RYAN CAME TO SEE ME AT HOME ON W WEDNESDAY. THE EARTH HAD turned seven times since my night in h.e.l.l, and I"d had time to construct an official version for myself. But there were holes I wanted to fill. turned seven times since my night in h.e.l.l, and I"d had time to construct an official version for myself. But there were holes I wanted to fill.

"Has Fortier been charged?"

"Monday. Five counts of first degree."

"Five?"

"Pitre and Gautier are probably unrelated."

"Tell me something. How did Claudel know Fortier would show up here?"

"He didn"t, really. From your questions about the school, he realized Tanguay couldn"t be the perp. He checked, found out the kids are in at eight, out at three-fifteen. Tanguay earned a perfect attendance ribbon. Hadn"t missed a day since he started, and there were no school holidays on the days you asked about. Also he"d learned about the glove business.

"He knew you were exposed, so he hauled a.s.s back to your place to keep watch until he could get a unit back on site. Got here, tried the phone and found it dead. He vaulted the garden gate and found the French doors unlocked. You two were too busy dancing to hear him. He would have broken the gla.s.s, but you must have gotten the latch open when you tried to split."

Claudel. My rescuer again.

"Anything new turn up?"

"They found an athletic bag in Fortier"s car with three choke collars, a couple of hunting knives, a box of surgical gloves, and a set of street clothes."

I packed as he talked, perched on the end of my bed.

"His kit."

"Yes. I"m sure we"ll tie the Rue Berger glove and the one with Gabby to the box in his car."

I pictured him that night, Spiderman smooth, gloved hands bone white in the darkness.

"He"d wear the cycling suit and gloves whenever he went out to play. Even at Berger. That"s why we always came up empty. No hairs, no fibers, no latents."

"No sperm."

"Oh yeah. He also had a box of condoms."

"Perfect."

I went to the closet for my old sneakers, tucked them into the duffel.

"Why did he do it?"

"I doubt we"ll ever know. Apparently the grandmother could have run the showers and sifted the gold crowns out of the ovens."

"Meaning?"

"She was tough. And fanatic."

"About?"

"s.e.x and G.o.d. Not necessarily in that order."

"For example?"

"Gave little Leo an enema and dragged him to church every morning. To cleanse body and soul."

"The daily Ma.s.s and swish protocol."

"We talked to a neighbor who remembers one time the kid was wrestling on the floor with the family dog. The old biddy nearly stroked out because the schnauzer had a hard-on. Two days later the pup turned up with a belly full of rat poison."

"Did Fortier know?"

"He doesn"t talk about it. He does talk about a time he was seven and she caught him jacking off. Granny tied little Leo"s wrists to her own and dragged him around for three days. He"s got spiders in his head when it comes to hands."

I paused in the middle of folding a sweater.

"Hands."

"Yeah."

"That"s not all. There was also an uncle, a priest who"d been forced to take early retirement. Hung around the house in his bathrobe, probably abused the kid. It"s another topic he goes mute on. We"re checking it out."

"Where is the grandmother now?"

"Dead. Right before he killed Damas."

"The trigger?"

"Who knows."

I started going through bathing suits, gave up, stuffed them all in the duffel.

"What about Tanguay?"

Ryan shook his head and expelled a long breath. "Looks like he"s just another citizen with a seriously impaired approach to s.e.x."

I stopped sorting socks and looked at him.

"He"s mainline fruitcake, but probably harmless."

"Meaning?"

"He was a biology teacher. Collected roadkill, boiled the carca.s.ses down and mounted the skeletons. He was building a display for his cla.s.sroom."

"The paws?"

"Dried them for a vertebrate paw collection."

"Did he kill Alsa?"

"He claims he found her dead on the street near UQAM and brought her home for the collection. He"d just cut her up when he read the article in the Gazette Gazette. Scared him, so he stuffed her in a bag and left her at the bus station. We"ll probably never know how she got out of the lab."

"Tanguay is Julie"s client, isn"t he?"

"None other. Gets his jolt by hiring a hooker to dress in Mama"s nightie. And . . ."

He hesitated.

"And?"

"You ready for this? Tanguay was dummy man."

"No. The bedroom burglar?"

"You got it. That"s why his b.u.t.t was sucked right up his throat when we were questioning him. He thought we"d hauled him on that. The dumb little b.a.s.t.a.r.d came out with it all by himself. Apparently, when he couldn"t score on the street, he"d use plan B."

"Break in and crank up on someone else"s jammies."

"You"ve got it. Better than bowling."

There was something else that had been bothering me.

"The phone calls?"

"Plan C. Phone a woman, hang up, feel your genitals twinkle. Typical peeper stuff. He had a list of numbers."

"Any theories on how he got mine?"

"Probably lifted it from Gabby. He was peeping her."

"The picture I found in my wastebasket?"

"Tanguay. He"s into aboriginal art. It was a copy of something he saw in a book. Did it to give to Gabby. Wanted to ask her not to cut him out of the project."

I looked at Ryan. "Pretty ironic. She thought she had a stalker when she actually had two."

I felt my eyes well with tears. The emotional scar tissue was forming, but was still embryonic. It would take time until I could think of her.

Ryan rose and stretched. "Where"s Katy?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Gone for suntan lotion." I pulled the drawstring on the duffel and dropped it to the floor.

"How"s she doing?"

"She seems fine. Looks after me like a private duty nurse."

Unconsciously, I scratched at the st.i.tches in my neck.

"But it may trouble her more than she lets on. She knows about violence, but it"s evening news violence, in South L.A. and Tel Aviv and Sarajevo. It"s always been something that happens to other people. Pete and I purposely sheltered her from what I do, kept Katy apart from my work. Now it"s real and close and personal. She"s had her world tipped, but she"ll come around."

"And you?"

"I"m fine. Really."

We stood in silence and studied each other. Then he reached for his jacket and folded it over his arm.

"Going to a beach?" His affected indifference was not quite convincing.

"Every one we can find. We"ve dubbed it "The Great Sand and Surf Quest." First Ogonquit, then a swing down the coast. Cape Cod. Rehobeth. Cape May. Virginia Beach. Our only plan is to be at Nags Head on the fifteenth."

Pete had arranged that. He planned to be there.

Ryan placed a hand on my shoulder. His eyes spoke of more than professional interest.

"Are you coming back?"

I"d been asking myself all week. Am I? To what? The work? Could I go through this again with yet another twisted psychopath? To Quebec? Could I bear to let Claudel carve me up and serve me to some hearing commission? What about my marriage? That wasn"t in Quebec. What would I do about Pete? What would I feel when I saw him?

I"d made only one decision: I wouldn"t think about it for now. I"d vowed to put tomorrow"s uncertainties aside and leave my time with Katy unblemished.

"Of course," I said. "I"ll have to finish my reports, then testify."

"Yeah."

A tense silence. We both knew it was a non-answer.

He cleared his throat and reached into his jacket pocket.

"Claudel asked me to give this to you."

He held out a brown envelope with the c.u.m logo on the upper left-hand corner.

"Great."

I stuck it in my pocket and followed him to the door. Not now.

"Ryan."

He turned.

"Can you do this day after day, year after year, and not lose faith in the human species?"

He didn"t answer right away, seemed to focus on a point in s.p.a.ce between us. Then his eyes met mine.

"From time to time the human species sp.a.w.ns predators that feed on those around them. They"re not the species. They"re mutations of the species. In my opinion these freaks have no right to suck oxygen from the atmosphere. But they"re here, so I help cage them up and put them where they can"t hurt others. I make life safer for the folks who get up, go to work each day, raise their kids or their tomatoes, or their tropical fish, and watch the ball game in the evening. They They are the human species." are the human species."

I watched him walk away, admiring once again the way he filled his 501"s. And brains, too, I thought as I closed the door. Maybe, I said to myself, smiling. May, by G.o.d, be.Later that evening Katy and I went for ice cream, then drove up the mountain. Sitting on my favorite overlook we could see the whole valley, the St. Lawrence a black cutout in the distance, Montreal a twinkling panorama spreading from its edges.