“And that’s why she’s not on a slab in the morgue.”
“What? I don’t follow.”
“She intimidates him.” Eve rose, paced the stingy confines of her office. “She’s saying wouldn’t you like to have a taste of this, and you know I’d let you. She’s overt, available, and, yeah, totally confident in her sexuality and appeal.”
“So … she’s too much for him?”
“He goes for the soft, the vulnerable, the … more subtle. He may be working his way to her level, but he couldn’t start there. What’s the point—for him—to rape a woman who’s inviting him to have a bang?”
“Well, but she’s not. Not really.”
“No, she’s not, but that’s the image. That’s what he sees. She comes off strong and fearless. Yeah, she—types like this—intimidate him. I want to see those creepy fan contacts. Maybe he approached that way. Maybe he dipped a toe in the pool that way, but she doesn’t fit his … mold.”
She turned back from the board. “We’re going to go through the list again when we have interviews with all. Look at them from the angle of the more vulnerable, the more subtle, the more … traditional,” she ended, finally finding the word that had eluded her. “The vics, they all run on that track, in most ways,” Eve continued. “Married, and they all took their husband’s name.”
“I never thought about that,” Peabody admitted, frowning at the board. “Never noticed.”
“Only one of them had a career outside volunteer work, charity work, that kind of thing. Why does that break the pattern, why is that?”
Eve paused, stared at Lori Brinkman’s photo. “Is it that her job’s acceptable? The human rights lawyer who writes on the side? Or is that just something he discounted?”
Something there, she thought, and she needed to pull it out.
“It’s not coloring, body type, even age,” she concluded. “It’s looks, yeah, but also, maybe, his perception. And his perception of the woman or couple they’re substituting for. I want to get this to Mira, see it from her take.”
“The bartender came in, no fuss. Carmichael’s with him in Interview A.”
“All right, I’ll take that. You get this to Mira. You understand where I’m heading?”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I’ll put it together.”
Eve took the slim file they’d put together on Wright, walked to Interview A.
She stepped in, nodded to Carmichael. “Thank you, Officer.”
When he stepped out, Eve engaged the recorder. “Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, entering Interview with Wright, Anson, for the purpose of routine questioning, ongoing investigation.”
She read in the case files of all the attacks as she sat across from him.
He sipped from a tube of some sort of health drink that had broccoli and carrots dancing over it.
“Thanks for coming in, Mr. Wright.”
“No problem. Word came down straight from Jacko: Anybody who works for him gives total co-op to the police. This is about the Strazzas, right?”
“Before we can talk about that, I’m going to Mirandize you.”
He said, “Whoa,” and looked a little excited.
“It’s procedure,” Eve continued. “Before we talk about an ongoing investigation. So. You have the right to remain silent…”
Gaze riveted on her face, he appeared to cling to every word until she’d finished. “Do you understand your rights and obligations?”
“Yeah, sure. You gave that a crisp reading.”
“All right. How do you know the Strazzas?”
“They came into Jacko’s a few times when I was on the bar, and I tended bar at their house a couple times for parties.”
“You didn’t work the dinner party on Saturday night?”
“No. Last time was … yeah, they had a party in December, big holiday bash.”
“You weren’t on shift at the bar at Jacko’s Saturday night, either. Can you tell me where you were?”
“Sure. I worked the lunch shift that day, got home by five. Easy by five. I had a big audition on Monday, so I stayed home, rehearsing, getting into character, did a purge, and—”
“A purge of what?”
“Of my body.” He waggled the tube. “My character’s a health nut. Abso obsessed, starts a commune—really more like a cult—so they grow all their own food, close themselves off from society because, you know, germs.”
“Okay. You stayed at home Saturday night.”
“Right through until I left for the audition yesterday morning. It was a callback, and I think I nailed it.”