He put a hand to her cheek. "I'm always going to be chasing people like the Slasher, you know-dangerous people."
"I know. But hopefully next time it won't be someone you work with."
They were both silent, as Lee thought once again how Nelson had managed to mislead them for so long-and how he had been caught almost by accident.
The sound of children's voices floated upward-a game of tag was going on in front of the Ukranian church. A stout boy with a red face was running, laughing, pursued by a girl in a lime green coat, as the other children cheered them on.
"Get him, Carey!"
"Come on, Jimmy-run! Move your fat ass!"
The boy collapsed in giggles on the steps of the church, as the girl's momentum took her careening into his arms. The other children closed in around them, laughing and cheering.
"Does it bother you?" he asked.
"Of course it bothers me. One of the things I like about my job is that I do my work after all the nasty stuff has happened. All I have to do is study nice, clean bones in the peace and quiet of my lab."
"So?"
"So I love you…so I'll deal with it."
"I still think you should talk to somebody."
"All right. Jeez, you're so damn persistent."
They looked out the window at the coming spring. The blossoms on the cherry trees looked as if they were ready to burst forth in bloom any day now. Lee thought he had never seen Seventh Street looking so magical, so…blessed.
"You know," Lee said, "I was blinded by my need for him."
"What do you mean?"
"I needed him to be the father I never had-so I misread clues that pointed to him."
"Oh, for God's sake, Lee, none of us suspected him! Why should we? He was one of us!"
"Exactly. He was one of us. And he misled us every step of the way. When I suggested there were two people at work, he steered us away from it time and time again. And then he called me over to his apartment just so he could fake that phone call. He played me."
"You can't blame yourself. No one else saw through him either."
"Yeah, but in retrospect it all makes such perfect sense. The unexplained absences, the drinking, his out-of-control behavior-we never put it all together."
She squeezed his arm. Her fingers were thin and strong. "A lot of things make sense in retrospect."
"He even used his expertise to create a 'signature' that would lead us to Samuel-although whether that was his idea or Samuel's, I guess we'll never know." He sighed. "Guess I don't have very good luck with father figures."
There was a pause, and then she said, "So your wound isn't bothering you?"
"Not too much."
She yawned, stretched, and walked over to sit on the sofa. "Come over here and let Nurse Kathy check you out."
"Well, if you put it that way…"
He was about to join her when the phone rang. He picked up the receiver, cursing himself for not turning off the ringer.
"Hello?"
It was Detective Butts.
"Yeah, hi. Look, I thought you'd like to know the results of some of our interviews with the neighbors and stuff. None of them could remember Samuel ever being involved with a woman of any kind-which is just what you had said about him."
"Thanks, I appreciate that," Lee said, but his heart wasn't in it. Right now he just wanted to forget about it for a while, to leave it all behind.
"Yeah," Butts went on. "We got that 'he was a quiet boy-kept to himself' thing, you know. Apparently he was very respectful, well behaved. 'Course, it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for-"
"Which wouldn't be you right now," Lee managed to interject.
"What?"
"Look, I'm sort of busy right now."
"Oh, okay. Sorry to interrupt. I just thought you might like to know."
Lee smiled. "Thanks, I appreciate that. I'll talk to you later. We'll get together next week, okay?"
"Right," Butts said. "Sounds good. Tell her I said hi."
"I will."
He hung up and turned off the ringer.
"Now," he said, "where were we?"
Kathy laughed and threw back her head. The lamplight reflected a perfect triangle on her exposed throat.
"I believe," she said, "we were at the beginning."