'So where does that leave us?'
'The connection is to the killer,' concluded Meredyth. 'Mira Lourdes is somehow connected to her killer, not us, not Lucas and me.'
'But this abduction seems random. According to her family and the boyfriend, she had no enemies.' Jana shook her head. 'What does that mean, Dr. Sanger?' she challenged.
'There may be no connection in our reality, Jana, that is, the real world, but maybe there is a connection in his reality, his warped mind.'
'I see, a warped fantastical notion that Mira Lourdes belongs to him is all the connection he needs. But that could just as well apply to his attraction to you since, obviously, Mira Lourdes did not work out.'
Meredyth stared at Detective North and swallowed hard. Lucas contemplated the ramifications of what Jana had just said.
'If that is the case,' said Meredyth, 'then some nut-ball is stalking me for a surrogate slave, and his woman is helping him in this fantasy turned on me. But such a theory doesn't take into account his taunting Lucas.'
Meredyth paced to the window and stared out to the busy street below. 'As far as connecting with me or Lucas…well, the creep could well've seen us on the tube, you know, during the Walters case, or even the Casde trials, or being interviewed when we broke that Internet murder ring ten years ago for all we know.'
'Yes, well, that's true. You two have made news. You both come with the badge of notoriety as a result.'
Meredyth returned to her seat and dropped into it, looking defeated. 'Maybe it's time to change professions.'
Lucas leaned across the desk and said to her, 'Mere, I know it has occurred to you that the killer is simply interested in the notoriety that he can achieve or…or create for himself.'
'Big bucks these days in murderabilia,' she replied.
'Murderabilia?' asked Jana.
'You know, the peddling of murder paraphernalia, serial-killer collectables and trading cards….'
This set Lucas's teeth on edge, and he further explained. 'Buying and selling of anything connected with sociopaths and psychos, from John Wayne Gacy's clown suit, his circus clown paintings, to Danny Rollings's nose clippers and the radio knob offa Ted Bundy's Volkswagen, or the car itself, all going for auction on eBay.'
'Christ, perhaps that's all he wants, to be ranked among the big boys of criminal history,' suggested Jana, her forehead creasing with the implications of such a notion.
'In which case he may believe he knows us, but we don't have any idea who he is or any connection whatsoever to him in our reality, only in his, as I said,' Meredyth added. 'His relationship with Mira Lourdes may well've been another twist in the same path. Say he saw her at her place of work, interacted with her, and she became a luminary star for him.'
'That's scary,' replied Jana. 'Reminds me of an obsessive boy who tagged me as his special angel when I was only sixteen.'
'When was that, last year?' asked Meredyth, smiling.
'Thanks for the compliment.'
'So we're talking stalking behaviors, stalker-think, that all too familiar brand of magical thinking affecting too damn many American males nowadays,' said Lucas.
'If we're dealing with a guy with a psychosis, perhaps he's a patient or former patient of yours, Dr. Sanger,' Jana suggested, moving about the room now, thinking on her feet. 'I'm sure you've considered that possibility.'
'We're going to spend the day going over recent and old cases and patients,' Lucas assured Jana.
'I mean, it could just be a guy with a grudge,' cautioned Jana. 'A screwy revenge motive connection that has nothing to do with die media spotlight?'
'Quite possible,' conceded Meredyth.
'Either way, I guess the killer has selected you two for his purposes, and he thinks you have a personal relationship, twisted as that may be,' said Jana. 'I suggest you need a third partner in this, someone with a bit more objectivity, and since the victim is one of my missing persons cases, I'd like to be that person.'
'I have no objection,' Meredyth replied. 'Given Captain Lincoln's order to catch this freak before things get any further out of hand, we welcome your help, Jana.'
'Lucas? What do you say?'
They shook on it and together they went downstairs to interrogation to see what progress, if any, had come of the Dwayne Stokes polygraph test. Lucas joked with Jana along the way, asking, 'Will the questions like be couched in phrases beginning with like, dude?'
Jana laughed. Meredyth kept her eyes on Lucas, and she hoped her plan, to keep her rival for his affections- the enemy-close, might work.
Jana's best interrogation team had Dwayne hooked up and sweating out every answer to questions. He was hooked up to two machines simultaneously, a typical lie detector/polygraph, all looking normal, and a state-of-the- art, computer interface polygraph with a computer screen for a readout and electrodes that attached to a skullcap placed on the head, looking like something out of a modem-day Frankenstein tale-a modem-day, extremely intimidating he detector that purported to read lies via brain-wave activity.
For the first time, Lucas felt some compassion for young Dwayne. The fellow looked like a frightened guinea pig, fearful his brain would either be fried or transferred to the polygraph operator. The sight gave Lucas pause, and he related a method he had used on occasion to extract a confession. He told Jana and Meredyth about a time when he and other detectives routinely fooled suspects into believing an ordinary Xerox copier was capable of reading thoughts, that it was a sophisticated brain-wave lie detector. He had personally gotten six confessions using the old Xerox machine.
When Jana stopped laughing, she opened the intercom link and asked the polygraph examiner, a young man who looked fresh out of high school, to step outside for a moment. He did so, and she introduced Meredyth and Lucas to Police Force Cadet Peter Markson.
'Peter here is our resident expert on the new brain reader in there,' she explained.
'It's a BPR hooked to an IBM imaging computer that prints faster than you can blink,' said Markson.
'BPR?' Lucas asked.
'BrainPrint 2232, deluxe model.'
The second polygraph inspector joined them, leaving Stokes alone inside, nervously snatching cables from his body and brain. The second operator handled the older polygraph using galvanic skin responses. He introduced himself to Lucas as Earl Harmond and he pumped Lucas's arm, his eyes wide with admiration. 'Mr. Stonecoat… Detective… you're a hero and local legend. I–I'm so proud, sir, to be acting as HPD civilian support personnel on one of your cases. I've been a fan since I was a kid.'
'Your help is appreciated. What do your machines say about Dwayne Stokes?'
'Rules him out. He's telling the truth.'
'No way he could be faking it,' added Markson. 'The BPR never lies.'
'You implying my machine does?' argued Earl.
'I'm saying, Earl, our machines agree, and so can we.' Markson led Lucas closer to the one-way mirror and pointed in to where Stokes was taking off the final electrodes.
'See the electrode attachment cap for his head? This technology measures brain-wave patterns as well as galvanic skin response-a perfect blending of old and new technologies. We've got all the bases covered. Unless this guy is Houdini, he gets a pass.'
'Then we work on the assumption the abduction took place as he pieced it together from the neighbor,' said Lucas, seeing that Earl had reentered the interrogation room, telling Stokes that he had passed with flying colors.
Meredyth said, 'We need to get the neighbor back to Houston. Get her to our sketch artist, hypnotize her, whatever it takes to get more details from her.'
Jana looked at her watch to punctuate her words. 'I'm working on that now, but it's sometimes hard to get citizens to cooperate in an investigation. Too many have seen what happens to witnesses on The Sopranos and Law and Order. Look, I gotta go.' She dashed off.
'If the Jamaica connection calls, let us know!' Lucas shouted after Jana. Meredyth dug a heel into his boot.
