"You're not fine," he argued, keeping his voice low. "You're too pale and your pupils are dilated. And don't you think I can tell you've shut off your defenses? Christ, Miranda, I'm the only one who couldn't sneak up and blindside you."
For just an instant, she was tempted to snap that since only he posed a threat to her, her defenses were still in good working order. Instead, she said calmly, "Since nobody's after me, it hardly matters, does it?"
"That's naive and we both know it. You're the sheriff investigating a series of brutal murders, and that sure as hell makes you a threat to the killer."
"I can take care of myself."
"I'm beginning to wonder about that."
"You can stop wondering."
He was silent for a moment, then said, "Your pulse is racing."
Miranda only just stopped herself from jerking her arm away. "You're imagining things. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to do one last walk-through of the scene before it gets too dark to see anything."
Bishop had the grim face of a man who wasn't finished arguing, but he finally released her. "I want another look around the waterwheel. Something about it is bothering me."
She didn't move immediately but watched him walk away, and it wasn't until she turned herself that she realized Alex was standing several yards away looking at her. That he was there at all startled her, but his expression made her feel decidedly wary, and not only because of her failing defenses. Since he fell into the sixty percent of people she couldn't read, she had never sensed any more of his thoughts than those he was willing to share, but she knew him well enough to be certain something was disturbing him.
"Alex?"
He closed the space between them, speaking before she could ask the half-formed question in her mind. "Greg just called from the office. Word's out, Randy."
"How the hell did that happen? I was at least hoping I could break the news to his parents before somebody else told them."
Alex sighed. "I don't know how, but it might not be the worst of it. Apparently, when her parents came to get her, Amy Fowler was pretty hysterical, and before Dr. Daniels could sedate her again, she was babbling on about Ouija boards and contacting spirits who told her where Steve's body could be found — and claiming Bonnie is a medium. A couple of nurses overheard. You can guess the rest."
"Oh, shit," Miranda said.
Panic was not an emotion he was accustomed to. His life had always been completely under his control; that was what he worked for and planned for. He hated surprises.
Finding cops crawling all over the old mill house was a distinct and unpleasant shock.
He racked his brains to remember if he'd left anything incriminating behind. He couldn't think of anything; he was always careful. Always.
But they'd found poor Steve before he was ready for them to, and that wasn't good. That wasn't good at all.
The question was . . . how had they found him?
"Death wasn't quite as recent as it appears," Sharon Edwards said briskly. "I may have a closer estimate for you later, but for now you can say time of death was last night between midnight and six A.M."
"Twelve or more hours ago? The blood's still dripping," Miranda said.
"My guess is that he gave the boy — either orally or by injection — an anticoagulant to prevent the blood from clotting."
Miranda frowned as she watched two of her deputies gingerly carrying the black-bagged body toward the hearse. "He didn't do that to the others, right?"
"No."
"Why this time? Because he was . . . away from home and didn't have his equipment handy? Because using a drug was the fastest and simplest way to drain the body of blood?"
"Maybe."
Alex asked, "Where would he have gotten the drug?"
Sharon sighed. "With what's available on the Internet now? If he knew what to ask for — and practically any physician's or pharmacology reference book would have told him — he could have ordered the stuff from any one of a thousand places. If we find him, we may be able to backtrack from his own computer, but otherwise ..."
Tony said, "That does argue a certain amount of forethought and planning. It isn't something you'd have on hand unless you needed it yourself. But my guess is this guy's too smart to use anything that could be traced back to him."
"So he had to know or at least believe he'd need it," Miranda mused. "For the others? Did he think he might need help in draining the bodies, only to find he was able to do it without drugs? And then used the drugs on Steve because he had no other choice?"
"Well," Sharon said, "here's something else to throw into the pot. He took at least some of the blood with him. There's a depression in the trench where a bucket or pail was placed underneath the body. It's difficult to tell how much is missing, though I'd guess not more than a pint or two."
"What else is missing from the body?" Miranda asked. She was aware that Bishop gave her a sharp look, but kept her eyes on the doctor.
Sharon's brows rose. "I'm surprised you caught that, Sheriff. I didn't see it until I examined the body. His tongue is missing, neatly removed with a sharp knife or razor."
"Oh, Christ," Alex muttered.
Slowly, Bishop said, "Lynet Grainger might have seen him, seen his temptation, so he took her eyes. He took Steve Penman's tongue because the boy might have spoken .. . might have told someone something dangerous to him."
"I'd think killing the boy removed that threat," Tony said.
"Maybe he didn't think so," Miranda said carefully. "Maybe we have a ... superstitious killer here. Maybe he believes in ghosts."
Surprisingly, it was Alex who said, "If that were true, wouldn't he have done the same thing to the others? I mean, they all had to see him at some point, right, if only when he grabbed them? They all probably knew who he was. So if he believed in ghosts, he had to believe any one of them could have — have named him as their killer."
"That makes sense," Miranda admitted.
Bishop said, "The simplest reason is probably the right one. Punishment. He took Lynet's eyes as punishment because she saw his temptation. He took Steve's tongue as punishment because he would have talked."
"And the blood he took from all of them?" Alex asked.
"He needed it."
Alex sighed. "Great. Sooner or later, that little item is going to get out. Anybody want to bet as to how soon this bastard is nicknamed the vampire killer?"
Bishop was brooding and didn't respond; Tony shook his head solemnly; Miranda returned her attention to the doctor with a question.
"How was Steve subdued?"
"Blow to the head, probably with a bat or something else made of wood. A solid blow. The skull is fractured, and I doubt very seriously if the boy ever regained consciousness."
"There's consciousness," Tony murmured, "and then there's consciousness."
Alex seemed about to ask something, so Miranda spoke quickly. "What was the immediate cause of death?"
"Loss of blood."
"Any signs of torture?"
"No, none. There isn't so much as a bruise or cut anywhere on the body except for the throat and the tongue. Even the ropes around the ankles were no tighter than necessary. It's as if he was very careful not to damage the boy any more than he had to."
"Or," Miranda said, "very careful not to display too great an interest in Steve." She looked at Bishop. "So we wouldn't think it was sexual?"
Bishop nodded. "I'm surprised he stripped the boy. Leaving him naked was taking the chance we might think he enjoyed looking at him that way."