The Target

pregnant. That was all it took."

    "I hope," Tommy the Eye said, "that Sherlock doesn't shoot you before she stops having morning sickness."

    They were still grinning when Sherlock came into die room. She walked up to her husband and punched him in the arm. Then she greeted Molly and Ramsey, all smiles.

    She said, "I stopped by the ICU. Dickerson is still out of it. They'll let us know if and when he wakes up."

    "I would like to speak to him," said Tommy the Eye. "I've read everything we've got, all the reports from his first trial, the transcripts of what he said when and to whom. He was a preferential child molester, that is to say, he's a pedophile who sexually molests children. The preferential abuses up to as many as a thousand children in his life, not like a situational molester, who may just abuse a dozen or so children. This guy is a classic, with one exception. He brutalized Emma as well as sexually abused her. We call that a sadistic molester. Add to that the fact that with Emma he became obsessional. You don't see this all that often in child molesters, but it does happen. One particular child, the pedophile must have that child, no other. He lost all sense of survival. Most molesters would have just shrugged and moved on to another child, but Dickerson didn't. He just couldn't stop.

    "He's not a stupid man, but he had to have known on some level that this obsession he had with Emma would bring him down. But he just couldn't help himself, couldn't stop himself, couldn't leave and forget her. I understand he's also excellent at disguise and makeup."

    "That's what he told me when we were in the water," Ramsey said. "That's one of the reasons Rule Shaker's men hired him. Since Emma was going to be returned when Louey came around, the kidnapper couldn't be recognized, thus the disguise."

    Tommy the Eye just shook his head. "He must have thought he'd died and gone to heaven when he got the job."

    Ramsey said, "How does all this get confused with his religious needs? He told Emma that he needed her, actually needed her."

    "I would really like to talk to him about that. He seems like a boiling cauldron with all sorts of things tossed in indiscriminately, from beliefs of how Emma would save him to hurting her so that she would be taking his punishments for him. I can't wait to dig into his brain. But we're mostly just thankful that he's out of commission now."

    Molly said, "If and when you reach any understanding about him, Tommy, please tell us."

    "I will, Mrs. Hunt."

    He was rubbing his palms together.

33

    BY THE TIME everyone had all the answers he or she wanted, Ramsey was feeling human enough to walk down to see Emma. She and Virginia Trolley were sitting in a corner of the cafeteria, their heads close together.

    Emma looked up and saw him. She let out a yelp and dashed to him, wrapping herself around his leg. "It's all right, Emma," he said, patting her head. "See? I'm walking. It's for real. Nobody's holding me up. It was just another little bullet to a big macho guy like me. Now, let me pick you up so you can give me a proper hug."

    "No, let me do it," Savich said and hoisted Emma up to eye level with Ramsey. She reached out and hugged him. He kissed her ear. "You smell good, Em. What is that? Oscar de la Renta?"

    "No, that's the soap from the hotel." Then Emma drew back and said, "Was that a joke, Ramsey?"

    Molly said to Sherlock, who was looking fit and quite beautiful and watching her husband with new eyes, "Ramsey loves her so much. Maybe someday he'll even love me."

    "The man's found Nirvana and he knows it, Molly,"

    Sherlock said in a matter-of-fact voice, still looking at her husband holding Emma, a besotted look on his face. "I've always liked Ramsey. Now that he's got you, everything will be just fine. What do you think, Molly? Does Dillon look like a natural holding Emma or what?"

    THE orderly had brought two cots into Ramsey's room the night before. The whole family was together. They were sound asleep when the door suddenly burst open and Lieutenant McPherson ran in.

    Ramsey was out of bed in an instant, ready to fight, and he nearly passed out cold. He fell back against the bed, breathing hard. "What the hell's wrong?"

    "No, it's all right, Judge Hunt," McPherson said, panting. "I was just worried that something could have happened to you as well. Here, let me help you back into bed."

    "What are you talking about?" Molly said, helping Ramsey herself. Emma was halfway to