Page 121 of Random in Death
“We’ll head there after I clear up some things.”
“And Mira’s in your office.”
“Yeah, saves me a trip.”
In a suit of the same happy blue as the sky, Mira stood at Eve’s board drinking coffee.
“I helped myself.”
“I’m going to do the same. I was going to ask for a quick consult.”
“I assumed. I’m told the girl from last night is recovering.”
“Recovered, from the sounds of it. No fall off an airboard’s ever been so lucky. But I think it was more.”
“Yes. And now I’m taking your only decent chair.” Mira sat at the desk. “He rushed it. I read your report on my way in—you started early. He only needed to wait another minute, perhaps two, before his target made her way to her row. And that would’ve cut the distance to his escape route in half.”
“He just couldn’t wait.”
“No. There’s still a boy inside the killer, with a boy’s impatience now that he’s begun, now that he’s succeeded twice. You added a note in there about Roarke’s take on the door alarm. I find that valid as well.”
“He’s smart, maybe brilliant in his area of interest. But outside that? He’s not. A jammer in one pocket, the syringe in the other. Kill the girl, hit the jammer, get out, no alarm. Sure, somebody would have seen him, but probably thought nothing of it. She’s not going to react for several minutes, probably after she’s in her seat.”
“Most teenagers I know are very well versed in e’s. It’s just routine for them. But, as you wrote, he’s not. Very likely no arcades, no vid games as part of his routine.”
Mira paused, drank some coffee. “Then clearly he panicked. Instead of attempting to lose himself in the crowd, even for a moment or two, he bolted, knocking people aside, drawing attention on his way out, then through the door.”
“The kid inside the killer again.”
“Exactly,” Mira affirmed. “And it’s the child who won’t take stock, not fully, of where he went wrong. Who won’t stop at least for a few days, a week, to let it all settle down, to let himself fully calm.
“He’ll be harder on the next girl, Eve. If he can find a way to incapacitate her, he will. If he can find a way to do that, lure her away, he’ll rape her if he’s able, physically abuse her, make her pay for his failure, before he kills her.”
“He’d risk that now, this soon?”
“I believe he has to. He can’t accept failure, not in his area of expertise. Not when he’s planned so minutely, and succeeded. It’s another rejection. The girl last night rejected him. She didn’t submit; more, she put him in peril. He had to run.”
Eve paced to her window, back again. “He had to pull out before he finished. If the needle stands in for his dick, he barely penetrated, had to pull out.”
“And the frustration, the rage, is very physical. He’ll need release.”
“We’ve already run like crimes, that’s SOP. Jenna was his first, I’m sure of it. Do you think he’s raped or attempted rape before?”
“I don’t. If so, he’d have had a plan for Jenna Harbough. Drug her drink, get her away from her friends. This is different. Something he’s been imagining, working up to. Something he may never have attempted. But the girl last night rejected him, beat him, endangered him. Rape is about power—power, dominance, and punishment.”
“Okay. I’ll factor this in.”
Mira rose. “If there’s anything more I can do, any questions you have, I’ll make time.”
“I’ve got some leads. We’re going to push them.”
Because it felt like a race now, Eve thought as Mira left. She turned to the board again. A race until he had the dark on his side.
She couldn’t let him win.
She sent Feeney the list and criteria, then went back to the bullpen.
“Move it, Peabody.”