“At some point in your investigation did you develop a theory that the man who committed these murders had committed murders in other states?”

“Yes,” Birch answered.

“What steps did you take to find out if you were right?”

“We sent information about the case to the FBI.”

“Why did you do that?”

“There is a division of the bureau that tracks serial killings from around the country.”

Delilah addressed Judge Shimazu. “I have no further questions of Detective Birch at this time. But I plan to recall him, Your Honor.”

“You may cross-examine, Mr. Swoboda.”

“May I reserve my cross until Detective Birch has completed all of his testimony?”

“Any objection to that, Miss Wallace?”

“No, Your Honor.”

“Call your next witness, Miss Wallace.”

“The State calls Bridget Booth, Your Honor.”

A moment later, a woman with short gray hair and a pale complexion walked down the aisle. Her bearing was military and she wore a gray business suit, white blouse, and practical shoes.

“What is your occupation, Mrs. Booth?” Delilah asked as soon as her witness had been sworn.

“I’m a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

“Where are you headquartered?”

“ Quantico, Virginia.”

“Would you please tell the jury your educational background?”

“I received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in behavioral science from the University of Missouri.”

“Where did you work after obtaining your degrees?”

“I was a policewoman and a homicide detective in St. Louis, Missouri, for seven years. Actually, I obtained my master’s while I was on the force. During my seventh year in St. Louis, I applied to the FBI and was accepted. I completed basic training at Quantico, Virginia, and served four years as a special agent assigned to the Seattle office. Then I applied for VICAP and I’ve been there for thirteen years.”

“What is VICAP?”

“It’s an acronym for the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. The program originated from an idea developed in the 1950s by the late Pierce Brooks, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Detective Brooks was investigating the murders of two Los Angeles women who were found bound by rope in the desert. They had both answered an ad for photographic models. Detective Brooks was convinced that this was the work of a killer who had murdered before and would strike again, so he used his off-duty hours to read out-of-town newspapers in hopes of finding an account of another similar murder. He did find such a case and it led to an arrest and conviction.

“Detective Brooks became convinced that putting information about open homicide cases on a computer would enable law enforcement officers from around the country to solve cases with similar modus operandi. In 1983, the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime was created and placed under the direction and control of the FBI training center at Quantico. VICAP is a part of the center. Its goal is to collect, collate, and analyze all aspects of the investigation of similar-pattern multiple murders on a nationwide basis.”

“Approximately five years ago, did you receive a call from Detective Larry Birch of the Portland Police Bureau concerning some homicides that had occurred in Oregon?” Delilah asked.

“Yes.”

“Why did Detective Birch contact you?”

“The crimes were unusual, and he wondered if we were aware of other crimes with similar modus operandi. He was also in possession of an unpublished novel…”

“Objection, Your Honor,” Swoboda said. “We object to any evidence about that book. It’s irrelevant. It’s made-up fiction.”

“I’ve ruled on this pretrial, Mr. Swoboda,” Judge Shimazu said. “I have decided that evidence concerning the book can be introduced for certain limited purposes. So I will overrule your objection and you can have a continuing objection. You may proceed, Miss Wallace.”

“Thank you, Your Honor.”

Delilah turned back to the witness. “Agent Booth, let’s leave the novel aside for the time being. Did you find other murders that were similar to the murders Detective Birch was investigating?”

Booth turned toward the jurors. “We have identified murders in Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Montana, and Idaho that have been committed over a period of several years that may be the work of the same serial killer.”

“What led you to that conclusion?”

“In each instance, the killer broke into a home in the early-morning hours. In each household there were parents and a teenage daughter. The killer bound the victims with duct tape and tortured the parents by cutting them to death slowly.” Several members of the jury blanched. “He then raped the daughter before stabbing her to death.”

“Did these murders have other things in common?”

“Yes. In more than one, there was evidence that the killer ate a snack at the home. For instance, the murderer ate a piece of pie at the home in Connecticut. A candy bar was consumed in the Montana case. During the Spencer and Jones murders-this case-the killer ate a piece of cake and drank some milk.

“Another thing they had in common was that the duct tape used in every case was manufactured by the same company. Furthermore, the tape used in the Michigan and Arizona cases came from the same roll.”

“Has the FBI constructed a profile of the person who is responsible for theses crimes?” Delilah asked.

“Objection,” Swoboda said. “This would be sheer speculation.”

“I’m inclined to agree, Miss Wallace,” Judge Shimazu said. “The police can use certain tools in an investigation, like a lie detector, that are not sufficiently reliable to use as evidence in court. Unless you can lay a foundation for the scientific reliability of profiling, I’m going to sustain Mr. Swoboda’s objection.”

“Very well, Your Honor. Agent Booth, have you had an opportunity to read two drafts of a novel that the defendant was writing at the time of his arrest?”

“Yes I have.”

“Was this novel about a fictional serial killer?”

“Yes.”

“Were there any similarities between the details of the crimes committed in the novel by the fictitious serial killer and evidence found at the real-life crime scenes created by the real serial killer you were profiling?”

“Yes.”

“Did the similarities between the novel and real life involve evidence in the real cases that the police had not revealed to the public?”

“Yes.”

“Will you outline the similarities for the jury?”

“In the novel, the killer breaks into a home in the early-morning hours and murders the parents of a teenage girl. He plans to rape and murder the girl, but before following through he eats a dessert in the kitchen of the crime scene. As I’ve testified previously, all of the real murders occurred in the early-morning hours and involved families with two parents and a teenage daughter. Furthermore, the murderer in Montana and Connecticut ate a snack at the crime scene, and the person who murdered Tanya Jones and Norman Spencer ate a piece of cake and drank some milk in the kitchen of the Spencer home.”

“Did the police organizations in Montana, Connecticut, and Oregon release information about these snacks to the public?”

“No.”

“Why did they keep these details secret?”

“Investigators keep unusual details of crimes secret to guard against false confessions. They want to be sure that they have arrested the right person for the crime. A person who knew a detail of a crime that was not made public is probably the perpetrator.”

“Your Honor, I move to introduce Exhibit 75, pages from the defendant’s novel, which contain the scene with the snack that Agent Booth just discussed.”

“Objection,” Swoboda said.

“Is this objection on new grounds, Mr. Swoboda?” the judge asked.