wrong ! mr merc wrote those letters to hide his identity and to manipulate the recipients. He was found and captured because the detective went through a process of deduction and elimination of suspects, narrowing the search to only three employees of the IT consultancy company.
If only for the letters, mr merc would not have been identified. Mr merc contributed to his downfall by communicating with the detective on the "blue umbrella" site and by leaving digital traces on the Mercedes owner woman computer (can't recall that part very well).
I think it was a mistake for mr merc to either : a) pay a visit as IT consultant to Mercedes woman AFTER using her car or b) using her car AFTER offering IT consultancy to her.
This created yet another link in the big picture the detective worked hard to join the dots into.
I'm sorry but I cannot follow your reasoning.
The Mr. Mercedes case was at a standstill. Hodges and Pete had exhausted all leads. The case was going nowhere. All leads had been followed and they lead nowhere. The case was cold. Dead. I don't understand how you write, "mr. merc wrote those letters to hide his identity..." No one knew his identity! Hide his identity from whom? No one knew who the *perk* was.
It's the letters that started the ball rolling. Specifically, the letter to Detective Hodges. The letter led to profiling the author, the letter had the invitation to go to Under Debbi's Blue Umbrella and the following electronic messages back and forth.
It appears you read the book so I'm not going to give you a blow by blow rundown. Suffice it to say, the letter to Detective Hodges, the letter Brady, the rampage killer whose pathology demanded he get in touch with his perceived nemesis, wrote which led to his capture.
Imagine the very first domino is Brady's letter to Hodges. See how that leads to all the other dominoes (Read-clues. Profiling the letters author, Under Debbie's Blue Umbrella, Hodges re-examining Ms. Trelawney suicide and so forth.) falling?
I cannot make myself any clearer without going page by page, instance by instance.
I hope you find the answer(s) you look for or you feel satisfaction with your own ideas and opinions.
Peace.
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