she was sure she had. She wondered briefly what personal horror had gotten them to this point. Had any of them lost their mentor and nearly lost their soul mate in the same week? Before she could brood over it further, her phone rang. It was Captain Decker, her boss until three days ago. She declined the call as she got up and walked to the parking garage.
She was getting into her car when she felt the buzz indicating she had a voicemail. She was tempted to delete it without listening but couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. That would be outright rude and besides, some part of her itched to know what he wanted. She played it.
“Hi, Hunt. Hope you’re well. I’m planning to stop by the hospital this afternoon to visit Hernandez. I hear he woke up briefly last night. That’s positive. But that’s not the only reason I’m calling. I know you just left us on Friday and I apologize for even asking, but I need help. A huge case just dropped in my lap, incredibly high profile. Normally, I’d assign Hernandez. But since he’s not available, I’m going with Trembley, who’s never had a case this big. And the department’s desperately low on qualified profilers with you gone and, you know…Moses. If you could just help me out on this one, even in an advisory capacity, I’d be eternally grateful. Let me know.”
Jessie deleted the message, put the phone away, and pulled out of the parking garage.
She felt bad for Decker. But there would always be another big case that needed solving. For Jessie’s own sanity, her days of doing it were over.
Besides, right now she had another task to focus on, one she’d been dreading.
CHAPTER FOUR
Hannah had decided. There was something wrong with her.
She’d been stalling for a while, lying in her bed, trying to ignore the thought by debating how to spend this last week of vacation before she had to go to summer school to catch up on everything she’d missed in her junior year. There were no good movies to see. The beach was too far a drive from Kat’s downtown apartment. Besides she didn’t have a car. All her old friends, the ones she’d lost touch with, lived in the San Fernando Valley. And she hadn’t made any new ones since her life turned into a cautionary tale.
But despite her attempts to keep her brain occupied, her thoughts kept returning to the conclusion she’d reached. Finally she decided to look at the web page again. The Mayo Clinic page was specifically about antisocial personality disorder, or sociopathy. They described it as a mental disorder “in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others.” It also said they “tend to antagonize, manipulate, or treat others harshly or with callous indifference. They show no guilt or remorse for their behavior.”
Sounds kind of familiar.
Even before Dr. Lemmon started asking her questions in their therapy sessions that led down this road, Hannah had wondered why she behaved certain ways. Why had she reacted to her adoptive parents’ murders with curiosity more than horror? Why had seeing a serial killer slaughter a man in front of her and try to get her to do the same not filled her with the revulsion she would have expected? Why did the murder of Garland Moses, an old guy who had only been sweet to her, leave her with no strong reaction other than generally missing his curmudgeonly presence?
Then the last question, the one that ate at her the most, popped into her head again. How would she feel if something happened to Jessie— her half-sister, the person who’d assumed guardianship of her, her fierce protector? She’d be “sad,” of course. But would it be due to the loss of a loved one or just because of the loss of someone who made her life easier and more stable? Would she mourn the relative who was gone or merely be put out because it would make her own life harder?
Is there something truly wrong with me?
She resolved to find out. She’d taken enough science courses to know the basic rule: any theory needed to be tested in order to validate or disprove it. But how best to go about it?
There was a knock on the door and Kat poked her head in.
“Whatcha up to?” she asked casually.
“Oh, just looking over my summer reading requirements so I don’t