“So you presume I’m simply a garden-variety sociopath, a man who rapes and tortures women for fun? No. Again, you insult our relationship by lying.”
“This isn’t about our relationship. It’s about my job.”
“You have a motivation in mind. You will. It is how your mind works.”
He moves around the examination table, coming toward me. Dalton tenses, but Mathias stops out of reach of me.
“You know why I am in Rockton, yes?” he says. “I presume Eric has told you.”
“The moment anyone becomes a suspect, that information is no longer privileged.”
“I am not whining about privacy, Casey. We surrender that when we come here, and the fact we retain any privacy at all is a courtesy. So you know what happened to me. What that poor excuse for a human accused me of.”
“Yes.”
He studies my face. “You know something more. Or you think you do.”
“I know there was a second case. One that wasn’t officially tied to you. A disembowelment.”
I have to switch to English for the last word. My French vocabulary isn’t that extensive. It catches Dalton’s attention. That’s intentional. I could have found another way to phrase it, but this is me letting him know what I’m sharing, asking if he wants me to stop. He stays quiet.
“The council did their homework. I am impressed.” Mathias considers. “Too impressed. They are not that thorough. It was Eric, I presume? Checking our stories.”
I say nothing.
“It would be Eric,” Mathias says. “He is the only one who cares enough to be thorough. And his uneducated hick-sheriff routine is quite possibly the least convincing performance I have ever seen. So you have two cases suggesting I somehow persuaded killers to commit terrible acts of self-mutilation.” He leans against the examining table. “But how would that relate to Nicole and the others? I know one could say Nicole caused the death of her brother—yes. He was held captive, wasn’t he? Held prisoner and tortured. If I believed in retributive justice, I might give her a true taste of what her brother went through. Yet the entire scenario does not fit. Her captor tormented her for personal pleasure.”
“Maybe outrage over a perceived miscarriage of justice was just the rationalization.”
He eyes me before he relaxes, pulling on a smile. “Perhaps, as you say, for whoever would do such a thing, there is more to it. There is gratification. A sublimation of desire. But not in the way you think. That would make the predator no better than his prey. I did not murder this man here. I did not capture Nicole. I am not the killer you seek. As for the rest, I am no threat to you. No threat to Eric or to the job you both perform, protecting the safety of those here.”
I look at Dalton. We’re still speaking in French, and he’s been watching my body language. When I look over, he tenses, ready to rise. I shake my head.
“Your theory is sound,” Mathias says. “But there is a missing piece, a part you are not able to resolve. The other women. You don’t know how they’d fit the pattern of retributive justice, and you are too good a detective to decide that doesn’t matter.”
“Tell me about the reports you make to the council.”
That throws him; his composure ripples.
“I know you report on the psychological well-being of the community as a whole, plus assessments of specific individuals at the council’s request.”
“Yes,” he says slowly.
“Why you?”
“Do you mean, why not Isabel? She is more a part of the community, which would seem a natural choice, but it is actually a hindrance. That, and the fact she is now a businessperson first, a community worker second. If she had minor concerns about a well-paying customer, would she raise them? Perhaps not. I have no such restrictions, not for business or personal reasons. As well, their concerns over violence are far more my area than Isabel’s.”
“They also ask you to assess exposure threats.”
“I can see that my reporting concerns you, Casey, but I am not understanding the source of that concern. I am well aware that the council’s primary interest is not altruistic. It is financial. Even more so than Isabel, who despite her veneer of avarice, does actually care about this town. But it is in the council’s best interests to keep the town safe, which is what my reports do.”
“Fine, go back to—”
“Not until I understand this new line of questioning. You are interested in my reports, and you highlight exposure threats. The connection, then … Ah, back to Nicole, who posed a threat.” He taps a probe against the table. “But she did not. You suggested she may be a threat to allow her to stay. I did not tell the council that. I kept your secret.”
“Great, so—”