"You're my partner, and you're my friend. You're good in both areas. I've got… the shrinks would call them issues.
I have to deal with them. If you observe something in my behavior that affects an investigation, I expect you to call me on it. Otherwise, I've got to ask you, as my partner and my friend, to leave it alone." "Okay." "Okay. Let's get moving before there's a riot, and they drag us out of the car and stomp us to death on the street." "I'm for that." She drove the next block in silence. "I'm going to drop you off at home," Eve said. "We need sleep." "Does that mean you're going home to work on the case alone?" "No." Eve smiled a little. "I'm going to take my meeting with Mira, then go home and crash for a while. I'll work some tonight. If you want to do the same, you could push at the ribbons some more. And verify Abel Maplewood's whereabouts on the night of." "Can do. What are we going to do about Sanchez?" "I'm going to sleep on it."
Since her head was messed up, Eve figured it was a really good time to see a shrink. Or a really bad time. Either way, it wasn't smart to miss or cancel an appointment with Mira.
Mira would take it fine, but her admin would punish you.
So instead of lying facedown on some flat surface, catching some much needed sleep, she was sitting in one of Mira's cozy scoop chairs, accepting a cup of tea she didn't want.
Mira had a soft, pretty face surrounded by soft, pretty hair the color of natural mink. She enjoyed attractive, monochromatic suits. Today's was the green shade of good pistachio ice cream. She wore a trio of beaded necklaces with it, in a darker shade of green.
Her eyes were the same blue as her scoop chairs, and while invariably kind, rarely missed a detail.
"You're exhausted. Haven't you slept at all?" "Couple hours. I drank a booster." "All well and good. Sleep is better." "Next on my list. Tell me about him." "Angry and violent, with that anger and violence targeted toward women. I don't believe his use of the red ribbon was accidental. Scarlet, the brand for whores. There's a duality in his view on women. Whores to be used and abused, yes, but the pose, the location, indicate an awe of them. A religious pose, a castle. Madonna, queen, whore. He chooses his symbols." "Why Maplewood, specifically?" "You believe she was specifically targeted. This wasn't random?" "He lay in wait. I'm sure of it." "She was alone and unprotected. She had a child, but no husband. This may play a part. She may also represent, by appearance, by lifestyle, by circumstances, the female in his life who influenced him. Sexual homicide with mutilation most often occurs when the perpetrator was abused or humiliated or betrayed in some fashion by a strong female figure.
Mother, sister, teacher, spouse or lover. It's unlikely he has or has been able to maintain a long-term, healthy intimate relationship with a woman." "And sometimes they're just fucking murdering bastards." "Yes." Mira calmly sipped her tea. "Sometimes. But there is a root, Eve. There's always a root, whether real or fantasized.
Rape is about power, more than it's about violence, certainly more than it's about sex. Penetration by force, for your own gratification while causing fear and pain. Not just forcing yourself on another person, but into them. Murder takes that power to another level. The ultimate control over another human being. The method, strangulation, is very personal, very intimate."
"I think he got off on it. He strangled her face-to-face. He watched her die." "I'd agree. We can't know if he ejaculated as there was no semen, but I don't believe he's impotent. He may be so without the violence, but if he'd been unable to orgasm, we would see more injuries, pre-and postmortem." "Cutting out her eyes is pretty injurious." "A symbol again. He enjoys symbols. He blinded her. She has no power against him as she can't see him or is allowed to see him only in a manner he directs. This is a powerful symbol to him, and possibly the most important. He took her eyes away from her not destroying them, which would have been quicker and easier and more violent but with some care. Eyes are important to him. They have meaning." She'd had blue eyes, Eve thought. Dark bluebell eyes, like her daughter. "Maybe he fixes them. Could be an eye doctor, a tech, a consultant." Mira shook her head. Td be surprised if he could work with, treat, or interact with women on a day-to-day basis.
It's most likely he lives alone, works at a job where he can work alone, or primarily with men. He's organized, but he's also a risk taker. And he's proud. He not only attacked and killed in a public place, but he left her there, displayed." "Look at my work, and be afraid." "Yes. If Elisa Maplewood was symbolic rather than target specific, his work isn't finished. He's organized enough to have his next victim in mind already. He'd study her habits, her routines, and strategize the best way to take her." "Her father looked like a possibility, for about ten seconds.
He's got a sheet, but reports are he's out of town. Verifying that, but it doesn't feel like it was personal on that level." "Because of the symbols." Mira nodded. "Yes, I agree, unless you find those symbols relate between father and daughter. Probabilities would be he didn't know Maplewood on that personal a level, but only what she symbolized to him." "I'm going to run probabilities. We're tracking down the ribbon. It's a good lead." But she brooded. "What do you think of psychics?" "Well, as I have a daughter who's a sensitive…" "Oh yeah. Right." She brooded a moment more while Mira waited patiently. "I had a visit this morning," she began, and told her of Celina.
"Do you have any reason to doubt she was telling the truth?" "Other than a reluctance to believe in woo-woo, no. She's checking out. It's a little annoying to admit that she's the best lead I've got." "You'll speak with her again?" "Yeah. Personal prejudices and reluctance don't belong on the job. If she's a lead, I'll use her." "There was a time you were nearly as reluctant to consult with me." Eve flicked a glance up, shrugged. "Maybe for the same reasons. You always saw too damn much to suit me." "Maybe I still do. You not only look exhausted, Eve, you look sad." There was a time she'd have shrugged that off as well, and walked out. But she and Mira had come a long way. "Turns out Louise Dimatto knows the psychic. Old pals. I needed to talk to her about it. She's doing duty at Dochas today." "Ah." That's a shrink trick. Ah." She set the tea aside, rising to pace the office, to jingle loose credits in her pockets. "And it works. It's an amazing thing Roarke's done, and only more amazing to me when you get down to the reasons he did it. Some for himself, sure, seeing as he was kicked around plenty as a kid. Some for me more, for me because of what I went through. But altogether more for us. Because of who and what we are now." "Together." "Jesus, I love him more than… it shouldn't be possible to feel this way about someone. And still, knowing what he'd done there, knowing it was important to him I have some part in it, I've avoided going there." "Do you think he doesn't understand why?" "Another thing that shouldn't be possible is the way he understands me. It's a good place, Dr Mira, and the name is right on target. And I was sick the whole time I was there.
Sick in my heart, in my gut. Sick and shaky and scared. I wanted to walk out, away from those women with their bruises, those kids with their helpless faces. One of them had a broken arm. One of the kids. A girl, about six. I'm not good with kids" ages." "Eve." "I could feel the bone snap. Could hear it. And it took everything not to just go down to my knees and scream." "And you're ashamed of that?" Shame? She wasn't sure. Was it shame she felt, or anger, or some nasty brew of both? "You've got to get over it, sometime." "Why?" Stunned, Eve turned back, stared. "Well… because." "Overcoming and getting over are two very different things." Mira spoke briskly now because she wanted to get up, to go over, to draw Eve into a hug that wouldn't be appropriate, or understood. "Yes, you should strive to overcome.