Visions In Death

Her eyes were the same blue as her scoop chairs, and while invariably kind, rarely missed a detail.

"You're exhausted. Haven't you slept at all?" "Couple hours. I drank a booster." "All well and good. Sleep is better." "Next on my list. Tell me about him." "Angry and violent, with that anger and violence targeted toward women. I don't believe his use of the red ribbon was accidental. Scarlet, the brand for whores. There's a duality in his view on women. Whores to be used and abused, yes, but the pose, the location, indicate an awe of them. A religious pose, a castle. Mado

Mother, sister, teacher, spouse or lover. It's unlikely he has or has been able to maintain a long-term, healthy intimate relationship with a woman." "And sometimes they're just fucking murdering bastards." "Yes." Mira calmly sipped her tea. "Sometimes. But there is a root, Eve. There's always a root, whether real or fantasized.

Rape is about power, more than it's about violence, certainly more than it's about sex. Penetration by force, for your own gratification while causing fear and pain. Not just forcing yourself on another person, but into them. Murder takes that power to another level. The ultimate control over another human being. The method, strangulation, is very personal, very intimate."

"I think he got off on it. He strangled her face-to-face. He watched her die." "I'd agree. We can't know if he ejaculated as there was no semen, but I don't believe he's impotent. He may be so without the violence, but if he'd been unable to orgasm, we would see more injuries, pre-and postmortem." "Cutting out her eyes is pretty injurious." "A symbol again. He enjoys symbols. He blinded her. She has no power against him as she can't see him or is allowed to see him only in a ma

It's most likely he lives alone, works at a job where he can work alone, or primarily with men. He's organized, but he's also a risk taker. And he's proud. He not only attacked and killed in a public place, but he left her there, displayed." "Look at my work, and be afraid." "Yes. If Elisa Maplewood was symbolic rather than target specific, his work isn't finished. He's organized enough to have his next victim in mind already. He'd study her habits, her routines, and strategize the best way to take her." "Her father looked like a possibility, for about ten seconds.

He's got a sheet, but reports are he's out of town. Verifying that, but it doesn't feel like it was personal on that level." "Because of the symbols." Mira nodded. "Yes, I agree, unless you find those symbols relate between father and daughter. Probabilities would be he didn't know Maplewood on that personal a level, but only what she symbolized to him." "I'm going to run probabilities. We're tracking down the ribbon. It's a good lead." But she brooded. "What do you think of psychics?" "Well, as I have a daughter who's a sensitive…" "Oh yeah. Right." She brooded a moment more while Mira waited patiently. "I had a visit this morning," she began, and told her of Celina.

"Do you have any reason to doubt she was telling the truth?" "Other than a reluctance to believe in woo-woo, no. She's checking out. It's a little a

Sick in my heart, in my gut. Sick and shaky and scared. I wanted to walk out, away from those women with their bruises, those kids with their helpless faces. One of them had a broken arm. One of the kids. A girl, about six. I'm not good with kids" ages." "Eve." "I could feel the bone snap. Could hear it. And it took everything not to just go down to my knees and scream." "And you're ashamed of that?" Shame? She wasn't sure. Was it shame she felt, or anger, or some nasty brew of both? "You've got to get over it, sometime." "Why?" Stu

To survive, have a life, to be happy, to be productive.

You've done all that, and a great deal more. But no, you're not required to get over it. To get over being beaten and abused and raped and tortured. You ask more of yourself, Eve, than you ask of anyone else in the world."

"It was a good place." "And in this good place you saw a child someone had tried to break. It hurt you. But you didn't walk away." She sighed, sat again. "Peabody caught a drift. When we're out, she does the pal thing, offers to listen if I need to dump.

So how do I respond to that?" "Snap her head off, I imagine," Mira said with a little smile.

"Yeah. I ream her. Slap her up and down, mind-your-own-business kind of shit, stuff just jumping out of my mouth." "You'll apologize." "Already did." "You work together, as a unit. And you have a friendship outside of the job. You may want to consider telling her, at least some of it." "I don't see what good it would do either one of us." Mira only smiled. "Well, something to think about. Go home, Eve. Get some sleep."