'What about… something Becky was wearing? He touched her.'
Ben thought Cassie's face tightened. But her voice remained calm.
'We found out… that's dangerous for me. To touch the belongings of a murder victim, especially the clothing worn during… during the crime. I connect with the strongest, most recent emotions permeating that clothing. The moment of greatest terror. Usually that's the moment of death.'
'What happened when you tried it?' Ben asked.
Matter-of-factly she answered, 'It was like falling into a deep black well. I didn't have the strength to pull myself out. If someone hadn't been there to break the physical connection, I don't think I would have made it. As it was, I was in a coma for a week. And afterward… it was like all the psychic pathways in my mind had been cut or burned out. It was six months before I got my abilities back.' She paused, then added almost wistfully, 'It was so quiet. It was the first time I could understand how normal people sense things.'
After a moment of silence Matt said, 'So you need something belonging to the killer. Something he touched that wouldn't have been… affected by her death.'
She nodded. 'The coin might work.'
Matt stiffened and shot a look at Ben, who spoke immediately.
'I didn't tell her.'
Cassie said, 'I broke the connection before she died, but it came back faintly a little while later, when he put her in the woods. When he posed her like that. It's how I knew where you'd find her. And I saw him put the coin into her hand.'
'What do you think it means?' Ben asked her. 'The coin?'
'I think it has something to do with her worth in his eyes. It was a silver dollar, wasn't it?'
'It was,' Matt said. 'No prints.'
'Yes, he was very careful about not leaving traceable evidence, so the coin itself probably won't lead you to him.' Cassie frowned as she looked at Ben. 'Her worth in his eyes. How he posed her, the coin, the way he taunted her before he killed her. He thought she was a whore.'
'She wasn't,' Matt objected immediately. 'She was just a kid.'
Cassie's eyes fixed on the sheriff, and she spoke gently. 'What she actually was didn't matter to him. In his mind she was a whore. If you want to find him, you have to figure out how his mind works.'
'Yeah, I know.' Matt sighed heavily. 'But I don't have to like it.'
'Not much fun trying to think like a madman, is it?'
Matt looked at her. 'You've made your point.'
Cassie didn't push it. 'Do you have the coin?'
'Maybe this isn't such a good idea,' Ben said. 'Today, I mean. Cassie, you said you were awake most of the night – you must be tired.' He didn't add that she was visibly exhausted.
'I'd like to try, Judge.'
'I wish you'd call me Ben.'
She glanced at him and nodded but spoke to the sheriff. 'I'd like to try. If you have the coin.'
Matt opened the center drawer of his desk and brought out a small, clear plastic bag labeled evidence. He pushed it across the desk to Cassie.
She didn't touch it immediately, but instead sent Ben another quick glance. 'I'll need a lifeline.'
'A what?'
'A lifeline. Somebody to… talk me through. Keep me focused. Keep me from going too deep.'
'What happens if you go too deep?'
Cassie smiled faintly. 'I don't come back.'
Ben looked at Matt, who lifted an eyebrow silently, then back at her. 'Okay. What do I do?'
Cassie reached for the bag. 'Just keep talking to me. If I make a connection, don't let go.'
Her trust disturbed him, but Ben nodded.
Either seeing or sensing his uneasiness, she said reassuringly, 'I'll make the connection as shallow as I can this time, just to find out if there's anything there. If this coin didn't belong to him or wasn't in his possession for a while, there may not be much I can get.'
Ben watched as she opened the bag and slid the coin out onto her palm.
Her head bent and her eyes closed as she began turning the coin in her fingers. It was what someone would do when she was trying to identify something by touch alone, probing the shape and texture of a thing.
'Cassie?' Ben said when he thought the silence had lasted too long.
Her face turned a little toward him in a clear and instant response to his voice. She was even more pale than she had been before, so much so that it startled Ben.
But her voice was steady when she slowly said, 'This was his. It was part of a… collection. And he has more. Laid out in a row. There was a place for the dollar, but now that's empty. There was… a set. He still has a fifty- cent piece, a quarter, a dime, a nickel, and a penny.'
'Does he mean to use them all?' Ben asked.
'I don't know.' She winced. 'It's difficult to touch his mind. He's tired, drained. He's looking at the coins, but I don't know what he's thinking or feeling.'
Matt spoke then, his voice low and filled with the fascinated suspicion of a man unwillingly impressed by the show but still searching for the wizard behind the curtain. 'Can she see what's around him?'
'Cassie? Can you see what's around him? Can you describe where he is?'
'Not really. It's dark. He likes the dark. His head doesn't hurt so much in the dark.'
'Is it a room?'
'I think so. But… I don't see any furniture. Just the coins laid out in a row. Black velvet behind them. All his attention is focused on them. It's like he's… mesmerized. Almost in a trance.'
Cassie shook her head suddenly and opened her eyes. 'That's all. That's all I get.' She slid the coin back into its bag and pushed it across the desk to Matt. 'I should try again in a day or two. Right now he's… too distant. Too drained.'
Matt glanced down at the notes he'd made on a legal pad. 'Part of a collection. Do you think he collects coins?'
'Could be. The ones he had laid out before him are definitely important to him, I know that.' She sounded tired.
'Are you all right?' Ben asked her.
'I'll be fine.'
'But are you all right now?'
She looked at him, and he felt the difference. The warmth of that direct gaze was less than it had been, as though some furnace of energy inside her had used up too much fuel and now burned dangerously low.
'It's draining. But I'll be fine.' To Matt she said, 'I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. This time.'
Matt looked up from the legal pad, his face grim. 'Is there anything else you can tell me about him? Anything at all?'
'Just what I'd already told you and Judge – you and Ben. I don't believe he's killed before, but I think he will again. He has the taste of it now. And he likes it.' She paused. 'There's something young about his mind, about the way he thinks. Guessing, I'd say he's still in his twenties.'
Cassie shrugged. 'And then there's what a profiler would probably tell you. White male between twenty-four and thirty-two. Probably single and unlikely to be involved with a woman. Probably came from an abusive background and undoubtedly had at least one domineering parent – probably his mother. Sexual problems – possibly impotence. He's found a way to achieve sexual gratification, and that's important to him. The ritual worked. The way she was posed, the coin in her hand – those are things you'll find at the next scene. His M.O. in that way, is probably established.'
'What about the weapon?' Matt asked. 'We didn't find the knife. Will he use it again?'
'It's a guess… but I don't think how they die is as important to him as how they're found. He may not use the same means next time.' She gestured wearily. 'But I'm not sure.'
'Come on,' Ben said, rising. 'I need to get you home.' He had to fight the instinct to reach out and offer his hand.
Cassie got up. 'I'll wait outside. The sheriff wants to talk to you.'
