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.She knew her place here and outwardly tried to show it.Alpert convened the meeting by graciously introducing those present.Rachel thought that this was a nicety allowed for her but soon realized that not everyone in attendance in person or by audiovisual hookup knew everyone else.Alpert first identified Doran, also known as Brass, on the line from Quantico, where she was handling the collating of information and acting as liaison to the national lab.He then asked each person seated in the room to identify themselves and their specialty or position.First was Cherie Dei, who said she was the case agent.Next to her was her partner, Tom Zigo.Next was John Cates, a representative agent from the local FO and the only nonwhite person in attendance.The next four people were from the science side and Rachel had seen and met two of them at the site the day before.They included a forensic anthropologist named Greta Coxe, who was in charge of the excavations, two medical examiners named Harvey Richards- and Douglas Sundeen, and a crime scene specialist named Mary Pond.Ed Gunning, another agent from Behavioral Sciences in Quantico, brought the introductions around to Rachel, who was last."Agent Rachel Walling," she said." Rapid City field office.Formerly with Behavioral.I have some… familiarity with a case like this.""Okay, thanks, Rachel," Alpert said quickly, as though he thought Rachel was going to mention Robert Backus by name.This told Rachel that there were people in the room who had not been informed of the major fact of the case.She guessed that would be Cates, the token agent from the FO.She wondered if some of the science team, or all of it, was in the dark as well."Let's start with the science side," Alpert continued."First of all, Brass? Anything from out there?""Not on science.I think your crime scene people have all of that.Hello, Rachel.Long time.""Hello, Brass," Rachel said quietly."Too long."She looked at the screen and their eyes met.Rachel realized that it had probably been eight years since she had actually seen Doran.She looked weary, her mouth and eyes drawn down, her hair short in a cut that suggested she didn't spend much time with it.She was an empath, Rachel knew, and the years were taking their toll."You look good," Doran said."I guess all that fresh air and open country agrees with you."Alpert stepped in and saved Rachel from delivering a false compliment in return."Greta, Harvey, who wants to go first?" he asked, stepping all over the electronic reunion."I guess I will since everything starts with the dig," Greta Coxe said."As of seven p.m.yesterday we have fully excavated eight bodies and they are at Neilis.This afternoon when we get back there, we will begin with number nine.What we saw with the first excavations is holding true with the latter.The plastic bags in each incidence and the-""Greta, we have a tape going here," Alpert interrupted."Let's be fully descriptive.As if speaking to an uninformed audience.Don't hold back."Except when it comes to mentioning Robert Backus, Rachel thought."Okay, sure," Coxe said."Um, all eight bodies excavated and exhumed so far have been fully clothed.Decomposition is extensive.Hands and feet bound by tape.All have plastic bags over the head, which in turn have been taped around the neck.There is no variation on this methodology, even between victims one and two.Which is unusual."Late the day before Rachel had seen the photos.She had gone back into the command RV and looked at the wall of photos.It seemed clear to her that the men had all been suffocated.The plastic bags had not been clear plastic but even in their opaqueness she could see the features of the faces and the mouths wide open and searching for air that wasn't going to come.They reminded her of photos of wartime atrocities, disinterred bodies from mass graves in Yugoslavia or Iraq."Why is that unusual?" Alpert asked."Because what we most often see is that the killing plan evolves.For lack of a better way of describing it, the killing gets better.The unsub learns from victim to victim how to do it better.That is usually seen in the data we have."Rachel noted that Coxe had used the word unsub.Short for unknown subject.It most likely meant she was out of the loop and didn't know that the subject was very much known to the FBI."Okay, so the methodology was set from day one," Alpert said."Anything else, Greta?""Just that we will probably be finished with the excavations the day after tomorrow.Unless we get another hit with the probes.""Are we still probing?""Yes, when we have the time.But we've gone sixty feet past the last hit with the probes and haven't gotten anything.We also got another flyover from Nellis last night.There was nothing new from thermal imaging.So we feel pretty comfortable at this time that we've got them all.""And thank God for that.Harvey? What have you got for us?"Richards cleared his throat and leaned forward so that his voice would be heard by the electronic pickups, wherever they were."Greta's right, we have all eight excavated so far in the morgue at Nellis.So far the veil of secrecy is holding up.I think people there think we're bringing in aliens off a crashed saucer in the desert.This is how urban legends start, people."Only Alpert cracked a smile.Richards continued."We've conducted full autopsies on four so far and initial exams of the others.Similar to what Greta said, we're not finding a hell of a lot of difference from body to body.This guy is a robot.No variation on theme.It's almost like the killings themselves are of no import.Perhaps it is the hunt that juices this guy.Or perhaps the killings are just part of a larger plan we don't know about yet."Rachel stared pointedly at Alpert.She hated that people working so closely on the case were still working in the dark.But she knew if she said anything she would quickly be on the outside looking in.She didn't want that."You have a question, Rachel?"He'd caught her off guard.She hesitated."Why are the bodies being taken to Nellis instead of hereorL.A.?" She knew the answer before asking the question but needed to say something to escape the moment."It's easier to keep a lid on things this way.The military knows how to keep a secret."His tone suggested an unspoken final line: Do you? He swung his view back to Richards."Doctor, go on."Rachel picked up on the subtle difference.Alpert had called Richards Doctor, whereas he had simply addressed Greta Coxe by her first name.It was a character trait.Alpert either had trouble with women in positions of power and knowledge or he didn't respect the science of anthropology.She guessed it was the former."Well, we're looking at suffocation as the cause on these," Richards said."It's pretty obvious from what we've got.There is not a lot left to work with on most of them but with what we've got we're not seeing other injuries.The unsub overpowers in some way, tapes wrists and ankles and then puts the bag in place over the head.The taping around the neck we think is significant.That is indicative of a slow death.In other words the unsub was not holding the bag in place.He took his time, pulled it over the head, taped it and then could step back to watch.""Doctor?" Rachel asked."Was the tape applied from the front or back?""The ends are at the back of the neck, indicating to me that the bag may have been pulled over from behind, possibly when the victim was in a sitting position, and then taped in place.""So he-the, uh, unsub-may have been ashamed or afraid to face his victims when he did this.""Quite possibly
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