“Short of a confession, yes, and I can assure you that Dr. Jim Hunter will never confess. He won’t even trip himself up on a verbal indiscretion.”
“Millie’s living with a killer.”
“That she is, but she’s safe, John. Hunter needs her to sustain his credibility. He’s fully aware that her death would be one too many.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Think of Millie in relation to Jim Hunter in the same way as Uda Savovich is to Davina Tunbull. Jim Hunter’s colossal ego needs a selfless slave to minister to it, and Jim Hunter’s crimes need an element of doubt only Millie can provide.”
“Yes, I see your argument about Jim Hunter’s reasons for wanting to keep Millie alive,” the Commissioner said, looking mulish, “but what isn’t so obvious is the answer to the question East Holloman’s been asking itself for the last eighteen years — what if Millie falls out of love with Jim?”
Carmine’s breath caught. “Don’t even say it! No,” he said, confidence growing as he spoke, “that won’t happen now they’re out of the rat-infested dumps and into a nice house in a nice neighborhood. I gather Millie’s anxious to start her family, and judging from what that did to Desdemona at much the same age, she won’t have time to fall out of love. She’ll be too busy discovering that kids are much harder to manage than quiet, obedient laboratories. I’m delighted for her.”
“I would be, if I didn’t know Jim is a killer.”
“Be rational, John! Hunter’s not a pathological killer — killing doesn’t assuage a craving in his psyche. Had the Parsons not trodden on M.M.’s toes, and M.M. not trodden back, Tinkerman would never have become Head Scholar of C.U.P., and Hunter would have continued to be nothing more and nothing less than a genius biochemist. He killed to achieve his ends, not for sexual jollies.”
“I wish I believed you,” the Commissioner said.
“Why don’t you?” Carmine yelled, exasperated. “I’m not trying to justify Hunter or minimize his deeds, I’m just trying to make you see that Millie at least isn’t a target. That’s the most we can hope for, given her blindness to Hunter’s real nature combined with the fact that we can’t arrest him.”
“I fear for Millie,” Silvestri maintained, unimpressed.
“We all fear for Millie, John, but there’s not a thing we can do, so drop it,” said Carmine harshly.
Desdemona sided with Silvestri.
“Millie is definitely in danger,” she said, searing her frying pan with a good OP brandy and watching it hiss and bubble to a brown nothing. She stirred in some home-made tomato sauce, a little horseradish cream, and when they were sizzling, a half-cup of full cream. A quick stir to a bubble, and the sauce was drizzled over two steaks sitting on two plates. The larger was slid in front of Carmine, who added little potato balls simmered in beef stock, and loaded his salad bowl.
“I adore you,” he said, mouth full.
“Never more so than when I feed you, love,” she said with enormous complacence.
“What makes you think Millie is in danger, especially in light of what Hunter had to say about her equal putative guilt? To me, that indicated he has to keep her alive,” he said when his plate and bowl were empty save for the steak fat, and a cup of tea sat steaming.
“I agree that Jim murders from necessity not psychopathia. I also agree that Millie alive is a great protection for him. But if Millie offends him deeply enough, he’ll kill her without missing a step. His ego is even bigger than his brain, but the brain will ensure that if his ego says she must be killed, you won’t be able to prove he did it — and there will be another Millie waiting to step into her vacant slot.”
“A new Millie can’t replace the old,” Carmine countered, “not from the way he talked this morning. Millie’s his equal suspect.”
“Even dead, she can fill that role. And since her substitute will be another slave to Jim, he can create another suspect.”
Carmine gave a Bronx cheer. “That’s stretching it too fine, Desdemona. You make it sound like Hunter has a whole stable of potential slaves and believes he can brainwash them the way he has Millie. Well, he can’t. They were kids together when it all started. I maintain that Millie is unique.”
“A replacement Millie won’t be manipulated in the same way,” Desdemona said stubbornly, “but Jim will make the relationship work for him exactly as he wants it to. Did you ever find the gun used on Mrs. Tinkerman?”