permeates the air when death has been a visitor. A bare 40-watt bulb threw dim shadows over the unpainted concrete floor and walls. Paggett could see a mattress next to the furnace. Lying on the mattress was a figure. The light was too dim to make out details, but there was enough light to see that the body was naked and cuffed at the wrists and ankles by manacles that were attached to the wall by lengths of thick chain.
Paggett walked slowly toward the corpse. When he was a few feet away he saw the body clearly for the first time and almost lost it. The deputy blinked, not quite trusting his eyes. The mattress was saturated with blood; so much of the body was covered with dried blood that it was very difficult to tell its race. An ear and several digits were missing. Paggett's stomach heaved. He turned away, squeezed his eyes shut and took deep breaths. The smell almost overpowered him, but he struggled to keep his food down.
Are you okay? Bradbury asked anxiously.
Yeah, yeah. Paggett was bent over with his hands on his knees. Give me a second.
When he was ready, Paggett straightened up and took a closer look at the corpse.
Holy Jesus, he whispered reverently. Paggett had seen a lot of bad shit in his day, but nothing like this.
The deputy turned away from the body, relieved to have it out of his sight, and surveyed the rest of the basement. At first the dimensions of the room confused him. The basement seemed smaller than he expected. Then Paggett realized that a gray concrete wall with a narrow doorway divided the basement in half. He walked through the doorway. Inside a second room was an operating table. A tray of surgical equipment stood next to the table. Among the tools was a scalpel encrusted with blood. Paggett turned and headed back up the stairs.
I' m gonna check out the rest of this place. You call it in. We need homicide and forensics.
What about the woman?
After what we saw, I' m not letting her out until we know for sure that she didn't do this guy.
Paggett shook his head again, as if to clear it of the image of what he had just seen. Bradbury left the house. Paggett took a deep breath and started to explore the main floor. After taking a second look at the kitchen and living room, Paggett walked toward the rear of the house and found two empty rooms with closed doors. They had been vacuumed clean.
As he started to climb the stairs to the second floor, something occurred to Paggett. He turned around and went through the main floor again. He was right. There weren't any telephones in the house. The deputy wondered if he would find a phone on the second floor.
He didn' t, but the second floor did yield a discovery. In one of the rooms were a bookcase, an armchair and a single bed with a mattress and a pillow. A lamp stood between the bed and the armchair. There was no sheet on the bed and no pillowcase on the pillow. Paggett guessed that the killer had used the bed but had taken the sheet and pillowcase because they might contain trace evidence like hair or semen stains.
Paggett read some of the titles in the bookcase. He found The Torturer's Handbook, Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene, and Sweet Surrender: A Sadist's Bible mixed in with medical texts and other books on torture.
Also in the bookcase was a black three-ring binder. Paggett used his handkerchief to take it out of the bookcase and open it. A computer had generated the pages.
Tuesday: Watched from dark as subject revived. 8:17 P.M.: Subject disoriented. Realizes that she is naked and manacled to wall. Struggles for less than minute before commencing to sob. Screams for help commence at 8:20, end 8:25. Watched subject until 9:00. Went upstairs to eat. When kitchen door opened and closed, subject commenced begging. Listened from kitchen while I ate. No fighting spirit, pathetic, subject may provide little new data.
Wednesday: Approached subject for first time. Begging, pleading, questions: Who are you? Why are you doing this? etc. Subject is extremely docile, drew into fetal position at touch. Moved head slightly, but accepted training hood with little struggle. When released from manacles obeyed commands immediately. No challenge.
Saturday: After two days without food and with sensory deprivation, subject is weak and lethargic. I am disappointed at lack of resistance. Have decided to commence pain tolerance experiments immediately.
8:25: Remove manacles and lead subject to operating table. No resistance, subject obeys command to mount table and submits to restraints. 8:30: hood removed, subject's head secured to table. Begging, pleading. Subject sobs quietly. I have decided to start with the soles of the feet.
Paggett felt light-headed. He could read no further. Let the DA and the homicide detectives find out what happened to ... It hit him suddenly. The journal referred to the subject as she. The corpse in the basement was a male. Paggett flipped through the journal.
There were more entries.
Chapter 35
It took three rings to drag Amanda out of a deep sleep. The phone rang again, and Amanda groped for the receiver in the dark while reading the bright red 2:13 on her digital clock.
Miss Jaffe?
Yes? Amanda answered groggily.
This is Adele at the answering service. I' m sorry to disturb you.
That's okay.
Amanda swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up.
I have a woman on the line. She's calling from the police station. She asked for your father.
Mr. Jaffe is out of town.
I know. I told her that you were taking his calls. She said that was okay.
Did she say what this is about?
No. Just that she had to talk to you.
Amanda sighed. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was talk to a drunk driver at two o' clock on Monday morning, but middle-of-the-night calls came with the territory when you practiced criminal law.
Put her through, Adele.
Adele's voice was replaced by Tony Bennett singing I Left My Heart in San Francisco. Amanda closed her eyes and rubbed her lids.
Is this Amanda Jaffe?
Amanda's eyes opened. She knew that voice.
This is Justine Castle. We met several years ago.
Amanda felt a chill pass through her.
You're Vincent Cardoni's wife.
Amanda suddenly flashed on a vision of the doctor descending Tony Fiori's staircase on the evening she had discovered Cardoni's hand. Her hand tightened on the receiver.
Why are you calling my father at this hour?
Something terrible has happened.
Amanda detected a tremor when the doctor spoke.
I ... I've been arrested.
This time the tremor was more pronounced, as if Justine was barely holding herself together.
Where are you calling from?
The Justice Center.
Is anyone with you?
Detective DeVore and a deputy district attorney named Mike Greene.
Justine had her attention now. DeVore was homicide, and Mike rarely handled anything but capital cases.
Are DeVore and Greene listening to this call? Amanda asked.
They're in the room.
Answer my questions yes or no and do not say anything else unless I say it's okay. Do you understand?
Yes.
Have you been arrested for a serious crime?
Yes.
Some type of homicide?
Yes.
I' m coming down. From this point on you are not to speak with anyone but me. Is that clear?
