Show of Evil

Raymond Vulpes in court. You and I are both bound by the tenets of confidentiality. If I had gone to Judge Shoat and told him that I had made a mistake based on Stampler's comment, I could have been disbarred - and considering how Shoat despised me, probably would've been. So what possible good would have come from telling you what Stampler said? There wasn't a damn thing you could do about it, either.'

'So now the time's come to free him and you want to keep him inside because of some remark he made ten years ago.'

'It's a much more complex problem than that.'

'Not my problem, Martin.'

'That's right, but I need all the help I can get right now. Vulpes is going to walk. There's nothing I can do to stop him and Vulpes knows it. Woodward is convinced that Stampler and Roy no longer exist. He believes in Raymond Vulpes. And he's convinced the state board.'

'It's uncomfortable to think about. I love medicine as much as you love the law. If this is true, I feel, I don't know, as if we both perverted our professions.'

'Not you. You did your job.'

'Not very well, I'm afraid.'

'He faked us both out, Molly. But I wanted to be faked, I wanted to believe him because it was the one way to beat the case. Ironic, isn't it? The thing I fear most is prosecuting an innocent person, but I have to live with the fact that I am responsible for saving a guilty one.'

'Then be practical about it. If there's nothing that can be done, put it behind you. It's not your business any more.'

'It's my business because he wants it that way.'

'What do you mean, he wants it that way?'

Vail asked St Claire to rejoin them. 'What do you remember most about the murder of the bishop?' Vail asked.

'Most vividly? The pictures,' she said. 'They were ghastly.'

'What else? How about the Altar Boys? Do you remember their names?'

'Afraid not. I remember he killed them.'

'Not all. One got away. His name was Alex Lincoln. Do you remember Stampler's girlfriend?'

'Yes. I met her once. At that shelter…'

'Saviour House. Her name was Linda Gellerman.'

'She was very frightened. And she was pregnant. She was going to have an abortion, as I recall.'

'That's right. She straightened her life out, married a nice guy two years ago, and had a little boy.'

She smiled. 'It's nice to hear a story with a happy ending.'

'Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. A few months ago somebody walked into her house one morning and chopped her to bits in front of her child.'

'Oh…'

'Now somebody has done the same thing to Alex Lincoln. Exactly the same MO as the Stampler murders, including the genital mutilation and the symbols on the back of the head. We know the same person committed both murders - one in southern Illinois, the other one outside St Louis. But Stampler's still in the maximum security wing and he hasn't had a letter or a visitor in almost ten years.'

'But you think he's involved in some way?'

'Something like that.'

'How could he be?'

'We don't know how and we don't know why. But I'm positive he's directing a copycat killer. We — Harve and I - think it may have something to do with transference.'

'Transference? I don't understand.'

'Isn't it true that transference sometimes causes the patient to have irrational expectations from the people they work and live with? That re-experiencing can cause problems?'

'It can. There are other reasons. People naturally seek approval from their parents or supervisors. Frustration of these expectations may evoke rage or other immature behaviour patterns.'

'Or worse?'