For the benefit of the other two, Drex described it.
“He was fanatical about the fit of every garment,” Talia continued. “He fussed over sleeve length, buttons, everything. I was never allowed to fold his laundry and store it. He had a ‘system,’ he said. I teased him about the way he lined up utensils in the kitchen
drawer.”
“He didn’t laugh it off,” Drex said.
“No, he took umbrage. His obsessions like that began to wear on me. Walking a fine line twenty-four/seven is exhausting. I started inventing reasons to go out of town. My business trips came to feel like escapes. I could only relax when I was away from him. Which should have told me something, shouldn’t it?”
She asked it of all three men, letting her gaze light briefly on one before moving to the next, until she came back around to Drex. He said nothing, wanting to hear how she answered her own question.
“We’re supposed to trust our fear. That’s what we’re told. I didn’t. I rationalized it away or denied it altogether.” She waited a beat, then added, “Until you moved in next door. Then everything changed.”
Mike shifted in his seat. Gif cleared his throat. Drex didn’t move, just continued to look into Talia’s troubled eyes.
“Jasper was mistrustful of you right from the start, although you’d given him no reason to be. You’d even returned the fan he loaned you. I couldn’t understand his aversion.”
“He saw Drex as competition.”
She nodded at Gif. “Male assertion, protecting his territory, that would have been understandable over time, and if Drex and I had given him reason to be jealous. But Drex has been here all of a week, and Jasper turned paranoid almost from the day he moved in.”
“‘Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind,’” Drex quoted.
“What?”
“Shakespeare,” Mike said.
“But don’t be too impressed,” Drex said. “I only know that line because it applies to a mind like Jasper’s.” He held up his index finger. “Except that he feels only the suspicion, not the guilt. In his mind, whatever he does is sanctioned.
“Oh, he’s subtle,” he went on. “He doesn’t pull the wings off houseflies or eviscerate kittens. Although he may have in his youth, or in secret now. But when he’s ‘working,’ he assumes all the trappings of normalcy.
“He expresses remorse when it’s called for. ‘Shame about your dog getting hit by a car.’ He apologizes for minor offenses like being late for an engagement or forgetting a birthday. He takes a small gift to a hostess. He invites a new neighbor over for dinner. Because that’s what civilized people do.
“But he’s role-playing. He’s condescending. Behind his hand, he’s snickering at everyone who falls for his act. He’s had nine personas that I know of, but they all originated and were governed by the same distorted psyche, in which he’s far superior to everyone else, and rules do not apply to him.”
“I feel so stupid, so foolish.”
“Don’t, Talia. He played you brilliantly. ‘Not tonight, honey’? Fine. He was the perfect gentleman about it. The epitome of consideration. Never got pissed off, never complained, ultimately stopped asking. Right?”
She gave a small, self-conscious nod.
“That fell right into step with the way he wanted your relationship to be. He mastered without being masterful. What wife would complain about such an ideal husband? That closet, those pristine drawers made you want to scream, but you didn’t, because most wives would regard it a miracle if, for once, their slob of a husband picked up his dirty underwear from off the bathroom floor.
“Jasper deliberately used words and phrases that were disturbing, then contrasted them with utmost thoughtfulness. That kept you off balance. Made you…What was the word you used today? Watchful. That was the turn-on of all turn-ons to him. He sensed your mounting wariness. Nurturing it was his foreplay.”
“Leading to what?”
“Killing.”
“Nucking futs,” Mike mouthed.
Distressed, she hugged the pillow closer. “I’ll never forgive myself for not heeding my instincts and saying something, doing something, sharing my misgivings with Elaine. If I had, she might still be alive.”
“And you would be dead.”
After Drex’s sobering declaration, a silence ensued. Then Gif said, “No doubt he would then have turned to Elaine for condolence.”
“And snuffed her, too,” Mike said.