I Will Come for You Read Free Page B

is the most personal. For Graham.
    “Iverson doesn’t have kids,” Graham says.
    “No. I interviewed her mother. Iverson was single, no children of her own.”
    “Is she dating anyone?”
    “Not that her mother knows about.”
    “Did you see the kids’ clothing we bagged?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Boy’s clothing, the size a nine year old might wear. And a bigger pair of jeans, sized maybe for an eleven year old.”
    “What are you thinking?”
    “That’s the only thing that stands out. About her, specifically,” he stresses. And now Graham is thinking maybe they’re going about this investigation all wrong. Maybe it’s not so much about what the killer is doing and more about what the victims have been up to.
    Was Iverson having inappropriate contact with her students? He doesn’t want to go there. He doesn’t want to think about the growing trend of impropriety in the schools or the frequency with which teachers are exposed on the news, in handcuffs or before the courts for crimes of this nature. He doesn’t want to think about Isaac, sitting in her classroom, vulnerable and needing
    attention. But it’s possible.
    They already have two adulterers in the mix. Who else, among their victims, were guilty of immoral or even criminal acts?
    And how do Lance and Steven Forrester fit? What could two young boys have been up to that would result in their murders?
    Graham shakes his head. This is where he stumbles.
    They don’t fit. Not if Graham thinks logically. Not if he thinks with his heart. It’s always challenging, following the flawed and fatal reasoning of a serial killer. There are as many twisted paths in the criminal mind as there are lines on a map. Throw in Graham’s personal connection, and it’s like tiptoeing through quicksand.
    Carter interrupts his thoughts. “What grade does she teach?”
    “Fifth,” Graham says. “Isaac had her three years back.”
    “That fits.”
    “Yeah.”
    Isaac was in the woman’s classroom, under her influence during a time when his son was made vulnerable by his mother’s mental deterioration and their divorce. His son never showed signs of abuse and Graham knows what to look for, but even experts miss clues.
    “What do you make of the baby Jesus?”
    Graham tries to shake off his worry for his son. He knows the statistics. Teacher abuse of her students is rare; media attention makes it seem more rampant. It’s never happened in King’s Ferry, nor on Vancouver Island, that Graham knows about; maybe not even in Canada at all. So, he’ll look for another explanation. For an acceptable reason a twenty-six year old woman would have in her possession clothes fitting a school boy.
    “The baby Jesus,” he says, anchoring himself in the moment.
    They found a small figurine of the Christ child clutched in Iverson’s hand. The King’s Ferry Killer always leaves an icon of the Christian faith with his victims and Graham and the department have to dig through the victim's life in order to find the connection. Some continue to puzzle them. Others are obvious. The object is the only attempt by the killer to communicate with authorities.
    “My first thought?” Carter continues. “I wondered if she was pregnant.”
    Graham nods. “Could be. And maybe the killer saw her purchase a pregnancy test. Or works at a clinic.”
    Carter rattles through his notes. “No pregnancy test was found. No date in her calendar book indicating a doctor’s appointment.”
    “The M.E. will let us know.”
    “It’s hard for a woman to sit on that kind of news,” Carter says. “We can find out a lot faster if we ask around.”
    “You know that from experience?” Carter is single and as far as Graham knows, not a father.
    “My sisters told anyone who would listen,” he says.
    “Are your sisters married?”
    “Yeah.”
    “So maybe Iverson would keep a lid on it.” But Graham shrugs. Why wait for tomorrow
    if they can know in twenty minutes. “Ask about it.”
    “Straight