“Until I moved next door and met him face-to-face, he was a phantom. Vapor. No more tangible than fog and just as impossible to capture. I feared I never would. But now I know he’s human.”
He raised his hand and squeezed it into a fist. “He’s flesh and blood. He eats and drinks. He puts on his pants one leg at a time. He sweats. He’s real, and he lives among us. I can touch him, and I’m going to catch him.” He paused and inhaled deeply. “Where could he be, Talia?”
“I don’t know. I swear I don’t.”
“Hometown?”
“He claimed none. He told me his parents were itinerant workers.”
“Where?”
“I got the impression of southern California. But I don’t know if he told me that, or if that was conjecture on my part.”
“His parents’ names?”
“He wouldn’t talk about them. He said he’d risen above his roots, and didn’t want to revisit the past. Ever. And, anyway, they were both deceased.”
“No family?”
“None.”
“Old friends?”
“No.”
“Convenient.” He had expected as much. “Did he mention past relationships, former marriages?”
“He was married once, a long time ago. She died.”
“She didn’t die. He killed her. Her name was Lyndsay Cummings.”
Talia glanced at the file. “She was the first of the eight?”
“First that we know of.” He wiped his damp upper lip with the side of his index finger. “Did he ever talk about her and their marriage?”
“He said the memories were too painful.”
“No doubt.”
She rested her hand on top of the file, staring at it. “No bodies were ever discovered, Drex.”
“Which doesn’t mean they weren’t killed. What it does mean is that we haven’t had forensic evidence that could connect the disappearance of one woman to another, and then to another, establishing a pattern that would ultimately point us to an individual. Not until Marian Harris, that is.”
She pressed her fingertips to her lips. “He couldn’t have done that.”
He didn’t argue with her, but she gained some breathing room when Gif returned. “A message from Rudkowski. He says we either deliver the material witness within half an hour or he’s coming here after her, and woe be to us.”
“Shit!”
“Locke’s patting his hand, but you know Rudkowski. Where’s Mike?”
“Hand-patting the patrolmen outside.”
“How long are you willing to wait, Drex?”
“Five more minutes.”
Gif divided a look between him and Talia, took in the seating arrangement, and must have concluded that Drex was putting on the full court press. He said, “I’ll check to see if th