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“I’m listening,”he replied.
“I’ve beenthinking,” she said carefully, knowing he wasn’t going to love this. “All ofMark Haddonfield’s issues with me stem from his belief that I wronged himpersonally when he didn’t get admitted into the profiling seminar I wasteaching at UCLA.”
“Which wasbananas,” Ryan noted.
“Agreed,” Jessiesaid. “I had no control over that. The school did. But set aside the fact thathe’s an unbalanced guy who thought he had some personal connection with me, whoassumed that I was going to mentor him and that he would become my profiling protégé.And press pause on the additional fact that once that didn’t happen, he decidedto punish me for my ‘betrayal’ by killing survivors that I’d rescued fromprevious serial killers.”
“Should I also setaside that he ultimately tried to kill you too?” Ryan asked, clearly irritatedby this thought experiment.
“For now, yes,”Jessie replied, “because I think all of that can work for us.”
“How so?”
Jessie pointed atthe pan. “You’ve stopped stirring. It’s going to burn if you’re not careful.
Ryan resumedmaneuvering the ingredients around the pan, and Jessie continued.
“What if I lethim be my protégé?” she asked.
Ryan shook hishead in confusion.
“I don’t get it,”he said. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if Iwent to the prison and met with him, told him that I’d had a change of heart andwanted his input on cases, but only if he renounced the manifesto and announcedto any potential copycat that me and my loved one were off limits?”
“So in exchangefor revoking what is essentially a kill order, you’d confer with him on cases?”Ryan asked, dubious.
"Technically,yes, but not in any meaningful way," Jessie assured him. "If I agreedto visit him, say once a month, and went over a case file, asked for hisinsights and suggestions, I'm thinking that might appeal to his neediness andhis narcissism. If he knew that those visits continuing was contingent on thesafety of me and my family, I think he might go for it."
“You don’t thinkhe’d suspect he was getting played,” Ryan wanted to know.
"But hewouldn't be getting played," Jessie said. "I would come to him withreal cases, albeit not high-profile ones, and genuinely ask for his views. Thatdoesn't mean I have to act on anything he says. But if giving him a littlepersonal time gets him to call off his dogs, that seems like a small price topay."
“What about histrial for committing multiple murders and attempting to kill you?” Ryanreminded her. “It starts next month and you’re a star witness. Won’t thatcomplicate matters?”
“Not necessarily,”Jessie said. “I’d let him know up front that our arrangement wouldn’t have anyimpact on the trial or my testimony. The guy likely doesn’t have any illusionsabout whether he’ll be spending the rest of his life behind bars. Maybe the thoughtof speaking with me periodically will make that seem less onerous.”
"I know itwould for me," Ryan said with a wry smile, removing the pan from the stoveand turning off the heat. "But what if he gets assigned to prison faraway, say Corcoran or heaven forbid, Pelican Bay? That place is all the way upnear the Oregon border."
“I’d tell him thatmy job responsibilities would keep me from visiting as often, but that withinthe bounds of my work obligations and prison rules, I’d still meet with himsemi-regularly.”
“Is this somethingyou’re willing to do for the rest of his life?” Ryan pressed.
"We'll crossthat bridge down the line," Jessie answered. "Right now, I just wantto secure the safety of my loved ones. And who knows, maybe after meeting withme for a while, he'll be too emotionally invested to re-issue any calls to harmme or the people I care about."
“That might bewishful thinking,” Ryan told her as he spooned dinner onto her plate.
She shrugged asshe poured wine into the two glasses on the table.
“It’s better thandoing nothing and waiting for the next shoe to drop,” she said, sitting downacross from him. “Now let’s dive in.”
She raised herglass. Ryan did the same. They clinked briefly and took their first sip of thewine. Jessie stabbed the first bite of the steaming hot meal and was justputting it in her mouth when Ryan’s cell phone rang. He held it up for her tosee. The call was from Captain Parker.
“You’ve got to bekidding me,” Jessie muttered.
Ryan smiledruefully.
“Maybe she justwants to say ‘hi.’”
