“You have to be a little bit better than him. You have to be able to understand him a little better than he understands you. I think he’s a sick man and he needs something. He’s got an ego that is as big as the stars and if you feed that ego, you’re going to get what you want.”

— Cpl. Les Forsythe, Burnaby RCMP.

Only two of the children’s bodies that had been recovered so far had been connected by police: Daryn Johnsrude and Judy Kozma. Still, the police were convinced that Simon Partington and Ada Court had been murdered as well. Christine Weller was still not considered a relevant case and the other missing persons were just that -- missing.

As many as 200 police were involved in the manhunt. The Serious Crimes Unit had Staff Sergeant Arnie Nylund fielding press calls. “Any detachment with a missing child should call us, make us aware of them so that we can assist in an overview capacity,” he told reporters. “We will look at all of them. We’re looking to see if there’s a connection but so far we haven’t seen one. Maybe one person is responsible for one, maybe another for two. We want parents to be concerned and beware for their kids. If someone did attempt to pick them up and didn’t succeed, we’d like to hear from them. There must be some that don’t get in the car. We’re still gathering and coordinating information and assisting the various detachments.”

Thursday, July 30, 1981

Meanwhile Const. Fred Maile of the RCMP Serious Crimes Unit had a simple strategy. His idea was to surreptitiously tape a conversation with Olson insinuating some kind of a reward. The idea was, if Olson was the murderer, and he thought he could make some money from that fact, he might go back to the crime scenes in order to retrieve some physical evidence. If he was not the murderer or knew who the murderer was then maybe he would tell them.

Olson met Detective Tarr at a White Spot Restaurant, and then was joined by RCMP’s Corporal Maile and Corporal Drozda. The hidden microphones transmitted the conversation to a Mountie in a car in the parking lot.  Final Payoff  describes this tense 30 minutes:

 “Quite a few homicides around here, right?” Maile began. “And we understand that you might be able to help us. We’re prepared to compensate you for whatever you’re able to tell us or help us. But we have to know if you are able to help us.

“He stopped and blew on his coffee. All eyes were on Olson. For a while he said nothing.

“Finally, Olson said he wanted to be hired at a salary of $3,000 a month. In exchange, he claimed he would provide information about the disappearances.”

Olson’s eyes lit up at the idea that they were coming to him for information. He spent much of the time bragging about testifying in Marcoux’s conviction of “that Jeannie,” promising to get back to them if he found out anything.

With a casual, “Well, I’ll get back to you if I find out anything,” the officers watched the killer leave the restaurant and amble out into the sunshine. No one followed the man suspected of murdering several children.