Robert Walker - Unnatural Instinct

“ Let me guess. He wanted to rent by the month?” asked Jessica.

“ How'd you know? Oh, yes, of course, you are a detective, aren't you. But it was worse. He also wanted a kill fee.”

“ A kill fee? Isn't that unusual?”

“ Shows he was a shrewd man when it came to property. If things didn't in the end suit him, he could step out of the contract and regain most of his down payment, you see.”

“ Why didn't you alert us to this earlier if it's so un-usual?” asked Jessica.

“ You… you didn't ask if anything unusual had occurred in the context of client contract.”

“ Oh… oh, I see,” mocked Jessica, but again the ridicule was wasted on this woman.

“ Look, I told Nancy I didn't half blame him-about the kill fee, I mean.”

“ Oh, and why's that?”

“ The property abuts a chemical factory-actually, a paint factory. It's rather a wasteland. It fronts a dump site. Place has been cited so many times for environmental damage by so many different agencies that no one knows who's handling the lawsuits anymore. “Jessica said, “I think I remember reading something about it, but that was years ago.”

“ They've somehow managed to keep it in court all these years, and the place is producing less product, but still…”

Jessica replied, “If this man Brown is Purdy using an alias, I imagine the place suits the old man's needs perfectly.”

Richard concurred. “I can just see the old man disposing of two bodies there.”

“ You think your partner, Willis, may have had second thoughts on renting the property to Brown? That she might have gone out there to have a look at how he was using the property?” Jessica asked.

“ Actually, she does that sort of thing from time to time… all the time when things are slow. She's a bit of a busybody that way. Costs us a lot of clients. She's a dear, you know, a kind, big-hearted soul, but she has this one fatal flaw in this business.”

“ Oh, what's that?”

“ After the sale, you don't meddle. She meddles. Nancy can't really help herself; it's rather a compulsion with her. Every instinct against it, and yet she goes and meddles after the sale. Like some people have a compulsion to rewrite procedure manuals from one day to the next, she has this compulsion to know how a client uses the damned property, especially a rental.”

“ Here's an agreement signed by Brown,” said Richard, waving it overhead, pleased with himself. “I think we can match the handwriting; it looks like the letter sent to the Post”

Jessica studied the agreement. 'Too bad he didn't bother to include a photo ID. The guy ponyied up cash, though. No plastic. Isn't that unusual these days?” asked Jessica.

“ Yes, but we don't look down on the old-fashioned way. Money is money.”

“ What about Shaw?” asked Sharpe, who now sipped at his coffee.

“ Shaw?”

“ The other lone renter. Did Nancy have any misgivings about him?”

“ No more than the usual.”

“ Let's keep digging for the Shaw property as well. Just in case,” said Jessica, and together, she and Richard went back to work on it.

In a moment, they came across papers on Shaw's rental. The property here, too, was in a remote area.

Jessica asked Carmella, “Show me on the map where these two properties are located.”

After a moment's study of the respective rental papers and a bit of glaring at the county map, she stuck a tack into two exact spots. “The one Brown bought into beside the chemical factory is just here, east of Killamey Farms Road and right at the apex of Cresswell and Cornflower. Two dirt roads maintained by Ravenshire County. Here alongside is the dump site and commercial plants I told you about. Shaw, on the other hand, is here. Off County Line Road just outside Sweetwater, Maryland.”

“ Brown is closer to Nokesville, Virginia,” Richard pointed out. “We'll need this map and the contracts. We'll want to compare the signatures to handwriting we have from a man who abducted a D.C. judge two days ago. We think Nancy's disappearance may have some connection to the abduction of this earlier victim.”

“ Oh, my God…” The woman turned a shade of pale that threatened them with a fainting. Jessica helped her to an office chair. “You all right?” she asked the woman.

“ Until now, it just didn't really register with me that Nancy might… that she could really be missing, you know, or hurt, maybe dying somewhere.”

Jessica and Richard made their way back to FBI head-quarters, and Jessica sat silent for most of the ride. Richard finally broke the silence, saying, “We go rushing in there and-”

“ Alarms, bells, and whistles are sure to tip him off long enough that he could kill her outright-if she's alive. Even if we're as quiet as we can be, he might have the land around booby-trapped. We have to go in cautiously but fast, extremely fast.”

“ Yes, I agree… if he's alerted to our coming, he's likely to kill her.”

“ It's a moonless night. That'll cover us,” Jessica said. “We go in black commando gear. We take control of the compound and the factory beside the farm. We have to take charge before Purdy knows what's happening.”

“ We've got probable cause, and we'll have a search warrant this time. We'll use the factory next door as a staging area. Arrange it with the owners.” Richard drove on, but he looked across at Jessica, seeing the concern creasing her features. “You're as worried about Kim as you are DeCampe, I know.”

“ You read minds, too?”

“ I figure it had to do with your making a call back there.”

Jessica had taken a moment to wonder how Kim Desinor was doing about now. An earlier phone call to her doctors revealed that she was sitting up, taking liquids by mouth, and that while her lesions hadn't gotten any worse, neither had they begun to heal. Jessica imagined that some part of her brain did not fully accept the placebo lie, that she must first see hard evidence. Dr. Shoate continued his treatment of ice and antibiotic gels, still treating it as a strange outbreak of an Ebola-like disease, for which he could only make the patient as comfortable as possible.

Jessica then contacted the famous psychic Edward Lighttoller, who lived in the D.C. area. Peter Hurkos had been Lighttoller's mentor. Lighttoller was said to have remarkable gifts as a psychic, and Jessica knew that Kim had great admiration and respect for the man. Jessica started out by flattering the man and telling him about Kim Desinor's curious case, and in doing so, she made him curious about the DeCampe case as well.

“ How can I help you, Dr. Coran?” he finally asked.

“ If you would just see Dr. Desinor. I have no expectations, but if you could just see her, see what condition she is in, speak with her, offer her what you can.”

“ I'm not sure what I can offer her.” She asked, “Is there any way to reach out to Kim to convince her that she can and should disengage from the thing that holds her enthralled, the thing that is slowly killing her?”

“ And this thing… is it not also slowly killing DeCampe?” he asked.

Jessica felt a sense of the man's power even over the phone. “Yes… yes, we are working under that assumption, sir.”

“ How do you do this for a living, Dr. Coran?”

“ Do this?”

“ Dance with the lunatic and the satanic?”

“ I do it. I just do it. I don't slow down to ask why or how; if I did, I'd likely go mad myself.”

“ Careful that you don't find yourself, in the end, dancing with the devil.”

“ Will you help Dr. Desinor?”

“ I will go see her, speak to her, offer what I can, yes. I have always held her in the greatest esteem.”

“ Thank you.”

“ No, Dr. Coran, thank you.”