Private Scandals

try out this theory: It’s a man, a lonely, frustrated man. He lives alone, but every day Deanna slips through the television screen right into his living room. She’s sitting right there with him, talking to him, smiling at him. He’s not lonely when she’s there. And he wants her there all the time. He doesn’t do well with women. He’s a little afraid of them. He’s a good planner, probably holds down a decent job, a responsible one, because he knows how to think things through. He’s thorough, meticulous.”
    Impressed, Jenner pursed his lips. “Sounds like you’ve done your homework.”
    “I have. Because I’m in love with Deanna I think I understand him. Thing is, he’s got this temper, this rage. He didn’t kill in a rage. I think he did that coolly.” And that was what chilled Finn’s blood. “But he trashes my house, Deanna’s office. He writes his feelings of betrayal on the wall. All but splatters them there. How did she betray him? What changed from the time she got the first note to Angela’s murder?”
    “She hooked up with you?”
    “She’d been involved with me for two years.” Finn leaned forward. “We got engaged, Jenner. The official announcement had barely hit the streets when we had Angela’s murder and the break-ins.”
    “So he killed Angela because he was ticked at Deanna Reynolds?”
    “He killed Angela, and Pike, because he loves Deanna Reynolds. What better way to show his devotion than to remove people who upset or annoy her? He trashed her things, taking special care with the wedding-gown sketches, the newspaper reports of the engagement, photographs of Deanna and me. He was enraged because she’d announced, publicly, that she preferred another man to him. That she was willing to take vows to prove it.”
    Nodding slowly, Jenner doodled on a sheet of paper. “Maybe you didn’t get your psychiatrist’s degree at Sears. Why hasn’t he gone after you?”
    Instinctively, Finn reached up to run his fingers over his sleeve. Beneath it was a scar from a bullet. A bullet that hadn’t come from the sniper or the SWAT team. But he couldn’t be sure. “Because I haven’t done anything to hurt Deanna. Marshall did, on the day he was killed, and a couple of years ago, when he fell into Angela’s trap.”
    “I should have talked to him.” Jenner tapped a fist lightly on his files. “He could have known something, seen something. It’s possible he’d received threats.”
    “I doubt that. He was the type who’d have come running to the cops. Or he would have told me when I talked with him.”
    “You were too busy beating him up.”
    “I didn’t beat him up.” Finn folded his arms across his chest. “He swung, I swung. Once. In any case, I meant he would have told me when I talked to him at his office a few days ago.”
    Jenner stopped doodling. “You went to see him about Angela Perkins’s murder?”
    “It was a theory.”
    “One you didn’t feel necessary to share?”
    “It was personal.”
    “Nothing’s personal on this, nothing.” Jenner edged forward, eyes narrowed. “I’ve let you in on this investigation because I think you’re a smart man, and I sympathize with your position. But you cross me and you’re out.”
    “I’ll do what I have to do, Lieutenant, with or without you.”
    “Reporters aren’t the only ones who can harass. Keep that in mind.” Jenner closed his file, rose. “Now I have work to do.”
     
    No, Jenner thought now, sympathy and admiration aside, he wasn’t about to let Finn go off on his own. He might be wearing blinders to the fact that his life was in danger, but Jenner knew better.
    He rose to refill his coffee cup, and glanced through the glass door. “Speak of the devil,” he murmured. Jenner pulled open the door. “Looking for me?” he asked Finn, and waved away the uniform who was blocking Finn’s path. “It’s all right, officer. I’ll see Mr. Riley.” He nodded briefly at Finn. “You’ve got five minutes.”
    “It’s going to take a little longer.” Finn studied the police photos on the board dispassionately. There were snapshots of both victims taken prior to and after death. Side by side, they were like before-and-after shots gone desperately wrong. “You’re going to need to put one more set up there.”
     
    Twenty minutes later, Jenner completed his conversation with the detective in Brooklyn Heights. “They’re faxing us the file,” he told Finn. “Okay, Mr. Riley, who knew