'I’ll be all right, but damn, I wish I had seen his face.'
'I want to listen to the tape. Did you recognize the voice?'
'No.'
'Maybe I will.'
'He mostly whispered.'
Tommy was frightened. She could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice when he next spoke.
'Nothing’s going to happen to you, Laurant. We’re going to make sure you stay safe,' he fervently promised with a nod toward Nick.
She didn’t say anything for a long while but simply stared at the dripping faucet in the sink across the room. Her head was reeling.
'You can’t be blase about this,' Tommy warned.
'I’m not.'
'Why are you so calm?'
She put her elbows on the table, bowed her head, and pressed her fingertips against her temples. Calm? She knew she was an expert at hiding her emotions-she’d done it for years-but she was surprised her brother couldn’t see how shaken she was. She felt like a grenade had just gone off in her head. Her quiet, peaceful world had just been blown apart. She was anything but calm.
'Tommy, what do you want me to do?'
'I’ll tell you what you can’t do. You can’t take any chances, Laurant, not until this is over and they’ve caught him. You can’t stay in Holy Oaks.'
'How can I leave? My best friend is getting married, and I’m her maid of honor. I’m not going to miss that. And you know my store is set to open in two weeks, and it still isn’t ready. Then, there’s the public hearing coming up about the town square. People are depending on me. I can’t just pack up and leave.'
'It would only be temporary, until they catch him.'
She shoved the chair back and stood. She couldn’t sit there another second.
'Where are you going?' Tommy asked.
'I’m going to make a cup of hot tea.'
'Tea? It’s ninety-eight degrees in the shade, and you want hot tea?' She scowled at him and he backed down. 'Okay, okay. I’ll show you where everything is.'
They watched her fill the teakettle with water and put it on the burner. After she’d gotten a tea bag out of the canister and put it in the cup, she leaned her hip against the counter and turned back to her brother. 'I have to think about this.'
'There’s nothing to think about. You’ve got to leave. You don’t have a choice in this, Laurant. I won’t have you-'
Nick quietly interrupted, 'Tommy, you ought to call Sheriff Lloyd.'
'Yeah, you’re right.' He’d forgotten about the sheriff until Nick reminded him. 'And maybe while I’m gone, you can talk some sense into her,' he added with a frown at Laurant. 'She can’t be difficult about this. She has to understand this is serious.'
'I’m not being difficult,' she argued. 'Just give me a minute, all right?'
Reluctantly, he got up and went to make the call. Nick used his mobile phone to alert the police that Laurant was there. Then he called his superior. While he was talking to Morganstern, she made her tea and carried it to the table. Then she sat down again.
'You need to get one of these,' he said as he put the phone back in his breast pocket. 'We would have known where you were and could have gotten hold of you while you were on the road.'
'In Holy Oaks everyone knows where everyone else is. It’s like living in a fishbowl.'
'The sheriff didn’t know where you were.'
'He probably didn’t bother to ask anyone. He’s very lazy,' she said. 'My neighbors knew where I was going and so did the two men who were looking after the store while the workmen were there.'
She picked up the transcript of the conversation the police had made, began to read it, and then put it back down.
'I’d like to listen to the tape now.'
Unlike her brother, Nick was anxious for her to do just that. He left the kitchen to get the cassette player, and when he returned he put it in the center of the table.
'Ready?' he asked.
She stopped stirring her tea. She put the spoon in the saucer, took a breath, then nodded.
He hit the play button and leaned back. Laurant stared at the whirling cassette as she listened to the conversation that had taken place in the confessional. Hearing the stranger’s voice made the horror more real to her, and by the time the tape ended, she was nauseated. 'My God.'
'Did you recognize his voice?'
She shook her head. 'It was such a low whisper, I didn't get all of
what he said. I don't think I've heard him before. I'll listen to it
again,' she promised, 'but not yet, all right? I don't think I can…'
'Some of what he said was deliberate… calculated. At least
that's what I think. He wanted to spook Tommy.'
'And he succeeded. I don't want my brother to worry, but I don't know how to stop him. It isn't good for him… the stress.'
'You've got to be realistic, Laurant. A man tells him he's going to kill his sister after he gets his kicks, and you don't think he should worry?'
She threaded her fingers through her hair in agitation. 'Yes, of course… it's just…'
'What?'
'It isn't healthy for him.'
Nick had noticed her slight French accent when she first spoke to him, but now the accent was more pronounced. She might have looked calm and collected, but that facade, like a thin layer of ice, was cracking.
'Why me?' she asked, sounding genuinely bewildered. 'I live such a boring… ordinary life. It doesn't make any sense.'
'A lot of weirdos don't make any sense. There was this case a couple of years back. This pervert did six women before they finally caught him. You know what he told them when they asked him how and where he chose his victims?' She shook her head.
'At the grocery stores. He'd stand out front and he'd smile at the women as they rushed past him. The first one who smiled back… that's the one he wanted. Ordinary women, Laurant, leading ordinary lives. You can't look for reasons with these guys, or waste your
time trying to figure out how their minds work. Leave that to the
experts.'
'Do you think the man in the confessional is a serial killer?'
'Maybe,' he allowed. 'And maybe not. He could just be getting started. The profilers will know more after they've heard the tape. They'll have some insight.'
'But what do you think?'
'There's a hell of a lot of inconsistencies here.'
'Such as?'
He shrugged. 'For one thing, he told Tommy he did the other woman a year ago, but I think he was lying about that.'
'Why?'
'Because he also said he's gotten a real taste for it,' he reminded her. 'The one statement conflicts with the other.'
'I don't understand.'
'If he got off on it-torturing and killing the woman-then he did her recently and not a year ago. He wouldn't have been able to wait that long.'
'Nick, what about the letter he said he sent to the police?'
