was not herself a principal player on the case.
Jessica understood the media attention being given the creep in Washington. He was, after all, a pedophile of the worst order. He not only seduced and raped children, but also came out of the experience feeling extreme guilt and hatred of himself and what he'd done, but rather than cut his own throat or another appropriate appendage, the maniac turned his rage outward to the very objects of his perverted desire, the children, and in his uncontrollable rages, he murdered.
'I'm sure you'll catch this guy soon. The profile has him pegged. Meanwhile, don't worry about us out here in the Wild West. We're chugging along, plugging at our man.'
'This creep we're after, Jess. He knows every back alley, open courtyard, basement window, and dark corner in D.C., and every schoolyard.'
'As our profile says, he's a killer of opportunity, a difficult monster to stop. He wanders the streets by van and on foot, spends long hours simply moving around, a predator of the first order, waiting to pounce if given the slightest opportunity. Makes me wonder…'
'Wonder?'
'If our two killers aren't somehow… connected, related, Eriq.'
'How's that?'
'Oh, I don't mean in the sense they know one another or are blood brothers or anything… Just that sometimes you've got to wonder from what cloth these so-called men are cut.'
'Yeah, yeah… maybe.' Eriq spoke now as if to himself. ''A child of eleven is ignored by his older sister and wanders through a gate, into a courtyard behind a fence, never to be seen again, his body never recovered. A little girl of twelve follows a bouncing ball into a shadow, and he is there. Only the ball is found. Later, her body is discovered stuffed in a drain pipe off Old Plymouth where it bisects Jackson Boulevard.'
''Has Dr. Desinor been helpful?'' Jessica asked, knowing that FBI psychic detective Kim Desinor had been called in on the Punisher case.
'She's made some impressive hits, particularly locating the bodies after their disappearances, but so far little headway on the preventative side.'
Jessica gave some thought to Dr. Kim Desinor. When last Jessica had spoken with Kim, the psychic detective had confided that the Punisher case had eroded any faith in herself and her power to do anything for the victims and their families.
Jessica finally asked, 'So how's Kim really doing with the Punisher case, Eriq?''
'Are you reading minds nowadays, too?'
'Not good, I take it?'
'True.'
'You're not thinking of pulling her off the case, are you?''
'If she doesn't pull herself together, 1 don't have much choice, now do I, Jess?'
'It's your call, Eriq, but there's always a choice, and just remember what she did for us in New Orleans.'
'Not likely anyone's forgetting that, Jess… but we're talking another day here.'
'So, it's business as usual… What've you done for me lately, huh?'
'Hey, I'm crass, but I'd hoped you hadn't seen that side of me,' he joked to lighten the moment. 'So, you and Parry have a good time overseas?'
Although she'd been back from her overseas vacation with Jim for some time, and although she and Eriq had worked the Punisher case to some degree together since then, it had been at remote points, as was the Phantom case now-she in her lab, he in his office, the two of them across a conference room filled with others on the tactical profile team of the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) at Quantico. With additions such as psychic profiling, the team was no longer the small club it had once been in the days when Otto Boutine had first nurtured the unit into existence.
She knew it best to give concerted attention to how she replied to Eriq about James Parry and her ongoing, long distance love affair with her Hawaii friend. 'Rome was splendid, Athens like a dream.'
'That good, huh? Why don't you gush a little?' he continued to joke. 'So, was Parry splendid, too?'
'When in Rome…'
'I don't see it, but if you say so, Jess, he must have something special.'
'He is something special. Do you really want me to expound?'
Obviously not, for Eriq quickly changed the subject with his own question. ''Jess, are you sure you and Thorpe can handle things there alone?'
'We're hardly alone, Eriq. We've got the LVPD and Warren Bishop's local bureau to reach out and touch if we need it. Thanks now to your influence?'
'You don't sound worried about this creep's having reached out and touched you personally, Jess.'
Jessica wondered for half a second if Eriq could mean Frank Lorentian, but she hadn't bothered to tell him of the threat Lorentian posed to the investigation. 'I'm not worried about my personal safety, Eriq.'
'You sure that's being wise? And God, but you do attract the perverts, Jess.'
'Thanks, but I don't deserve 'em, as for worry… worry? What's that? Me, worry? Eriq, he's a maniac, a killer, but remember when Matisak was stalking me? This guy's but a faint shadow of Matisak, even fainter of that Night Crawler bastard we caught together last spring in Grand Cayman. I'm on top of it.'
'You just give a holler, then.'
'I will. So, any more initial impressions of this creep's handwriting?'
'Initial… clever girl, Jess. Well, he's all over the spectrum, clearly demonstrating a madness, but as I said, there's little to go on with, but the one word and the two numbers.''
'Make any sense of that, 'number one is number nine' and 'traitors'?'
'First impression? She pissed him off like a cat, nine times, nine lives maybe, and maybe the ninth time, whammo maybe, although she was his number one squeeze, because she was a traitor, and she didn't live past her ninth life? Who knows?'
'Good question: Who does know?'
'Besides the killer? Well, Billings and Leonard Winstone in documents and literature are having a look-see, so not to worry. Something'll come of it. Those guys are the best.'
'We need the best on this, Eriq,' she returned. 'Any rate, I need you to see to it that previous MOs are checked in the history banks, see if this boy's been bad before, okay?'
'Sure thing, Jess. As we speak, it's being done.'
'Then I'll hope to hear from you soon?'
'Very soon.'
'Thanks, Eriq, and good night.'
'You expect he'll call again?'
She hesitated answering, not wishing to voice her fears. 'I've had my phone tapped. Hopefully we'll get a voice-print, if he is that stupid.'
'Crime does that to you… makes you stupid. Good thinking on the tap. Then someone'll be listening in with you. You won't be alone with the Devil, as they say, if the creep contacts you again.'
'Warren Bishop's seen to it, or so I was told.'
'Good man, this Bishop?'
'Tops.'
'Oh?'
'Warren's a friend. I knew him when I was going through academy training. He's a great guy. He was one of my training officers.'
'Good… good…'
'And good night, Eriq.'
'Not so quick, Jess. I mean it. I want you to take all due precautions. Don't get careless with this 'faint shadow of Matisak,' as you call him. There really are no faint murderous maniacs.'
'The Phantom's a wimp…'
'What?'
'The press is calling him the Phantom, even though he's only killed one we know of; someone in the fire department put out a statement that he may be linked to other fire deaths around the city and outlying areas. See
