When Christian entered detective Myers' office, he could clearly feel the tension that filled the area. He could spot the unease both on Sean's and on Myers' face. Christian's stomach tightened into a knot. Those two didn't look like they were just having their nice little cup of tea.
"Sit down, Dr. Troy," Myers addressed him.
Christian took a quick glace at Sean. His friend sat with his lips pressed together, his hands clutched together.
"I just told your partner that everything we say here remains in this room," Myers said without further ado, "do you understand? Top Secret. Nobody should know of what we talk about here - at least not yet."
Christian scrunched his forehead. The matter became ever more mysterious. He moved back and forth with his chair nervously.
"There was another victim," Sean managed, "a "Carver" victim."
Christian had the illusion that his heart had stopped. Liz was thus right. A copycat made the roads of Miami unsafe again, "is the victim badly hurt?"
"She is still in hospital," Myers answered dryly. He stood up and went over to the desk, "that's not why I'd like to keep quiet about this," he cleared his throat, "it was feasible to think at first that a copycat had surfaced. But the way the attacker sedated the victim beforehand is the exact same the real Carver had used on his victims. We became suspicious and arranged to check the grave of Dr. Costa," Myers stopped for a moment.
"And...?" Christian's nerves were strained to their limits.
"The corpse in the coffin wasn't Dr. Costa, but an employee of the Crematorium."
Christian looked back and forth from Myers to Sean. Somehow he didn't have any patience to figure out for himself what the detective's words meant.
"So we must believe that Dr. Costa is alive and well."
Christian opened his eyes wide, "you wanna say he staged his death?"
"Exactly," Myers nodded.
"But I...we had both seen him being shot by Kit!"
"He was probably wearing a bullet proof vest," Myers speculated, "we don't know what happened exactly. But if we try to figure it out, we can only come to this conclusion."
"My God..." Christian shook his head, otherwise speechless.
"We have seen the young woman at the hospital and asked her a few questions. But she couldn't help us out with much. According to her statement, the aggressor wore a mask and sedated her with a syringe."
"The usual then," Christian sighed.
Sean stood up slowly, "if we are helping you with anything, then we should be under constant police protection," he said firmly.
Christian looked at Sean amazed. He had hardly ever seen him so determined.
"Dr. McNamara..." Myers tried to stay calm, "how do you imagine that? There was only one victim so far and we are not sure who the person responsible is. What we have are assumptions. And solely on empty assumptions I cannot place you under police protection."
"I have a wife and children!" Sean remained unwavering, "I cannot expose them to the danger of Quentin killing them!"
"I can understand why you are feeling so strongly about that, believe me, but so far we haven't got any strong evidence. Just because someone else is hurt, doesn't mean that Dr. Costa is responsible for it," detective Myers said.
"But you just told us that his body wasn't in the coffin," Christian interrupted as well, "anybody who is not a complete idiot can put two and two together," he rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.
Myers scratched his chin sighing, " you do not seem to understand me. Even if we have some solid inferences to plausibly presume that Dr. Costa abused the young woman, we don't have proof. And we don't have any leads either. We could make an appeal in the paper with the same effort: "masked attackers wanted!"
"You mean you are doing nothing," Sean established soberly.
"I have set up a special unit in charge with the case. We cannot do more at present."
"And it follows that you are waiting having the peace of mind that he will strike again," Sean noted sarcastically.
"Dr. McNamara..." Myers began to really lose patience now, "you do your job, and I'll do mine, okay?"
"If you ask me, you're doing it all wrong," Sean went to the door, "come on Christian, we have nothing else to do here!"
Christian shot detective Myers an apologetic look and followed Sean.
"What an idiot!" Sean complained as soon as they left the police station.
"Yes," Christian nodded, "however, did you have to say that so very openly to him? You are so diplomatic."
"We can shove diplomacy here," Sean rolled his eyes, "I have to go home warn Julia."
"You think Quentin will hurt her?" Christian asked alarmed.
"I don't know," Sean shook his head," but I'm quite sure of one thing," he took a deep breath before continuing, "what he had done was so far was only foreplay. He will come back to us to settle the account. Every criminal returns sometime to the crime scene. And then he will finish what he had begun."
Christian looked terrified at Sean. A dreadful thought shot through his mind suddenly, "Kimber..." He managed to say.