"Sir, look at the girl."

Jade looked over at her. The tears were flowing, and her face was swollen. He noticed the red marks around her wrist, the only part of her body exposed from under the blanket. His breath started to come harder as he felt the anger flooding his veins.

"Please," Dr. Levinson said.

The door opened behind them and Travers pushed her way through the team of white coats cowering behind Dr. Levinson. Leah began to sob.

Travers's badge hung from the pocket of her white blouse, and her blonde hair was down across her shoulders. She was dressed more femininely than Jade had seen her before. She saw Leah and her jaw tightened. "Marlow. Outside. Now."

Jade looked at the doctors and then at Travers. He could tell she was somewhere between livid and incensed. Impressive. He opened his mouth to say something, then changed his mind. Quietly, he got up and followed her out of the room.

The minute they turned the corner, Travers spun to face Jade, pressing her finger into his chest.

"Did you see that girl, Marlow? You scared the s.h.i.t out of her. Your tactics are fine for hara.s.sing adult suspects, but they don't work on small children who are victims. VICTIMS! This girl found both her parents dead."

Jade's jaw shifted over and he bit his cheek. "First of all, take your finger off me. Second, you didn't tell me her parents got iced. I would have been more-"

"More what?! Like you can be more anything. The doctors are furious, the girl is probably too scared to talk now. Great piece of work, Marlow."

She was right. He should have proceeded more gently if he wanted to get the kid to talk, and he knew it. She unb.u.t.toned the top of her shirt and pulled it in the back so it shifted on her shoulders. "Well, I'm handling this now. I'll deal with the girl. What do you need me to ask her?"

She unb.u.t.toned her cuffs and rolled her sleeves up, then took her badge from her shirt pocket and slid it in her back pants pocket.

Jade paused for a minute, then answered very seriously. "I need to know how they responded. The kids. What they said. And ask her if . . . ask her if he explained what he was doing as he did it. If he gave them any insight into his rationale. He'd want to, I think. He'd want them to know, to understand."

The rage behind Travers's eyes subsided. She nodded and turned to go, but Jade caught her arm.

"You look good," he said.

"Well, thank you, Jade," she said sarcastically. "That's what I'm here for."

"Don't flatter yourself. I mean you look good. Maternal and caring. Perfect for the kid. Smart move."

"Oh. Thanks. I try to go for that Nancy Reagan look." She turned and walked away.

28.

O N C E he was safely past the roadblock, Allander removed the bathrobe and nightgown and peeled off the beauty mask. Underneath, he still wore the comfortable blue silk shirt and loose pants. After taking out the curlers and applying a generous amount of gel, he parted his hair to one side and slicked it back neatly over his ears. Big sungla.s.ses covered his eyes, and he had pushed cotton b.a.l.l.s into his cheeks and under his lips to change the shape of his face.

Having already taken care of an important stop that he had planned, he relaxed and hummed along with the cla.s.sical music pouring from the car's topnotch speakers. Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, allowing himself to enjoy the simple perfection of a Mozart symphony.

A green sign appeared over the highway just ahead of him, announcing the next exits. It was followed by a smaller blue sign with crude symbols for food and transportation. Having still not fully adjusted to driving again, he gripped the steering wheel tightly as he put on his blinker and cautiously pulled over, exiting the freeway. He pa.s.sed a Greyhound station and found a deserted factory several blocks from the main road.

He slid open the rusty gate, leaving the car humming. The gate's lock had been smashed open already and it hung from the fence. Allander inched the Mercedes through the gate, pulling up in an alley between a warehouse and an old building. He climbed in the backseat and curled up on the fine leather, content to pa.s.s the night planning and dozing.

The house was crawling with agents by the time Jade got there. He wandered through it, thinking that only hours earlier Allander himself had walked through these very rooms, had seen the same table, the same flower arrangement, had probably gone to the bathroom here and eaten from the refrigerator.

So close in time, so far away. Allander's presence still hung about the house the way a man's shape fills a shirt after it's been worn. Jade could sense him, sense that he had been here, and he walked around the house as if in a trance, feeling the walls and floor.

When Travers arrived a half hour later, Jade ignored her. He didn't have time for distraction until he'd made his first complete pa.s.s through. The other officers weren't sure what to make of him, but Jade hardly noticed their presence. He was alone in the house with the scent of Allander.

The door to Leah's room was slightly ajar, and Jade rested his forearm on the frame as he gazed in. The letters of her name on the wall made him smile. Allander would have appreciated them.

The bed was still wet with urine, and Jade crossed the room heavily and looked at the stain, a dark ma.s.s spread across the soft pink comforter. He touched it absentmindedly, gazing around the room.

Jade closed his eyes and imagined Allander's approach to the house in the early light of morning. The ground was cold under his bare feet. He rang the doorbell and waited. He heard approaching footsteps. His stomach was nervous but excited. The footsteps stopped and he leaned forward, driving an instrument through the peephole. He pushed the door open and it stopped when it hit the man's body. The body slid as he opened the door the rest of the way. He stepped over the corpse and he was inside. What was he thinking? Was he imagining the feel of children's skin against his fingertips? Was he nervous at the likelihood that there was a woman in the house?

An agent with a clipboard b.u.mped Jade as he pa.s.sed and Jade spun around, startled. The agent saw Jade's wild eyes and backed around the corner, mumbling an apology. Jade turned back to study the letters on the wall.

These killings were his worst fears confirmed. Allander had spent his years in jail developing an elaborate fantasy, and these deaths were the result. This was not an immature murder. Younger, inexperienced killers start with older women, prost.i.tutes, or kids. Easy to target, easy to isolate, easy to dominate. That's where Allander had been when he'd first gone to jail at the age of eighteen. But he had matured since then, Jade thought. Matured into a master killer.

His feet sank in the thick carpet as he made his way back to the living room. He noticed two brown lines on the love seat, edges of foot marks. The b.l.o.o.d.y letters remained on the window. The woman's body lay crookedly beside the man's, her stomach open in a b.l.o.o.d.y gash. Jade heard Thomas's words rolling around in his head: One foot still in the womb, so to speak.

He mumbled to himself and wandered back into the foyer. The other agents looked at him expectantly.

"You. What's your name?" Jade asked, pointing at one of the younger agents.

"Daniel Harris," he said nervously. After a short pause, he added, "Dan."

"I figured. Check for the toolbox. See if there's a hammer missing."

"Where would it be?" he asked.

"You're an FBI agent. Figure it out. Start with the garage."

Dan looked angrily at his colleagues before leaving the room.

Travers walked in from the back bedroom. "Still working on those people skills, Marlow?"

Jade turned to her. "The girl. Leah. She didn't talk to him much, did she? The kids were scared and quiet."

Travers looked at him, surprised. "Yes. That's what she said. Why?"

"Because they lived. As for the woman, magnet on the refrigerator says 'Ask Mom, She's the Boss.' Next-door neighbor described her as the ice queen of the decade. Exact words.

"Check the bedroom. Phone ripped out of the socket, traces of blood. Both wounds on the woman are from the hammer. She woke up in bed, saw Allander, and threw the phone at him. She was tough. She would've reacted tough. She scared him, so he killed her.

"Look at the marks on the love seat. Marks from his dirty feet. He killed the parents, dragged them out here, then stood on the sofa and looked down on them. Got the upper hand, so to speak.

"The kids both lived. He must have felt complete control over them. He wouldn't kill them if they were completely nonthreatening. Nothing for the anger to grab hold of. Plus, it wouldn't be a challenge. He's after a challenge here."

Travers nodded.

"Bulls.h.i.t," an agent in the foyer said. "He's a f.u.c.king coward. Held little kids hostage."

"A coward," Jade repeated, shaking his head. "He's cold, hasn't eaten, just broke out of a prison and swum to sh.o.r.e in freezing water. He walks up to a house and takes it on. Full frontal a.s.sault. No idea who's in here. Do you know the b.a.l.l.s that takes?"

The room was silent for a moment before Jade continued. "If he was a coward, he would've just beaten an old lady to death and I wouldn't be bothering with this case. You clowns could handle it yourself. We're dealing with a powerful mind here, Agent."

Dan stumbled through the front door. "Found the toolbox out in the shed to the side of the house. He definitely went through it. Hammer's missing."

Travers sighed. "And probably a screwdriver. That explains the broken peephole." She glanced into the living room at the bodies. "Pretty gruesome sight. The posing and the letters. It's horrible."

"It's fantastic," Jade replied. "The more he does, the more he leaves me to a.n.a.lyze."

Travers started to respond, but her beeper went off. She checked it and went to the kitchen to answer the page.

The other agents stood around awkwardly. Dan coughed nervously, bringing his fist to his mouth.

"Notified family?" Jade asked.

"No, not yet," Dan replied. "Not looking forward to explaining this one."

"Well, I want full grave-site surveillance. Get those bodies in the ground so you can watch them."

Dan shook his head. "Well, I don't think-"

"That's good, Harris. Don't think. It's a long shot, but killers sometimes go to the grave sites. Could be a hook."

Travers came back in from the kitchen. "That was McGuire," she said. "We have another body. Doesn't look like our boy's work, but it's in the area, so McGuire wants us to check it out."

"I'd be surprised if it was Atlasia," Jade said. He expected Allander to have some kind of cooling-off period, as most serials killers do. At least twenty-four hours. If he was cycling this quickly, they were really in trouble.

"It's a different MO and a robbery, so I don't think so. Local police on it already."

"Let's go," he said. "I'll give you a ride."

"Why don't you come in my car," Travers said. Before he could respond, she continued. "Radio contact."

She turned and walked out the front door. Jade followed.

A cl.u.s.ter of agents stood in the shadows, to the side of the garage. They turned away when Jade pa.s.sed.

29.

I T was getting dark when they reached the house. Typical of the neighborhood, it sat back from a full lawn that stretched all the way around to the backyard. A sprinkler chopped back and forth over a yellow Wiffle-ball bat that lay in the middle of the gra.s.s.

Kids, Jade thought. More kids.

The upstairs windows were lit, two golden rectangles shining into the evening. Travers parked behind three police cars. They got out and headed to the house, pa.s.sing a green station wagon in the driveway.

There were three cops downstairs. "Up in the bedroom," one said, pointing to the stairs. "Body first room to the right. Kid's out on a sleep-over, doesn't know yet. We're with the husband in the master bedroom. He's pretty broken up."

Travers nodded and headed upstairs.

"We also got a glove by the back door," another cop said.

Jade walked back and glanced at the glove. It was black, medium-size. Definitely a man's.

He headed back for the stairs. "Anything been moved?"

The cop shook his head. "Nothing. Husband's name is Royce Tedlow. Says he hasn't touched a thing either. Just the phone when he called us."

The body was upstairs, lying on a bed in a boy's bedroom. A thin woman with dark bruises around her neck. Her shirt was neatly tucked into her pants. She looked peaceful, as if she were sleeping.

Jade and Travers looked at the dead woman for a moment, then headed for the master bedroom.

The husband sat on the bed, face buried in his stretched undershirt. An unb.u.t.toned blue shirt was curled back from his body, and his hairy chest was distinguishable beneath the thin white undershirt. He had a medium build, a nice frame layered with muscles gone slightly soft with middle-age. Jade put him in his late forties.

The bedroom was nicely furnished. A large mirror stretched almost the length of one wall above a marble cabinet, and a huge television faced the bed from beside a window on the other side. An elegant lady's watch curled around the base of a large bra.s.s lamp on the nightstand.

Travers spoke softly with two of the cops. They'd been at the scene for at least a half hour, and had yet to get anything from the husband. Every time he started to speak, he collapsed back into tears. They surrounded him, their faces supportive and sympathetic.

"I just . . . just can't believe that some . . . some MANIAC!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice hoa.r.s.e from crying.

"Calm. Calm down," Jade said. "What happened?"

Royce Tedlow looked at Jade and took a deep breath.

"Come on," Travers said. "Let's walk through this together, okay?"

The husband nodded and started speaking, halting occasionally to fight back tears. "I work down . . . downstairs in the bas.e.m.e.nt, in my office. I came up to get Susan-"

"For what?" Jade asked. Travers and a burly officer shot him hard stares.

"I don't . . . I don't remember." The husband collapsed back into sobs.

"Nice touch, Marlow," Travers said under her breath. She turned back to Royce, laying a hand on his shoulder. "I know this is hard, and I'm sorry to have to push you like this, but the sooner we find out what happened, the better chance we have of finding the killer while the trail is still hot. So see if you can go ahead."

When Royce continued, his voice was steadier. "She wasn't answering, so I went upstairs. When I came in here, I saw my wallet and I knew something was wrong." He pointed to the floor, where a leather wallet was spread open. Business cards, an ATM slip, and credit cards were scattered on the floor.

A cop walked over and picked up the ATM slip. "Twelve hundred bucks," he said. "You always carry this much cash?"

Royce shook his head. "No. I just went to the ATM this morning."

The cop looked at Jade, then back at the husband. "Anything else missing?"