Nervously eying the crowd, Barron steps forward and tries to calm her nearly shaking hands. “Greetings and thank you for joining us. We’re going to need your help with this one. We believe that the unsub is local. Most likely a white male in his early 30’s to late 40’s. It’s believed he may have lost someone special in the winter months of his youth, and chances are a more recent loss has driven him to escalate his behavior. “

A redhead in the back pipes up “Excuse me, but isn’t this the standard line? White male, 30-40s, a sob story in his past, and a trigger event that caused him to escalate? ” Barron replies “Your point being?” The red head tosses her head and sighs “Well, it just seems like we should have more to go on with three dead girls.” Barron suppresses the desire to tear the reporter a new outlet for her cynicism, and responds “Do you think you can do better? ”

The reporter has the good grace to look flustered and asks “What should we tell the women of this town?” Barron replies, “Well first, don’t go out alone – especially if you’re in this creeps target age range. Stay with a friend in public places. Make sure your loved ones know your whereabouts. Above all, listen to your gut. If a situation seems creepy, there’s probably a reason for it. But above all, just use common sense.”

With that said, Chief Sharp steps up and asks for final questions, which is met with a contemplative silence. Barron let’s out a deep breath she didn’t realize she was holding, and make tracks for the interior of the police station -eager to get to work on catching this guy. Nobody notices as a nondescript man vanishes back into the crowd. It’s amazing what you can get way with when nobody notices you.

With that thought, the man heads back to his car to begin the drive back to home base. So what if they were looking for a white male in his 30’s-40’s. You and everybody else. He laughed, might as well be looking for Mr. Right in a church group, or down at the bar. In reality, they were as likely to find him in either place, and still look right through him.

In the meanwhile, time was ticking down for Mary. But he had plenty of time. All the time in the world. Time to finish his plans, time to teach this pithy little town a lesson. Time to right the wrongs. Time to make them remember his name, once he was done.