Mortal Danger

“fix” him, although I know we both tried our best to do so. We both sought to love and be loved, and thought at the outset that we’d found the perfect mate. We both were dead (and almost dead) wrong. I am sorry from the bottom of my soul that I could not help, that you were killed, and can only hope and believe that you are at peace in a better place. If you run into my dad, he can be a great comfort to you, as I truly believe he had a hand in John’s turning the gun on himself. I only wish he could have gotten to John before John shot you and Randall.
    We both know the good times shared with John. We both know the horrible. I ask now for your forgiveness, your understanding, and your insight. I am still on this planet, and like you, want to do something good for others. I would feel honored to accomplish something that you wanted to do in your honor. Please let me know what that might be—and how to begin.
    Sincerely,
Kate
    If this case seems all too familiar to you, if you are living in a domestic violence situation and need help, please use your own computer or one in a library and go to www.ndvh.com or call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or TTY 1-800-787-3224. You are not alone, and there are domestic violence shelters and centers in every state to help you. They will protect your privacy and security.
     
    Get help now!

WRITTEN IN BLOOD

 
    When I was much younger and far more naïve, I believed that almost any criminal could change, could become rehabilitated, and return to the free world without being a danger to anyone else. Counseling, understanding, and kindness could help them change their ways. I didn’t understand the many personality disorders—and even mental illness—that entered into the equation. Men and women with sociopathic, narcissistic, histrionic, and borderline personality disorders seldom change, because they don’t want to change.
    I’ve often said that personality disorders are like rampant ivy: While it may be ripped out of one side of the brain, it’s growing back on the other.
    The people who possess these traits and entrenched reactions are the most important people in their own worlds, and they feel no empathy whatsoever for anyone else. In a way, it’s better to be frankly psychotic— crazy, insane. Those suffering with a psychosis such as paranoia or schizophrenia cannot manage their lives and are often more amenable to treatment than sociopaths, who view themselves as managing very well, indeed.
    Often—not always. Some psychotic individuals who are unwilling to accept treatment with drugs, therapy, or shock treatments, or who disobey their doctors’ recommendations, can be extremely dangerous if they stop their therapy.
    I don’t know just where to place the killer in the following case on the mental-health scale. I do know he was incredibly dangerous, and those who lived around him in a small, quiet town had no idea of his background.
    When the full story came out, a front-running 2008 presidential candidate was caught in the backlash of scandal. When I saw the killer’s latest victims on the evening news, I felt an extra pang of sorrow. They’d had everything going for them and long lives ahead. They’d been newly married and in love.
    And then someone had come knocking on their front door in the early morning darkness of a bleak November day.

Chapter One
    November 17, 2007, was a Saturday, less than a week before Thanksgiving, and a day that promised to be full of rain. But that was to be expected in western Washington State in November, just as daylight barely lasts seven hours. In the summer, though, the sun shines and it’s light out for eighteen hours. Most natives cheerfully accept the trade-off.
    Graham is a very small town at the end of a multilane highway, and it sits in the shadow of towering and breathtaking Mt. Rainier. It’s horse country. Acres of meadows are fenced in so horses have freedom to run for miles. The hamlet also has easy access to a number of pristine wilderness areas. Like the last case, this, too, took place in Pierce County, but it has a far different ambience from Tacoma or even Gig Harbor. Many of those who live in Graham commute to Seattle and Tacoma to work, but they look forward to coming home to the smell of freshly cut grass and alfalfa.
    The building boom of the new century has spread to Graham, and in 2007, there were several five-acre parcels of land for sale on one side of 70th Avenue East at 305th, agravel road. There