The Big Bad Wolf

going to talk anymore. Get my lawyer.” He waved me away.
    For the past seven hours he’d been questioned by other FBI agents. This was my third session, and it wasn’t getting easier. His lawyers were in the building, but they’d backed off. They had been informed that he could be formally charged with kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder and immediately transported to Washington. His father was also in the building but had been denied access to his son. I’d interviewed Henry Lipton, and he had wept and insisted his son’s arrest was a mistake.
    I sat down across from Lawrence. “Your father is in the building. Would you like to see him?” I asked.
    He laughed. “Sure. All I have to do is admit that I’m a kidnapper and murderer. Then I can see my father and ask his forgiveness for my sins.”
    I ignored the sarcasm. He wasn’t very good at it. “You know we can confiscate the records of your father’s company, shut it down? Also, your father is a likely target for the Wolf. We’re not here to hurt your family members,” I added. “Not unless your father is involved in this too.”
    He shook his head, kept his eyes lowered. “My father has never been in trouble.”
    “That’s what I keep hearing,” I said. “I’ve read a lot about you and your family in the past day or so. Gone all the way back to your school days at Texas. You were involved in a couple of scrapes in Austin. Two date rapes. Neither case went to trial. Your father saved you then. It won’t happen this time.”
    Lawrence Lipton didn’t respond. His eyes were dead, and he looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. His blue dress shirt was as wrinkled as a used tissue, soaked with perspiration at the underarms. His hair was wet, dripping little rivers of moisture down to his shirt collar and sideburns. The skin under his eyes sagged and had a purplish tint in the harsh interrogation room light.
    He finally said, “I don’t want my family hurt. Leave my father out of this. Get him protection.”
    I nodded. “Okay, Lawrence. Where do we start? I’m ready to put your family in protective custody until we catch him.”
    “And afterward?” he asked. “It doesn’t stop with him.”
    “We’ll protect your family.”
    Lipton sighed loudly, then said, “All right, I’m the moneyman. I’m Sterling. I might be able to get you to the Wolf. But I need promises in writing. Lots of promises.”

Chapter 98
    I WAS HEADING into the deepest darkness again, attracted to it as most people are attracted to sunlight. I kept thinking about Elizabeth Connolly, still missing and feared dead.
    Lipton’s father visited him a couple of times and the two men wept together. Mrs. Lipton was allowed to see her husband. There was a lot of crying among the family members, and most of the emotions seemed genuine.
    I was in the interrogation room with Sterling until a little past three in the morning. I was prepared to stay later, as long as it took to get the information I needed. Several deals were struck with his lawyers during the night.
    At around two, with most of the lawyering done, Lipton and I sat down to talk again. Two senior agents from the Dallas field office were in the room with us. They were only there to take notes and tape-record.
    This was my interview to conduct.
    “How did you get involved with the Wolf?” I asked Lawrence Lipton, after a few minutes during which I emphasized my concern for his family. He seemed clearer headed and more focused than he’d been a few hours before. I sensed that a weight had been lifted from him. Guilt, betrayal of his family—especially his father? His school records revealed he was a bright but troubled student. His problems always centered on an obsession with sex, but he’d never received a day of treatment. Lawrence Lipton
was
a freak.
    “How did I get involved?” he repeated, seeming to be asking the question of himself. “I have a thing for young girls, you see. Teens, preteens. There’s lots of it available these days. The Internet opened new sources.”
    “For what? Be as concrete as you can, Lawrence.”
    He shrugged. “For freaks like myself. Nowadays we can get what we want when we want it. And I know how to search for the nastiest sites. At first I settled for photos and movies. I especially liked real-time films.”
    “We found some. In your office at home.”
    “One day a man came to see me. He came to the office, just like you did.”
    “To blackmail you?” I