You Can't Run by Hope Davis (best way to read books .txt) 📗

injecting these women and what the substance is, to figure out what his motive might be.”

Atlas typed something in his computer as he mulled her statement over. “Do you think the injection is part of the abduction?”

She shook her head. “No, because Shanice didn’t have any injection marks on her. I think it’s something he does after and I want to know why.”

“You have a point. But I also know that sometimes people do crazy things because they are well, crazy, and there simply is no explanation that makes sense to anyone but them.”

“And that’s what you think is happening here?” Naya was reading an article about what a large dose of potassium would do to the human body, but she turned to look at Atlas who was looking straight at her.

He nodded. “You’re analytical, so you naturally want to find a reason behind everything. But I’m telling you, this isn’t like any case I’ve ever seen before. I mean we still need to analyze his behavior to find him, but I think when we do, we’ll find that he is simply crazy.”

She wasn’t going to argue with Atlas because he was entitled to his opinions and she hated the thought, but he could be right. She turned back and clicked through a few more windows about potassium as her mind raced.

“So, you think he’s just crazy?”

“I do.” He answered, his voice level, no hint of playfulness now.

“Do you think he is able to hide his crazy? Or do you think people around him notice it?” Naya turned to face him once again, crossing her legs and spinning a pen around in her right hand.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I guess what I’m saying is, do you think this guy can hold down a normal job, or do you think he’s too crazy for that?”

“I guess I hadn’t thought about it. “

Atlas leaned back and rubbed his stubble. “What if he’s too crazy for a professional job, but not too crazy to hold down a job? You know, something menial like a janitor or gardener. And while he’s there, he feels out of control of his life. So maybe he tries to get control back by abducting women.“

They were both quiet for a moment as they considered the new theories on the table.

“I wish I could say we were getting somewhere, but that only eliminates less than half of the professions in this city.” Naya grumbled dejectedly as she set down her pen.

“There’s got to be something big we’re missing. Something this guy missed that will lead us to him.” He leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head.

Suddenly, a thought hit her that she realized they should’ve investigated a long time ago. “How easy is it to get needles here?”

“Well, not easy, but not hard either I’d imagine.” He appeared to be deep in thought for a moment. “If you are in the medical profession, I think it would be quite easy. Now if you’re not, I don’t think it’s hard necessarily, but definitely can’t be that easy either.”

Naya turned back to her computer and typed a few words in the search bar. When the results came up, she muttered in frustration and turned her screen so Atlas could see.

“Well, I’ll be damned; you can order needles on Amazon. Who knew?”

Naya rolled her eyes as she scrolled through the online needle options. “Amazon, making it easier for serial killers since 1994.”

“Really, it’s been that long?” Atlas had picked up a stress ball from his desk and started tossing and catching it.

“Yep.” She leaned back in her chair, exhausted even though she had just started. “You think we should canvas?”

“Once we get the information from RunTracker, for sure.” Atlas was still tossing the ball.

“So where does that leave us for right now then?”

Atlas shrugged and put the ball down. “I guess you can help me research these chemicals.”

 Typical Atlas, getting out of his work. “No problem. Let’s research separately and compare notes?” Atlas nodded his agreement so Naya quickly turned to her computer and got to work. She skimmed the article on potassium overdose. It could cause an irregular heartbeat, which could lead to death. She couldn’t tell if that was instantaneous, or if it would take time. Surprisingly, there wasn’t that much information about taking potassium by injection. Go figure. But something did catch her eye, it said prolonged exercise could cause elevated levels of potassium in the body without taking any supplements, and that meant because these women were already working out, their potassium levels could have already been high. She put a star next to potassium on her paper.

She went back to her list of naturally occurring minerals in the human body and clicked through to the next one which was magnesium. Surprise, surprise, magnesium overdoses could also be life threatening. And, like potassium, it could cause an irregular heartbeat. It didn’t seem like it could kill someone who didn’t have kidney problems, she would have to dig further into that for sure. She was sure the amount of magnesium found in a supplement was nowhere near the levels this guy was potentially dosing them with.

She clicked the back arrow again and went to the next mineral. Calcium. She chanced a sneak-peak rolling her eyes to the side to see if Atlas was still working. It appeared that he was, as he was reading something on his computer, but she supposed he could also just be scrolling Facebook. She went back to her own screen and began scanning the article, like the two previous minerals, calcium overdose was also possible. And if you took in too much it would cause blood toxicity, which could weaken the heart and be lethal. She was sensing a theme. It still didn’t quite seem like their smoking gun, but she it was