Robert Walker - Bitter Instinct

“Didn't he die en route to the hospital?” Jessica asked.

“No, no, we had him almost stabilized when his heart stopped and no amount of effort on the part of the medical team could bring him back.”

“You did all you could for him,” said Jessica.

“I realized immediately that Dr. Harriet Plummer, who'd been seeing Locke, might well be another target, guessing that Marc was killed as much for his nosing around and asking one too many questions as anything else. He hardly fit the victim profile, and neither did Plummer, but on a hunch, I telephoned Dr. Plummer to warn her.”

“But it was too late for her as well?”

“ 'Fraid so. She was alive but just barely. Somehow she lifted the phone, and I identified myself and she simply babbled, 'I… could never… not love… Lucian. Could never say no… to him. Never could not love him.' She sounded drugged.”

“What did you do next?”

“I shouted for her to stay on the phone, to keep talking to me, and at the same time, I got someone on the line so that I could dial 911 and get a cruiser over there immediately with instructions to treat her for selenium poisoning. Plummer dropped the phone before I could get help. I made the calls and raced to her location from the hospital. “I figured that Locke had killed her, too. The man was on a rampage, just as you said, Jessica. As I drove to the Plummer location, I contacted Jim, and he met me there. The result was another corpse filled with Locke's poison and poetry. The two of us realized that the man was on a kill spree now, probably fearing that he'd be identified as the Poet Killer-that he had framed George Gordonn. At least that's my guess.”

“It sounds about right to me,” Jessica told her.

“So Jim and I asked ourselves who else might he harm? And Jim remembered the children and his wife. That's when we heard from you, and we raced to this location direct from Plummer's.”

“And Burrwith? Was he killed, too?”

“No, just disturbed to be awakened in the middle of the night, or so the officers who rushed to his home said.”

“Thanks for filling us in, Leanne, and again, my sincerest regrets over your loss of Donatella.”

“Dona was never one to play it safe; imagine, allowing Lucian Locke to write across her back.”

“Likely with the promise that he'd let her do him. A pact of sorts, to prove to each other that neither was the killer.”

“She so admired Locke's work. She knew the killer's hand was inspired by her and Locke's poetry. She confessed that much to me once.”

Jessica and Kim went toward their waiting vehicle, tired and exhausted, talking about hot baths, body oils, warm candlelight, and distancing themselves from the horror of this time and place. Jessica had left the formalities of the crime-scene investigation and the chain-of-evidence duties to Shockley, who appeared to be basking in his supervisory role in the mop-up effort. All that remained now was to make a DNA match between Lucian Locke and the teardrops left on the earlier victims. That kind of scientifically irrefutable evidence would put to rest any and all speculation about Vladoc or anyone else's having taken part in the killings.

No one doubted the innocence of Dr. Peter Flavius Vladoc in the murders committed by his brother, but his gullibility in the matter and his total failure to recognize that a man he was treating was so seriously disturbed resulted in his ruined reputation as a psychiatrist. Finally, he had no choice but to pack his things and vacate his office at the PPD. He told Jessica that henceforth he'd concentrate on private practice, but he would have to do so elsewhere, somewhere far from Philadelphia, the city he loved.

“It's the price I must pay for being blind, but in the end, I fear that it will be Philadelphia that will pay a far greater price,” he declared, not a little pompously.

The DNA match on Vladoc's brother, Locke, was made, and there was no longer any doubt as to who the killer had been.

“What price is that, sir?” Jessica couldn't help asking.

“The final act in this morbid play of good and evil, Dr. Coran, I fear, has yet to be performed.”

“Whatever do you mean, Dr. Vladoc?”

“You've been too busy with your lab work and your crucifying my brother to notice that others are in the business of doing just the opposite-deifying him.”

“Really? And who are these fools?”

“The youth of this city. While you have been busily working behind these walls, tying up all the usual loose ends-and I include myself in the category of loose end- making it unequivocally clear that my brother was a vicious serial killer, the youth of Philadelphia have also been talking about Lucian Locke. They have, in fact, apotheosized the man as their light and savior.”

Jessica was horrified. “I had no idea.”

“And they continue to pen poems on the bodies of friends and on themselves, carrying on the tradition bom of the suicide pact of 'Lady Byron' and Harold Gordonn, continued by their spiritual son, Lucian Burke Locke. I fear nothing good can come of it.”

“We can't dictate lifestyles or faiths, beliefs in fetish objects or cults, Dr. Vladoc. All we can do is make sure that anyone turning such things into crime and murder is stopped.”

“Meanwhile, Jessica, I have felt it an honor to have worked closely with you and Dr. Desinor. Please give her my regards. I understand she is taking some R amp;R in Baltimore? Of all places to vacation… well, to each his own.”

“Where will you go now, Dr. Vladoc?”

“China perhaps…” He chuckled at his own joke. “At least as far away as China. I'm thinking perhaps people in Anchorage or Seatde might have me.”

“You've done nothing to deserve what has befallen you, sir, and without your help, we would still be stumbling about in the dark.”

“Yes, well, stumbling about in the dark is sort of the way the PPD brass put it to me. Not to worry. They offer a generous retirement package.”

Jessica saw a kindness in him she hadn't glimpsed before, his eyes as he smiled suddenly causing her to think of the actor/director/writer Peter Ustinov.

As they shook hands and said their final good-byes, she said, “If ever I'm involved in a case in the Pacific Northwest, I'll call on you.”

“Please do, by all means.”

Jessica turned her attention back to the labs where Shockley and DeAngelos and others were busy finishing work on the Poet Killer case. Through the glass partitions she saw that James Parry was on his way to bid her goodbye, knowing she was scheduled to return to Quantico that night.

“Jessica,” he said. “Couldn't let you go without saying so long.”

“This time face-to-face.”

“I thought we had hashed that out?”

“Yeah… yeah, we did. Sorry for the cattiness.”

“Without the cattiness gene, what kind of woman would you make?” he joked.

“How are you doing-I mean with your new digs and Philadelphia post, Jim?”

“It's not going to be so bad after all. We've come out of this shining, Jess, and it's largely due to your being here.”

“Don't be foolish. It was a team effort, all-almost all the way.”

“Give my regards and thanks to Kim when you see her. She was right on with her psychic hits all along. We've got to learn how to better read her”

“And tell Leanne thanks from us. It was a rocky start, but we did get the job done after all.”

“She's taken some time off, reassessing her life. Losing her lover, Donatella, has been an incredibly debilitating blow to her. She's not even sure she wants to come back to the force, but a lot of us are urging her to do so. She's too good to lose.”