Tess Gerritsen - The Surgeon

“He never raped Catherine Cordell,” said Moore.

“But she is a rape victim.”

“Her attacker’s been dead two years. How did the Surgeon identify her as a victim? How did she even show up on his radar screen? She never talks about the attack, to anyone.”

“She talked about it online, didn’t she? That private chat room…” Zucker paused. “Jesus. Is it possible he’s finding his victims through the Internet?”

“We explored that theory,” said Moore. “Nina Peyton doesn’t even own a computer. And Cordell never revealed her name to anyone in that chat room. So we’re right back to the question: Why did the Surgeon focus on Cordell?”

Zucker said, “He does seem obsessed with her. He goes out of his way to taunt her. He takes risks, just to e-mail her that photograph of Nina Peyton. And that leads to a disastrous chain of events for him. The photo brings the police right to Nina’s door. He’s rushed and can’t complete the kill, can’t achieve satisfaction. Even worse, he leaves behind a witness. The worst mistake of all.”

“That was no mistake,” said Rizzoli. “He meant for her to live.”

Her remark elicited skeptical expressions around the table.

“How else do you explain a screwup like this?” she continued. “That photo he e-mailed to Cordell was meant to pull us in. He sent it, and he waited for us. Waited till we called the vic’s house. He knew we were on our way. And then he did a half-ass job of cutting her throat, because he wanted us to find her alive.”

“Oh yeah,” snorted Crowe. “It was all part of his plan .”

“And his reason for this?” Zucker asked Rizzoli.

“The reason was written right on her thigh. Nina Peyton was an offering to Cordell. A gift intended to scare the shit out of her.”

There was a pause.

“If so, then it worked,” said Moore. “Cordell is terrified.”

Zucker leaned back and considered Rizzoli’s theory. “It’s a lot of risks to take, just to scare one woman. It’s a sign of megalomania. It could mean he’s decompensating. That’s what eventually happened to Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. They lost control of their fantasies. They became careless. That’s when they made their mistakes.”

Zucker rose and went to the chart on the wall. There were three victim names there. Beneath the name Nina Peyton, he wrote in a fourth name: Catherine Cordell.

“She’s not one of his victims — not yet. But in some way he’s identified her as an object of interest. How did he choose her?” Zucker looked around the room. “Have you interviewed her colleagues? Do any of them trip any alarm bells?”

Rizzoli said, “We’ve eliminated Kenneth Kimball, the E.R. doc. He was on duty the night Nina Peyton was attacked. We’ve also interviewed most of the male surgical staff, as well as the residents.”

“What about Cordell’s partner, Dr. Falco?”

“Dr. Falco has not been eliminated.”

Now Rizzoli had caught Zucker’s attention, and he focused on her with a strange light in his eyes. The nutso-shrink look was what the cops in the homicide unit called it. “Tell me more,” he said softly.

“Dr. Falco looks great on paper. MIT grad in aeronautical engineering. M.D. from Harvard. Surgery residency at Peter Bent Brigham. Raised by a single mom, worked his way through college and med school. Flies his own airplane. Nice-looking guy, too. Not Mel Gibson, but he could turn a few heads.”

Darren Crowe laughed. “Hey, Rizzoli’s rating suspects by their looks. Is this how lady cops do it?”

Rizzoli shot him a hostile glance. “What I’m saying ,” she continued, “is this guy could have a dozen women on his arm. But I hear from the nurses that the only woman he’s been interested in is Cordell. It’s no secret that he keeps asking her out. And she keeps turning him down. Maybe he’s starting to get pissed.”

“Dr. Falco bears watching,” said Zucker. “But let’s not narrow down our list too soon. Let’s stick with Dr. Cordell here. Are there other reasons the Surgeon might choose her as a victim?”

It was Moore who turned the question on its head. “What if she isn’t just another in a string of prey? What if she’s always been the object of his attention? Each of these attacks has been a reenactment of what was done to those women in Georgia. What was almost done to Cordell. We’ve never explained why he imitates Andrew Capra. We’ve never explained why he’s zeroed in on Capra’s only survivor.” He pointed to the list. “These other women, Sterling, Ortiz, Peyton — what if they’re merely placeholders? Surrogates for his primary victim?”

“The theory of the retaliatory target,” said Zucker. “You can’t kill the woman you really hate because she’s too powerful. Too intimidating. So you kill a substitute, a woman who represents that target.”

Frost said, “You’re saying his real target’s always been Cordell? But he’s afraid of her?”

“It’s the same reason Edmund Kemper didn’t kill his mother until the very end of his murder spree,” said Zucker. “ She was the real target all along, the woman he despised. Instead he vented his rage against other victims. With each attack he symbolically destroyed his mother again and again. He couldn’t actually kill her, not at first, because she wielded too much authority over him. On some level, he was afraid of her. But with each killing he gained confidence. Power. And in the end, he finally achieved his goal. He crushed his mother’s skull, decapitated her, raped her. And as the final insult, he tore out her larynx and shoved it into the garbage disposal. The real target of his rage was finally dead. That’s when his spree ended. That’s when Edmund Kemper turned himself in.”

Barry Frost, who was usually the first cop to toss his cookies at a crime scene, looked a little queasy at the thought of Kemper’s brutal finale. “So these first three attacks,” he said, “they could be just the warm-up for the main event?”

Zucker nodded. “The killing of Catherine Cordell.”

It almost hurt Moore to see the smile on Catherine’s face as she walked into the clinic waiting room to greet him, because he knew the questions he brought would surely destroy this welcome. Looking at her now, he did not see a victim but a warm and beautiful woman who immediately took his hand in hers and seemed reluctant to release it.

“I hope this is a convenient time to talk,” he said.

“I’ll always make time for you.” Again, that bewitching smile. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“No, thank you. I’m fine.”

“Let’s go into my office, then.”

She settled in behind her desk and waited expectantly for whatever news he had brought. In the last few days she had learned to trust him, and her gaze was unguarded. Vulnerable. He had earned her confidence as a friend, and now he was about to shatter it.

“It’s clear to everyone,” he said, “that the Surgeon is focused on you.”

She nodded.

“What we’re wondering is why . Why does he reenact Andrew Capra’s crimes? Why have you become the center of his attention? Do you know the answer to that?”

Bewilderment flickered in her eyes. “I have no idea.”

“We think you do.”

“How could I possibly know the way he thinks?”

“Catherine, he could stalk any other woman in Boston. He could choose someone who’s unprepared, who has no idea she’s being hunted. That would be the logical thing for him to do, to go after the easy victim. You’re the most difficult prey he could choose, because you’re already on your guard against attack. And then he makes the hunt even more difficult by warning you. Taunting you. Why?”