"It's about the lives of seven children, all not much younger than Ben. And about the murders of the parents of these children. A total of twelve fathers and mothers are dead. It's very mysterious, extremely mysterious, in fact!"
"I know. Why else would you have come to me?" Elizabeth kept a straight face. After it had come out that she had another son with a psychopath, her relationship with Nikki had cooled drastically. "But if I reversed my decisions every time it was essential, then I wouldn't have to make any decisions. Or would it be less important if the lives of old people were threatened and maybe only three or four of them were dead? I'm sorry, but my decision is irrevocable: I'm no longer available for police work."
The light was so dim that Nikki almost felt it was darkening the room rather than illuminating it. This living room, in which nearly nothing had ever changed. Almost nothing, really. She took a deep breath and licked her lips. "You can imagine it's not easy for me to ask you for help, Ma. In fact, it was the last thing I wanted to do. But it also shows the point I've reached."
Elizabeth nodded slowly, gritting her teeth. She hadn't chosen the current distance herself, Nikki had years ago. "I'm well aware of the power of my gift, and I've gladly put it to good use. Even though I could have switched sides at any time. Who, if not you, could know better how much more powerful a genius is who turns to evil. Less honor, more money --"
"You have more money than you can ever spend anyway. What reason would you have to fuck up your karma by joining the dark side of the force? You've saved a hell of a lot of people with your skills!"
"Not always." Elizabeth looked at the wine in her glass as if it were the sea at the bottom, where she hoped to find something significant, but she feared she never would.
It hadn't been easy for her. Nikki was aware of this and had respected her mother's wish to finally be left alone after the last argument, accusing her of ruining the family. It wasn't just that she had seen another great love sink into the river in a burning car years before. That she had had to put up with the fact that her body had never been found. Luck had not been kind to her professionally either. Of course, with Elizabeth's unique gift, there had hardly been a case that had caused her any problems worth mentioning. But Elizabeth had painfully experienced the downside of her abilities over the years.
"That man didn't have to do what he did, Ma. It was his choice; you're not to blame." Nikki lowered her volume and looked toward the stairs leading to the basement.
The sounds of a video game were clearly audible from below. Benjamin had retreated to the Playstation so that Nikki and Elizabeth could talk privately.
"Of course, it was my fault. It would have been quite enough to prove to that man that he killed his daughter's murderer. I didn't have to tell him the girl wasn't his daughter. Just because I see something normal people don't see doesn't mean I have to tell them. I'm sure there are reasons why most people are blind to the obvious. Weakness can protect us, Nikki. If I'd just stayed quiet, that man wouldn't have killed his best friend, his wife, and himself."
Nikki pressed her lips together and remained silent. What difficult times it had been, the weeks and months afterward! Seeing her mother daily, she was controlled, quiet, and neatly dressed. Always in one of her elegant trouser suits. Brilliant as before, but with that unique look in her eyes that had told Nikki that the time had come for her mother. The time to end the 'keep it up! to stop. To turn her back on her everyday life of murder, violence, and hatred. No longer having to watch what people did to each other before realizing how senseless their actions and how banal their motives had been. To have to experience again and again that practically every murderer understood how unnecessary their deed had been. Afterward, it's always! Day after day, month after month, year after year.
I know exactly why she withdrew. But I need her. Just this one more time.
"Aren't you interested in the riddle? The magic trick my abuser is using to make me look like an idiot?"
Elizabeth smiled briefly. "You don't look like an idiot. You never have, Nikki. You've always been better than me at a lot of things. While I was still combining, you were already running off and just grabbing the guys. And you'll solve this case, too, without me. The only cases that are still of value to me today are those that are long behind me. So that others can learn from them. I often tell Ben and CJ about my old cases. I share them with them as I experience them. They are both getting better and better at finding the solution. Right now, I'm keeping Ben busy with the billionaire and the homeless guy."
Nikki thought for a moment and remembered. "That was that stunt you guys did under the table back then, wasn't it? That was really freaky; I would never have thought of it. What do you say I ask Ben, not you, about my case? A Rizzoli is a Rizzoli."
Elizabeth raised her hand as if to ward something off. "That's not a good idea. You know he's looking for his way right now, and I hope he finds a good one. But that path won't be through the BPD. The cases I'm presenting to him were solved a long time ago. There is nothing more you can do for Ben. You can only help him train his mind." Elizabeth stood up, approached her daughter, and embraced her. "I'm sorry to say no, but you knew it before. I'm not dealing with any more riddles made up by some lunatic."
Nikki was about to reply when she felt her mother hugging her close. There was no malice in the hug, no anger or resentment. Instead, it was an almost unbearable mixture of fear, longing, and emptiness. Nikki was overcome with goosebumps, and she almost thought that Elizabeth's embrace had transferred some of her sadness and despondency onto her, if only for a second.
Nikki returned the hug with her eyes closed.
She locked herself in like a predator in its cage. If I leave now, she'll die here sooner or later. In her fine clothes, full of wine, and with an opera playing on her stereo. Brilliant, rich, and lonely. If I leave now, not only will she have given up, but so will I.
Nikki broke away again and looked deep into her mother's eyes. "A man has abducted seven children in six cities. Witness statements, sketch pictures, and DNA traces are clear; it really was the same perpetrator every time! And yet he couldn't have done it because he has an absolutely watertight alibi for each of his abductions: his other abductions! The one I'm looking for abducted all these children - all over the country - within three minutes! He was in seven places simultaneously, and all the evidence proves it. So what now, ma, do you still want me to go?"
Elizabeth looked at her daughter for a long time and breathed deeply.
xxx
Nikki opened her shoulder bag and pulled out a thick file full of printouts of documents. Of course, there were whole hard drives full of information on this case, which also involved colleagues from six other states. But Nikki had carefully prepared her visit to Elizabeth that morning and had limited her selection of documents to the essential elements of her investigation.
"Time and time again, the power of my mind has caused equally powerful forces of evil to feel challenged in the first place." Elizabeth grabbed the file but had yet to open it. "People have done terrible things just because they wanted to find out if I could catch them. I've always ended up bringing the disaster I've had to pursue on myself in the first place. Believe me, Nikki, it's better if I don't read this file here."
Nikki felt something inside her tense up. Seven boys were hoping to rescue her, and the clock was ticking. "Ma, who are you helping by hiding out here in your house and avoiding the damn world?"
Elizabeth remained calm. "I'm still in the world, Nikki, even more and better than before. Just not in the physical sense." She tapped her right index finger against her temple. "The world is in my head, and when I close my eyes, I can visit any place I know. My sensory memory gives me access to smells, weather sensations, and ambient sounds. I often spend whole days in other places, I can even travel through time, and it feels like everything is real. I have what I need physically delivered to me, and apart from my children, I hardly ever have visitors."
Nikki scowled at her mother. "Is that what you want me to do now? Am I supposed to travel to these seven boys' hideout in my imagination to tell them that the only one who could save them would rather bathe in self-pity?"
"You don't get it." Elizabeth closed her eyes and smelled her wine again.
"I actually understand you very well, Ma! It kills you to always recognize everything, to always understand everything. Being able to look at people as if they were made of glass. The mass of knowledge that comes crashing down on you like an avalanche. The conclusions, the calculations, filling in the gaps with the most probable assumption. Feeling as if you belong to a different species, experiencing every person, even the smartest, as stupid and blind. That's why you don't change anything in this shitty house; that's why everything is always clean. Everything you can see here in your house is familiar, and there are no more new conclusions to draw outside. Your house is silent and leaves you alone with your memories. While what's out there is shouting at you from all sides and telling you all its secrets. Even if you don't want to know them."
Elizabeth closed her eyes again and took a deep breath. "I don't want you to let those boys die either. But what if my interference provokes the perpetrator to do much worse things?"
Nikki had really resolved to treat Elizabeth with kid gloves. After all, she had no leverage over her mother apart from helpless references to morality and decency. And both, as she knew only too well, were always the last arguments people used when they were inferior. But what else can I do?
"I'm not going to let your fucking self-pity and your longing for inner silence kill seven boys! What that guy did is impossible, and I can't figure out how he did it!" The detective was now literally bursting out of her mouth.
Elizabeth didn't let her daughter's emotions get the better of her. "By all accounts, your perpetrator has achieved the impossible." Her gaze rested on Nikki for a few more seconds before she finally looked at the file on the coffee table before her. "And now you're under pressure because you've been put in charge of the investigation."
Nikki licked her lips and lowered her gaze. "Of course, but there's another problem. Mike's been trying to bust an international drug ring ever since he was transferred to Narcotics. Because of my case, I had to bring his carefully constructed investigation into Fyodor Sokolov to a hasty conclusion. The best CI the boys ever had was exposed as a result. Sokolov's personal assistant is the kind of man the colleagues will never get on their side again. Now that Sokolov is in custody, he might instruct one of his people to eliminate the seven boys as dangerous witnesses. If they're even still alive. Ma, I'm not leaving here until you tell me something useful about this!"
Elizabeth was silent for a few seconds. Then she put down her red wine glass and reached for the case file. "All right, I'll look at the file. I'll let you know if I see anything in it that can help you. No more, no less."
Nikki exhaled with relief. "I don't know how to thank you, Ma."
She sat on the gray couch, apparently in the exact spot Elizabeth liked to sit when she listened to one of her beloved operas. The seat was much more worn than the rest of the couch, to say the least. She looked over at her mother and noticed that she was now looking at the pages of the file. Her eyes didn't move from left to right or from top to bottom. Elizabeth was simply glancing at each page, seeming to take it in as a whole, as if she was making a picture of it with her eyes, and after less than three seconds, she turned the page.
It only took her a few minutes to look through the hundred or so pages.
"Someone's really come up with something." Elizabeth reached for her wine and quickly sniffed but didn't drink it. "The families were attacked at home; the perpetrator tied up the parents and abducted their sons. He explicitly told all the parents what time it was, didn't wear a mask, and left behind DNA and fingerprints. Clearly, the same man was present in each of the cases. And clearly at the same time each time. The parents went to the police and testified. That's impossible. The parents of abducted children often shy away from going to the cops; they are afraid. In this case, unusually, all the parents went to the police. So, it stands to reason that the perpetrator instructed them to do so. This made it possible to take the evidence and compare the witness statements in all cases. Your perpetrator wanted people to be able to describe him; he wanted his DNA and fingerprints to be found. He wanted the parents to know the exact time of the abduction. And he wanted the parents to go to the police to document that he had done something that wasn't possible."
"You mean his primary goal is to prove his power to us?"
"That would certainly be something he could brag about. A criminal who can override the laws of physics - what an opponent! After the parents completed their task, he returned to the places of his abduction and murdered them in their homes. Not exactly in a restrained manner; none of these families were wealthy, and it wasn't about money. The parents and their sons were just a means to an end for him. The parents had to be eliminated; they had done their job and were annoying witnesses. But what about the boys? What is their role in his game? And above all, what does he do with them once they've done their job?"
Nikki felt herself begin to tremble. How often had she stood silently when Elizabeth presented her conclusions and findings? At first, in amazement and admiration, later, always with a note of apprehension. Having risen over the years to become one of the most successful investigators in the BPD herself, she regarded her mother with more professional interest and respect. "What do you think it is about the notes he left on the bodies?"
Nikki had held back this detail until now. The media had been all over the missing boys, and she had to hold press conferences repeatedly in the first few days. But in her appeals to the public, she had always withheld one detail about the crimes. That one piece in her puzzle that could become the decisive clue. Elizabeth brought her right hand to her chin and closed her eyes. Nikki suspected that she was now opening the file in her mind to the place where possibly the most significant detail of this series of murders was depicted.
"How long are you going to grope around in the dark?" Elizabeth opened her eyes again. "The perpetrator left this message on all the bodies of the parents. With his fingerprints on it, of course. It's a bit melodramatic; the whole case is meticulously thought out. Why do you think Fyodor Sokolov has something to do with it? If I remember correctly, he's more responsible for the rough stuff."
Nikki bobbed her head with a furrowed brow. "His business is the only thing the victims have in common. And Sokolov loves such displays of his power and intelligence."
"But if he had arranged something so brilliant, he would want to show it off."
"Sure. But he didn't know at the time that the drug squad already had him on the hook and that he was about to be arrested. This action by the drug squad could have messed up his plan.
Elizabeth furrowed her brows and didn't really look convinced. "Have you ever wondered why the perpetrator didn't repeat his magic trick from the kidnappings later with the murders? He seems to have abducted all the children at the same time. But he didn't commit the murders of the parents at the same time. But that would have been easy for Sokolov to arrange; his criminal network is large. He could have sent out several murderers at the same time, who would have left prepared slips of paper with the desired fingerprints on them after the murders. The magic would have been perfect! Maggie and the other MEs in charge would have established the identical times of death, and the parents wouldn't have been able to testify as to what the killer looked like."
Nikki thought she understood what her mother was trying to tell her. Even if this realization didn't make her problem any smaller. Quite the opposite! "If you're right, the man I'm looking for is working alone, Ma. Then there's no organization like Sokolov's behind him. No, that's not possible. Even if it looks like it, he couldn't have done it alone!"
Elizabeth tilted her head. "Well, Fyodor Sokolov is compelling and loves playing games with the authorities. So, I can't doubt that he's somehow involved. But the file doesn't make him look like a suspect to me." She stood up and stepped into the hallway of her house. Without hesitation, she grabbed her guest's jacket from the rake and spread it out so that Nikki could only slip into it. The detective also got up and followed her mother into the hallway.
"How much longer are you going to grope around in the dark? What does he mean?"
"It was right in front of you!" Elizabeth smiled motherly. "You were just too focused on this possible connection to Sokolov. You won't find anything else if you already know what you're looking for. You know exactly what he's trying to say with this message. How much longer are you going to grope around in the dark? This sentence alludes to something that has already happened, of these magical abductions and brutal murders. Your perpetrator doesn't give a shit about the children, nor does he care about the parents. He's all about the attention. And to get it, he's come up with something admittedly pretty ingenious. But he doesn't want to escape you - he wants to be found by you! He's provoking you because he wants something he can only get if you find him."
Nikki thought for a moment. "The perpetrator wants us to solve something that we haven't been able to solve yet. A crime he's still suffering from, perhaps against him or a loved one."
Elizabeth tilted her head slightly. "Quite possibly. But if your perpetrator was the victim of an unsolved crime, where would he get such criminal energy in this case?"
"Maybe he's always had it?"
"That would be possible, but it must be a big coincidence. Real psychopaths are rare. I think it is more of the vanity of a criminal whose genius has not yet been sufficiently appreciated. And as he gets older, he begins to suffer from it. Do you think we could be dealing with the perpetrator from back then? Who has not yet received the recognition for his magnificent deed that he would like? I think he committed a crime before but wasn't caught afterward. But for some reason, he wanted to be caught. I think he wants to force us with this drumbeat to resume the search for him. That we finally stop groping around in the dark." Elizabeth put a hand on Nikki's shoulder and winked at her. "Go to the archives and look for unsolved murders of parents whose sons have been abducted before. There's only one place where you can solve this mystery: the past!"