Show of Evil

Wonderful whipped my ass and that's what they know about me?'

'Actually twice. I whipped your ass twice. Have you forgotten…?'

'Just call them in, okay?' she said, cutting him off.

'I did miss you last night,' he whispered as he walked past her.

'It was your decision.'

'That's right, rub it in.'

He opened the office door and waved at those of the staff who were in the office. They finished phone calls, put away files, and dribbled into the room over the next five minutes, each pleasantly greeting Venable, though regarding her with respectful suspicion since she was considered a potential threat in the courtroom. They drew coffee from the big urn, doctored it, grabbed a doughnut from the box provided by Naomi, and settled down, some in chairs, some on the floor, waiting expectantly. Vail rarely called an emergency staff meeting like this. Only Hazel Fleishman and Bucky Winslow were absent; both were in court.

The last to enter the room was Bobby Hartford, a tall, ramrod-straight black man from Mississippi whose father, Nate Hartford, a field rep for the NAACP, had been shot to death in front of Bobby. He'd been nine years old at the time. Now, at thirty-eight, Hartford was the oldest member of the Wild Bunch and its only married man (Fleishman was also married). He had about him an almost serene air despite his traumatic early years - Vail had never heard him raise his voice. He sat on the floor beside Flaherty.

'I asked Jane Venable here today because she's deeply involved in what we're about to discuss,' Vail began. He turned to Venable.'This is what we call a brain scan. The rules are the same for all of us. If you have something to ask, clarify, or contribute, jump in anytime. You'll probably hear some challenges, some devil's advocacy, that's the way we do it here, okay?'

He paused to take a sip of coffee and light a cigarette, blowing the smoke at the exhaust fan.

'All right, here's the situation. I assume you've all read Dermott's report on the Balfour and Lincoln murders. You've also read the trial transcripts of the Stampler trial, so by now you are aware of the more than coincidental nexus of these crimes. And although the latest two killings are way out of our jurisdiction, we're going to become involved in this situation whether we like it or not. I'm convinced Stampler wanted me to know that he had conned us all - and he's still conning us. So when I went up to see him and his shrink, Dr Woodward, I wired myself. Taped the conversations I had with them.'

'Was that legal?' Hartford asked.

'We're not planning to use it in court.'

'Not what I asked, Counsellor,' Hartford challenged.

Vail regarded him balefully for a few moments, then shook his head. 'No, it wasn't.' Then he grinned. 'Want to leave the room when I play it?'

'Oh, hell, no,' Hartford said with a laugh. 'I just wanted to know where you're coming from.'

There was a ripple of laughter in the room.

'Fear is where I'm coming from,' Vail said seriously. 'I fear this man. He is very dangerous. I hope I can convince you of that before this meeting's over. Before I play the tape, here's what we know. We know that Stampler hasn't had any contact with the outside world for ten years, no phone calls, no letters, no visitors. We know the killer is printing messages in code on the back of his victim's heads in blood, just as Stampler did. And the quotes are keyed to Rushman's old library books, which are now in the Newberry, just as Stampler's were. All those coincidences can reasonably be explained. Newspaper accounts, trial records, that sort of thing - none of that information is secret.

'But we also know that whoever killed Balfour and Lincoln was privy to information that could only have come from Stampler. What the public never knew was that Rushman was a paederast. He had a group called the Altar Boys - four boys and a girl - whom he directed in pornographic videos, then stepped in and took his pleasure with the girl or one of the boys, or all of them, whatever suited him. Stampler was one of the Altar Boys. He murdered two of them. But Alex Lincoln got away. So did Stampler's girlfriend, Linda, who was the young lady in the group. She later became Mrs Linda Balfour. Now they're dead and the MO is exactly the same as the murders Stampler committed.'

'There is one difference,' Stenner interjected. 'This killer takes trophies - like mementoes of his tricks. He took a stuffed toy that belonged to Linda Balfour and Lincoln's belt buckle. My feeling is the copycat is a true serial killer.'

'He also left a Polaroid shot of Linda Balfour's body when he killed Lincoln,' Flaherty said, 'so there would be no doubt he committed both crimes.'

'None of the information about Rushman was ever revealed in the trial,' Vail went on. 'There were two tapes of one of the Altar Boys