The Hunted Girls by Jenna Kernan (best book club books for discussion txt) 📕

Could Simon have left custody and gotten to Linda that same night?

His parents reported taking him directly home and that he did not leave that evening. They also had the statement from the naturalist and handyman who reported seeing him at the marina late that afternoon.

Simon Kilpatrick was a solid suspect who ticked all the boxes. Smart, with a history of women troubles, failed military service, psychological problems, depression and a suicide attempt. He also was known to have met at least one of the victims. Textbook, she thought, and frowned.

Perhaps too perfect a fit?

Nadine requested that Special Agent Coleman make the arrest because she wanted to see how Simon reacted to a female agent detaining him. The arrest didn’t take long and Coleman arrived with the Putnam County sheriff with Simon in custody. Nadine met them at the county jail just after 3 p.m. Simon had resisted arrest, fought and made a run for it, nearly escaping into the woods before one of the sheriffs and Special Agent Coleman brought him down.

“You were right,” said Coleman. “He hates women telling him what to do. Dr. Finch, I think we got him.”

Simon Kilpatrick did not confess to the crimes but was being held without bond as the arrows in his possession were compared to the wounds found on the victims.

Demko stood with Nadine beside the observation window. Beyond, Simon sat with the sheriff and Special Agent Skogen.

“You think he’s our guy?” Demko asked.

“Not convinced. You?”

He shook his head.

Simon fit her description, but not her profile. She’d always insisted on that, ever since he’d first been arrested. Since the man in the room across from her in the hotel did not speak, she did not know if he had a high voice like Kilpatrick, but was nearly certain it had not been Simon. This guy had been predatory, and Simon was not.

Wait a minute. He had spoken. Tolan had complained that Nadine’s banging had awoken her twice, and he’d said something like, “So help her and go to bed.”

Nadine shuddered as she recalled the cold, fixed stare. She had looked at him. But what had she seen? What had she heard?

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She told him. “He didn’t have a noticeable accent. And his voice was not unusually high, as Linda Tolan had said.”

“Not Simon?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Better let Skogen know,” he said.

A few minutes later, Skogen emerged from the interrogation room and passed her a sheet of white paper onto which Simon had copied several of the lines from the greeting card.

Demko glanced at the page. “He’s a righty.”

Nadine was no expert, but Simon’s handwriting did not resemble the writing on the two communications in the least.

She was missing something. She scowled at the niggling annoyance stemming from knowing an obvious detail was right in front of her but still outside her conscious mind. It aggravated like a splinter under the skin.

“It’s not him,” she said to the special agent.

“Because?”

She told him about the voice of the man in the hotel. Skogen continued to shake his head, unwilling to consider that this might not be their guy.

“He’s too perfect. The psych background, the arrows, the hatred of women, the outdoor experience and the proximity to your second victim.”

“Rita Karnowski kayaked there before she went missing.”

“Our guy is smart and he’s invisible. I looked right at him, twice, and don’t remember a single defining characteristic. Simon, on the other hand, caught my attention almost instantly.”

She returned the paper. “Did you look at this handwriting sample?”

Skogen rubbed his neck. “Someone else could have written them for him.”

“Really? Who?”

“His mom?”

She shook her head. “It’s not him.”

The stalemate ended with Nadine retreating down the hallway ready to head back to the safe house. She was waiting with Demko for her protection detail when Skogen tracked her down again. She turned, bracing for another battle.

“The Star called. They have a new message. It’s a manifesto of some kind, but the cover letter is one line. Coleman is on her way to retrieve the packet now.”

Her eyes widened.

“Kilpatrick could have sent it before he was picked up,” he said.

She shook her head, rejecting the notion. “What is the one line?”

“‘She says her name is Jo.’”

She blinked at him. “He has another one.”

Twenty-One

The missing woman was Josephine Summerville, known as Jo. Her car had been tagged yesterday by a Putnam County sheriff. Her vehicle appeared to have been rear-ended. The minor fender-bender likely sent her to the shoulder. Thanks to the cover letter they’d received and Demko, who alerted the sheriff’s office that there might be a woman missing named Jo, the patrolman remembered seeing the name on the vehicle’s registration and called the Feds. Further digging showed that Summerville’s golden Lab, Captain, was found on a hiking trail on the eastern side of the forest the same day. Attempts by the forest department to contact her failed. This initiated a search, but they had found nothing as of 4:45 p.m. today, Thursday, when the latest communication arrived priority mail at the Orlando Star escalating the search.

This contact was unlike the others. Beyond the one-sentence cover letter was a seven-page typed manifesto. She read it in the conference room, surrounded by Special Agents Skogen, Coleman and Vea.

“He mentioned in the birthday card he was writing a manifesto,” said Vea.

This seemed like dogma, she thought, scanning.

…believe in the power of an apex predator. We do not submit to your laws. All men must follow but one law—the law of nature. Kill or be killed. Survive to adulthood, establish home territory and defend it from all rivals. Murder is a convention of men. Predators understand that killing ensures the success of the species. We are all links in a chain of survival. An animal must show strength to attract a mate, win the right to breed, defend against rivals, raise offspring and …

She set the statement aside.

“Who is ‘we’?” she