A DANGER DO NOT ENTER sign lay in a patch of weeds by the side of the gate, and Allander picked it up, admiring it in the waning sunlight. He wedged its corners between the links of the fence, then smacked his hands together to rid them of dust.
Having whistled his way well into the recapitulation, he turned and headed toward the bus station.
Jade began the next morning by carefully studying the photographs from the first crime scene. He sat on his couch in the middle of his living room, chewing ice from a cup that he rested against his crotch.
The room was becoming cluttered as Jade collected more background information. He had stacked books on the glass table in front of him, and the files he had gotten from the FBI were piled up everywhere. It seemed as if the first one had reproduced, spawning an extended family. Now files littered the floor and the couch, many of them opened to important pages.
Jade was trying to hold all the material in his head, but it was difficult. There was just too much to absorb- audiotapes of Allander's psychological interviews, videotapes of his trial and old crime scenes, photographs of Allander, jail records, psychology reports, and victim profiles and photographs.
Once Jade had reviewed a photograph carefully, he taped it to the wall. The first photograph in the upper- left-hand corner was Allander's mug shot at age eighteen. The rest of the photos progressed in a more or less chronological order: Allander through the years, his victims through the years. His killing pace had slowed when he went to prison, but still his victim count rose steadily-here another prisoner, there a guard.
Jade looked at the files, books, and photos spread out around him and closed his eyes. What was Allander proving? What was the pattern of his pleasure? And most important, what was his weakness?
The phone rang and Jade snatched it off the hook.
'What.'
'I got a good one. In light of your case and all,' Tony said. 'Okay. This guy comes home, finds his girlfriend packing. He's shocked. He says, 'What's going on? What are you doing?' Girlfriend says, 'I'm leaving you.' He says, 'You're leaving me? Why?' She says, 'Because you're a pedophile.' 'Yeah, yeah,' he says. 'Big word for a nine-year- old.' '
Jade laughed, tilting his head back. 'You're a sick fuck, Razzoni.'
'Thank you, thank you,' Tony said. 'And how's the case heard 'round the world?'
'Gonna have my hands full. I think we have a serial.'
Tony whistled. 'Well, I knew he was a killer of serial killers-he got three in the Tower, didn't he?'
'Five.'
'I just thought little kids were more his speed.'
'Well, he's progressed. Those years in prison helped him evolve. We had a scene last night that looks like it could be the first in a string. Time will tell, though. Press blackout, so keep a lid on it.'
'Consider me lidded. Just wanted to check in, make sure you're not howling at the moon or anything.'
'Not yet, but I'll let you know.' Jade hung up the phone, then stood and circled the living room, staring at the pictures on the walls.
Heading back to the couch, he stretched out so that his legs were sticking up in the air over the back of the sofa, and his head was slanted off the seat. He picked up Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis and began to read intently.
It had been years since he'd read Freud. Most of the psychology he kept up with was much more practical, but if the prison records showed that Allander had read it, he had to at least review it. He needed to get inside Allander's head so he could use his own thoughts against him.
The ring of the doorbell startled him. Shifting his weight, he twisted awkwardly, landing with a crash on the floor. Rising sheepishly, he went to answer the door.
'Hope you didn't hurt yourself,' Agent Travers said as she brushed past Jade into the room. 'I know how difficult answering the door can be.'
'Only when you're behind it.'
Reaching the center of the living room, she stopped and looked about her, admiring Jade's intensity-intensity so great it led him to transform an entire room into a virtual shrine to the man he was hunting.
'Love what you've done with the place.' She glanced at the stack of books on the table. 'Learning to read?'
'What the fuck do you want?'
'Your patience runs out quickly.'
'I'm gonna run you out quickly.'
She stuck her bottom lip out in a mock pout. 'Now we wouldn't want that to happen,' she said, sinking into a chair. 'Then you'd be denied the afternoon with me.'
'Look, Agent Travers-'
'Cut the shit, Jade. You can call me Jennifer.'
'Fine. I'm in the middle of something here, Travers, and I don't have time to-'
'Oh please. You think I stopped by on a social visit? There are files to go over, and-'
'I've already been over all of them. I don't need your help, and I don't have to help you. It's not in the deal.'
''It's not in the deal,'' she repeated, mimicking him. 'For Christ's sake, you sound like a ten-year-old.'
Jade bit his lip as he looked at her, then he laughed and fell back on the sofa. 'Fine. You got a half hour. Then I have some business to take care of.'
They were silent for a few moments, staring at each other.
'I got him pegged as a classic DSM-IV antisocial personality disorder, but it's really hard to define him neatly,' she finally said, moving to sit on the floor.
'What's that give us?' Jade asked.
'Lacking empathy, social responsibility, conventional morality. Displaying impulsiveness, abusiveness, sensation-seeking, and sometimes showing charm and seductiveness.'
Charm and seductiveness, Jade thought. Allander had sounded very captivating on some of the tapes. He had argued several of the psychologists to a standstill without ever raising his voice or using rude language. He'd just overpowered them with intelligence.
'Sounds like a pretty good fit, but I'd imagine he's also got some form of anxiety driving him, maybe a simple phobia. The combination means it won't be long until his next strike.'
'Unless he flees.'
'He's not going to flee,' Jade said. 'I can feel it. The timing of his prison break, the method of his killings- everything indicates he's playing out a fantasy.'
'What's with the timing?' Travers asked.
'He's thirty-three. Guess how old his molester was?'
'Oh God.'
'Thirty-three. All this has been brewing inside him for a while. He's not roaming too far.'
'But why here? Why can't he play out his fantasy anywhere?'
'Because serial killers usually confine themselves to one geographic area.'
'We don't know that he's definitely a serial killer,' she said in a neutral tone.
Jade raised his eyebrows and gave her a disbelieving stare.
'Sorry,' she said. 'I've been dealing with McGuire all day.'
'The Federal Bureau of Procrastination. Don't act on a hunch unless it's proven beforehand,' Jade said disdainfully.
'Why did you join, then?'
'Welding school was full that week.' He glanced at the files. 'Look, are we gonna get down to business here? We both know he'll kill again, and probably soon. It's a game for him; it's up to us to figure out the pattern. He's choosing his victims to fulfill some symbolic equation he's worked out in his head. We gotta get into that game. Into his head.'
'What's the deal with 'S N E'?' Travers asked. 'We ran it through the computer as initials of friends, relatives, prisonmates, everything. Came up empty.'
Jade shook his head. 'I don't know. Could be a red herring. Also could just be something that only has relevance to him. Fuck it for now. Let's start with the kid. What'd she say?'
