Mind Prey

she really couldn’t, because, you know…confidentiality. But they scared her—she’d talk about that sometimes—about how a guy’d get her up against a door, or he’d hiss at her like a cat, and she could feel them getting ready to come at her. The sex ones scared her, especially. She said you could feel the hunger coming across the room. She said some of them would have attacked her right there, in the jail interview rooms, if they hadn’t been restrained. I think the people she saw there…those are the worst ones.”
    “Well, Jesus, why didn’t somebody say something?” Lucas asked.
    The woman looked down at the floor. “You know why, Mr. Davenport. Everybody hates you getting these records. I’m not even sure you should. You might be undoing a lot of work. But then there’s Andi, and I keep thinking about the girls.”
    “Okay. You’ve been a help, Marcella,” Lucas said. “I’m serious. This is all between you and me, but if something comes out of it, and you approve, I’ll let Miz Manette know you helped.”
    Lucas let her get back into the office while he finished the Diet Coke, then returned himself.
    “What?” Sherrill asked, when she saw him coming back.
    “I think we’ve been euchred—there’s a whole other set of records. Criminal stuff. C’mon, we’re way behind.”
     
    T HE UNIVERSITY MIGHT have objected on grounds of patient privacy, but the chief called the governor, the governor called three of the Regents, and the Regents called down to the university president, who issued a statement that said, “Given the circumstances—that we may have a monster preying on innocent women and girls, and helping oppress all genders and races by making the streets unsafe—we have agreed to provide the City of Minneapolis limited access to limited numbers of psychological records.”
    “How limited?” Lucas asked the records section supervisor at the university. He’d gone with Black and Sherrill because his title added weight.
    “Limited to what you ask for,” the supervisor said wryly.
    “These guys will do the asking,” Lucas said, tipping his head at Black and Sherrill. “We really appreciate anything you can do.”
     
    L UCAS LEARNED ABOUT the fire at Irv’s Boat Works while he ate a late breakfast at his desk. The fire was reported in a routine, four-inch filler in the Star-Tribune : FIRE STRIKES MINNETONKA BOAT RENTAL . The article quoted a fire marshal: “It was arson, but there was no attempt to hide it, and we don’t have a motive as yet. We’re asking the public…”
    Lucas called the marshal, whom he’d known vaguely from the neighborhood.
    “It was a bomb, essentially, a Molotov cocktail, gas and motor oil,” the fire marshal said. “Not a pro job, but a pro couldn’t have done it any better. Burned that thing right down to the foundation. Old Irv didn’t have but six thousand dollars in insurance, so he didn’t do it. Not unless I’m missing something.”
     
    A T THE UNIVERSITY, Sherrill sat gloomily at a microfilm reader, operating the antiquated equipment by hand, eyes red from staring at the scratchy images of ten-year-old records. “Jesus Christ.”
    “What?” Black was on the next chair, three empty root beer cans next to his foot. He was wearing tan socks with blue clocks.
    “This guy went around fucking exhaust pipes,” Sherrill said.
    Black looked at her: “You mean on cars?”
    “Honest to God.” She missed the double entendre and giggled, her finger trailing down the screen, over the projected image. “You know how they caught him?”
    “He got stuck,” Black suggested.
    “No.”
    Black thought for a second. “His lawnmower sued for sexual harassment?”
    “He tried to fuck a hot one,” Sherrill said. “He had to go to the hospital with third-degree burns.”
    “Aw, man.” Black groaned. He reached into his crotch and rearranged himself, then scribbled a note on the pad next to his hand.
    “Anything good?” Sherrill asked as he made the note.
    “Kid who was into sex and fire,” Black said. “I think he scared her bad.” He rolled through to the next page. “She says he shows signs of ‘substantial sexual maladjustment manifested in improper, aggressive sexual behavior and identification with fire.’”
    “Guys are so fucked up,” Sherrill said as Black pushed the printout button. “You never see women doing this stuff.”
    “Have you heard the ‘best friend’ joke’s been going around?”
    “Oh, no.