“The forensics teams are working onthat, and we’ve got LAPD officers talking to any and all possible witnesses,going door to door. We’ll find the evidence.”
Zoe looked at Shelley’s face andunderstood that she was not going to convince her otherwise. It was hard toblame her. It wasn’t just Shelley. Captain Warburton had stuck his head intothe investigation room earlier, while Shelley was in interrogation, andcongratulated her on a case solved. The fact that Franks hadn’t relented andconfessed yet didn’t prove anything, not to them.
For Zoe, it was making her more and moreconvinced that she was right. He wasn’t the right man. Not only because therewere so many questions that didn’t add up, but also because she had completefaith in Shelley’s ability. She would crack him, if he had really done it. Shewas so good, she might even be able to convince him he did do it and get afalse confession.
Which was a worrying thought.
“I’m going back in,” Shelley said,throwing the remnants of a cup of coffee down her throat. “See you in a bit.Keep digging, maybe you’ll find the evidence that proves it before I get theconfession.”
Zoe waited until she was gone and thengot up and shut the door behind her. Alone again for a brief period of time, ina room now full of boxes of evidence and loose paper files, she lifted her cellto her ear and dialed.
“Hello, Zoe.”
Zoe almost sighed with relief at thesound of the familiar voice. “Dr. Applewhite, do you have a minute?”
“For you, my dear, of course.” There wasa faint rustling sound in the background, perhaps Dr. Applewhite putting away afile. Zoe dimly wondered whether her mentor was looking over notes from herresearch group, all people with synesthesia like her. Well, not exactly likeher. It was different for almost everyone. “What’s wrong?”
“What is always wrong?” Zoe sighed. “Ihave a case. I am stuck. I cannot tell if I have a good gut feeling, or if I amjust distracting myself. Talking myself into making things too complicated.”
“Tell me what I need to know to help,”Dr. Applewhite replied. She was smart enough to know that Zoe couldn’t tell herabsolutely everything, or her job would be on the line. Actually, she was thesmartest person that Zoe knew. It didn’t hurt that she was also the closestthing to a real mother figure she had ever had—the person to support her afterher diagnosis, mentor her through college, and even encourage her to join theFBI.
“In general terms,” Zoe began, knowingthat summarizing the case would also help her to understand it better in herown way. “We have victims who are tattooed with, or were about to be tattooedwith, genuine prisoner numbers from Holocaust survivors. The survivors are allolder relatives of the deceased. Their throats are cut, then they are setalight—one of them in broad daylight, in the middle of the city.”
Dr. Applewhite made a thinking, hummingsound. “Your instinct is that this is a hate crime. A neo-Nazi trying to finishwhat the first movement started.”
“No, that is just it,” Zoe replied. “Wehave a suspect who appears to bear that out. He had a connection to all threeof the victims, enough to know their names and be able to get access topersonal details such as their home address. He also has links to a whitesupremacist group. I just do not feel that it is right. He also had access tomany more people who fit the same pattern, but none of those others werekilled.”
“You’re trying to get into the mind ofthe killer, figure out what it is that made those three the victims to goafter,” Dr. Applewhite said. She was always insightful. Even if her first guesswasn’t right on the nose, she always got it.
“I want to know how he thinks. I thoughtI did, but I do not. If the man we have in the cells is the one, I wascompletely wrong about him. It does not fit right, somehow.”
“Is it just the victim selection? Youbelieve that if the man you have in custody was the killer, he would have takenmore lives?”
“No,” Zoe said, and hesitated. “Yes. Ido not know. It is the thing that worries me the most. But I also do not knowabout his attitude. When we confronted him for the arrest, he was quick toanger. Shouting things, making a scene. He was rash and irrational. This killer,he has the wherewithal to stalk his victims and then set them on fire. Toattack in the middle of the day without being scene. He must plan meticulously.It is the only way he would have gotten this far without being seen or leavingbehind more physical evidence that we could use against him.”
“Careful,” Dr. Applewhite said. “You’realmost starting to sound like you understand human nature a lot better than youthink you do.”
Zoe flushed a little, even though shewas alone in the room and Dr. Applewhite could not see her. “I suppose Shelleyis rubbing off on me. But even she does not see it. She thinks I am trying tocomplicate things too much to tie off all of the loose ends.”
“Do you think that could be right?”
Zoe thought about it, searching deep downinside. Could Shelley be right?
She had allowed herself to getdistracted by the 23 enigma. The lack of sleep, the desperation to get the casesolved, all of it had been getting on top of her. Could she really, truly trusther own judgment right now?
“It could be right,” she admitted, atlast. “But I cannot shake this feeling. I have to look into it more, as much aspossible. It is the only way to get rid of the doubt.”
“Then let’s look into it more,” Dr.Applewhite said.
Zoe could almost have cried with relief.It was hard, always so hard, to work against people who didn’t believe in heror understand what she could do. Even though Shelley trusted her most of thetime now, she still had that doubt. She hadn’t known Zoe for long enough. Notlike Dr. Applewhite had.
Not only that, but Dr. Applewhite had noskin in
