"That checks out, too," she said."I spoke to the burger place, and they have a camera out front because they do get some drunks at night.I found Thomas on camera, entering the restaurant, and then exiting thirty minutes later."
"So, he’s not our guy?"Moore asked.
"He’s not our guy," Alison confirmed.
"It’s never the first one, is it?"Moore complained."You know, I always have this hope when we go to interview the first suspect we have that it’ll be the one, and the case can be wrapped up quickly, but in this line of work, that’s rarely how it works."
"We need a patron saint," Alison suggested."You know how there’s like patron saints of travel or orphans or lost causes or whoever else, I don't know.Well, we need a patron saint of initial suspects.Then, when we go out to interview our first suspect, we can pray to them, and maybe that helps."
"Do you think it will?"Moore raised her eyebrows.
"It’s probably why there’s not a pattern saint dedicated to that," Alison pointed out."As you said, that’s not how it works in our line of work.Still, we rule out one suspect and move onto the next one, then the next, and the next."
"And we have a lot," Moore said with a sigh.
"Hey," Derek shouted from the door, almost out of breath.
Alison looked up.She hadn’t seen that look on his face before.He had wide eyes, as if he were terrified of something, and an open mouth, making it seem like he had a lot to say but couldn’t get the words out.
"They found him," he blurted."They have Mills."
Alison fell back into her chair as if she had been shoved.The office spun around er for a moment before everything snapped into place, and she could hear a voice; faint at first, but it grew in volume.Derek was no longer at the door.
"Go," Moore urged."I’ll take care of things here.Go!"
Alison hit her knee on the desk as she rose, but she didn't feel any pain.She flew from the office, spotting Derek running toward the conference room.A lump grew in her throat as she finally let the hope seep in.They had him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
"What’s going on?"Alison asked as she rushed into the room.
Derek took her by the arm and led her to the other side of the room, where Special Agent Hartley was coordinating the investigation and manhunt from the FBI offices in California.
"How are you doing?"Hartley asked Alison with a serious tone.
"I don't know," Alison said."Is it true that you have him?"
"We think so," Hartley replied.
Alison knew better than to let the hope come through.They didn't have him yet.They could be close to having him or be right behind him, but until Mills was arrested, she couldn’t let her defenses down.
"He was spotted in Fresno," Hartley explained."That was less than two hours ago.The federal marshals are closing in right now.It looks like he’s holed up in an abandoned warehouse, and they have the place surrounded."
"Do they know for sure that he’s in the warehouse?"Alison asked.
"We have it on good authority that he is," Hartley said.
That didn't confirm what Alison needed to know, nor did it put her mind at ease.
"They’re going in any minute, and if he’s in there, they’ll get him," Hartley said.
"And if he’s not in there?"Alison asked.
"We need to be patient," Derek said, his entire body tensed."I know that’s a stupid thing to say, but we can't do anything from here.We just have to wait.They have him cornered, and he’ll be caught, one way or the other.He’ll be in custody soon."
Alison didn't care about the other officers and agents in the room.She pressed herself to Derek, and he immediately took her in his embrace.Alison pressed her face into his neck, his natural scent and familiar cologne comforting her at a time when that was next to impossible.
She had just come from the office with Detective Moore, who had moaned that it was never the first suspect.Howard Mills wasn't their first suspect; he was the last one.They knew he was the killer.He'd run when they interviewed him, and they'd discovered the mementos in his basement that he'd taken from each victim.However, much like going to interview the very first suspect in a case, Alison didn't hold out hope just yet.Mills had evaded them for twenty-two years and then escaped one of the biggest manhunts in US history for over two weeks.