“ Understood,” replied Rychman, walking him to the door and a little way down the hall.
“ I hope you're not still buying into Dr. Coran's notion that Leon Helfer did not act alone. Not one shred of forensics evidence we have supports her claim, you know.”
“ No, Dr. Archer, you needn't worry on that score, and with her going back to Quantico, so goes her theories. Can't prosecute on a theory.”
“ No, no, you can't, and we should do nothing to jeopardize the case against Helfer. The man deserves the full extent of the law. There's no way he can escape justice now.”
“ Depends.”
Archer looked closely at Rychman's eyes. “What do you mean, depends?”
“ You know how the game is played, Doc. Defense'll try for an NGI-”
“ But Ames says he's not insane in the legal sense.”
“ Defense shrinks will say he is and it'll be bargained down to a manslaughter with intent, diminished capacity, all that crap. Our boy'll spend the rest of his natural life in an asylum 'longside guys like Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy and Matisak. Long as we've got no death penalty in New York…”
“ No justice anymore, is there, Captain.”
“ You got that right, Doc.” Rychman took Archer's hand and shook it, saying, “You did a hell of a job amassing information against this creep, Archer. Don't worry, news like that travels through the ranks fast, and when the D.A. puts Leon away, one way or another, IAD'11 get word to back off.”
“ Being a division chief really puts the spotlight on you,” replied Archer. “Have to say, I'm tired of those guys snooping around my records and my lab.”
“ You'll learn that being in charge means priority one is to cover your ass and keep fault away from your sector. Divert attention to someone else, if you must.”
“ I may have to come to you for advice from time to time,” he said.
“ Sorry, but at the moment, if I stepped in, said anything on your behalf like you ask, it'd just backfire on both of us. Let the snoops snoop, so long as you've got nothing to hide. So far, what've they turned up? A few clerical errors? A broken chain or two. Come on, when Darius ran the department, errors were made, right?”
“ Guess you're right. I'll stop worrying.”
“ You really ought to at least come down and watch Helfer sweat. You can stay behind the mirror. He's really coming un-glued now, waiving off his attorney's advice to shut up, breaking out into cold sweats. Part of the fun of the chase, once it's over, is to toy with your prey.”
“ Maybe… I'll drop by, then, if I can. Later,” said Archer.
Jessica joined Alan in the hallway where he stood watching Archer disappear. “What was that all about?”
“ Seems he wants my advice about how to deal with IAD. Guess they're making him antsy.”
“ Where there's paranoia there's fire?”
“ IAD spooks everybody, Jess.”
“ I doubt that they could spook you.”
“ I'm keeping an eye on Archer, Jess. Right now, that's all I can do.”
She bit her lower lip and nodded. “Fair enough. Well, I've got to go… got a plane to catch.”
“ And you won't reconsider the foolishness about taking Emmons with you?”
She shook her head. “No, it's a must-do.”
“ You know that if Archer were guilty of any… entanglement with Helfer… if he were a schizoid killer, your taking that body out of here… well, it's got to be viewed as a direct threat to him. Everybody knows your reputation in the lab is-”
“ Why, Alan, I almost believe you have some suspicions regarding the unimpeachable Dr. Archer!”
“ I guess I may.”
“ To be so worried about a hypothetical danger?”
“ I worry for you, that's all.”
“ Don't. I'm a big girl, and I'll be safe in Quantico.”
She punched him in his meaty arm. “Now, walk me to the elevator and say goodbye for now.”
He did so and kissed her at the elevator as personnel in the building moved by them, some staring. “I will be seeing you sooner than you think. I am going to visit, and-”
The doors had opened and she had stepped through but she held it open for him to finish.
“ Yes?”
“ I think I love you, Jess.”
She smiled in reply, her eyes misting up. “I'll miss you.” She wasn't prepared to tell him that she loved him. She wasn't sure she could love anyone again. Certainly it would take more time, a change of setting, more privacy with Rychman, if it were ever to happen.
“ Bye, Rychman.”
As the doors closed between them he shouted, “Going to miss you around here, FBI lady.”
“ Me, too, Alan,” she said back, unsure if he had heard.
Dr. Simon Archer wondered if his having gone to Captain Alan Rychman ostensibly for advice, but actually to “read” the man's reactions to him after whatever revelations Coran had made the night before, had been wise. He was satisfied that Rychman, while interested in the woman sexually, was not about to make a fool of himself otherwise.
Archer had no intention of seeing Leon Helfer in the presence of others. He had visited Leon's cell when he was in lockup the first night to throw a scare into the little creep. Still, Rychman's suggestion that he come down to interrogation and see how it was going was a provocative one. While it could be a trap that Rychman and Coran had set for him, somehow manipulating Leon and him into the same room to see what the reaction would be, he didn't think so.
Coran had left the building, of this he was quite certain. So had Emmons' body. Both were bound for Quantico, and perhaps now everything in New York might return to a semblance of normalcy. With Leon's coffin being nailed shut by Archer's own forensics team, with precious little added by the FBI woman, it would be Dr. Simon Archer who would be credited with putting an end to the Claw, and he would realize the goal that at first he had felt was far beyond his reach and ability. With Dr. Darius gone, at long last, it was his department, and now his reputation would flourish.
As for the Claw, he must forever remain dead along with Leon. To satisfy his taste for flesh, Archer told himself that he could go back to his old methods, forget about the mutilation deaths he had engineered, forget about the fresh smell of a kill, the mouth-watering urges that welled up at the smell of blood. He could do it, he told himself, and if he could not, he'd have to fashion a new weapon, something that could not be linked to the Claw or to him. Finding everything calm in the lab, he excused himself, saying he would be at the interrogation center with Rychman. Within ten minutes, he was sitting behind a one-way mirror listening to Rychman grill Leon. Helfer had apparently agreed to fully cooperate in return for leniency and mercy. He was desperately trying to answer any and all questions put to him. He continued to declare that the Claw was a physical second person and not a second personality manifestation. Dr. Ames, sitting in a corner of the interrogation room, slipped in questions between Rychman's. Ames had his own tape recorder going and he jotted down notes as well, his eyes seldom leaving Helfer, reading the man's body language. Several times Ames looked puzzled. Archer thought.
Helfer was pleading now. “I told you… I told you, I… I don't know where he lives or who he was.”
“ You say you let this guy lead you around by the nose and you never once learned his name?”
“ That's right, that's right…” Leon was blubbering.
“ So he always initiated the contact?”
“ Yes.”
“ And he always told you where to drive to? What street corner to stand on?”
“ Yes, yes… I've told you that.”
“ And as if by magic, here comes the exact victim he wanted?”
“ That's how it happened. I hit them over the head and dragged 'em down where he told me earlier to bring them, but he cut them open, and he… he ate from their insides. I… I just faked that part. It made me sick.” A lie as the fo-rensics evidence had shown.
“ How did he contact you? By phone?”
