Ashes, Ashes, They All Fall Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

fingerprints.” She pointed to a small, dark smudge on one of the letters. “That’s powder from where we took a latent.”
    “I noticed there are both male and female names on these letters.”
    “Yes. I know that’s unusual for a serial killer, if that’s what we’re dealing with here. They tend to stick to one type of victim, all male or all female. But not always. Richard Ramirez—the Night Stalker—killed both men and women. There are other killers who did the same.”
    “It seems as if he wants to be caught, that he’s sending these letters to give the FBI clues to find him,” Matt said.
    Tessa shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s almost unheard of for a serial killer to purposely try to be caught. That’s not how their brains work. It’s more likely that he’s sending the letters to brag about his kills. It’s a way for him to gloat, to get another thrill.”
    He nodded as he sifted through the rest of the letters. “Any ideas about the Ashes, Ashes line?”
    “My working theory is that the killer is fascinated by fire, possibly a serial arsonist.”
    His gaze shot to hers. “If that’s true, wouldn’t you expect to find the victims’ names in arsonist murder investigations? You said you searched law-enforcement databases.”
    “The databases are only as good as the data in them. I couldn’t contact every single law-enforcement office in the country. If he’s killing people in isolated, rural areas, with small populations, the law-enforcement agencies there might not be equipped with a linkup to the FBI. That’s why I’m so desperate for a lead. If I could just figure out a place to look, a place to begin, I could get this guy.”
    He held one of the envelopes up to the light. “I see what you meant about the postmarks. They’re from all over. No obvious geographical patterns, other than being east of the Mississippi River and south of the Mason-Dixon Line.”
    “Right, which makes it hard to narrow down where he’s operating from, his home base.”
    “Assuming he has one.”
    She nodded. “Yes, assuming he has one. He could be a nomad, traveling in an RV or just going from hotel to hotel. But even if he stayed at the cheapest dives, it would be expensive to maintain that kind of lifestyle for long. It’s far more likely he travels when he’s looking for victims and otherwise has a place he calls home. And a job.”
    Matt raised a brow. “Because people with enough money to travel all the time don’t become serial killers?”
    “I didn’t say that. I’m playing the odds.”
    He pointed to one of the letters. “What about this little curlicue at the end of the Ashes line? It’s on every letter. Any idea why he adds that mark?”
    “No. We haven’t been able to identify it, although it looks vaguely familiar. Or maybe it’s just so ordinary-looking it seems familiar, like a little squiggle someone might make when they’re doodling on a piece of paper.”
    “Maybe.”
    When he finished looking at the letters and envelopes, he rested his forearms on the table. “Twenty-three letters. There are all kinds of numerology theories about the number twenty-three, basically saying nearly everything that happens can be related back to that number. Some people associate it with the apocalypse. Add up the numbers for the date of the World Trade Center attack—nine for September, eleven for the day, the two, zero, zero, and one in two thousand one—that equals twenty-three. The Unabomber hurt or killed twenty-three people. I could go on, listing other historical events where twenty-three is significant.”
    “I’m sure you could, since you have a master’s in mathematics,” she said drily. “I hadn’t thought about the number of letters as being significant, other than that there are a lot of potential victims.”
    He shrugged. “It may not be significant, especially if he sends more letters. I’m just throwing that out there. You never know which facts might become