"Stow it, Sherlock. We'll both go home tomorrow. What I want to do now is go over those reports again and have MAX correlate just how many times anyone said the murdered women might have even occasionally cursed or even bad-mouthed their husbands just one time."
"I told you that no one did. Remember about not wanting to say bad things about the dead? It was just that there couldn't have been any other reason to cut out their tongues."
"Yeah, you said that, didn't you? However, somebody had to have said something sometime."
"He's anal, ain't he?" Ralph said, and Lacey laughed.
"Thank God the cursing was right on," Captain Dougherty said. "You nailed him good with that, Sherlock. My people told us that you really surprised him when you let out with the curses the first time at the lumberyard. They thought Savich was going to fall over with shock. Well, not really, but you didn't do badly."
"Thank you, I think."
"I'm sure glad we weren't wrong about the cursing being the red button for Marlin Jones. And talking back to the husbands. I guess we have to score a big one for the Profilers. Of course it made sense, since old Marlin had cut out their tongues."
She knew, Savich realized, looking at that sudden brightness in her eyes. She knew without question that was what pushed Marlin Jones into violence. But how? There was something else that had happened seven years ago. It drove him nuts not to know what it was. If MAX couldn't find anything in any of the interviews of the other murdered women, then that meant that Sherlock had based everything on the Profilers' reports, that, or, well, something else had to have happened. But how could she have possibly known something that no one else did?
It was just past lunchtime in San Francisco when Lacey got through to Douglas Madigan at his law office.
"Lacey, that really you? What's happening? Are you all right? It was all over the TV on the early news about that guy being caught. You were in on it, weren't you?"
"Yes, I was, and yes, I'm fine, Douglas. We've got him.
I've already spoken to him once. I'll find out everything from him, Douglas, everything."
"But what more is there to know?"
"I want to know why he killed Belinda. You know she never cursed all that much. She worshiped you, you told me that, so she wouldn't have ever cursed you out in front of any strangers."
"That's right, but so what?"
She drew a deep breath. "The reason he picked each of the women is because he knew she cursed and bad-mouthed her husband or boyfriend. If that's not true in Belinda's case, then there has to be another reason. I just want to know, Douglas. I have to know."
"Were you the police decoy?'"
"Yes, but please don't publicize it. I was the best one for the job. I know him better than anyone else."
"My God, that was nuts, Lacey." It was his turn to calm down. She heard his breathing become slower. He was an excellent lawyer.
"I'm going to call Dad."
"No, let me do it, although I bet he already knows about it and that you were involved. He'll be relieved that you weren't injured."
Her arm started throbbing. She needed another pain pill. "Oh no, I'm just fine. What have you done about Candice Addams?"
"I married her last weekend. Funny thing was she got her period on our wedding night."
"She wasn't pregnant?"
"She told me that she had had a miscarriage just two days before but that she loved me so much she was afraid to tell me. She believed I wouldn't have married her if I'd known there wasn't a baby involved."
"Would you have?"
"Married her? No, of course not. I don't love her, you know that."
"What a mess, Douglas." She was very thankful she was three thousand miles away at that moment. "What are you going to do?"
"I haven't decided yet."
"Do you think she really loves you?"
"She claims she does. I don't know. I wish you were here. I wish I could see you, touch you, kiss you. I miss you, Lacey. So do your father and your sweet mother. Both of them hoped we'd marry, you know."
"No, I didn't know. No one ever said a word to me about that. You were my sister's husband, nothing could ever change that."
"No, maybe not." He sighed. "Here's my lovely wife, standing here in the open doorway of my office." She heard him say to her, "How long have you been there, Candice?"
She heard a woman's voice but couldn't make out what she said, but that voice was shrill and angry. Douglas came back on the line. "I'm sorry, Lacey. I've got to go now. Will you come home now that you've gotten rid of your nightmare?"
"I don't know, Douglas. I really don't know."
Slowly, she placed the phone back into its cradle. She looked up to see Savich standing there, a cup of tea in each hand. How long had he been there? As long as she imagined Candice Addams Madigan had been standing in Douglas's office?
He handed her the cup. "Drink your tea. Then we'll go to the hospital again. I want to get this wrapped up, Sherlock."
"Yes, sir."
"Call me by my name or I'll tell Chico to wrap your karate belt around your neck."
"Yes, Dillon."
"Here's to catching the String Killer and ridding you of all your baggage. Is your brother-in-law to be considered baggage?"
She took a long drink of the hot tea. It was wonderful. She still needed another pain pill. She said finally, shrugging, "He's just Douglas. I never really realized the way he felt, until he was here in Washington just a couple of weeks ago. But he's remarried now."
"Lucky for you, I'd say. I can't see that guy giving up all that easily."
"How would you know that?"
"I know everything. I'm a Special Agent."
He probably did, she thought, and excused herself to take another pill.
Rain splattered against the hospital window. The officer in the chair was sitting forward. Lacey leaned over the bed and said in a soft voice, "Hello, Marlin. Do you remember me? I'm the woman you bashed on the head, took to your little playhouse, and forced through your little house of horrors. But I really won and you lost big-time."
"What's your name?"
"Lacey Sherlock."
"No one's named that. That's stupid. That's out of some dumb detective story. What's your real name?"
"It's Sherlock, Marlin. Didn't I track you down? Didn't I bring you in? Wouldn't you say I've earned the name?"
"I don't like you, Marty."
"It's Lacey."
"I like you even less now than I did before."
"Do you mind if I turn on the tape recorder again, Marlin?"
"No, go ahead. Turn it on. I like to hear myself talk. I'm a real good talker. Mr. Caine, he's the guy who owns the Appletree Home Supplies and Mill Yard, he begged me to be his assistant manager. He knew I could sell anybody anything, and he knew that I was an expert on everything to do with building."
"Yeah, you're really great, Marlin. But a question. Tell me why you refused to say a word to the police. Why?"
"I just want to talk to you, Marty. I'm going to kill you one of these days, and I want to get to know you better."
"If it makes you feel good, you just keep holding on to that thought, Marlin. You want to talk? Tell me why you killed Hillary Ramsgate. She wasn't married. All the other women you've killed were married."
"I knew her boyfriend, well I didn't really know him, I just saw him a bunch of times. He told a group of guys that she was a ball buster and once he had her married, he was going to teach her a lesson."
"Where was this, Marlin?"
"At a bar, the Glad Rags, in Newton Center. He was there a whole lot. He'd sleep with her, let her tell him what a jerk he was, then come to the bar and let it an out. I told him he should punish her, that she deserved it."
"Did you go into the Glad Rags a lot?"
"Oh yeah. I wanted to see this Hillary woman. He brought her in one night. They had a big argument right there. She even threw a beer in his face. She cursed him up one side and down the other. She even called him a motherfucker. Most women, even bad ones like you, they don't say that word. That's a word for real bad guys. Well, all the other guys were laughing, but I wasn't. I knew she had to be punished and that he wasn't ever going to do it right. No, if anything, he'd just smack her around a little bit. You know that while she was tearing him down, that guy just laughed, he just took it. I would have sliced her up right there."