Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Including in your new bureau.
And this could be even tougher on spouses.
Unless retired FBI agents made a habit of ending up here, Bohannan and Rus would be the only ones who shared that bond.
“And it’d be good Cin had a man whose balls didn’t get in the way of his brains,” Bohannan finished.
He couldn’t be any clearer about his opinion on that.
“But that’s out of turn,” he muttered, still watching Rus closely.
Rus liked the guy, so he gave it to him.
“Not really. You, or Harry, called it as it is. We’re talking. I know Lucinda’s coming tonight. But she knows I need to focus on the case. When it’s done, though, I’ve made it clear I want to keep getting to know her. And she’s receptive to that.”
“Glad to hear it, she’s a good woman.”
“I know. So it’s a compliment you feel we might fit.”
Bohannan jerked up his chin, and Rus felt relief they were off that subject when he watched Bohannan put his hand flat on the fat case file that shared the trail of torment of the Crystal Killer.
“I can’t say I disagree with what the profilers said about this guy,” Bohannan started it. “Malignant narcissist gone off the rails. The staging, at first, was an act of intimacy for him. He feels emotion for them. Not in any way we understand, but they mean something to him. It continued in that bent, but he started to clean their faces when you came on board. He did this as a gift to you. To show you what good taste he has. To show you when you walked in what his power was, but when you saw them from the front, that was what he worked with. The beauty he owned, until he was done with her. And he wanted them to look beautiful for you too.”
Rus nodded.
He’d heard all of this before.
At least all of it before the last part, which was something that turned his stomach.
“I also agree with the profilers that the notes he left, too short for them to establish a language pattern, not too short not to have meaning, were definitely for you. He knows you’re investigating him. Though I don’t agree they’re important.”
This was new.
“They dismissed the crystals, and I think that’s a mistake,” Bohannan asserted. “Those are how he’s really communicating with you.”
Rus felt a tightness hit his shoulders because he’d always thought the same.
He’d researched crystals until he got a low-key stress response if he saw a New Age shop.
But he couldn’t put his finger on why he felt they were important, other than he knew his suspect didn’t do anything throwaway.
It was all important.
Rus wasn’t the perp, or a profiler, so he didn’t know how it was important.
Bohannan continued.
“Case in point, victim number four. He put a malachite in her hands. Malachite is known in those circles as a protection stone. Also healing. Balance. They blew it off because they didn’t feel it pertained to him, where the other stones seemed to have some connection to the perpetrator. They thought, when the message changed, they were headed down the wrong path, reading too much into it. It was just a calling card, the stones selected at random. He’s proud of what he does, and he wants his victims linked. Or it was a way to throw you all off, send you down the wrong path, away from him. I think…”
Bohannan stopped talking, and the sense Rus had as to why made him move his head side to side on his neck, because all of a sudden, his shoulders got so tight, they caused pain.
“I think that stone, and all the ones after, were for you.”
He didn’t get it.
“He wants to protect me?”
“Bear with me on this, Rus,” Bohannan urged. “I was feeling this when I first worked the file, but the fact he might be in town makes me believe it. And the other profilers who worked this case did not have that to work with. You and him, traditionally, are adversaries. Adversaries can admire each other, but they’re still adversaries. I don’t think it would enter any profiler’s head what I’m about to say when you have a suspect like the Crystal Killer.”
Rus braced.
Bohannan gave it to him.
“The way I read it, he thinks you appreciate what he does. He sees you as a connoisseur of his work. He doesn’t consider you a fan. Or a protegee he’s grooming. He considers you a collector. He thinks of you as a kind of soulmate.”
Bohannan shook his head while saliva filled Rus’s mouth.
“That’s not the right word,” Bohannan said. “He thinks you’re the only one who appreciates the work he puts into what he does, and since that’s important to him, he’s inflated what your relationship really means. Once you came on board, he stopped being frustrated that people didn’t get the beauty he created. He convinced himself somebody understood. And for that, you are very, very important to him.”