Mira wouldn’t be the last of those, Eve knew. If and when Dawber said lawyer, any capable defense attorney would arrange for an outside psychiatric eval.
Even if he didn’t, there would be other evaluations. So they had to nail it, and nail him.
Ready, she turned toward the door just as Roarke stepped in.
“I hear everybody else, and nine times out of ten I know who’s coming by the sound of their walk. But you slide around like your feet don’t touch the ground.”
“Darling, I walk on air when I’m near you.”
When she snorted, he stepped to her, cupped her chin in his hand, skimmed a thumb over the dent in it. “You should be exhausted, but you’re not.”
“No, not tired. Revved. Murder cops don’t often get to watch a live one—a tough, smart live one like Mary Kate Covino—walk away with her family to go drink a bunch of wine. He took two, and we’re going to make him pay. But she walked away.”
“I’ve more here that may help with the payment portion.” He handed her a file and a disc. “Knowing you prefer paper copies, we generated those. You have the disc if you want to put it on the screen in the box.”
She set down the files she carried to open the new one.
“Jesus, he journaled every target, by name. This is gold. Detailed notes on his hunting and stalking phases, dates, times, his conclusions, going back to last October.”
“You’ll see he had two other potentials he dropped during his research. One he learned had a black belt in karate, the other he learned had a cop for a father.”
“Shit, this is Redman from Special Victims. I know him a little.”
“His daughter, age twenty-four, is a grad student at NYU and lives in Dawber’s hunting grounds, where she also works nights tending bar.”
“Crossed them off the list. The first, he had to calculate her reaction time, her fighting instincts and skills—not worth the risks. The second, snatch the kid of a cop? Too much risk there, too. And this is gold because it shows calculation. And back to all that careful planning with these log entries.”
“One more thing that you’ll find useful? You’ll see he did considerable research on his half siblings, their spouses, their children, and so on. One of the younger generation, named after her grandmother, also bears a striking resemblance to her namesake. He took particular interest in her.”
Eve flipped through until she found the data—along with the ID shot. “Okay, yeah, she looks more like Lisa/Violet than the women he killed or captured. And she’s in the age range. Single, an intern at the same hospital where her grandfather worked, her aunt works now. Looks like he’s done a thorough run on her.”
“You’ll find her in his journal notes as well, including a trip he took to see her for himself last December. He had when he applied for the vacation time, booked the trip, where he stayed over that three-day period—what and where he ate. But more, her routine.”
“Yeah, yeah, I see it. Find out if he’s put in for more time off.”
“Feeney’s anticipated that, and is already digging for it. But we thought you’d want this right away.”
“Yeah, I do. He’s got a potful of money now, thanks to Mommy.” Considering, she eyed Roarke. “You know, it’d be interesting to see if he looked into real estate down there. Purchase or rental, private property. Maybe he just wanted to kill her, but pattern says he’d want to play with her for a while first.”
Smiling, Roarke tapped a finger on Eve’s head. “Always thinking. And it would be interesting. I’ll have a look for that myself.”
“Good. I’ve got to get to this, but did Callendar get the work e’s?”
“She did, and so far there’s nothing but official work on his work unit. All very precise again, and very like his personal records in the setup. Jamie’s working on his other devices. He used his ’link to take pictures of his targets—which include his niece. He then transferred those to the computer in his home lab, deleted them from the ’link. But of course, Jamie dug them out.”
“Also good. That calculation again. We’re in Interview A. Anything else that adds weight, have McNab text Peabody. She’ll judge when she can step out of Interview to get it.”
He cupped her chin again, and this time kissed her lightly. “When it’s done, why don’t we go home, open a bottle of wine, and take it and ourselves for a walk to sit by the pond in the moonlight?”