Five Days in Summer

to take both.”
    “How did he get past the cop at the head of the road?” Tom asked. “Even if he could have gotten both kids into the trunk of the car, it would have been noisy. The cop would have noticed something.”
    “How did he get Emily Parker into his car in the middle of the afternoon, in a crowded parking lot?” Geary scanned the room like a teacher waiting for the right answer, as if he already knew what it was.
    “They were drugged,” Ingram said, and heads all around the room nodded.
    “How?”
    “Aspiration,” Jones said, “or injection. This way he could have easily subdued both boys and hidden them in the car, then driven right past the officer.”
    “Or could he have disposed of one of them, the older one, since he goes for boys who are six, seven years old?” Sorensen shook his head at the possibility of his own suggestion.
    “Could be,” Kaminer said.
    “Mr. White showed he was willing to kill extraneously to pursue his goal,” Amy said, “when he stabbed Ragnatelli.”
    “Which means one boy could be in the boat, the other one in the trunk of the Corvette,” Sorensen said.
    “Or on the side of the road,” Tom said.
    “Gooseberry Way’s been checked up and down, every square foot,” Kaminer said. “He’d have had to take the time to dig a grave.”
    “No,” Sorensen said, “he didn’t spare a minute. He has one goal, and if he killed David, then that boy will be in the car.”
    Amy pictured David curled in a trunk. She’d found a man like that once. He’d looked like a frightened baby, stillborn, vomit on his shoes. And the smell. She forced the image out of her mind.
    “So let’s assume that’s what happened,” she said,“and that Mr. White has Sam with him, and they’re on the boat. How long will he wait before he begins the dissection?”
    There was a pause, in which no one seemed prepared to speak. Then, finally, it was Geary. “That depends which is stronger, his need to hurt the child or terrorize the mother.”
    “The boys weren’t always killed on the fifth day,” Tom said. “Only Daniel Lipnor. The others were done gradually. A day or two.”
    “What goes on during that day or two?” Amy asked.
    “Does he sexualize his victims?” Sorensen asked. “The mother? The kids?”
    Geary answered, “There’s been no direct evidence of a sexual component.”
    “But Dr. Geary?” Ingram asked. “Can’t the sexual component be subverted into the violence?”
    Geary nodded. “What’s the behavior you’d expect that doesn’t happen? We need to look at that.”
    “If he’s torturing the mother’s mind by torturing the child’s body, wouldn’t rape be one of the obvious torments?” Jones glanced at Geary and Ingram.
    “You’d think so,” Geary said.
    “Meaning?” Sorensen asked.
    “His sexuality could be so deeply repressed it can’t express itself sexually. There is sexual titillation from other sources.”
    “Like violence,” Amy said.
    “It’s almost a cliché.” Sorensen shook his head.
    “It’s not rape,” said Jones, “and it’s not pedophilia.”
    “It’s vicarious torture,” Ingram said. “Destroying one person through the destruction of another.”
    “And not just anyone,” Tom said.
    “No,” Amy said, “the woman’s own child.”
    “Efficient asshole.” Sorensen smirked.
    Tom shook his head. “What about his targets? Most serial criminals work close to home, or in a pattern that fits their professional movements. Or they’re drifters. But not Mr. White. He has a set job with a set routine, but this guy strikes all over the map. So he seems to choose his victims randomly, according to access.”
    “He’s looking for someone who fits the profile and who’s available. He’s not after a specific individual.” Geary leaned forward, gnarly hands folded in front of him. “Criminals who hurt someone they know usually cover their victim’s face so they can’t see the reaction, because believe it or not they care what that person thinks of them. Or they mutilate or rape postmortem so the victim will never know their attacker’s true nature. Did Mr. White know his victims?”
    “No,” Ingram said.
    “Definitely not,” Jones agreed.
    “Probably not,” Geary said. “We can’t be sure until we get the chance to talk to him, but the indication is no. He forces his primary victim, the mother, to witness cruelty worse than most of us can imagine....” Geary’s voice trailed off in an apparent loss