chapter nine

Dr. Gallo explained while I tried to calm my heart rate. It was odd enough crossing paths at yet another crime scene; to see him on Moving Day was horrid.

The moment I heard his deep voice, looked into his dark eyes—eyes so black it was nearly impossible to tell where the pupil left off and the iris began—the strange feelings this man alone called up in me came surging back.

Why now?

“… knew he had suicidal ideation but wasn’t…”

Why on Moving Day?

“… called me…”

Why was he at the scene of yet another murder?

“… came over and found him.…”

How much could any one person take of blood and death and promising lives cut violently short before they could no longer keep hold of sanity?

“… tried to call Adrienne, but the service offered to switch me to yours.…”

“You called us?” George asked. “All right. Now we’re getting somewhere. And Adrienne…” George looked at me and arched a dark brow. For several annoying reasons, not only did Dr. Gallo not know that Cadence, Adrienne, and I were multiples, but he thought our name was Adrienne. George could ruin everything

(Ruin what? There is nothing to ruin!)

with one sentence.

“Nobody calls her Adrienne anymore,” my sociopathic partner explained. “Mostly she goes by Special Agent Jones.”

I shot him a look of amazed gratitude.

“SAJ for short,” he finished, pronouncing it “sag.”

“Oh. Okay. Anyway, Sag, I told this to the cops when they got here, and they said I should hang around and give you my statement. Okay? Sag?”

As Dr. Gallo’s back was to him, George took the chance to stick his tongue out at me. I could only gape in admiration at the trap he’d so neatly set for me … and Dr. Gallo!

“Ah,” I managed after a few seconds. “Yes. That was sound thinking. I, uh, may be outgrowing that childish nickname and likely will stop using it soon.”

“Say it ain’t so, Sag! We’ve all been calling you Sag forever. I don’t think I could ever get used to some dumb new nickname like Cadence or Shiro. You could always go back to Adrienne, Sag, but I think Sag suits you better.”

“Something to ponder at another time.” How I got that sentence out through tightly gritted teeth was a mystery to me, but I was grateful. “Dr. Gallo, it sounds as if you agree with my hypovolemia theory.”

“Yes. You’re right.” He nodded down at the body. “There isn’t enough blood here. I don’t think he bled out, and I don’t think the killer took a bunch of blood with him. I think you’ll find the rest of his blood inside him.”

“Wow, creepy. But who cares?”

I sighed. “My partner has sociopathic tendencies when—”

“Not who cares he’s dead. Who cares if he bled out or died of not enough salt in his body? Either way”—George pointed at the late Wayne Seben—“dead guy.”

“Yes. That is the one fact thus far that we cannot deny. What we do not yet know is the killer’s intent.”

George pointed again. “Dead guy. That’s the intent right there.”

“Yes, yes, but did he, she, or they want or need the victim to bleed out?”

“This isn’t the only one like this you guys have found, huh?” Due to personal and professional interest, Dr. Gallo knew more than the average physician about the shenanigans serial killers could get up to.

“Sorry, Doc. Can’t say.”

“Are they all like this?”

“Sorry.”

“Hmmm.” While Gallo ruminated, George and I traded glances. Did we want his fine brain engaged, wondering about our Sussudio serial killer? Or would that create more difficulty at another time? It was already inappropriate that he was still at the scene. But he’d behaved inappropriately at several JBJ scenes, which had indirectly led to JBJ’s capture. “Given what you were wondering—the blood and all, bleeding out versus hypovolemia—okay. So you’ve got a serial killer. This is his signature?” He pointed at the corpse. “Kills them by making it look like suicide, but not too much like suicide, since he’s not hiding. Quite the opposite. He’s showing you something.”

Dr. Gallo’s eyes. Cadence and I had noticed them straight off. Terribly dark, and about as easy to read as an oil slick. This was not to imply that they were off-putting or ugly. He had a tendency to blink slowly, like an owl; it gave the impression that he engaged in deep thought before speaking—something quite rare in our society. He seemed to always be on alert, always ready, whether to save a life or fend off a mugger or enter a crime scene and get tackled by half a dozen cops. That alertness manifested as an almost predatory state of mind. In another man I might have found that troubling, even frightening. But I did not mind that quality in Dr. Gallo, a man I knew had endured enormous tragedy and loss and yet kept going. And I liked that his mien was not easily read.

He had dark hair, too. It looked black but was not—only Asians have true blue-black hair. It was deepest brown, and almost the same color as his eyes, and he had recently had a haircut. Three weeks ago it was past his collar; now the dark strands stopped just above it. Gallo was lean as well as muscular, like an excellent swimmer. He was dressed in what I thought of as his typical outfit: a pale blue T-shirt and scrub pants, both so oft-washed that they were velvety yet fragile. I assumed he had driven a car; December was too cold for his Honda motorcycle. His leather jacket was years old, thoroughly broken in and comfortable-looking.

Dr. Gallo was careful, unbearably sexy, predatory, and poor. Or had grown up poor. He was far too careful with his belongings to have grown up otherwise. I found it interesting that—

Wait.

Unbearably sexy?

Oh.

Oh, dear.

“Sag! Wake up, Sag!”

I blinked and flinched away from George’s snapping finger. “Stop that or I shall snap it off. I was thinking.” Did they buy it? They did; they were all waiting. Oh. I should probably think of what I would tell them I’d been thinking about. “So was Mr. Seben supposed to bleed out? Or did he, she, or they wish to bring about acute hypovolemia? And if he, she, or—”

“Sag, can we just call him him until we catch him or her or them? You’re driving me apeshit with that stuff.”

“If he wanted to bring about hypovolemia, why?”

“If we knew why, we’d know who, wouldn’t we?” Lynn murmured, and of course that was the question. She sounded focused on the conversation, but she could not stop staring at Dr. Gallo. “Hi. The guys inside said you called this in, but I was outside waiting for Shiro.”

“Who?”

“I’m Officer Rivers.”

To my relief, Gallo dropped the question of who, exactly, Lynn had been waiting for. “Max Gallo.” They shook. “Mr. Seben was a patient of mine, sort of.”

“Gallo.” Lynn’s brow furrowed. “I know that—oh. Oh! Your nephew. He was murdered by the JBJ killer. I’m so sorry. I heard from these guys that you were a big help.”

“I wasn’t.” He smiled down at her, an expression that turned his narrow, watchful expression into a thing of beauty. “But you’re kind to say so.”

While Lynn and Gallo discussed JBJ, I drew George to one side. “Sag? Sag? You are a wretch.”

“Yep.”

“A despicable human being.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Occasionally brilliant.”

“Say it twice, Sag.”

“I shall make you pay for this eventually, while also acknowledging your cleverness.”

My partner feigned wiping away a tear.

“I mean it,” I threatened.

“Oh, I believe you. But … worth it. Yep. I’m standing by that: worth it. Now, can we get back to that pesky murder?” He raised his voice so Lynn and Gallo could hear. “Gallo’s right, Rivers. He was a huge pain in our ass. Can we get back to this dead guy, please?”

I stared. It was beyond strange for George to be so businesslike and focused. Perhaps these were the early warning signs of … I don’t know … viral meningitis?

“How is he making them help him kill them?” George continued, and of course, that was a much better question than any that had come earlier. Because this man, this dreadful killer, had a gift for coercing cooperation from his victims, or making the crime scenes look as if he had, as if the victims assisted in their own murders.

Just … dreadful, really. There were no other words.