“Just another control question for the lie detector. Your heartbeat is accelerating, Dr. Lash. I would advise you to breathe slowly. When were you divorced?”
“Three years ago.”
“What was that like for you?”
“I was married. Now I’m not.”
“And you left the FBI for private practice around the same time.” Alicto looked up from the screen. “It would seem that quite an interesting nexus of events took place three years ago: a divorce, a highly dramatic career change. Would you care to elaborate on why the divorce took place?”
Lash felt himself tense. Does he know about Wyre? Is he just baiting me? Aloud, he answered, “No.”
“Why is it so difficult for you to talk about?”
“I just don’t see the relevance.”
“No relevance? For a potential client?”
“I’m here about my future, not my past.”
“One is shaped by the other. But very well. Let’s stay in the past a little longer. Elaborate a little on what you did for the FBI, if you please.”
“I was with the Investigative Support unit out of Quantico. I examined murder scenes, drew up psychological autopsies of the victim and unsub — the perpetrator. I’d look for commonalities between them, look for cause, draw up a profile of the killer and coordinate with NCAVC.”
“How did you feel about doing that kind of work?”
“It was challenging.”
“And were you good at your job?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you leave?”
It seemed an effort just to blink. “I grew tired of trying to figure out what had gone wrong with people after they were dead. I thought I could be more useful helping them when they were still alive.”
“Understandable. And, no doubt, you saw some terrible things.”
Lash nodded.
“But they didn’t affect you?”
“Of course they affected me.”
“What kind of a toll, exactly, did they take on you?”
“Toll?” Lash shrugged.
“So they didn’t disturb you in any pathological way. They ran off your back, so to speak. They didn’t affect your work or yourself.”
Lash nodded again.
“Could you answer aloud, please, Dr. Lash?”
“No, they did not.”
“I ask because I’ve read a few studies on agent burnout. Sometimes, when people see terrible things, they don’t address them as they should. Instead, they bury them, try to ignore them. And, in time, they come to live in a constant state of darkness. It’s not their fault: it’s the culture of the workplace. Showing pity, weakness, is frowned upon.”
Lash said nothing. Alicto glanced over at the laptop screen, made a notation on the folder. He paused, glancing over the sheets. Then he raised his head again.
“Was there any particular assignment in your prior job that precipitated your decision to leave? Some unusually unpleasant case, say? Some error or lapse of judgment on your part? Something, maybe, that spilled over into your private life?”
Despite the weariness, this question sent an electric twinge through Lash. So he does know, after all. He glanced quickly at Alicto, who was regarding him intently.
“No.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I said, no.”
“I see.” Alicto glanced at the screen again, made another notation. Then he leaned back from the laptop. “That concludes the interview, Dr. Lash,” he said, coming around the table and removing the cap and the finger clips. “Thank you for your patience.”
Lash stood up. The world rocked slightly and he steadied himself on the chair.
“Are you getting enough sleep?” Alicto asked. “Because I’ve observed you seem to be more than usually tired.”
“I’m fine.”
But Alicto was still looking at him closely, with what — now that the interview was concluded — seemed to be genuine concern. “You know, sleeplessness can be common in cases of—”
“I’m fine, thank you.”
Alicto nodded slowly. Then he turned away, raised his hand toward the door.
“What now?” Lash asked.
“You can put on your clothes. Vogel will see you out.”
Lash could hardly believe his luck. After what had gone before, he was sure the psychological interview would take hours. Most lie detector tests were protracted affairs, the same questions repeated over and over in slightly altered form. But this had taken just thirty minutes. “You mean, I’m done?”
“Yes, you’re done.” And the way Alicto said it made Lash hesitate.
“I’m very sorry,” said Alicto. “But in light of the results I’m going to have to recommend against your candidacy.”
Lash stared.
“There’s no point delaying the bad news. I hope you’ll understand. We have to always look at the big picture, what’s best for our clients as a whole, rather than the feelings of a single candidate. It’s difficult. We’ll provide you with some exit literature. Candidates who are declined often find reading it helps get over any feelings of rejection they might naturally have. I’m sure Vogel explained the initial fee is nonrefundable, but there will be no further charges. Take care, Dr. Lash — and bear in mind what I said about the red flags.”
And — for the first and last time — Alicto offered his hand.
FOURTEEN
Although it is three in the morning, the bedroom is bathed in merciless light. The two windows facing the deck of the pool house are rectangles of unrelieved black. The light seems so bright the entire room is reduced to a harsh geometry of right angles: the bed, the night table, the dresser. The light sucks color from the room: the wooden veneer of the dresser, the paisley comforter, the broken mirrors, are bleached to the color of bone. All that remains is the red covering the walls.
There is very little blood on the victim; remarkably little, under the circumstances. She lies naked on the carpet like a porcelain doll, alone beneath a circle of sodium vapor lights. Fingers and toes, carefully cut away at the first joint, are arranged like a halo around the head of the corpse.
There is a murmur of background voices, the low susurration of a crime scene being worked:
“Anal probe reads 83.9 degrees. Dead approximately six hours. Lack of rigor’s commensurate with this estimate.”
“Got any latents?”
“Latents is all we got.”
“Security system is central station, but the line was cut at the house foundation. Like with the Watkins girl.”
“Any entrance or egress yet?”
“The squad’s working it.”
Captain Harold Masterton, tall and heavily built, breaks away from a knot of Poughkeepsie police and walks across the room, carefully circling the bank of lights, hands in his pockets.
“Lash, you’re not looking so hot.”
“I’m fine.”
“So what do you know?”
“I’m still assessing. There are contradictory elements here, things that don’t make sense in the context.”
“Fuck the context. You’ve got enough support personnel crunching numbers back in Quantico to man a football team.”
“You’ve got the partial profile already.”
“The partial profile didn’t stop him from killing a second time.”
“I identify them. I don’t catch them. That’s your job.”
“Then give me enough to find him, for Christ’s sake. He’s written his damn autobiography twice now. He bled out two women just to get enough ink. There it is, right in front of our noses. He’s handing himself to you on a fucking plate. So when are you going to hand him to me? Or is he going to have to write it a third time?”
And Masterton gestured toward the wall, which was covered in neatly drawn block letters, crimson and recently dried, an endless litany of desperate words: I WANT TO BE CAUGHT. DONT LET ME KEEP CUTTING THEM. I DONT LIKE IT. THE SAINTS TELL ME TO CUT THEM BUT I DO NOT WANT TO BELIEVE…