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“Yes. Did Radcliff ever mention knowing Dr. Morehead?”
Papers rattled in the background. “No. Never.”
Maybe it was nothing and he was seeing connections that weren’t there.
“I highly doubt the inmate will give up anything,” Ms. Boles said. “He still insists you found all of his victims.”
Derrick muttered a sarcastic sound. “I doubt that. Actually, we believe he’s connected to several other murders.” He quickly explained about Reuben Waycross’s body, the discovery of Amy Dean’s bones, and their theory about a possible connection with Radcliff to a follower, an accomplice or a copycat.
Silence vibrated between them for a long minute. “This is certainly all new information. He never talked about having an accomplice or conspiring with anyone.”
“I understand that his sessions with you are confidential,” Derrick said. “But there’s a possibility he either acquired a follower or conspired with others, and that that person or persons continued after Radcliff was incarcerated.”
“I’ll review my notes from our sessions and get back to you if I find anything,” Ms. Boles said. “Although, one thing that stuck out to me was his fantasies. He was consumed with them and mentioned that a college class on famous serial killers inspired him to take his first victim.”
Damn that class and people’s morbid curiosities. “We are looking at two persons of interest from that very class. Let me know if he mentioned names.”
“I will.”
“Tell me about his fantasies.”
Derrick heard tapping on the other side of the line.
“They consisted of sadistic violence, murder, mutilations, and causing suffering indicative of a sociopath,” she answered. “He was highly intelligent, detail-oriented, organized and meticulous.”
Things Derrick already knew. “Did he explain why he hacked off the women’s hair or painted their lips?”
“No, he just laughed when I asked him about it.”
“Anything else?” Derrick asked.
“He was fascinated with science and medicine and once mentioned he’d considered pathology as a career.”
“Interesting,” Derrick murmured.
“Yes.” She hesitated, her voice breaking slightly. “He also watched Alfred Hitchcock,The Twilight ZoneandFrankensteinwhen he was a kid. He was fascinated with the possibility of taking severed body parts of different people and putting them together to create another human.”
Derrick’s blood chilled at the thought.
SIXTY-FOUR
WIDOW PEAK COLLEGE
As night set in, images of the man who’d broken into her house filled Beverly’s head. This morning, she’d woken up screaming and had been too afraid to go back to sleep. Now, she had a raging headache and every nerve cell in her body was on edge.
“You didn’t see his face?” Janie asked as they walked toward Memorial Hall where the cocktail reception was underway.
“No, I told you, he was wearing a black mask.” Shivering, she searched the faces of the former students as they passed through the quadrangle then climbed the steps to the student center. Was her intruder here now? Could he be watching her?
As they entered, she recognized three girls from their sorority and two guys she’d once thought were hot. One of them was still attractive but the second had gained at least thirty pounds and had jowls the size of baseballs.
Beverly halted, a knot of fear in her stomach. “What if they’re here?”
Janie licked her lips. “We’ll keep an eye out for them. But the man who broke in could just be some other perv.”
“I know,” Beverly said although neither of them believed that. The timing was too coincidental. She had seen too much that one night.
She’d looked over her shoulder ever since.
