The 7th Victim - Alan Jacobson [175]
Vail couldn’t help but think how fortunate she was. If Linwood had not been able to wrest her from Farwell’s grasp, she, too, could have ended up like Samantha. And what of her sister? What would happen to her? Shipped off to a state mental institution’s maximum security ward, possibly for the rest of her life. Slim chance of rehabilitation or recovery.
Recovery. Vail knew the treatment for dissociative disorders involved merging the different personas into one. Even if technically possible, how could Samantha integrate a serial killer into her personality? How could she recover from the knowledge that she’d brutally murdered eight innocent women? Vail rested her head against the one-way mirror and sighed deeply.
“You okay?” Bledsoe asked.
“Let’s see, I find out I have a twin sister who’s a serial killer, my mother’s really my aunt, my biological mother is brutally murdered, and my worst fears about my biological father are confirmed. I’d say it’s been a kick-ass week.”
Manette nodded. “Sometimes, Kari, life just sucks the big one.”
eighty-eight
Vail was lying in recovery, her left knee bandaged and slightly elevated. She had regained consciousness a few minutes ago, her senses coming back to her in stages. She was hungry and felt dehydrated.
“Knock, knock.” Vail smiled. Robby’s voice.
“Come in.”
Robby stuck his head in from behind the curtain and grinned. “How you doing?”
“Better, now that you’re here.”
His head ducked back for a second before reappearing. “I have a present for you.”
Her eyebrows rose and her head tilted. “What is it?”
Robby pulled back the curtain and Jonathan stepped forward. He was thin, but he looked well. His face was bright. He hesitated at the foot of her bed, his eyes taking in the bandaged knee and the braces on her wrists before finding her face.
She lifted her arms, taking care not to snag the IV line, and motioned to her son. Jonathan moved to the side of the gurney, then melted into her embrace.
“It’s over,” she whispered. “We get to start again, a new life for us.”
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“A little banged up, but nothing I won’t get over.” She looked down and noticed something in Jonathan’s hand. “What’s that?”
He pushed away and showed her the small package. “Robby got me Too Human.” He must have noticed Vail’s quizzical look, because he elaborated. “It’s an Xbox game, mom.”
“Oh. Hecka tight, right?” she asked.
“Mom,” he said, rolling his eyes.
Robby cleared his throat. “You’re embarrassing him.”
“Give me a break. I can speak the groovy lingo with the best of them.”
A nurse appeared at the foot of the gurney with a large bouquet of flowers. “A messenger dropped this off for you at the front desk,” the woman said, then handed them to Robby, who thanked her.
Vail pulled the small card from the porcelain vase. As she read it, a smile teased her lips.
“Who’s it from?” Robby asked.
Vail eyed him curiously. “Do I detect a note of jealousy?”
“More like a couple of notes.”
“Hmm. Haven’t heard that tune in a while.” She winked at him. “It’s from Jackson Parker, my attorney. He told me to get well soon so he could face me in court again. And, he wanted to let me know that everything’s going to be fine.”
“What’s going to be fine?” Jonathan asked.
Vail gently touched her son’s face, then reached out to take Robby’s hand. “Everything, sweetheart,” she said. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
acknowledgments
I’m indebted to the following individuals for their time and assistance. Any errors (or literary license I may have taken with some minor facts/locations) are solely my responsibility.
FBI Profiler Mark Safarik, recently retired Supervisory Special Agent with the Bureau’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. My work with Mark goes back twelve years, and during this time he’s helped me gain a deep insight, not just into the life and work of a profiler, but into the serial offender’s mind as well—perceptions and observations that can’t be gleaned from textbooks. In ensuring the accuracy of