Rizzoli & Isles 8-Book Set

less than a human being. She’s now an object. He knows it and, more importantly,
she
knows it. It’s the fact she’s damaged, humiliated, that may excite him enough to return. First he marks her with the rape. Then he returns to claim ultimate ownership.”
    Damaged women, thought Moore. That’s the common link among these victims. It suddenly occurred to him that Catherine, too, was among the damaged.
    “He never raped Catherine Cordell,” said Moore.
    “But she
is
a rape victim.”
    “Her attacker’s been dead two years. How did the Surgeon identify her as a victim? How did she even show up on his radar screen? She never talks about the attack, to anyone.”
    “She talked about it online, didn’t she? That private chat room …” Zucker paused. “Jesus. Is it possible he’s
finding
his victims through the Internet?”
    “We explored that theory,” said Moore. “Nina Peyton doesn’t even own a computer. And Cordell never revealed her name to anyone in that chat room. So we’re right back to the question: Why did the Surgeon focus on Cordell?”
    Zucker said, “He does seem obsessed with her. He goes out of his way to taunt her. He takes risks, just to e-mail her that photograph of Nina Peyton. And that leads to a disastrous chain of events for him. The photo brings the police right to Nina’s door. He’s rushed and can’t complete the kill, can’t achieve satisfaction. Even worse, he leaves behind a witness. The worst mistake of all.”
    “That was no mistake,” said Rizzoli. “He meant for her to live.”
    Her remark elicited skeptical expressions around the table.
    “How else do you explain a screwup like this?” she continued. “That photo he e-mailed to Cordell was meant to pull us in. He sent it, and he waited for us. Waited till we called the vic’s house. He knew we were on our way. And then he did a half-ass job of cutting her throat, because he
wanted
us to find her alive.”
    “Oh yeah,” snorted Crowe. “It was all part of his
plan
.”
    “And his reason for this?” Zucker asked Rizzoli.
    “The reason was written right on her thigh. Nina Peyton was an offering to Cordell. A gift intended to scare the shit out of her.”
    There was a pause.
    “If so, then it worked,” said Moore. “Cordell is terrified.”
    Zucker leaned back and considered Rizzoli’s theory. “It’s a lot of risks to take, just to scare one woman. It’s a sign of megalomania. It could mean he’s decompensating. That’s what eventually happened to Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. They lost control of their fantasies. They became careless. That’s when they made their mistakes.”
    Zucker rose and went to the chart on the wall. There were three victim names there. Beneath the name Nina Peyton, he wrote in a fourth name: Catherine Cordell.
    “She’s not one of his victims—not yet. But in some way he’s identified her as an object of interest. How did he choose her?” Zucker looked around the room. “Have you interviewed her colleagues? Do any of them trip any alarm bells?”
    Rizzoli said, “We’ve eliminated Kenneth Kimball, the E.R. doc. He was on duty the night Nina Peyton was attacked. We’ve also interviewed most of the male surgical staff, as well as the residents.”
    “What about Cordell’s partner, Dr. Falco?”
    “Dr. Falco has not been eliminated.”
    Now Rizzoli had caught Zucker’s attention, and he focused on her with a strange light in his eyes. The
nutso-shrink look
was what the cops in the homicide unit called it. “Tell me more,” he said softly.
    “Dr. Falco looks great on paper. MIT grad in aeronautical engineering. M.D. from Harvard. Surgery residency at Peter Bent Brigham. Raised by a single mom, worked his way through college and med school. Flies his own airplane. Nice-looking guy, too. Not Mel Gibson, but he could turn a few heads.”
    Darren Crowe laughed. “Hey, Rizzoli’s rating suspects by their looks. Is this how lady cops do it?”
    Rizzoli shot him a hostile glance. “What I’m
saying
,” she continued, “is this guy could have a dozen women on his arm. But I hear from the nurses that the only woman he’s been interested in is Cordell. It’s no secret that he keeps asking her out. And she keeps turning him down. Maybe he’s starting to get pissed.”
    “Dr. Falco bears watching,” said Zucker. “But let’s not narrow down our list too soon. Let’s stick with Dr. Cordell here. Are there other reasons the Surgeon might choose her as a