He looked at her moodily. “You said your twin sister was six when she was taken.”
“That’s right.”
“From her bedroom in the middle of the night near Andersonville, Georgia. With you in the room?”
“Yes.”
“And you think I struck you but didn’t kill you?”
“You actually cracked my skull.”
“And I performed a nursery rhyme to decide which one of you to take?”
“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.”
“So whomever the rhyme started on, it would end on the other because of the even number of words.”
She leaned forward. “So why did you pick me to start the rhyme with? Because then you knew Mercy would be the loser.”
“You’re going too fast, Agent Pine. You must slow down if we’re to get anywhere.”
Pine instinctively decided to punch back. “I don’t feel like wasting any more time.”
He smiled and rattled his shackles as he responded, “I’ve got all the time in the world.”
“Why did you choose to let me live and not Mercy? Was it just random? A coincidence?”
“Don’t let your survivor’s guilt run away with you. And I don’t have time for whiners.” He abruptly smiled and added, “Even with over thirty life sentences to my name.” He acted proud of his legal punishment, and she knew he was.
“Okay, but it’s important for me to know,” she said calmly.
“I cracked your skull, so you said. You could have easily died.”
“Could have but didn’t. And you always liked to make sure with your victims.”
“And you do realize that you’re now refuting your own argument that I was the attacker that night?”
“I don’t see it that way.”
“Let me press the point then. Do you know of any other time when I took a six-year-old from her bedroom and left a witness alive?”
She sat back. “No.”
“So why think I did so in your case? Because your hypnotherapist elicited that memory from you? You told me about that the last visit. Curious thing, hypnotherapy. It’s wrong as often as it’s right, maybe more so. But you would have studied me at the FBI. All of you did because I was required reading,” he added casually, though she could detect a glint of pride in his words. “You said you knew I was operating in Georgia around that time. So you know what I think? The hypnosis didn’t produce an actual memory, it merely gave you the basis to form a conclusion at which you had already arrived based on extraneous information.” He shook his head. “That would never stand up in court. You put me there because you wanted to put me there, and you didn’t have the real person to fill in the blanks in your memories. You wanted closure so badly, you’re willing to accept an untruth.”
She said nothing because the man could be right about that. As she sat mulling this over, he said, “Agent Pine, have I lost you?” He rattled his chains. “Hello, FBI, my interest meter is plummeting by the second.”
“You changed your MO over the years. Not all your attacks were alike. They evolved.”
“Of course they evolved. Like any occupation, the longer you do it, the better you get at it. I am no exception. I am, in fact, the rule for my…particular specialty.”
She kept the bile in her stomach from leaching into her throat at this comment. She knew he was waiting to see the revulsion on her face at his comparing murderous activity to an occupation. But she would not give him the satisfaction.
“Granted. But now you’re reinforcing my conclusion. Just because you hadn’t done it before doesn’t mean you would never do it. You got better, as you said. Your MO evolved.”
“Had you known me to do it since that time?”
Pine was ready for that one. “We don’t know all of your victims, do we? So I can’t answer that with any certainty.”
He sat back and gave her a grudging smile at this slickly played rejoinder. “You want an answer now, don’t you? Did I or didn’t I, simple as that?”
“Again, it would cost you nothing. They won’t execute you for it.”
“I could lie and say you’re right. Would that be enough for you?”
“I’m an FBI agent.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I need—”
“You need the body—or skeleton, rather—after all this time, is that right?”
“I need corroboration,” she said simply.
He shrugged. “I’m afraid I don’t know where all the bodies are buried.”
“Then they were wrong about your photographic memory?”
“Not at all. But I’ve intentionally forgotten some of them.”
“Why?”
He leaned forward. “Because they weren’t all memorable, Agent Pine. And I don’t want to provide closure to every