Chapter Twenty-One.

On top of it all, he had picked up a loony. He had several messages from a Mikey "O" that claimed to have detailed information for him. He had to follow up on every lead, but he dreaded meeting with this guy. From the voicemail he had received, the guy sounded like a flaming queen.

Allen rubbed his temples and stared at the stacks of folders covering his desk. Time to buckle down and get on it. He picked up the top file and opened it. Methodically, he separated the different pages. He had brought in a large wither board to take notes on. He pulled the cap off a brand new dry erase marker and wrote the name at the top. Next was the date missing or found. He wrote down other details, such as professions as well.

He had also pinned up a map of Portland and had taken a box of colored pushpins from the supply cabinet. He had spread the map out on a cork bulletin board and pinned it down. Awkwardly picking it up, he held it up to the wall behind his desk that had formerly held his certificates and awards. Those frames were now stacked in the corner under the antique chair. Holding it against the wall, Jacob pulled one of the pushpins out of the box and stuck it through the left side metal ring at the wooden edge of the corkboard. Trying to hold the weight of it up and keep it level, he poked the other pushpin into the ring on the right side.

At the whiteboard, he wrote in neat capital letters. He finished with the first file, and picked up the next. Making a second column, he wrote down the same information. When he had written all the information out on the board, he took a step back. On his desk, he dumped out the box of pins. He began sorting them into little piles by color.

He began placing the pins on the map, red pins for the deaths then blue for the missing. Across the bottom he pinned the women's pictures, the ones that showed them alive and in happier times. When he finished with the pins, he sat down at his desk and looked at the boards, searching for a pattern or any kind of connection.

They were all blonde. That's all he had at the moment. He debated calling in another detective to see if a different pair of eyes would see something he was missing. He got up and looked in the office next to his. It was empty but as he looked farther down, he saw the lights on in another office. As he was knocking on the door, Detective Jenny Landers was pulling it open.

Allen described his dilemma and invited her down to his office. She followed him and as she walked in she stopped at the door and looked at the two boards. After considering them for several minutes, she began to speak.

"First off, I would say it fits the typical serial scenario, white male around thirty years old. The crimes all happened in the evening or at night, so he either has a day job or sleeps during the day. He's a night owl."

"Next, look at their ages. They vary a lot, from sixteen to forty. They are all physically similar. He's picking them for their looks. That might be something to look at. You might check to see if any of them had come in contact with the others," Jenny stopped for a moment to take a breath.

"One of them, Rachel Weiss, may have," he told her when she paused. "She worked as a volunteer doing things for the homeless and the prostitutes downtown."

"Okay, so check that out. Let's see," she continued, looked closer at the board with the map. "Most of them are here in Portland, all but the two over on the west side. Not only in Portland, but on the west side of the river as well. That looks like it's territorial. He probably lives near the center of your pins," she said, looking at him and smiling.

Allen's cell phone started ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the number. It was Dana. He answered it as Detective Landers went back to the map. She was looking closer at the pictures lined up at the bottom.

After speaking quietly for a few minutes, Jacob hung up. "I have to leave for a while. If you could, just lock the door on your way out. I'll catch up to you in a bit," he said to the back of her head. She nodded absently and he walked out toward the stairs.

"Hey! Wait a second!" He turned back around when she yelled. "Yeah?" he said as he stuck his head back in the door.

"I'm going to call someone that I think can help with this. She's a forensic psychologist. I think she can give you a better idea with your profile here." He shrugged and nodded.

Dana had said that she found out a few things and needed to talk to him. He suggested lunch again, and she agreed to meet him at another restaurant, this one a little farther away. This time she decided they would try a Mexican place that she had heard about, but had never been to.

This time, he was already waiting at a table when she arrived. He was talking on his cell phone as she walked through the restaurant to the table and sat down across from him. He finished up the call and stuck the phone back down in his pocket. A waitress came up to them to take their drink order and then left them to decide on the lunch menu.

"So what's going on?" he asked her as he set the menu down on the table, "You sounded rushed on the phone." Dana colored a little; she didn't want to admit that she had just wanted to see him again. What she had to tell him was important, but not extremely urgent, especially since most of the news was at least a couple weeks old.

"I talked to a friend downtown. You have to understand, sometimes these girls just move on, heading up to Seattle or down to California. But I was told that there were a couple girls for sure that had no intentions of leaving that have disappeared."

She stopped talking as the waitress came back to take their order. Dana was craving cheese and onion enchiladas and Jacob decided on the fajita plate. The waitress thanked them and took the menus, walking back to the front lobby.

Allen nodded. He was more familiar with the street than he really wanted to be. "Well, let's get the names so I have somewhere to start. I know that they probably won't be their real names, but I have a friend in Vice that owes me a favor, I can probably send him the names, see if he can come up with any matches."

She took a piece of paper from her purse. It was folded up like a high school love note. Easily unfolding it, she slid it across the table to him. It was a list of about twenty names. He hoped that names wouldn't match any of the dead girls on his list.

They got the business part of the lunch out of the way by the time the food arrived. He revived the last discussion they had being having about fitness, telling her about the club he had finally joined. She laughed with him when she told him how close it was to her apartment.

Jacob found himself enjoying watching the way her eyes lit up when she laughed. He was about to say something when his phone started ringing. He took it out and looked at the number, and with an apologetic glance, he answered the call. He made several grunting noises, mostly in agreement with whatever was being said by the person on the other end. As he hung up, she looked at him expectantly.

"There was a body found the other night, burned in a car that was left over in northwest. There was something about it that they want me to take a look at," he told her.

"I'm supposed to go take some pictures of that this afternoon," Dana replied, looking at her watch. "In fact, I should probably get going, all my stuff is back at my place and I need to pick it up."

She took her wallet out and pulled out a credit card. The waitress had been watching and brought the bill over as soon as she saw the card. Dana tucked the card into the black folder and handed it back to her. After signing the slip of paper, she pulled her card out and tucked it back inside her wallet.

"I'll meet you at your office in a couple hours, how does that sound?" She said to him as she stood up. Jacob felt a touch of disappointment; he wanted to spend just a little more time with her now.

"Good, I'll talk to you then," he answered and they walked out into the gray afternoon. He watched her walk down the street for a minute before turning around and walking back to his office. The folded piece of paper was shoved down in his jacket pocket; he really needed to get checking on these names. He had a friend over in Washington County in the sheriff's department, someone he had taken a class with and fortunately kept in touch with as well. The phone number was in his Rolodex back in his office. He made a mental note to start transferring those numbers into the cell phone.

When he walked back into his office, there were several people in it. He felt almost as if he were being invaded, then quickly forced himself to relax. All the chatter died down as he cleared his throat to alert them to his presence.

The impromptu meeting had several results. The forensic psychologist was very interested in the case and wanted to work on it. The other detective also had several good points that he wanted to follow up on. They were still talking as his phone rang again.

"Damn, I have to go," he told them. He had almost forgotten the burn victim that he was supposed to see. He left them in his office as he hurried to the appointment.

When he had caught up to the medical examiner, the man had just opened the body bag and was pushing the sides away from the blackened body. Allen winced from the smell.

He looked closer at the body. The face had the most damage, the skin cracked and peeling. What was left of the woman's clothing was made from some kind of synthetic material that had melted to the skin in places.

Jacob pulled on a pair of exam gloves and looked closer inside the bag. He gently pulled her left hand out to look at it. It was red and shiny and swollen, there was a wedding band on her ring finger.

After a half an hour of talking with the medical examiner, he left, passing Dana in the hall carrying her photography equipment. She had her head down and was talking into a cell phone as they passed each other. The autopsy would be performed later today, it was the soonest they could get to her. The number of deaths by homicidal violence was rising early this year; he was not looking forward to summer, when it would peak.