The Watched (CSI Reilly Steel #4) (25 page)

‘What is it?’

Reilly pointed to the head. ‘Tall with auburn hair and beheaded. Queen Mary.’

Daniel’s
forehead wrinkled. ‘But I thought our killer did fiction. I know
Braveheart
is based on a real person, but it’s far from historically accurate.’

‘
There is a movie though,’ Reilly replied. ‘Most people consider it the first, quote, horror film, unquote, even though it’s about a historical figure. In 1895, an eighteen-second, black-and-white film called
The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots
showed an actress dressed as Mary kneeling in front of an executioner. The executioner lifts the head for the crowd and the screen goes to black. That’s the same style of dress worn by the actress who played Mary.’

‘
How in the world do you know that?’ Todd looked and sounded so impressed that, despite herself, Reilly gave a small smile.

‘Like I said, I know some English history. But while I was researching horror movies, this one popped up too; that’s why it’s so familiar to me now
.’

Todd
crouched down again and used a pair of tweezers to pluck a few hairs from the back of the dress. Judging by their length and color, Reilly guessed they surely belonged to the victim, but better safe than sorry.

Daniel looked thoughtful. ‘
Until now, our killer has picked well-known, relatively recent movies or ones with a cult following. Using something like this is his way of bragging, showing off his knowledge of classical work.’

‘So h
e’s a real film buff – we kinda guessed that,’ Todd said darkly. ‘Not just some guy who goes down to the multiplex every now and again.’ He looked at his father. ‘Makes the festival connection even stronger.’

Daniel nodded. ‘I’ll talk to Sampson, ask the detectives to rework this angle. Good information, Reilly, thank you.’

‘The dress,’ she said to Todd, indicating the costume. ‘It’s distinctive individuated evidence. You should definitely be able to get something from it; trace where it came from. This isn’t some cheap knockoff.’ Her face was grim. ‘Whoever made that costume knew what they were doing.’

At Todd’s request, Reilly agreed to update Bradley at the lab while he
talked with the assistant ME about the best way to transport the victim’s head.

She scrolled through
his phone contacts, accidentally going too far and having to backtrack. She raised an eyebrow at the sheer number of female names and then shook her head, feeling stupid. Who Todd had in his phone wasn’t any of her business. She tapped Bradley’s name.

The senior investigator answered on the first ring.
‘Todd, what’ve you got?’

‘
It’s Reilly Steel,’ she began, taking a few steps away from the crime scene. ‘Todd asked me to call you.’

‘
What’s up?’ The informality spoke volumes as to how tired Bradley was.

‘He’s just finishing up at the scene,’ she said, before giving him a quick overview of the crime scene and the implications of this particular theme
. ‘The costume looks like it’s going to be your best bet to find this guy.’

‘
Costume?’

‘The victim
was dressed like Mary, Queen of Scots. Looks like the killer went pretty far back in his movie catalog to find this particular sequence. You might want to have your computer expert looking for
The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots
as the next clip.’

‘
What’d you say?’ Bradley’s tone sharpened, suddenly alert.

Reilly
gave a further explanation, puzzled by the abrupt change in tone. ‘When I was researching, I found a really old movie about the execution of Queen Mary. He might be trying to re-enact something else, but I’m pretty confident that’s the one.’

‘OK, thanks.’ T
he rustle of papers nearly drowned out Bradley’s words.

‘No problem.’
Reilly hesitated, then asked, ‘Is everything all right?’ Granted, she didn’t know the investigator very well, but on the couple of times she’d met Bradley, he’d come across calm and unruffled, not at all like the distracted, frazzled person she was talking to now.

‘Fine.’
Bradley seemed decidedly preoccupied. ‘I just need to check on something. Tell Todd I’ll talk to him later.’

Silence.

Reilly looked down at the phone in her hand. Seriously, he had hung up without a goodbye? She turned toward the approaching footsteps, unsettled by the abrupt end to the call.

‘
You OK?’ Todd wore an expression of concern when she rejoined him and Daniel. He yanked off his gloves and tossed them into a nearby biohazard bucket.

‘
I think Bradley has a lead,’ Reilly said absently. She handed Todd his phone, her forehead still furrowed with confusion.

Todd’s eyes lit up.
‘Great. What is it?’

‘
He didn’t say.’ She shrugged, trying to shake her feeling of unease. ‘Just said he had to go and check something out and he’d talk to you later.’

By the time Todd returned
to the lab, the sun was past its peak, the temperature was in the high nineties and Bradley wasn’t there. Both Peni and Emilie were hard at work, only looking up when Todd announced that he’d brought lunch.

Emilie took a bag but didn’t open it, the expression on
her face slightly sick. The redhead looked even more pale than usual and Todd couldn’t really say that he blamed her. This was a lot of grisly deaths for anyone to take in, much less someone who’d been on the job less than a year.

Peni’s appetite apparently hadn’t been affected. She grabbed the bag Todd offered, tucked her feet up underneath her and began to eat. Around a mouthful of turkey on rye sub, she announced that she’d narrowed down the area where the killer was sending his video
footage.

‘
Once I separated all of the feeds and analyzed their change pattern, I was able to start the process of backtracking.’ She pulled up a map and indicated an area of almost fifty square miles. ‘I know it’s still not close enough, but we’re getting there.’

‘Very good.’
Todd nodded his approval.

‘While I was
waiting,’ Peni said, ‘you know how Sampson and Reed are looking into that list of film festival people? I found an article published about a year ago where one of the actors on the list bashed the movie industry for the recent outpouring of, as he put it, “slasher gore porn” that had no true artistic merit.’

‘Which actor
?’ Todd asked, curious.

‘That nut-job
Reynolds.’ Peni took another bite of her sandwich and spoke around it. ‘He even went on to say that if Hollywood didn’t start producing more quality films, it was going to be up to him and people like him to take up the slack.’

‘
Doesn’t that imply that he’d be the last one to commit these murders?’ Emilie asked. She took a tentative sip of the tea Todd had brought her. ‘I mean, if he thinks horror movies are trash, why would he want to add to them?’

Todd
was helpless to understand what it meant, if anything. Behavioral analysis wasn’t really his forte. He’d run it by his dad later, see what he thought, as he knew that Reynolds was one of the people Daniel and Reilly had interviewed before.

Still, he had a theory of his own. ‘
Whoever our killer is, I don’t think he’s carrying out re-enactments because he likes horror,’ he said. ‘I think he’s actually more like a child reacting to being told that he has to do something he doesn’t want to do. Kind of the, “Well fine, if that’s what you like, that’s what I’ll do and I’ll do it better than anyone else” approach.’

‘Shouldn’t we tell
Bradley to let the detectives know that they should be looking into Reynolds then?’ Emilie asked.

‘It’s certainly an angle.’
Todd nodded and took another gulp of his sweet tea. ‘Speaking of Bradley, what do you know about this lead of his?’

‘
What lead?’ Emilie looked at Peni who shook her head, just as puzzled as the other woman. ‘He didn’t mention anything.’

‘
Where did he go then?’ Todd asked as he opened his salad. He’d never been a fan of greens, but he didn’t think his stomach could handle anything solid at the moment.

Peni
answered this time. ‘We figured you’d know,’ she said. ‘About an hour ago, he rushed out of his office and went out. Looked like he was in a hurry. Didn’t stop to tell us anything.’

‘He didn’t say anything about following up on some movie called
The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots
?’

‘Nope.’

Todd was curious. What could’ve been so urgent that Bradley would have run out without talking to his team? Whatever it had been, it had to have been important enough for the senior investigator to behave completely out of character. Well, for whatever reason, at least it sounded like his partner had a decent lead.

Something they all badly needed at this point.

CHAPTER 29

The Maestro couldn’t believe his luck. He’d been pondering over his casting options for his first truly original scene when the perfect leading man had just happened by.

He’d been around long enough to have heard stories of things like this happening. Kismet. Fate. Whatever you wanted to call it. Didn’t matter.

All he knew was that he’d still been making blocking decisions and waiting for inspiration about who to cast when the perfect specimen had simply presented itself.

At first, he’d
been concerned that his lead of choice would prove to be too strong, but like everyone else, the man had underestimated him and the cattle prod had once again proved to be a worthy investment. Now, the man was bound and gagged in the trunk of the car. He supposed he would need to get rid of the car soon enough, but for now it would serve his purpose.

The docks appeared deserted, but he looked around anyway. It wouldn’t do to get caught now. Not when he was so close. Not when he’d spent so much time today setting everything up. He’d used an assumed identity to rent a slip that afternoon
and purchased a run-down speedboat under a totally different name – Fred Krueger – which the young man who’d set everything up had found amusing. Clearly a kindred spirit.

The box in his back seat, however, had been a bit more difficult to obtain. Fortunately, his contacts had let him get what he needed. He knew it had been a risk, but what was life without a little risk?

He carried the box to the boat first, walking gingerly down the rickety pier. If he dropped it, things would not end well for him. Fortune was with him, however, and he reached his antiquated little boat without incident.

He set the box at one end of the boat where he could easily tip it before sending the boat on its maiden voyage. His trip back to the car confirmed that he was indeed alone
, and his anxiety was quickly replaced by excitement. One of the reasons he’d chosen this particular spot was that most of the boats weren’t worth stealing, which meant his wasn’t out of place and security would be light.

Cattle prod in hand, he opened his trunk. His captor blinked blearily, but didn’t seem to be enough in control of himself to fight or run. Still, the
Maestro was cautious as he pulled the man from the trunk. With one hand, he dragged his prisoner down the dock, the other hand still gripping the end of the prod, poised to strike if necessary.

‘
Congratulations,’ the Maestro said as he shoved the man onto the boat. ‘You’re going to be a star.’

It wasn’t until nearly three-
thirty in the early hours that Todd had dropped onto the couch and fallen into a deep but restless slumber. Then he’d woken at five and hadn’t been able to get back to sleep.

Now, he let the warm water wash away the sweat and grime of the day before and tried to gather his thoughts.
When he climbed out of the shower nearly thirty minutes later, he felt a bit better, though still tired. It didn’t matter. He’d pretty much counted on being tired until Holly’s murderer was found. Wrapping a towel around his waist he went through to the small kitchen to start a pot of coffee.

He’d just finished getting dressed and
was reaching for the coffee when his phone rang. He grabbed for it, his mood instantly darkening. Early-morning calls were never a good thing, especially not for CSI. They almost always meant a body.

Another one, was it even possible? This guy was relentless, fearless even.

What was he trying to prove?

‘
Todd?’ Mark Reed’s voice sounded strange.

‘
Another movie one?’ Todd decided to beat him to the punch. He poured the aromatic liquid into his ‘My Other Car Is A Time Machine’ mug.

‘I’m afraid so.’
The detective cleared his throat, but there was something in his voice that put Todd on high alert.