“I don’t think the other ten are going to be that easy.”
“Do you still go for the idea of one killer?”
“More than ever. There’s no one else outside the pattern, chief,” Carmine said. He frowned. “And damn that woman! She threw me off with this self-defense nonsense so badly that I didn’t ask her the one question I intended to.”
“Then go back and ask.”
“With Bera present? He’ll direct her not to answer.”
“Bail hearing is in an hour, Captain, so Dr. Denbigh can’t give you much time,” Bera said the next morning.
“I am aware of that, Mr. Bera.” Carmine sat down and turned on the tape recorder. “Dr. Denbigh, how are you?”
“Well, thank you,” she said, unaware that Judge Thwaites, who would be on the bench, thought her capable of anything.
“There is one question I would like you to answer, ma’am. It doesn’t directly pertain to your own case or its defense, but it’s very important to the investigation of ten other murders.”
“My client did not do murder,” said Bera.
“Ten murders,” Carmine amended, swallowing his ire.
“Ask your question, Captain Delmonico,” said Bera.
“Was there any reason that you decided to preserve your life by terminating your husband’s life on Monday, April third?”
His head to one side, Bera considered the implications, while Pauline Denbigh sat side-on, staring into his face.
“Dr. Denbigh had a reason,” Bera said.
Exasperated, Carmine shook his head. “That’s not the kind of answer I want,” he said. “I need specifics.”
“You’re not going to get them, Captain.”
“Let me try again. Whatever your reason might have been, Dr. Denbigh, was it in any way connected to—say, a rumor you’d heard that other deaths might occur?”
“Claptrap,” Bera said disdainfully.
“Was it to do with a pact, or an agreement, that other people should die? Or was it sheer coincidence that your decision to act on Monday, April third, happened to be the same day eleven murders happened in Holloman?”
“Ohhh!” she exclaimed, ignoring Bera’s fierce grimaces. “I see what you mean! My reason for choosing that day will come out in court, Captain, but it had nothing to do with ten—or eleven—murders. It was sheer coincidence.”
Carmine’s sigh of relief was audible. “Thank you, ma’am! I can’t do anything to help you, but you’ve just helped me.” He decided to press his luck. “Who knew you were afraid of your husband? That you feared for your life?”
“If you answer that, Dr. Denbigh, I can’t help you,” Bera said ominously.
She lifted her shoulders and smiled at Carmine ruefully. “I am in Mr. Bera’s hands, Captain. To answer you would damage my defense, I can see that for myself.”
Which was, Carmine reflected as he left, a brilliant way of saying that yes, she had confided in at least one other woman. Now he had to find her best friend.
Erica Davenport? Philomena Skeps? Or some unknown, unmet proponent of women’s liberation?
He lurked outside until Anthony Bera left the interview room and detained him. “You shouldn’t have any trouble getting her acquitted,” he said affably.
“So I believe.”
“How can she afford your fees, Mr. Bera? Chubb isn’t famous for overpaying women faculty.”
“I’m acting pro bono,” Bera said shortly.
Are you indeed? said Carmine to himself. Now why? I think I have to go back to the Cape and talk to Philomena Skeps again. She becomes more and more like the lady spider at the center of the web.
He called a little conference in his office: Abe and Corey, Delia and Patrick.
“Okay, we’re down to ten,” he said, not trying to conceal his pleasure. “We can forget the three shootings, that’s an absolute. But I’m putting them down as solved when we catch our mastermind, because they were definitely commissioned. That leaves us with six cases—Beatrice Egmont, Bianca Tolano, Peter Norton, Cathy Cartwright, Evan Pugh and Desmond Skeps. For the moment we shelve Beatrice Egmont as unsolvable. Okay, five dead people, and that’s where we begin. Everything we have we throw at the textbook rape murder of Bianca Tolano. Commissioned, yes, but after a bit of thinking I’ve realized you don’t shop for a sex killer. Money doesn’t interest them. Therefore he’s a local. Our mastermind found out about his fantasies, took him in hand and educated him. If we don’t get him, he’ll kill again, now that he’s had a taste of it. If the Ghost taught me nothing else, he taught me that sex killers can’t stop.”