The killer is still on the loose here somewhere.
Elizabeth couldn't get these words out of her head. She wondered if she shouldn't drive out into the night right now and look for the killer instead of sitting here on the patio of her house, smoking, drinking beer, and otherwise doing nothing, as she had done on the last night of her vacation. Then again, it was 12:15 a.m., and everyone had to get off work sometime. Especially sleep. Even the detective. Especially her.
Brooks and Williams were already at the hotel. Elizabeth still had to tell them about comparing the DNA profile printouts that her wife had made, but that had to wait until tomorrow because the final DNA analysis would be available. Only then would they have one hundred percent certainty. Today they couldn't change anything anyway.
Again Elizabeth thought of Maggie's words. The killer is still on the loose here somewhere.
There had been something similar before, like now in Boston. In the Summer of Blood several years ago, the killer had rampaged through Los Angeles and New York, much worse than in Boston today. Then he went into hiding for years. It was much like the infamous Zodiac Killer, The Most Dangerous Animal of All, as he had been called. More than two thousand five hundred men had been investigated in connection with the Zodiac Killer since the late sixties. A certain Arthur Leigh Allen was considered the prime suspect, but no murders could be proven against the convicted child molester, who had died in 1992. And so the Zodiac Killer remained at liberty until his death. Whether someone else hadn't continued to murder in his place, no one knew.
And our killer, thought the detective.
He was here somewhere. He kept on killing. And they all could do nothing because not even Bell knew what the latest state of the investigation was after he had rudely complimented Elizabeth from his office just a few hours after the meeting. The result of the DNA profile printout match would hit him like a hammer, too.
Elizabeth took a sip of her beer, took a cigarette, and enjoyed the nighttime silence on her patio for a moment before looking at her notebook and smartphone lying on the table in front of her. It was a strange mix. Not just in this case. She used the notebook to organize her thoughts and the smartphone to research on the Internet. About sharks, for example. Because when they had talked about the killer, he had involuntarily reminded her of a shark. Of a shark in a blood frenzy.
Her notebook was a black Moleskine. Hemmingway had supposedly used Moleskine notebooks. This was a successful marketing campaign to position the notebooks as a necessary and analog countermovement to the digital world. The analog, not only in the form of notebooks, came back with force. Records, notebooks. Sometimes all the analog things that rebelliously stood up to the digital craze seemed to Elizabeth like a new form of health food store among the supermarkets.
At any rate, Elizabeth loved recording her thoughts in that notebook. It was an idea repository for her, where she jotted down her reflections and opinions on a current case. In addition, it sometimes served as a diary. Therefore, it could be that one day she wrote how she felt on a boring Sunday, and on the next page, there was something about a murderer who targeted red-haired women without one having anything to do with the other. But that was the appeal of the analog world: it wasn't structured like the digital one but more spontaneous and unpredictable. And, therefore, closer to the actual workings of the brain than the digital world, whose goals were to digitally replicate that very brain as closely as possible.
Shark, Elizabeth had written. Now she looked at the ballpoint pen she used to scribble more thoughts in her notebook, and it was a ballpoint pen with an advertisement for a funeral home.
Kind of fits, thought the detective, who had dug the pen out of a drawer earlier, along with the cigarettes and lighter, without looking.
The shark.
A shark was strong. It was fast. It killed people. And it was considered very dangerous, especially the great white shark, which had made a movie career as one of the most terrifying animals ever through Steven Spielberg's classic film.
Most sharks pull their victim underwater, tear it apart, or make it drown. Sometimes sharks went into a blood frenzy, as chemosensors could sense a milliliter of blood in the water for several miles.
She closed the notebook, set it aside when someone opened the front door, and immediately closed and locked it.
It took a few seconds for Blu to come out onto the patio to greet her, only to turn to the garden, sniffing.
Elizabeth smiled and turned her head when she realized someone was watching her. She chuckled and took a deep breath.
"I knew you're still awake," Nikki said with a wry smile as she leaned against the patio door.
"That's why you thought you didn't have to be quiet?" the detective replied with an equal smile.
The teenager pulled the corners of her mouth down and raised her brows simultaneously. "Ash is at a friend's house tonight, and Mags is probably sleeping like a baby. Otherwise, you wouldn't be sitting here brooding about God and the world."
The detective laughed briefly and pointed to an empty chair at the table. "And what's keeping my beloved daughter from sleeping in the middle of the night?"
Nikki sat down at the table with a water bottle and looked closely at her mother. "It's Saturday night," she replied.
"Okay, I'll rephrase my question," Elizabeth replied, eyeing her daughter closely. "What's to stop my teenage daughter from going out with her friends on a Saturday night?"
Nikki raised her eyebrows briefly and looked toward the sniffing dog running around the backyard. "Somebody's got to take care of Blu."
The detective narrowed her eyes and stifled a smile. "Isn't that your sister's job? After all, she talked you into taking Blu home."
"Well," the teen replied, rolling the water bottle between her hands and looking at it, "it didn't take much not to persuade Blu to come along, I must confess."
Elizabeth smiled and nodded slowly before taking a sip from her beer bottle. "I figured as much already."
Nikki stopped rolling the bottle in her hands and looked at her mother in surprise. "You're not mad?"
"No," Elizabeth said, shaking her head with the corners of her mouth down. "No. Why should I be mad?"
"Because I lied to you in a certain way, Ma."
The detective took a deep breath and now nodded. "Yes, you did, though," she said, looking at her daughter, "but only to do some good." She pursed her lips and eyed the beer bottle for a second. "When you were just a few months old, your mom came home one night with a mastiff puppy she'd taken while doing some research at a shelter."
"Bear," Nikki murmured with a smile.
Elizabeth smiled again and looked at Nikki for a long moment. "She'd brought Bear home from that scumbag of a shelter that gave the dogs away under the table to people who had been involved in dogfights."
"Assholes," Nikki growled without hesitation.
"Indeed," the detective agreed, clearing her throat to admonish herrself to stay on the subject. "Anyway, the night I got home after a damn long shift in the patrol car, I saw this puppy that I knew, or thought I knew, was a breed of dog that could be dangerous to its owner and their family when fully grown." She paused and raised her eyebrows when she saw her daughter's questioning look. "At that time, there were several incidents of Bully Breeds attacking their owners and their families and friends."
"Was it related to the dog fighting ring?" Nikki now wanted to know with interest.
Elizabeth took a deep breath and shook her head. "No. They were just bad people who should never have been allowed to own an animal. Not even a hamster." She looked at Nikki for a long moment and smiled a little. "Anyway, I wasn't that experienced with these animals back then and was prejudiced just like most people in society. Mom and I argued all night about whether or not to keep Bear. I came up with details that I had kept up at the time through my ministry and incidents with these dogs to convince her that having a Bullmastiff while we had to take care of our young daughter was not a good idea. How would the dog react if you pulled his tail once because you couldn't understand that it was just wrong."
Nikki took a long look at her mother and frowned a little. "How did Mom convince you to keep Bear?"
Elizabeth looked her straight in the eye as she recalled that night in question, leaning back in her chair as she ran a hand over her lips, raising her brows briefly. "She told me then that Bear was just a baby like you and that you two were just like a blank page in a book." She saw the confused look on her daughter's face and smiled sadly. "That we got to decide for how the story of the two of you goes. You two only had to be taught the difference between right and wrong to write a story with a good ending."
"Ma," the teen whispered.
Elizabeth sniffled and swallowed down the tears that tried to banish their way. "Your mother was right then, Nikki. You and Bear, and Ash, you turned out amazing." She looked at Blu, who pricked up his ears into the night. "You gave Blu a chance to live when no one else would give him this very chance. You get that from your mom. And that's why I'm immensely proud of you. I always will be, even though I'll sleep even fewer nights when you're in the Army."
Nikki lowered her eyes briefly and pressed her lips together. "About that --" She took a breath as dramatically as Elizabeth usually did before lifting her gaze again, "I wanted to talk to you."
Elizabeth's eyes grew wide, and her heartbeat quickened as she remained calm on the outside. "Okay," was all she could manage to produce as the worst-case scenario played out in her mind, her daughter making it known to her at that moment that she would be dropping out of school so she could enter military service sooner.
Nikki frowned at her mother and licked her lips. "I talked to Grandma a few days ago."
Elizabeth didn't blink as she nodded wordlessly, questioning at the same moment why her daughter was talking to others first instead of her.
"I asked her if she might have an internship for me. To keep other options open for me if I decide against a career in the Army."
Elizabeth was still nodding as she stared at her daughter, but then she raised her brows and started breathing again. She hadn't even been aware that she had been holding her breath. "I --" she began, taking a sip from the beer bottle, "don't even know what to say."
Nikki's posture went from relaxed to tense, and she looked at her mother with an icy stare. "Maybe that I'm just as jumpy as Mom?"
Elizabeth knew what the teenager was alluding to. Just before Sarah's suicide, she had thrown that very trait of her wife's character at her during an argument. Sarah was volatile, and she couldn't have known then that that had been one of the few things she would say to her wife.
She closed her eyes and shook her head, counting to ten before looking at the teenager. "No," she said softly, repeatedly running her hand over her lips. "No, Nikki, that's not what I meant to say. I'm surprised." She pulled the corners of her mouth down and raised her eyebrows. "I just didn't see it coming that you'd be interested in law."
"Isn't a girl allowed to have more than just one dream?"
Elizabeth looked at the teenager for a long time, frowning. She hadn't expected such a reaction at all, almost defiantly. She raised her brows and took a deep breath before saying, "No, of course, you can have more than one dream. You can have two, three, or four as long as something underneath makes you happy, Nikki. I'm just --" She paused, searching for the right words, her eyes dancing back and forth restlessly. "How do you want me to say it? I'm just surprised you're considering not joining the Army after all. Less than a year ago, you were still firm about this decision to join the military, even talking to Maggie about it first." She took a deep breath as her daughter pressed her lips together. "And this time, you didn't talk about it at all until you talked to Grandma. Why?"
Nikki raised her brows briefly and licked her lip. "Because she has more influence in the DA's office, Ma."
"Bullshit, Nikki," the detective replied, shaking her head. She already knew the answer. Nikki once again hadn't told her about any of her life plans because the girl thought Elizabeth would label her just as erratic as Sarah and hold it against her just as she did with Sarah at every opportunity that would arise, just as she had done with her late wife back then. She paused when she saw Nikki's wide eyes and took a deep breath before saying, "I hope you know that I will support you in any decision you make as best I can and accept it as well. Be it the decision to join the military, become a lawyer, or even a cleaning lady." She smiled as her daughter made a face but then turned serious again and frowned. "As long as it makes you happy, I'll be behind you all the way, Nikki."
Nikki nodded slowly and smiled. "Thanks, Ma."
Elizabeth nodded as well and leaned back in her chair. "I hope you realize that if you want to work in Grandma's office, you'll have to go to college."
"No," the teen replied with feigned surprise. "Really?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, smiling, though. "Smartass."