‘What are you suggesting, Harper?’
‘We don’t sit and wait. We set a trap.’
‘What kind of trap?’
‘We release Lukanov and follow him. Either the killer will come to him or he’ll go to the killer.’
‘You think?’
‘Heming will know that Lukanov has said something. The killer’s got to be worried about these guys being inside, talking to us.’
‘You got a point. You think it’ll flush him out?’
‘They’ll make contact. Even if by phone or email, but that might be enough.’
Lafayette stared at Harper for a moment, then nodded. ‘Okay, get it done.’
Chapter Forty-Five
Denise Levene sat next to Aaron Goldenberg. ‘You wanted to speak to me,’ she said.
Aaron tried to appear calm, but his eyes were anxious. ‘Have they found anything in the woods?’
‘They found a small amount of blood on one of the thorn bushes. It’s Abby’s. Looks like she crawled into a bush, scratched herself.’
‘Who would do this? Who’d want to hurt her?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Denise. ‘There’s nothing on the attacker. The rain hasn’t helped and the time.’
‘But at least you’re investigating. You said you wanted to shake him out of the tree.’
‘Yes, we released a story that this was being looked into as a homicide investigation.’
‘I think you shook the tree well.’
‘What do you mean?’
Aaron stood up and walked to an antique bureau in the window. He took out an envelope. He returned to Denise.
‘What is it?’
‘The kidnapper wrote to me. I received it this morning.’
‘The kidnapper?’
‘She may be alive,’ said Aaron.
Denise put her arm around him. ‘Yes, she may be, that’s good.’
He placed the envelope on the table. Denise looked at it. ‘Aaron, you know sometimes sick people get involved in crimes they had nothing to do with.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean this could be a hoax. Until we get it analyzed, we can’t be sure.’
‘Oh, I am sure,’ said Aaron. ‘I am very sure.’
‘Have you called the cops?’
‘No, I called you.’
‘Munroe or Gauge?’
‘They’ve moved on, passed their information to Homicide.’
‘Let’s take a look,’ said Denise.
Aaron nodded. He went to take the letter, but she held up a hand.
‘Don’t touch it any more. It may contain evidence. They can find a lot from a letter.’
‘And what about you? What does this tell you as a psychologist?’
Denise took out a set of latex gloves and put them on. ‘It tells me that he needs to be caught.’
‘But what else?’
‘I think he’s escalating. I think he’s changing. He started this as a secret and private thing. He went to some lengths to hide what he’d done with Esther and Abby, even changing the MO. Then things exploded with Capske. He went public and he started to show how dark he was. The barbed wire was a particularly evocative touch.’
‘It fits.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘He hates Jews. He imagines himself part of some powerful Nazi project. They work in groups. They need each other to keep the delusion going. That’s why they come together. It is difficult to be a lone Nazi, because there is nothing but madness in it. But they need more than a group. They need the ideology, the symbols, and the dress. With all this paraphernalia, they can believe that their hatred is real. Then they need to focus all that hate and all that delusion on an object. On a Jew or a homosexual or a gypsy or an immigrant. They get reactions, they get to feel the excitement of hurting others. It begins to feel like their project is more real than anything else, so real that the rest of the actual world disappears. But even this is not enough. They need to kill and hurt as Nazis. They need to scrawl Nazi images on sacred buildings. They need, in this case, to use barbed wire, the image of the Holocaust, to hurt someone Jewish. A double attack.’
Denise picked up the letter. ‘You see this in Esther, too?’
‘Yes,’ said Aaron. ‘Cutting fingers off to get gold rings. This is how they treated people in the death camps.’
Denise stopped. ‘Marisa Cohen was found half-drowned.’
Aaron stood up. ‘I have thought about that too,’ he said.
‘And?’
‘Whoever this is,’ said Aaron, ‘he may be copying Nazi experiments.’
‘Go on.’
‘They used Jewish prisoners to test how long soldiers could last with hypothermia. They put these poor people in iced baths and timed them until they died. They wrote the results down in charts, as if what they were doing was simply scientific.’
Denise held his hand. ‘Your knowledge will help solve this, Aaron. We need to tell Harper. But, first, this letter. When did it arrive?’
‘This afternoon.’
Denise picked up the letter and opened it. She read it once through. It was short and to the point. Her nerves crackled as she read.
Denise re-read the letter. ‘She’s losing weight.’
‘Maybe she’s refusing to eat. Maybe something else. I don’t know.’
Denise suddenly understood. ‘You know what he’s doing, don’t you, Aaron?’
‘Yes, I think so,’ he said.
‘How do you know this is from the kidnapper?’
He looked Denise straight in the eye. ‘It has a lock of her hair in the envelope.’
‘Is it hers? Can you be sure?’
‘It smells like her.’
‘We’ll get it tested.’ Denise stood up. ‘I’ve got to take this back, right away. Keep thinking, Aaron. I’ll be in touch.’
Once outside the house, she called Harper. ‘Go ahead,’ said Harper. ‘Dr Goldenberg thinks the killer is copying Nazi atrocities and experiments. I’ll explain when I get back. There was something else.’
‘Go on,’ said Harper.
‘Tom, the killer wrote to Dr Goldenberg. I’m bringing the letter over.’
‘And?’
‘If we can believe it, then there’s some good news. It indicates that Abby’s alive.’
