I Hunt Killers

Jazz wakes up the next morning and is less confident in his theory than he was the night before: “He double-checked his logic and found no flaws. No flaws except for the fact that his theory was completely insane. But maybe G. William would see potential in it” (167). He eats breakfast quickly and heads off to meet Howie at Coff-E Shop.

There at Coff-E Shop, he tells Howie that he had a late-night revelation about the motive of the killer and called G. William last night. They head to school, where Jazz cannot stop thinking about his theory—he wants to hear what G. William thinks about his theory. When school ends, and play practice rolls around, Jazz is surprised when Deputy Erickson bursts through the auditorium door: “‘Sorry to interrupt,’ Deputy Erickson said in a tone that made it clear he really could not care less. He stomped halfway down the aisle to the stage, then planted his feet and pointed a steady finger right at Jazz. ‘You. Now.’” (169). After a quick apology to the cast, Jazz follows the deputy out of the auditorium and into the parking lot. Erickson forces Jazz into his squad car and races him to the police station. Jazz does not know what is going on, but he can tell it is urgent.

Erickson leads Jazz from the squad car and into G. William’s office, slamming the office door leaving them alone. G. William angrily asks Jazz what kind of “game” (172) he is playing, and then takes out his cellphone to play the voicemail Jazz left him last night. The voicemail says:

‘G. William. Hey It’s Jazz. I figured it out. There will be more victims. Here’s what I know about the next one. She’ll be around twenty-five years old. Brown hair. She’ll be a waitress. She’ll be killed by an injection of drain cleaner. The body will be posed in a kneeling position, the hands tied together at the wrists to mimic prayer. She’ll be missing four fingers, but the middle one will be at the scene. And her initials will be H.M. That’s all’(172).

A moment later, G. William confirms that Jazz’s theory was correct, because they just found the body of Helen Myerson, the waitress from Coff-E Shop earlier that morning in an abandoned barn. G. William, again, asks Jazz to explain. Jazz implores G. William to believe that he is not the one who commit these crimes, but he thinks he knows who did it: “‘It’s not me,’ Jazz said again. ‘It’s my dad. It’s Billy’” (174).

G. William calls the prison to confirm that Billy is, indeed, still locked up in prison. Even if it is not Billy, Jazz explains, the killer is following in the footsteps of Billy:

‘Billy’s first victim[…]was a woman named Cassie Overton. Her life, her age, her appearance, her death—all identical to O’Donnelly. His second victim was Farrah Gordon. Same age, job, hair color as Fiona Goodling. Strangled to death and left naked in a field, just like Goodling. And now a third victim. Same initials as Helen. Harper McLeod. Waitress. Twenty-five. Brown hair. Boom. Billy started having fun at that point. Drain-cleaner injections. Causes muscle spasms. Intense pain. Arrhythmia. Eventually, heart attack. That’s when he started the posing, too. Got the nickname ‘the Artist’ (176).

Jazz’s theory is that the killer is a copycat of Billy, and the next victim will be modelled after Billy’s next victim. However, G. William poses a counter theory that perhaps the killer is trying to throw the cops off his tracks and his next kill will completely deviate from any of Billy’s patterns. G. William ends the conversation there and reassures Jazz that they are going to capture this killer.

G. William drives Jazz back to school and tells him to get in touch again if he has anymore theories but to not investigate those theories on his own. However, when Connie and he are on their way to Jazz’s Jeep in the parking lot, she asks Jazz what he plans to do next. He replies: “Ignoring G. William has gotten me this far […] Let’s see where it takes me next” (182).

Jazz gives his grandmother ground up Benadryl in her soup, which will prevent her from getting into trouble around the house while he is away working on the next phase of the plan. The next phase is to, with Howie and Connie’s help, figure out the next victim of the Impressionist. If the Impressionist continues to follow the pattern established by Billy, the next victim will have the initials “VD” and she will be an actress and around 22 years old. Jazz, Connie, and Howie brainstorm where they might find actresses in Lobo’s Nod. They decide that Connie will head to the local acting school, Reel Life, to try find some intel on students with the initials “VD” there. Jazz and Howie will head to the high school to check the roster for drama club, as well as plays for the last few years, looking for actresses with those initials.

On the way to the high school, Jazz has a sudden realization: Ginny, the drama teacher and producer of The Crucible, is actually a nickname. Her full name is Virginia Davis, making her initials “VD” and therefore a prime candidate for the Impressionist’s next victim. Peeling off the road to the high school, Jazz races to Ginny’s apartment building, where Jazz and the other cast members of The Crucible had an informal read-through of the play. Heading up three flights of stairs to her apartment, Jazz has a bad feeling when they reach her door: “Jazz backed up and his gaze drifted down. To the keyhole. His stomach twisted. Was that a glimmer of reflected light he spotted? He leaned over and sniffed the doorknob[…]Glue. Filled with superglue” (194). Jazz knows from his father that this tactic creates a mess that will slow down anyone trying to unlock the door. At that moment, Jazz realizes that the Impressionist is already inside.

Jazz immediately instructs Howie to run downstairs and call the police. Meanwhile, Jazz kicks in the door and screams “Don’t you dare run!” when he hears the “unmistakable sound of rapid footfalls” (197)from within the apartment. Jazz’s eyes barely are adjusted to the light when he sees the figure of a man: “The man on the sofa turned back. He wore a black ski mask, but that left the eyes open. Jazz’s gaze met his for a bare second. Blue eyes. Crazy eyes” (197). The killer turns away from Jazz at the sight of him, and with that darts out the window.

Jazz takes in the scene in the apartment: “She was trembling on the throw rug, shaking as the fibers soaked up her blood, which jetted from the five clinical, almost surgical stumps on her right hand. Her eyes had rolled back in her head” (198). Jazz also notices a “telltale pinprick” (198) on Ginny’s neck. The mark means that the killer had, like Billy before him, injected her with drain cleaner, which would induce a heart attack. Jazz feels helpless and frantically tries to figure out how he might still save her life, or if it is too late entirely. Finally, Jazz snaps into action and begins to give her CPR: “His fingers probed her chest until he found the xiphoid process. He started chest compressions, pumping thirty times, then rocking back on his heels. Nothing” (200). He does a few more compressions, but soon realizes it is no use—she is dead. Jazz thinks of his father: “The silence was overpowering. Billy had been right. When she’d gone, some sound had gone with her” (201). Jazz then runs to the window, wondering if there is still time to catch a glimpse of the killer. When he looks down, however, he does not see the killer. Instead, he sees Howie lying in a pool of blood that is growing larger every second.

At the sight of Howie’s body, Jazz leaps through the window: “He hurled himself through the window and clambered down the fire escape like a monkey on crystal meth, dropping the last six feet to the dirty alley pavement the way the killer must have” (203). An ambulance approaches the scene just as Jazz reaches Howie’s motionless body. Howie is still breathing, lying face down on the pavement: “Where was all the blood coming from? He didn’t want to move Howie and make it worse, but he had to know” (203). The paramedics on the scene were initially called for Ginny, but now Howie is the one who needs immediate attention.

Howie forgot to wear the medical bracelet that indicates he is a type-A hemophiliac, so Jazz implores the paramedics to administer the medication (clotting factor VIII) that will stop the bleeding. The paramedics argue with Jazz, saying that they refuse to administer the clotting factor VIII to Howie without a bracelet. Knowing that time is of the essence to save Howie’s life, Jazz loses his temper: “He [Jazz] didn’t snap the way a normal person might snap[…]Jazz went quiet. He darted out one hand and grabbed the wrist of the paramedic who had been trying to cuff him and pulled the man close, holding his gaze” (205). Jazz tells the paramedic that he is the “local psychopath” and threatens to harm “everyone [the paramedic] ever cared about in [his] life” (205)unless he administers the clotting factor VIII to Howie immediately. Frightened, the paramedic agrees. Meanwhile, Deputy Erickson cuffs Jazz.

Deputy Erickson shoves Jazz against the wall of Ginny’s building and reads him his rights, still handcuffed. Doug Weathers, the local reporter, suddenly emerges from the parking lot of the building and runs over to where Jazz is being apprehended. Jazz is furious at the sight of Weathers, who has his cell phone drawn and pointed at Jazz, saying “Smile!”(209) as he goes to take a picture in cuffs. Jazz charges at Weathers and the cell phone drops to the ground. Jazz stomps on the cell phone: “The deputy grabbed Jazz and pulled him away. The phone looked like someone had stepped on an enormous, high-tech cockroach, its wiry guts shooting out form the broken case” (210). Angered over the broken cell phone, Weathers lunges at Jazz to attack him. G. William arrives on the scene and breaks up the scuffle between Jazz and Weathers.

G. William takes Jazz to Lobo’s Nod General Hospital, where Howie is being treated. Connie comes to meet him there, asking to know what happened: “He gave her a truncated version of events: Ginny, the killer, Howie” (212). It turns out that Howie was slashed by the killer as he was fleeing the scene. Connie begins to cry.

Howie’s parents, the Gerstens, enter the hospital waiting room, completely distraught: “The Gerstens made their way to a sofa and collapsed onto it like some bizarre conjoined twins. Overhead, a voice said, ‘Dr. McDowell to Oncology. Dr. McDowell, Oncology,’ and when it went away, the air was populated only with the stereo effect of two people weeping” (213). Soon, a doctor emerges from a backroom of the hospital into the waiting room and announces that Howie came through surgery and is going to be okay. Howie’s mother cries tears of joy while Howie’s father shakes the doctor’s hand enthusiastically.

With Howie in stable condition, G. William tells Jazz that he needs to speak to both of them to find out the details of what happened there at Ginny’s. They go to Howie’s hospital bedside. The first thing Howie wants to know is about Ginny, how she is doing; Jazz is sorry to report that she is dead. Jazz also tells them how guilty he feels and that blames himself for her death. G. William and Howie tell him he has no reason to feel guilty because he did all he could. G. William then begins his official line of questioning: Did either of them get a good look at the killer? Howie describes him as follows: “All I can tell you is he’s white, which I think we already assumed. Probably between five-eleven and six-one. Ish. […] Blue eyes” (223).

G. Williams proposes that if the killer continues to copy Billy, the next victim will be a hotel maid. G. William summarizes: “Billy’s next victim was named Isabella Hernandez. Maid at a hotel. Thirty-five. First thing in the morning, my crew is contacting every hotel in the area and asking if they have anyone with the initials I.H. working for them” (224). Howie starts to drift off and asks G. William and Jazz that they give him time to rest, so G. William and Jazz make their way out of his hospital room. Before leaving, Howie gives Jazz his cell phone to borrow, seeing as he will not be using it while recovering in the hospital. After the experience of not being able to save Ginny, Jazz does not want to continue trying to help find the killer because it is too much for him. However, Howie implores him to continue on: “‘Get this guy,’ Howie whispered with all that was left in him. ‘You’ll need a cell when you’re tracking him down. Take it’” (226).