Chapter 2
A stunned silence descended upon Deakins' office. Bobby looked at Alicia and noted her pale, drawn face. Despite this, however, he thought she was still the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. With her glossy dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, she looked more Mediterranean than Irish. She certainly had the body of a Greek goddess. He remembered what it was like to feel that body under his hands, to watch her eyes grow even darker with desire, and to hear her call his name as he made love to her. Bobby Goren fell in love with Alicia Flaherty the first moment he saw her and he'd been in love with her even since. He watched as she turned sad eyes toward him. His heart clenched. He knew she'd come back into his life one day, but not this way, not under these circumstances. It was the "Alphabet Murders" that caused them to split in the first place. He didn't want it to get in their way again. He was determined to win her back, and this case sure wasn't going to help that cause.
In those moments of stunned silence, a multitude of thoughts tumbled around Alicia's head. She could see by the look on Bobby's face that the wheels of his mind were turning fast and furiously. But when weren't they? He probably thought things through even in his sleep. Robert Goren was certainly the most cerebral man she'd ever met. And the most intelligent. They both possessed genius-level IQs. They were both gifted with the ability to get inside people's heads, including each other's. They were so attuned to one another that they often finished each other's sentences. Alicia could almost always tell, by just looking at him, if Bobby was angry, distraught or confused, even when his face was perfectly composed. Just looking at him now, she could tell he was unhappy about the circumstances under which they were meeting again. He still loves me, as much as I love him, she thought. This case is what split us up in the first place. No, that's not entirely true. I let this case get to me, and I withdrew from everyone, especially Bobby. I can't, I won't let that happen again.
Alicia looked at Bobby, and their eyes met and held. Bobby opened his mouth to say something when Alex broke the eerie silence that had settled in the office.
"Why you, Alicia? Did the perp know you somehow?"
Alicia tore her eyes away from Bobby's with much reluctance. She desperately wanted to hear what he was about to say but the moment was lost. She turned her attention to Alex. "Our paths had crossed once or twice prior to the murders. He worked in the coroner's office. His name was, is, Phillip Lewis. And, somehow or another, he developed a fixation on me." She shuddered involuntarily, and Alex's heart went out to Alicia. The whole ordeal was still very obviously an open wound for Alicia. Alex did some quick calculations in her head and realized that Bobby and Alicia's divorce happened less than a year after the original "Alphabet Murders." What do you want to bet that case was what broke them up, Alex thought. Now how weird is it that the second go around of this case is bringing them back together?
"Any ideas why he fixated on you, Agent Goren?" Deakins asked.
Alicia looked at the Captain and shrugged helplessly. "Who knows?" she said. "I never behaved any differently toward him than I did toward the other coroner's assistants. He was just a guy in a lab coat to me. Besides, I was quite happily married to Bobby at the time I first met Lewis. I had no reason to pay attention to any man, so I couldn't begin to fathom why Lewis singled me out."
"With these kind of psychopaths, it's hard to figure what makes them focus on one particular person. The most innocent of exchanges could mean the world to them, and yet be nothing special to the object of their affection," Bobby said. "One would automatically imagine that the perp fell for Alicia because of her looks, but it wasn't just her beauty that called to him. There was something about her, her personality, her charm, something that connected with him, that answered a need he had. And all this was going on without Alicia ever being aware of it, until the day he showed up at our doorstep with flowers for her." Bobby paused for a breath.
"You can't imagine how surprised I was to see him standing there, all dressed up and holding this enormous bouquet," Alicia continued. "It was the first afternoon off Bobby and I had had in almost two months, since we started working this case. We just wanted to spend some time alone together. The murders had stopped at number 5 and all of our leads were growing cold. The powers-that-be realized that while I wasn't completely fried yet, I was certainly crispy around the edges. The case was starting to become a near-obsession with me, and Bobby was told to take me home for a couple of days and not let me even open a case file. Bobby told everyone we knew not to disturb us for the rest of the day, even my family. So imagine our shock at hearing our doorbell ring that evening. We weren't expecting anyone, much less Phillip Lewis."
"How did he explain himself?" the Captain asked.
"Well, he didn't, really," Alicia said. "That made the whole scene that much more surreal."
"He also seemed surprised to find me there," Bobby said. "Alicia had never tried to hide the fact that she was married. She always wore her engagement and wedding rings. But when he saw me come up behind her in the doorway of our apartment, the guy went pale and gave Alicia this look that could have pulverized stone."
Alicia shuddered again. "His eyes went blank then, and he started saying, in this low voice that got progressively louder, 'You bitch, you whore, you bitch, you whore.' I tried to explain to him that Bobby was my husband and that he really needed to leave, but he just kept getting louder and louder..." Alicia trailed off. She turned moist, saucer-like eyes toward Bobby.
"I finally had to show the guy my badge and tell him he had five seconds to leave or I was going to arrest him," Bobby said. "That seemed to shock him back to reality. He apologized, thrust the bouquet into Alicia's hands and ran off. We didn't know what that was all about and at that point we had no reason to suspect him, so we just decided to wait till the morning and let his supervisor know about what happened."
"Turns out," Alicia said quietly, "that he never showed up at work the next day, or, for that matter, the rest of the week. Three days later, the sixth set of murders occurred. The victims spelled out the letter "O" and the murders were particularly violent. It was obvious the killer was absolutely enraged. That was when I began to suspect Phillip Lewis. I mean, it wasn't anything overtly obvious…no, I take that back. The fact that he knew where we lived was the first thing that started to really bug me. The coroner and his assistants knew to get in touch with me through the office. They didn't know where any of us lived. So it was kind of obvious that Lewis had followed me. At that point, it was nothing more than just a gut feeling, really, but Phillip Lewis as a suspect began to make perfect sense to me. We began to check his background, track his movements, but he got to the seventh set of victims before we could stop him. We tracked him to his childhood home in Brooklyn, where his parents still kept an apartment. It was there that we found souvenirs from all seven murders. We also found carefully written plans for each murder and the plans for the subsequent murders he wanted to commit." She paused and swallowed. "He was planning to spell out my name next."
"And that's where we are today. This new killer has picked up where Lewis left off. He's already spelled out the "A" and the "L" in Alicia," Bobby said.
"Lewis is still in maximum up in Attica, isn't he?" Alex asked.
"Yes," Alicia answered.
"Phillip Lewis is never going to see the light of day again, Alex," Deakins said grimly. "But he's a part of this equation. Someone knows him well enough to know what he planned to do. Someone knows of Agent Goren's connection to Lewis. That's why you're here, Alicia. Your father is not happy with the idea of your involvement with this, but he understands that your expertise is needed. This is very much a hands-on kind of thing, not something you could have helped us with from the safety of your desk in Washington."
Alicia nodded. "I know, Captain. I think what my da is more worried about is the effect this whole case is going to have on me." She paused, glanced at Bobby, then cleared her throat. "This case got to me so badly that I withdrew from everyone, especially Bobby. The whole situation made me so crazy that I felt I needed to get away from everything and everyone here in New York. I left the force, joined the FBI and...divorced Bobby. I was almost unrecognizable in every respect. The only thing that helped me was being involved with the FBI." She stood up and walked over to Bobby. She put her hand on his shoulder. "It took some doing but I worked through the mess I made of my life after the "Alphabet Murders." That's why I'm here." She turned to Captain Deakins. "I wouldn't have come back if I didn't think I could handle this. I would have found a way to simply phone it in. I would have gotten myself assigned to a case at the Bureau. I would have been anywhere but here." She turned again to Bobby. "I can do this," she said to him. "But this time, I'll take whatever help you have to offer."
Bobby understood immediately what she was trying to say. He took her free hand in his and said simply, "Whatever you need, you'll have."
Alicia gave him a slow smile. "Thanks, Bobby," she said as she squeezed his hand. She knew he understood what she really meant. She wasn't going to push him away this time like she did before. She turned back to Deakins. "Matthews and I are at your disposal, Captain. Where do you want us to start?"
