“I killed her,” Jocelyn said. “You’re referring to her in the present tense.”
Whitman chuckled again. “Yes, but she makes an intriguing case study in the present, doesn’t she?”
“She was a sociopath, wasn’t she? Or a psychopath?”
Whitman nodded. “Well, both of those fall under the umbrella of Antisocial Personality Disorder. There are different types of sociopaths and different degrees of anti-social behavior. Some say sociopaths and psychopaths are the same thing. Some make distinctions. Some believe that a psychopath is born with no conscience whereas sociopaths are made the way they are by their life experiences. There are many schools of thought on the subject. Sociopaths can sometimes be more impulsive and act without thinking about the consequences whereas your typical psychopath is more methodical and better capable of planning. The two share several characteristics.
“Without having met Francine, it’s hard to say what her true diagnosis would have been, but it sounds like she definitely had an antisocial personality disorder. She showed no remorse for any of the things she did. She was promiscuous—I’m betting the biology teacher is not her only conquest—and clearly, she was a liar. She manipulated people for nothing more than entertainment, it seems. She has all the hallmarks of a psychopath or even a sociopath. I personally would lean more toward psychopath because of the methodical, long-term planning involved in her crimes.”
Jocelyn said, “When people think of psychopaths, they think of violence, like serial killers.”
“And many violent killers are psychopaths,” Whitman said. “But the truth is that many psychopaths live among us, function in society and never physically harm anyone or anything. Many CEOs are psychopaths or sociopaths. Your father was a psychopath.”
Jocelyn sat perfectly still. Anger rose up inside her, an immediate defensive response to an attack on her father, but then reason moved up beside it. Although she had never thought about her father’s psychological make up, he had done a pretty horrible thing by brushing Camille’s gang rape under the carpet, even going so far as to take money from the rapists’ families in what he claimed was for reparation. He was driven both at work and at home. Jocelyn had known him to be a ruthless man, especially in business. She had never considered the fact that his ruthlessness was an indicator of psychopathology.
Whitman paused in his explanation, seemingly watching the conflict inside her play out in her facial expressions. Then he continued, “The key distinction here between a psychopath and a normal person is that psychopaths do not have a conscience. That means they feel no guilt, no remorse for anything that they do. Ever. They are great mimics, of course, and will convince people that they feel the same range of emotions as everyone else, but the truth is that they are simply not capable of feeling those emotions. If they are found out, the people around them are often astounded by their acting ability. They can put on quite a show of emotion. They figure out when and where to do it for the maximum effect, and they blend in with the rest of society quite well that way. But all of it is false, a put-on. It’s all a show. There is no substance to it.”
Jocelyn sighed. “That sounds like Francine.” And my father.
Again, Whitman nodded. “It is a hard concept for a conscience-bound person to wrap their minds around. Francine was likely never overtly violent toward anyone. It can’t be ruled out, obviously, given how far-reaching her manipulations appear to be. Perhaps she didn’t enjoy actually carrying out the violence. Perhaps she didn’t want to risk being caught, or maybe it was simply more fun, more entertaining, for her to manipulate others. It becomes like a sport for the psychopath, to see how far they can take things, how they can completely manipulate another person, to see what they can get another person to do. I suspect this was the case with Francine. The manipulation was a game she loved to play. I would venture that there was someone in her life at the time Sydney Adams was murdered that she was able to manipulate into killing the girl. You need to look at her contact with people in the year leading up to Sydney’s murder to see who she was spending time with. Who would have been around for her to play with?”
“Okay, so we look at friends, colleagues, neighbors, students,” Jocelyn said.
“You’ll want to take a close look at students,” Whitman said. “It would have been much easier for her to manipulate a teenager into killing someone than a grown man. Teenagers haven’t yet developed the part of their brains responsible for thinking of long-term consequences. Their hormones are raging. Given the right subject, it might have been quite easy for her to convince a young lover to kill her husband’s paramour. You might remember the Pamela Smart case out of New Hampshire in 1990. Schoolteacher manipulates teen lover into killing her husband.”
“I’ve heard of it. So, you’re suggesting Francine had an affair with a student like she did with the biology teacher?”
“If I had to speculate, yes. Given the fact that the biology teacher has been cleared as a suspect, I would next be looking at Franklin West students enrolled at that time.”
“That would make sense,” Jocelyn said. She closed her eyes briefly, flashing back to the conversation between Francine and Knox. “She said she had a male student plant the bees in Becky Wu’s bag. That was several years after Sydney’s death, but like you’re saying, it’s a pattern of behavior with her—God knows how many students she manipulated. She said that student was troubled and likely in prison, so that might account for him not ratting her out over the Becky Wu thing. She was the school nurse. Maybe we’re talking about students who frequently showed up in her office.”
“Yes, an excellent place to start. You’ll want to look at student records for male students with a history of disciplinary issues. They would be more likely to be manipulated into committing a crime.”
“Kids who were suspended or expelled? Kids with juvenile records, then?”
“Yes, I would bet money that when you find who you’re looking for, he will have a history of brushes with the law, mostly likely for vandalism, simple assault, drug charges, theft. Misdemeanor crimes. He will have been suspended from school at some point, if not expelled. There might have been some major stressor in his life around the time Francine targeted him—the death of a family member, a break up, something like that. Something that would have left him more vulnerable to her advances.”
“Okay,” Jocelyn said, nodding. “What else? Am I looking for a loner? The boy dressed all in black brooding in the corner of the cafeteria?”
Whitman laughed. “Sort of. He likely would have had friends, but not many. He’s certainly not star quarterback material. He would have done okay academically, but any failing grades would be a result of him not applying himself. He’s smart, whoever he is. He’s eluded everyone for fourteen years, probably in large part because of Francine’s careful planning, but also because he’s been smart enough to keep his mouth shut.”
“Okay,” Jocelyn said. “But that’s what I don’t get. He killed someone for Francine, and then he just stopped existing? How? Why would he keep his mouth shut all this time? If they were having an affair, surely he would want more at some point. I mean he killed a girl for her. Or has she carried on the affair all this time, on and off like with Hubbard?”
“Well, there are several scenarios which may have played out,” Whitman replied. “And you need to prepare yourself—this person may no longer be alive. Just like whoever helped her with Becky Wu may no longer be alive. We’re talking about a very long time period. In Sydney’s case, fourteen years. Her killer may be dead. He may be in prison. Perhaps the affair fizzled out, or he wanted to put some distance between them. Perhaps, once Francine got what she wanted, she dumped him. Though, from what you told me, the more likely scenario is that she wanted to keep him around in case she needed something later, in which case, as he grew into a man, he might have tired of her, seen her as a crazy old woman, or he simply tired of doing her bidding. It’s more likely he distanced himself as much as he could—just like Hubbard tried to do.”