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“Please call me Mallory. I’ll feel better about being under a microscope.”
“Alright then, Mallory. Please don’t let the title intimidate you. I’m just an investigator trying to find all the clues I can so you can get on with your life, and we can capture and keep perpetrators like Romaine and his cohort off the streets for good.”
“I appreciate that. Now, what do you think I can tell you that I haven’t already?”
“Right, well, in cases of trauma, sometimes you can remember things better after the initial shock has left.”
Mallory nodded, and the FBI agent began. Monroe stood nearby, looking like he was ready to pounce. It was unnecessary, but she nearly cooed with appreciation that he ensured his presence and priority were declared to the agent. It helped her breathe easier. And made her wiggle a little because, dammit, she had gushed again.
Ryker was leaning back casually on the sofa next to her. The agreement was he would intercede only if necessary.
“Did he use words such as master, follower, helper, apprentice or anything like that?”
Mallory seemed shocked at the question for a few seconds and cast her concerned expression toward Monroe. He knew what she was thinking. They had already discussed this possibility, and it looked like they weren’t wrong. She sat for a few moments, and it was evident to Monroe that she was trying to remember what she, on a conscious level, had tried to remove from her memory banks.
Ryker sat up quickly. “I think that is a leading question.” He turned to Mallory. “Mallory, did Romaine refer to himself in any way?”
“No. He mentioned his wife but no name.”
Arturo asked, “Need I remind you that she is a victim giving me her eyewitness statement? Now Mallory, what can you tell me about his wife?”
“I don’t know who it was, nor did I see her face or even hear her voice. I know I was told by the local police that there was no one at the house and no wife, but he didn’t have to be married to her legally for him to call her that.”
“That’s true. When Romaine spoke of his wife, what did he say about her?”
“He said she would be watching if I tried to escape. He said he gave his wife a shotgun in case she needed to use it for protection, and if I tried to escape, that would be grounds for needing to protect his property. That’s it.”
“And you took that to mean she was on the premises even when Romaine wasn’t, that she knew you were there, and that she would use the gun to shoot you if you tried to escape.”
“Yes.”
“Did that cause you to fear for your life?”
Mallory gave Arturo a look of disbelief. “Did you honestly ask that question?”
“I need to establish your emotional state and your mental thought processes while on Romaine’s property. Well, his mother’s property. She is in a nursing home for early-onset dementia.”
“No surprise there,” Sharlee whispered under her breath, and Mallory quickly squelched the little giggle that broke through her stoic stance.
Arturo looked down at his shoes, but Mallory knew he was trying to stop his own smile. The moment passed, and the agent looked at Mallory again.
“Yes, I was fearful from the moment that monster pushed me into his car to the moment Monroe walked into my hospital room.”
Monroe squeezed her hand, and she turned her palm up to thread her fingers in his.
“Romaine has shown that he was the master because he was the smarter one, and his little helper just did what Romaine instructed, but he has never indicated a particular gender for this ‘helper.’ Maybe he doesn’t see the helper as a human. Many sociopaths don’t. The forensic evidence is plenty, as though the monster didn’t expect to be caught.”
Jac joined in. “Except if he said he had a wife, it is likely a woman because he was kidnapping women for entertainment. He clearly had a preference.”
“The women don’t appear to have any similar hobbies or jobs, and they aren’t physically similar. I mean, three were blonde, but Mallory isn’t, and neither is the victim in the hospital. We believe there are more on the property, and he lived elsewhere before moving into his mother’s place after she went to the nursing home. He seems to be interested in sex with his captives because he has plenty of implements to decide the direction of that interaction.”
“Okay, so his wife is a woman, he has sex toys and likes women of all types. That covers more than half of the male population. We need more. Do you have any hints on the names we gave you?” Jac asked.
“The employees and apartment residents? Sure, some, but nothing even remotely similar to what we’re looking at. The connection is not showing itself, and Romaine isn’t giving us anything else to go on.”
“Okay,” said Mallory, “let’s think about this. He is obviously narcissistic and wants everyone to be impressed with what he had done. If you want him to give you more information, then you need to make him think you aren’t as impressed as he expects you to be.”
“Good thinking. Arturo, can you speak to him about other serial killers or kidnappers that have more deaths to their record than 3? And 5 kidnapped, but two were rescued doesn’t even rate. That will make him stew. He will tell you about other victims to up his body count and make him seem better than the rest.”
