parameters and included a couple of neighboring towns, but the killer could have traveled in the course of his work.
In her mind, May went over again and again what Kerry had said, comparing it with what she also knew this killer must be.
She looked at the list, where Owen was matching up the names of the individuals who lived in or near the targeted area to the roles and professions in the town, using local databases, working at focused speed. As soon as he was done, he pushed the sheets over to May.
Here were the lists. Paramedics, doctors, funeral directors, coroners, and other people with death-adjacent professions. One of them had cracked and broken. One of them misguidedly believed that he was doing the Grim Reaper's work.
One of them had suffered a personal loss or trauma about a month ago, that had changed who he was and brought out the side of him that had become a ruthless murderer.
Somewhere here was the killer. May felt sure of that, as the names on the lists started adding up. But she had the feeling that something bad would happen soon. Her instincts were on red alert.She could almost sense the shadows closing in around them.
This was a man who was capable of some truly cold-hearted violence and his obsession was taking him over.
How long did he usually take to plan the next kill? Had he left enough time between strikes for them to catch up with him?
"May, the only thing is that this list is getting very long," Owen said uneasily. "You know, I never realized there were so many people associated with death as a profession. It's not going to be simple finding him."
May let out a deep breath. She raised her head from her work and took a look at what they had.
Owen was right. There was a startling number of names on the list, over thirty people already, and Owen was still working.
Each one of these would need to be scrutinized, so that they could see if anything traumatic had recently happened to propel them into this killing mindset. Not to mention checking up on their shoe size.
"There must be a way we can narrow this list down. There must be something," she said to herself.
Yet again, she checked back through her case notes, looking back to the interviews with the family, searching for any nugget of information that she might have missed, or not realized the significance of.
She kept on thinking back to the very first interview she’d done, which had been with Hayley Meakin’s family. For some reason, May felt as if her brain was trying to remind her of something important, a small detail, that she’d learned while there.
And then, as she frantically read through her notes, May saw that they did have something.
It was only a casual mention. It had only been said to explain a question she'd asked.
But it was a place to start.
"Look here, Owen," May said. "Do you think this could mean something?"
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
May saw Owen's face, eager and intent, the face of a hunter who thought he might be glimpsing his prey. And May felt just as excited that they might be catching up with the killer.
"What are you thinking of?" Owen asked.