Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [658]
“The Embassy Suites on Tenth Street.”
“Oh, there are so many wonderful restaurants in the Market. There’s a little place a block up from you on Eleventh—M’s Pub. Why don’t I meet you there around seven?”
Sister Kate’s students started coming back into the room.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Maggie told her.
She took her time leaving, watching the students amble in aimlessly like teenagers with little ambition beyond their next task. She wondered if she and Pakula may have been looking in all the wrong places for this killer. Maybe they weren’t seeing what was right in front of them.
As a profiler she was taught to find the similarities and use them for a foundation. But from experience she’d learned never to underestimate who could kill. She noticed a couple of boys with baseball caps. One removed his and tossed it onto the desk, revealing shaggy, dirty-blond hair growing longer over his ears. He and his friend were her height, maybe a little taller, both with slight builds.
The medical examiner had reported that it would take little strength to shove a knife, a sharp dagger, up into the monsignor’s chest, piercing his heart. It was possible that a teenage boy could have done it.
CHAPTER 56
Washington, D.C.
Gwen ran her fingers through her hair, resisting the urge to grab at it and pull.
“Tell me again how this little game worked?”
Just when Gwen thought Racine couldn’t get any angrier, her tone turned up a notch and so did the sarcasm.
“It wasn’t a game,” Gwen explained, trying to keep her calm despite the cockroaches invading her insides. It had to be all the caffeine that was ripping away at her stomach, two days’ worth of caffeine and no food. Maybe that’s why she felt so light-headed.
“He thought it was a game,” Racine almost hissed at her. “Believe me, this psycho thought it was a game, no matter what you think.”
The detective paced back and forth in front of the sofa where Gwen sat. How many times had Rubin Nash sat in her office, in this very spot, and ranted about “having himself yet another pretty, little coed?” Gwen thought it was all about sexual conquests, asserting himself and his manhood. The movies made it out to be a sexual odyssey from boyhood to manhood when an older woman seduced a young boy. But if the woman purposely emasculated him, as in Nash’s case, the damage could be irreparable. Should Gwen have seen the signs for his violent behavior? Should she have figured out months ago that he could and would kill?
Racine stopped every once in a while to look over the notes, the map, the earrings, everything that Gwen had received. She had scattered them on her desktop, each piece encapsulated in its own Ziploc bag, labeled like crime scene evidence. Everything except the last manila envelope and the water glass, failing to explain her unsuccessful attempt at matching Nash’s prints.
“None of this proves your patient is the killer,” Racine said. “Maybe we’ll be lucky and pull a print off something he sent you. But I’m guessing he’d be more careful than that.” She turned to look at Gwen. “When do you see him again?”
“We recently moved his weekly sessions to Saturday mornings to accommodate his travel schedule.”
“He travels?”
“Yes, I believe he sells computer software. He’s mentioned that his sales region extends as far north as Boston, I think, and as far south as the northern part of Florida.”
“By car or by plane?”
“Excuse me?”
“When he travels for his job,” Racine said, slowing down her words as if addressing a child. “Does he drive or fly?”
“I have no idea.” Gwen frowned, trying to remember if he had mentioned it. “Why would it matter?” she finally asked.
“We’ve never found the torsos,” Racine said, expecting it to be all that was necessary for Gwen to understand. Her face must have showed her confusion, because Racine continued. “If he drives, it might explain how or if he dumps the torsos somewhere else.”
“Was the rest of Dena’s body…was she left anywhere else in the brownstone?” Gwen asked.
She thought she saw Racine soften, as if the reminder of what