Oliver Stark - American Devil

‘So tell me how a well-presented woman like yourself got her fingertips so grubby.’

Denise looked down at the newsprint on her fingers. ‘Okay, I took a look.’

‘You took a look? I bet. I looked you up, Dr Levene. I know your research interests. Must’ve felt like your lucky day.’

‘Don’t insult me, Detective.’

‘You saying your little heart didn’t do a flip?’

‘I’m interested, all right? I’ve worked these cases.’

‘Worked or studied them? There’s a big difference between tracking a live killer and reading the court reports.’

‘I know that.’

‘Sure you do, you know everything.’

‘Stop busting my balls, Harper. I’m on your side.’

‘No, Doctor, you’re on your own side. If you were on mine, you’d let me get out there. There are a thousand places I’d rather be than wasting both of our time pretending you can fix people’s brains.’

‘You like being angry, don’t you?’

‘I don’t think about it.’

‘Lisa did, is my guess. I bet she thought about it a lot. Women do.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘You lost your wife. Are you not curious as to why she fell out of love with you?’

‘No, I know why. My job came first, and she didn’t like that.’

‘That’s a nice clean theory, isn’t it? Your wife left you because you’re a dedicated public servant.’

‘Cop work stinks, everybody knows that.’

‘You buy that yourself or is it just for my consumption?’

‘Jesus, you don’t let up, do you? Does your husband get a word in?’

‘A good detective would know I’m not married.’

‘A great one wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about your marital status.’

‘And what are you, good or great?’

‘I’m neither, but sometimes I get lucky.’

‘Modest too?’

‘We’re a team. You don’t solve a murder as a lone wolf. There’s over a hundred detectives working the case.’

‘Let’s get back to the case of Tom Harper. I’ve got him down as a hero-fantasist, how does that feel?’

‘Like an insult that fell flat on the floor.’

‘Okay, we can keep this going all day, but you’ve got a problem with aggression and I can help you.’

‘Boxing helped me. It gave me an outlet, but I’m too old for the ring now.’

‘So you start on your superiors?’

‘He went for me first.’

‘Because?’

‘Because he made fun of Lisa.’

‘And that got to you?’

‘Sure.’

‘Why did it matter what he thought?’

‘You don’t know? Come on. I loved Lisa. She left without warning. I was blown wide open. I was an explosion looking for a detonator. Cracking the Romario case should’ve been the best moment of my life, but all I got was an empty apartment and a phone message telling me not to call.’

‘You must’ve seen it coming?’

‘Every couple argues. You never know it’s terminal until too late. I thought the arguments were part of the working out, but they were more than that for her.’

‘And now? Angry still?’

‘It makes less sense the clearer I see it, so the anger seems to get worse.’

‘Would you like to know why she left?’

‘Sure would, and what she says sounds like a load of soft soap.’

‘What does she tell you?’

‘She tells me that she’s not good enough. She tells me that she can’t live up to my expectations. She tells me she thinks she makes me unhappy.’

‘They’re well-considered explanations. Sounds like she doesn’t want to hurt you.’

‘Well, she’s not doing so well at that.’

‘More to the point, she doesn’t know how to tell you the truth.’

‘So what’s the truth, Doctor?’

‘I don’t think you’re angry because Lisa left. I think she left because you’re always angry.’

Tom paused. He let the idea work around his head for a moment. ‘She was scared of me?’

‘You’re a tough guy, you have high expectations, you work in a highly stressful environment and you don’t give yourself an inch. I’d say you were so caught up in that cycle that she became one of the wheels in your life that needed ordering about. Maybe she wasn’t scared, maybe she just felt like a piece of shit.’

Tom’s face drained of colour. This was worse than he had imagined. He had thought the good psychologist might gently prise some truths from beneath his skin, not land a knock-out combination on his second visit. ‘She felt like shit?’

‘I don’t know. I’m guessing, but your reaction tells me something important. You felt like you treated her badly, didn’t you?’

Tom looked at the floor. Shit, Levene was good at this. Against his will, he nodded to the floor.

‘What triggers the anger, Tom? You have an idea, or you just feel it late on and it catches you out? You’ve got a quick mind, and that means you’re good at hiding the signs from yourself.’

Tom chewed the idea over for a moment. ‘Maybe I just don’t like the way people talk about things that matter.’

‘You don’t think they’re free to say what the hell they like?’

‘No, I don’t. Not at all.’

‘Well, I got news for you, they are. They can say any damn thing they like, but it isn’t what they say that riles you.’

‘What is it?’

‘You like watching birds, don’t you? You ever see a hawk trying to get a lure from his flyer?’

‘Sure.’

‘You see how the hawk will use all kinds of strategies to surprise the flyer so that he’s not seen until the last moment?’

‘Yeah.’

‘That’s how the mind works. It catches you out, and the anger keeps you from seeing what’s really there.’

‘And what’s really there?’

‘That’s what we’ve got to find out. But we’ve got to do it together.’ Dr Levene let the silence hang in the air. ‘You want to be helped or are you seriously just here because you need to be?’

Harper had been thinking. He looked up at her. ‘You think you can help?’

‘I can try, if you’ll let me.’

‘I never thought I’d say this, but okay, I’ll give it a go.’

‘You’ve surprised me,’ said Dr Levene. ‘Why the change of heart?’

‘I need help.’

‘That’s a serious admission. I’m impressed.’

‘Not for me, Doctor, for chrissake, for the case. You’re good at what you do, I can see that right away. You’ve also done more research on serial killers than I’ve ever heard of and if I need to do one thing it’s to get to understand this killer’s mind. I don’t think I can do it alone.’

‘What are you saying? You’re asking for my help on the case?’ Denise couldn’t disguise the excitement she felt and her voice lifted an octave.

‘Calm down and listen. From the moment this story went to press, this just got a whole lot more difficult. The American Devil is going to be reacting to his own drives and, also, the way the press report it. And on top of that, it gets very messy with the media and politics involved, but if this guy’s going to be caught I need to see things clearly. I think you can help, Doctor — you’ve got good eyes for how people tick.’

‘Coming from you, that’s a real compliment.’

‘So the deal is, I’ll talk about myself and do what I’m told, if you let me talk about this killer’s behaviour and tell me if I’m on the right lines, psychologically speaking.’

Denise nodded slowly. ‘So tell me, how’s the investigation going? You got anything to go on?’

Harper shot her a sidelong glance. ‘This won’t be a nice conversation. There’s a bitch of a killer out there and he’s beginning to feel confident. He took out a woman on a Saturday afternoon. That’s quite some self-belief he’s got. The thing is, he looks uncontrolled and random but he’s left nothing for us to go on at all. He’s actually very well organized and very smart. He seems to know exactly what a cop would look for.’