"Fair enough."

Jade shifted in his chair to face Thomas again. "How about you, Thomas? How do you feel about your son?"

Thomas didn't look up from his fingers, which still roamed over the curves of the fireplace rocks. He hunched over and grabbed his ankles, looking up at Jade.

"Son . . . I just don't know. Years of therapy haven't helped me figure that out, and I sure as h.e.l.l can't give you a three-sentence answer now. But I do know that when . . . that when your child does a thing, a thing like he did-"

"I think that's enough, dear," Darby said, cutting him off, her voice maintaining its sweet tone.

Jade sensed something in the brief exchange. The couple wasn't in agreement about Allander. Darby had looked away when she spoke of him, as if she were ashamed for still having motherly feelings toward him. Showing this kind of guilt before her husband seemed strange, especially in light of the closeness Jade sensed between the two of them.

And now she had interrupted her husband-not rudely, but as if she were worried about what he might say. What was "the thing" that Thomas said Allander did?

"We don't need to get into all that right now," Darby continued. "I'm sure Mr. Marlow can read between the lines. Anything else, Mr. Marlow?"

Jade noticed that her tone had changed. Though she was still polite, her warmth had departed.

He had a lot more digging to do; he hadn't even touched the tip of the iceberg. The Atlasias seemed pretty disturbed just by the mention of Allander's name, however, so Jade decided to wait and give them some time to adjust to talking about their son again. He would come back, though, and he would get them to talk, however painful it might be. That was his job.

Jade leaned forward and, with great effort, pulled himself free of the chair. He took a card from his wallet and wrote his home phone number on it.

As he handed it to Darby, he took her gently by the wrist. "Your husband said he doesn't think Allander will try to contact you. Do you agree?"

The name unnerved her, as it had her husband, and her hand shook ever so slightly.

"We haven't spoken to him in years. I can't imagine what he would want from us now."

She paused, looking at Jade for a moment. "You know, Mr. Marlow, we've done a lot to move on, to integrate ourselves back into the community. A lot of charity work, social service-that was our road back to sanity. People don't forget things easily. So you'll have to forgive us if we're less than enthusiastic at the prospect of opening some of these doors again."

"Yeah." Jade nodded once. He ran his hand over the back of his neck. "If you need anything, please call me. Anything. Any hour." He glanced over at Thomas, who was studying the carpet. "Thank you both for your time."

Thomas looked up at Jade and his eyes were strikingly empty. "Good-bye." He snapped his head down again. "Good-bye, Mr. Marlow."

26.

A F T E R Leah slid her hand into the noose of the tape so that it gathered around her wrist, she worked it back and forth for what seemed like hours. Robbie whimpered as the tape chafed his skin.

Finally, it had stretched enough to allow Leah to slide her sweat-lubricated hand through, freeing it. She ripped the tape from around her eyes and left it dangling from her hair. After yanking on the remaining tape around her waist, she pulled out her other arm. Once she had both arms free, she kicked off her shoes and slid out of her pants rather than trying to extricate them from the coils of tape. She stood, feeling pins and needles through her legs, and pulled the tape from around Robbie's head.

His blue eyes watered as he squinted in the light.

"Before I untie you all the way, I'm gonna go get help, okay?"

Robbie was too weary to scream that he wanted to go with her, so he bit his lip and nodded as the tears began to spill down his cheeks.

Clad only in her shirt and underwear, Leah tiptoed down the carpeted hallway. As she rounded the corner to the living room, she screamed and sank to the floor, landing on her rear. Immediately, her legs began churning, backing her to the wall, away from the horror that lay in front of her.

The corpses of her parents lay grotesquely intertwined. The empty holes of their eye sockets gazed blankly at her like those of the skeletons she had seen on the pirate ride at Disneyland. Her mother's stomach had been cut open, and there was blood splattered everywhere-all over the walls, on the white blinds, on the fireplace and mantel, seeping into the carpet.

Smeared across the window overlooking the beach were the letters "S N E." The blood had crusted already, and was beginning to flake.

Leah ran back down the hallway to her room screaming, "DON'T LOOK, ROBBIE! DON'T LOOK AT IT! DON'T LOOK?"

The dam of Robbie's emotions broke when he heard the panic in his sister's voice, and fear overwhelmed him. He sobbed with complete abandon, twisting on the bed, his face swollen and red.

Leah ran screaming into the room and pulled the tape from her hair, not even noticing the sting as it yanked a clump from its roots. She fell on top of Robbie and stuck the tape over his eyes. The scream kept coming, "DON'T BE SCARED, ROBBIE! JUST DON'T LOOK! DON'T LOOK!"

Then she ran back down the hallway, closing her eyes when she again pa.s.sed the room in which her parents lay. Feeling the rest of the way with her hands, she reached the kitchen and called 911.

It was quiet and the dimmed green lamps glowed across the dark wooden bookcases. The occasional clicking of footsteps was all that interrupted the perfect silence of the Josephine Public Library.

Allander's book list was set evenly in a black folder. Jade pulled it out, placed it on the big oak desk, and reviewed it again. He was amazed by its contents. Though the Tower restricted reading, Allander had checked out an incredible range of books during his time at Maingate proper. Library resources were unlimited at the main prison; officials even borrowed books from local libraries if the prisoners requested them.

It seemed Allander had read everything: Victorian literature, biographies of composers, art theory, legal journals, historical a.n.a.lyses. He had also read a number of computer journals, Jade noted. Even from within prison, Allander was trying to keep up with modern technology, probably so he could be self-sufficient if he ever escaped.

He scanned the rest of the list, his finger running down the page. One author's name appeared over and over: Sigmund Freud.

At first he didn't think it was so unusual; the study of psychology was encouraged because of Maingate's a.s.sociation with the Ressler Inst.i.tute. But as Jade glanced down the page, he realized that Allander must have read Freud's entire canon. The materials by and about Freud far outnumbered those of any other author.

Lacking a familiarity with some of the works listed, Jade asked the librarian for help. "I need a brushup on Freud. I've read him before, but I was hoping I could get something like a summary."

"I should recommend a reader," the librarian said. "Peter Gay edited one. He's fantastic on biography and-"

"Peter Gay. Good." Jade turned and left.

He found the suggested reader after spending a few minutes poking around the dusty shelves. He also grabbed Introductory Lectures on Psycho-a.n.a.lysis. He settled into an armchair by a window and didn't move for an hour and a half as he leafed through the books.

Much of Allander's recorded interview came into focus as Jade read. One piece of the puzzle fell into place almost immediately. The first footnote he came across stated that Freud's given names were Sigismund Schlomo. Freud was the "Doctor Schlomo" Allander had spoken of on the tape. He had been taunting his psychologist, daring him to discover the hidden clues.

Jade had already recognized some of Allander's language as Freudian, but now he uncovered more of its meaning. For example, Allander had expressed disdain for sublimation. "What I carve, I'll carve in flesh. What I write, I'll write in blood," he had said. He felt that his art was reality; by his art, he meant his violence. Instead of sublimating his violent tendencies into something productive or healthy, he prided himself on acting them out. While others distracted themselves with fantasies, he alone indulged his true self. His way was more real, he thought, more courageous.

So what was it he admitted? What did he need or want to act out?

On the tapes, Allander had talked about something that's "there in every little boy." The Oedipal complex? The complex, like the myth, was certainly filled with s.e.xual violence.

Jade jotted notes down on a pad. He'd have to run a lot of this by a psychologist when he got a chance. Setting down his notes, Jade stood up and cracked his back all the way up from the base. He stretched his arms over his head as he walked back to the front desk.

"Where's a phone?" he asked the librarian.

"There isn't a public phone in the building," the man replied, folding his thin arms across his chest.

Jade looked down over the counter at the white phone in front of him. He pointed at it.

"I'm sorry. No public use."

Jade flipped his badge open as he reached across the counter and grabbed the phone. "Yeah, well I'm not the public."

"G.o.dd.a.m.nit! Where is he? Why hasn't he checked in?" Travers circled the conference room, eyeing the telephone that sat silently on the middle of the table.

McGuire looked over at her. "He said something about going to the library."

"Well, that's helpful. We're knee deep in s.h.i.t and he's off reading books."

McGuire raised a finger. "I told you, we need to cooperate," he said sternly. He grabbed his briefcase and checked his watch. "You keep an eye out. I gotta run home. The boys have a baseball game."

He walked out of the room, then stuck his head back through the doorway. "As soon as you hear from him, I want him to go over to the crime scene to see those kids."

"I know, I know," Travers yelled down the hall after McGuire. "He needs to-"

The telephone rang, the shrill sound echoing off the walls.

Travers grabbed it before the first ring ended. "Marlow, where've you been?!"

"I missed you, too, Agent Travers. Where's McGuire?"

"Actually, he's at his kids' baseball game. Think you can lower yourself to talk to me?"

"I'll try."

"Well, while you were out, Atlasia committed two more murders and held two children captive."

"f.u.c.k! You got him?" Jade grimaced at the thought of missing out on the capture.

"Glad to see your priorities are in place," Travers said sarcastically. "No, we didn't get him. He tied up a little girl. She freed herself to call nine-one-one after he left."

"He tied her?" Jade sounded surprised.

"Well, he taped her," Travers replied.

Jade pushed his hair out of his eyes as he adjusted the phone on his shoulder. "Yeah, that figures. He was tied himself. He wouldn't re-create that experience. Not with the same constraint. He'd adapt it and make it his own."

"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?"

"Nothing. Where's the hospital? I'm there first, then I'll check the scene."

"St. Mary's. And Jade these kids are traumat-"

Travers heard the dial tone and let her breath out in a hot rush. She had to get over to St. Mary's to protect the children from Jade.

27.

J A D E drove his car onto the curb directly in front of the hospital's lobby entrance. As he stormed through the sliding gla.s.s doors, he flashed his badge and shouted at the lady in the reception booth, "If you tow that car, I'll arrest you." A silence fell over the lobby and lingered even after the elevator doors had closed behind him.

The trauma unit was on the second floor. Jade had been there many times before to interview witnesses and suspects, so he knew the drill. The first person who tried to stop him was the woman at the front desk, but she was new on the job, and not quite clear on patients' legal rights.

Jade faced her, slamming his badge down on the counter. He leaned forward on both hands, his eyes focused on hers. "I need to see a kid who got brought in here this morning from the hostage situation. Immediately."

The woman cleared her throat nervously, her hand hovering in front of her nose. Jade knew he had her.

"I'm sorry, visiting hours are-"

"I'm not a visitor, I'm an FBI agent. And I need to talk to this child immediately. We need her in order to apprehend a murderer and child molester. Unless you want to be personally responsible for wasting my time while this suspect flees, Ms."-his emerald eyes lowered to her name tag-"Doren, then I suggest you don't jerk me off any longer and tell me the room number."

She gasped. "Well . . . I . . . There's two . . . children. A little boy-but he's in deep posttraumatic shock and not speaking. The girl is eleven." She paused and her eyes flicked around nervously to locate her superiors. Finding n.o.body to bail her out, she surrendered. "She's in room two-twelve."

Jade was gone, running down the corridor. Ms. Doren stood up abruptly, knocking over a pencil holder. The pencils rolled across her desk and fell to the floor, chattering like rainfall.

"She's very fragile right now," she called after him. "You can't just-"

Realizing that Jade was not listening, she sank back into her chair and paged a physician.

When the door to her room flew open, Leah sat up in bed, drawing the blanket protectively around her chest and up under her chin. Her eyes regarded Jade with fear and suspicion. She was shaking violently.

"It's all right. It's fine. I'm on your side." Jade flipped out his badge and flashed it at her. Crossing to her bed, he stood over her for a moment, then gripped her shoulders firmly. She continued to shiver.

"Don't be afraid. I need to know what happened."

Her bottom lip quivered, and tears began to roll down her cheeks.

Jade let go of her shoulders and sat on the edge of the bed, swearing softly.

A team of doctors burst into the room, knocking the charts from the back of the door. The largest doctor stepped forward. He wore wire-frame gla.s.ses and had a decent physique. The other doctors crowded behind him.

"Who are you, the intimidation factor?"

"I'm Dr. Levinson. I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room immediately or I'll call security."

"Now maybe they lied to me in training, but I always thought the FBI took precedence over the security team at St. Mary's. And I'd suggest you stand back a little. I don't like your posture."

The doctor stepped back. "Sir, you cannot be in here right now. This patient has just undergone a horrible experience. The last thing she needs is offensive external stimuli."

"I haven't even begun to get offensive," Jade said. "But try me."

The doctor shook his head nervously. "Not that kind of . . . that's not what I meant." He paused, a.s.sessing the situation, trying to figure out the best tactic to follow.

Jade ran his thumb across his lip. "Look, Dr. Levinwhatever. I'm pursuing the most dangerous-"