“ Where else would he hoard it?”
“ I mean… Why didn't he just eat it, you know? If it's what he pries out of his victim's brain…”
“ Who knows what goes on inside such a head?” She unlocked her office and stood with the door ajar, the semi-darkness within inviting.
Eriq added, “But if he's such an addict for this thing?”
She turned on him, asking, “How the hell should I know, Eriq? We're dealing with a psychotic with a morbid fixation. He doesn't have to make sense, now does he?”
“ Easy, Jess. Just thinking aloud. I'll ask him when we get around to him.”
Eriq followed her into her office. She had somehow escaped being seen by any of the lab personnel. She wanted to have some peace before any of the others came after her for one thing and another. Still, it felt good to be home. She buzzed Jere Anderson's desk and asked her to come to her office but to tell no one that she was in the building.
Jere entered, said a quick hello, and got her orders from Jessica. Jessica informed her junior staff member of what she needed done with the strange piece of brain matter in the vial. “Jere, you're in charge.”
“ Thank you for your confidence, Dr. Coran. I won't let you down.”
“ I'm sure you'll handle it in a professional manner, Jere. Now, I'm going to get some much-needed sleep in my office, and I don't want to be disturbed,” she said for Eriq's sake as well as Jere's.
She skimmed through the messages and mail on her desk while Eriq waited in a high-backed cushioned chair. “That computer is being handled with care, right?” he asked her.
“ J.T.'s seeing to it, along with everything gathered at Cahil's place, except material relative to an animal- cruelty case the field office will develop against the suspect.”
“ Animal case?”
“ He had cat and dog brains in his freezer as well.”
“ Are you saying you stuck Marcus Fromme's people with an animal-cruelty case? That's rich… Very good… very good.” He laughed and stood. It had been a long time since she'd heard Eriq laugh about anything, and it made her feel good.
She snatched up a blanket she kept in the office for such occasions and curled up on her couch, thinking Eriq was on his way out. “Give me an hour, maybe two?” she asked.
“ I had copies of the Washington Post and the ever popular Instigator placed on your desk for your return, Jess. They're getting damn nosey and close on our heels.”
She glanced up to see him holding the two newspapers side by side, photo arrays of all the victims, including Winona Miller in Georgia accompanied screaming headlines in both the
tabloid and the legitimate paper. One read: BONE SAW, SCALPEL USED BY SKULL-DIGGER WHILE VICTIMS SUFFERED ALIVE
The other read: BRAIN-EATING BONE SAW SLAYER ELUDES FBI, POLICE
Jessica sat up, scanning the news accounts for any sign that they had knowledge of the cross found on the bodies or anything related to how small a section of the brain had actually been the killer's object. On both counts, the storytellers had nothing. She stood and went to her window, staring out over the Quantico grounds, lush with greenery. “At least the word isn't out on the cross or this Rheil business.”
“ With this kind of sensational case, I'm surprised the other information hasn't leaked,” Eriq replied.
“ In the body of one of the stories, the writer referred to the killer as the 'Brain Snatcher.' The other story referred to him as the 'Brain Cleaver.' Don't they know you have to cleave before you can snatch?” she asked, falling back into the folds of the couch.
“ Cahil had similar news accounts on him when he was brought in. He claims it's the reason he contacted you.”
“ Another reason, you mean? He decided the heat was too much for him.”
“ He claims he's innocent of all charges. That he's not the Digger. That is, when he's not speaking from other personalities.”
“ Yet he's got a piece of someone's brain at home in the freezer.”
“ There's something you ought to know about his 1990 doings, Jess.”
“ Shoot.”
“ When Cahil was first put away, he copped to using the newspaper obits to select his victims. You find any newspapers accumulating at his residence?”
“ Some, you could say,” she facetiously answered.
“ Too bad you didn't find a bone saw. That's what he used in '90.”
“ Yeah, he sounds good for the Skull-digger, Eriq.”
“ Corroborated now by his own website and that piece of flesh you brought in. I'm hoping for the death penalty this time around.”
“ Yeah, he can do an elocution for us,” she replied. “Hopefully, he'll tell the whole story, beginning with his Richmond victim.” If I tell him what he wants to hear, I can get some sleep, she thought.
He blew out a long breath of air, his Cuban features darker than ever. “Morristown was good for our side. We match this tissue you found at his place with any of the victims, and we put an end to it.”
“ I'm banking on Cahil, too, Eriq. Still… some things don't add up.” Can't help yourself, can you? she reproached herself.
“ Ah, you mean the estimated weight on a shoe print in Georgia that may or may not have been made by Cahil? Not to worry. You have human tissue found in his Morristown home.”
“ What more evidence do we need?” she asked, a mock smile coming over her along with a mock sense of relief. “All the same, we need to check his shoes against the prints taken in Georgia, along with his tire treads, if we ever find his van. As for now, Boss, I gotta get a little sleep.”
But Eriq was keyed up, not listening to her. “Since he's been incarcerated, no one else has been murdered in his trademark fashion. Like I said, the new killings started up after-after his release-and he's well aware that this time he may go into the general population rather than a safe, private padded room.”
She closed her eyes and lay her head on a pillow. “Well, I can see you're fatigued. Get some rest. I'll check back in an hour.”
“ Make it two. And thanks, Eriq.” Jessica had curled up in the fetal position on the couch. Eriq smoothed the blanket over her to encompass her shoeless feet. Then he left, closing the door behind him.
She was grateful she'd remembered to unplug the phone on her desk.
A stream of thoughts bombarding its way over rocks of doubt ran through Jessica's restless sleep there in her office. The river of reflection came full circle back to the lunatic Cahil. And the Skull-digger's career had begun only after Cahil had been released. Maybe there was a perfect connection between the two maniacs of 1990 and 2003, the perfect connection being that they were one and the same man- possibly another manifestation of Cahil's multiple-personality syndrome. Spots never change, she told herself.
Yet her unconscious mind hit a snag on its way to executing Cahil, as her sleep self considered the disparity between a killer's lusting after a dead victim and a live one. World of difference, she told herself.
Deitze whooshed into her dream state and said, Children are closer to something Daryl calls the eternal cosmic mind residing in us all; said he had tapped into it through his Rheil thing. Dr. Deitze glanced toward the refrigerator in Cahil's house.
Jessica's dream self asked, So, you think Cahil is at it again?
No… never. I cured him.
He's just twisted his formula, cooked it differently, said Max Strand, forcing his way into the conversation.
His prey are now live young female victims to find oneness and wholeness with his warped idea of the universe and how it works? her unconscious asked in a tone of disbelief.
It's a very real possibility that one of his personalities has branched out, Dr. Coran, added a gray, ashen- looking Max Strand. It's him, all right. I'd stake my career on it. Daryl is the Digger.
NINE
