March 14, 5.15 p.m.
Harper drove down the side of Central Park with Eddie and Denise in the car.
‘Where are we going?’ Denise asked.
‘To test a theory.’
‘What theory?’
‘Just keep your mind open and try to think of what kind of person this could be.’
Harper turned off and parked in East Drive surrounded by trees. He got out of the car. ‘Hear that?’
‘No,’ said Eddie.
Denise got out of the car too. ‘Nice to hear some wildlife,’ she said. ‘It’s been an intense few days.’
‘So many birds in this little park. Makes you think.’
‘About what?’ said Eddie.
‘Life,’ said Harper. ‘Makes you think about life.’
‘What the hell is he on about?’ said Eddie. ‘We came to hear a theory.’
Harper took out his NYPD shield and opened it up. ‘I needed to tell you this somewhere private. Away from the rest of the team. Away from all the cops we know and love.’
‘What is it?’
‘Look at my shield. What do you see?’
‘A police number,’ said Eddie.
‘A gold emblem,’ said Denise.
‘An eagle,’ said Denise. Her voice dropped. The sound of birdsong rose high above them.
They stopped. Denise and Kasper suddenly saw where Harper was going.
‘When did it click?’ said Denise.
‘A few hours ago. I’ve just been turning every angle in my head, trying to see if I’m thinking straight.’
‘And are you?’
‘Yes. I’m sure of it. Think about it. It clicked for me with the children. I couldn’t make it work out. How the hell did this killer lure Capske into East Harlem? How did he lure Becky Glass off a street into an alley? How the hell did he dare to sit with Capske all that time? He’s a cop.’
‘You can’t be serious,’ said Eddie. ‘How the hell could this happen?’
‘It’s the only thing that pulls this all together. He knew the safe house, right? He knew how many people would be there. Christ, he even knew the weak point between shifts. He knows so much, it’s the only possible answer.’
‘You might be right,’ said Denise.
‘I’ve been thinking about Denise’s psychological fingerprint all day. We’ve got a killer who is fixated on Lucy Steller, a non-Jewish girl. She throws him off. She gets together with a Jew. And this guy’s got levels of anti-Semitic hatred so deep he’s never really acknowledged them, and this is the trigger. She leaves him and he kills someone who looks like her. A Jew. Esther Haeber. Then he abducts a girl who looks very like her. Maybe to try to replace her. But he can’t deal with the lover, David Capske. So he kills him, then tries to disguise it. And now he’s in love with his own power.’
‘Damn right,’ said Denise. ‘Lucy’s the trigger. He starts to stalk her after she ends it, then he starts to hassle Jews, and blame them, then he kills one. He starts to let this fantasy grow.’
‘Then, he joins Section 88,’ said Harper. ‘But never as a member like the rest. Why conceal his identity even then? Because it would show up. Because he knew, even then, back at the start of this. He’s known all along. How to kill in different precincts, how to stage, how to keep Abby from being fully investigated.’
‘How comes he used the same bullet and shit?’ said Eddie.
‘Some things he can’t help,’ said Denise. ‘He’s a narcissist. He believes he’s ultimately powerful. The rituals he can’t change. He wants to be known, they are part of this identity, a uniform so that he can express this self.’
Harper looked up to the sky. ‘He needed a name that allowed him to hide his identity but also to display what he was.’
‘Sturbe,’ said Denise. ‘A Nazi serial killer.’
‘Exactly. He wears the name like a confession.’
‘Meaning?’ said Eddie.
‘Meaning, people want to show what they’ve done, so he’s wearing the badge – the serial-killer name. Like some sick joke.’
‘It’s unbelievable.’
They stared at each other, a horrible truth dawning. Harper looked from Denise to Eddie. ‘Tell this to no one. Not another soul. If our killer is a cop, then we’ve got to stay one step ahead of him – and that means keeping our communication tight.’
‘How do we find him?’ asked Denise.
Harper smiled.
‘What you got, Tom, what you thinking?’
‘If it’s a cop, then he’s listening in. He’s got access to case information. You know what we do?’
‘No.’
‘We use the same lure on him that he’s used on others.’
‘What’s that?’
‘The lure of authority.’
‘How?’
Harper sat down on the hood of his car. ‘We’ve got to frighten him into believing we do know his face or are about to. I guess that’s what he did with Capske. I guess he had something to sell. I guess he told Capske that he wanted to put things in the past with Lucy. We do the same. We lure him to us.’
‘What’s the plan, big man?’ said Eddie.
‘We go back in. We claim we’ve found something. A roll of film – that’s it. A roll of film from Lucy Steller’s apartment, dated according to her journal on some trip and labeled Yellowstone. It might be enough of the truth to get him interested.’
‘Yeah,’ said Eddie. ‘She was a good photographer. Used 35mm film. She had lots of photographs of animals from that trip. No reason why there wasn’t another film.’
Harper nodded. ‘We make all this known, we send the film to the photographic lab, then we lie in wait. And then he’ll come to us.’