Hanover House: Kickoff to the Evelyn Talbot Chronicles

Chapter 8

Amarok sat at his trooper station with Makita, his Alaskan Malamute, at his feet, poring through all the articles he could find on Jasper Moore, the murder of Evelyn's friends and her kidnapping and rape. He'd looked it all up before, when he'd first heard that the government was considering Hilltop for the location of Hanover House, but he'd given it only a cursory read, enough to figure out who she was, why she was coming to town and whether or not he'd approve of her agenda.

He didn't. That hadn't changed. But the level of his personal interest had.

"Beacon Hill Killer Still at Large" was one of the first headlines he came across, which interested him enough to read the article.

After brutally murdering three sixteen-year-old girls and attempting to murder a fourth, the Beacon Hill Killer continues to elude police. Jasper Moore, only seventeen, hasn't been seen since a passing motorist spotted Evelyn Talbot nude and bloody and stumbling across the road. She told authorities she'd been held captive and was tortured by her boyfriend for three days in an abandoned shack before he slit her throat, started a fire to destroy the evidence and left.

"Someone had to have helped him escape," Evelyn Talbot's father, Grant Talbot, told an NBC affiliate this morning. "My wife and I firmly believe that his parents purchased him a plane ticket and got him out of the country as soon as they learned he was wanted by police. A boy his age simply does not have the savvy or the resources to disappear on his own."

Irene Tillabook, principal of the exclusive private school the four victims and the alleged perpetrator attended, disagrees. "The Moores are as heartbroken as everyone else. I've spoken to them. I highly doubt they would protect Jasper in such a way."

"Except that he would likely face life in prison without the possibility of parole if they didn't do something," Amarok muttered. That could easily cloud a parent's judgment.

The lead detective in the case was quoted in the next paragraph, saying essentially the same thing. Although he did not formally accuse Mr. and Mrs. Moore, he did say he was "looking into all possibilities," and that included them.

Amarok skimmed the rest of the article, then skipped to the next link.

Ten Years Later—Where is the Beacon Hill Killer?

A boy of only seventeen murdered three female classmates before the fourth victim got away. And then he disappeared. Where did he go? No one knows. His family claims they haven't seen or heard from him since the night Evelyn Talbot emerged from some trees with her throat slit. Although there have been various leads and "spottings" over the years, none of them have panned out. It seems that Jasper Moore has gotten away with murder.

So what about that fourth victim? Evelyn Talbot finished high school, went on to Harvard and will be graduating this spring with a doctorate in psychiatry. She plans to make the study of violent offenders her life's work, so instead of shying away from the kind of individual who nearly took her life, she will study men who are at least as dangerous in an effort to unlock the secrets of the psychopathic mind.

The heading for the next article read, "Meet Victim Number Four" and was written by a journalist for The Boston Globe.

Dr. Evelyn Talbot, a beautiful young woman, sits across from me at a corner coffee shop wearing an elegant, tailored suit. When I called her office, she readily agreed to speak with me because "there needs to be more awareness, more information on how to spot and avoid the dangers psychopaths pose," she said over the phone. This morning she tells me, "The conscienceless live among us. They make up four percent of the population. That means that most people will meet at least one during the course of his or her life. Fortunately, not all of them are serial killers. Some are subclinical and don't kill at all. But they do act in their own self-interest, which means they often get arrested for other crimes, crimes like embezzlement, robbery, assault. Bottom line, they destroy innocent lives, and we need to figure out why they don't possess the same behavioral controls as the rest of us."