A Killer's Mind (Zoe Bentley Mystery #1)(18)

“Dr. Bernstein.” Zoe smiled, her eyes widening in fake admiration. “It’s an honor to finally meet you.”

“Thank you,” the man said, standing up to shake her hand. His handshake was limp, passive.

Zoe kept her smile, sitting down. “So I’m interested in what you have to say about this . . . Strangling Undertaker.”

“Wouldn’t you prefer we start discussing it from scratch?” The doctor sat down as well. “It might prevent your own opinions from being influenced by mine.”

Zoe was amused by the idea of Bernstein affecting her opinions. She glanced at Tatum and Martinez, who sat down at the table. “I don’t want to waste time. You’ve clearly put a lot of effort into it, so let’s start with what we already have.”

“Very well.” Dr. Bernstein stood up again. “Well, the subject is male, probably white, in his late twenties or thirties—”

“I definitely agree,” Zoe said, nodding.

Bernstein smiled modestly and sent a victorious glance over to Tatum, whose face was blank, his jaw clenched.

“In fact,” Zoe continued, “I’d say there’s a sixty-three percent chance he’s white and only a twelve percent chance he’s black and a sixteen percent chance he’s Hispanic or Latino.”

The doctor blinked in confusion.

“That sounds very specific,” Lieutenant Martinez said. “How can you tell—”

“That’s the division of the population in the United States,” Zoe explained. “So if you choose any man at random, it would match these probabilities. I assume that’s what the doctor meant, since there’s no other way to know he’s white. Serial killers are spread pretty evenly through all races.”

“That’s not entirely what I meant,” the doctor said, pursing his lips. “As I’ve said in two of my books—”

“I’m sorry,” Zoe said, her tone apologetic. “I haven’t read any of your books.”

There was a moment of silence.

The doctor finally cleared his throat, turning away from her, speaking to Martinez. “Well, if Dr. Bentley here had my experience, she’d agree he targets white victims, and that indicates—”

“We have two victims,” Zoe said. “We don’t know what he targets yet. And there have been white killers who killed black women and vice versa.” She felt impatient. His jab about her experience rubbed at her.

“It’s very easy to speak of those things as an academic,” Bernstein said. “After all, you’ve only recently graduated. How long have you been practicing forensic psychology as an agent . . . I’m sorry, I meant as a consultant?”

She flushed and smiled, baring her teeth. “A few years. How many cases did you help profile? Aside from your media interviews, I mean.”

“Do you agree with the doctor’s assessment of his age?” Martinez asked, raising his voice slightly.

“It’s probably a good estimate.” Zoe shrugged. “But I wouldn’t treat it as fact. Monte Rissel began to rape women when he was fourteen. He moved on to killing them soon after. By the way, he’s a good example of a serial killer who murdered both white and black women. Right, Doctor?”

“Well, yes . . . uh . . .” He seemed at a momentary loss.

“I really think we’re making progress,” Zoe said. “Please go on.”

“Well . . . he leaves the bodies in public spots, demonstrating his superiority over the law enforcement agencies and enjoying his fame. He—”

“Has he written any letters to the newspapers or the police?” Zoe asked.

“No,” Martinez said.

“Then how do you know he isn’t just doing it as part of his fantasy, getting off on danger? Or maybe those locations hold some significance for him. I see no demonstration in these murders of any search for fame or a game of cat and mouse. The spots he chose are public, that’s true, but they’re also guaranteed to be quite empty at night and have no security cameras in them. And posing the body seems to have a meaning for him. The chosen spot could have something to do with this meaning.”

“That’s your interpretation,” the doctor said. “But—”

“Well, if we have two contradictory interpretations, we can’t really assume one of them is probable until we’ve agreed that the other is not likely,” Zoe said firmly.

“Okay,” Martinez said, raising his hands as if trying to control the heated discussion. “Perhaps we should start with the points we’ve definitely agreed upon. Dr. Bernstein said that since the man is acquainted with embalming practices, he’s likely worked in a funeral home before. I definitely agree, and—”

“Why?” Zoe asked.

“Why?” Martinez looked at her, annoyed. “What do you mean?”

“Why do you agree? Did you look for suspects in funeral homes before Dr. Bernstein did his profile?”

“Well, no, but it sounds quite logical that—”

“It does,” Zoe said, deciding she’d had enough. “Everything sounds logical when spoken by a man with the cultivated appearance of knowledge. Definitely when he is elderly and has white hair and tends to appear on TV with the tagline serial killer expert. But if our killer is so experienced in embalming, why was the foot of the first victim decomposing when she was found? Let me tell you why. It was decomposing because he hadn’t embalmed many times before, and he was still learning the process. The second victim was completely embalmed. Our killer is learning. Also, Agent Gray told me the second victim was embalmed with a different mixture of embalming fluid. He’s experimenting because he’s new at this. I’d say that if you want to exclude a portion of the population, I’d exclude all people who have worked more than a few weeks in a funeral home. They already know their job.”