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“You’re in prison,” she retorted. “You won’t see me except in your own nightmares.”
“I have many names, Faith. Many faces.” As though to prove his point, his body twisted, bulging and growing until the creature that stood before her wasn’t Franklin West but the hulking seven-foot giant Jethro Trammell. “I am Legion,” he said in Jethro’s lilting tenor. “And feel free to imprison me as much as you want. I’ll only show up again with a new face and a new name.”
His smile faded. “And make no mistake. I will break you.”
***
Faith woke to Turk licking her face. She sighed and sat up, ruffling the dog’s fur. “Sorry, boy. Was I making noise in my sleep again?”
“Yeah, you were,” Michael’s voice called. She looked over to see him tying his shoes. “It sounded like you were having a really good dream. Judging by the look on your face, I’m going to guess it wasn’t as fulfilling as it sounded.”
She rolled her eyes and decided not to rise to his bait. “I think we should explore the alchemy side.”
He frowned. “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”
“No. Not really. We’re looking at the killer. I think we should look at the ritual.”
“The ritual? Yes. Therubedocomes next.”
“Yes, but I mean holistically. The killer wants eternal life. That informs every decision he makes. He takes public transportation because he doesn’t want to risk his car being seen near the crimes.”
“Or he doesn’t have one,” Michael suggested.
“Maybe,” she admitted, “but he also chooses victims who are alone and kills them before they can call for help. He moves quickly, does what he needs to do, then vanishes. There’s no lingering to admire his work and no lingering to admire or ‘enjoy’ his victims.”
“So he doesn’t want to get caught. That doesn’t seem all that esoteric to me.”
“My point is that he’s trying to keep himself from dying.” A thought occurred to her. “I think he might be terminally ill. I think he’s trying to complete this ritual because he thinks it’s his only chance.”
“I get what you’re saying, but what exactly should we be doing differently?”
“We need to learn more about alchemy. We need to understand the philosophy thoroughly to get a better idea of who our killer is.”
“So you want to go back to talk to Dr. Cranston?”
She nodded. “I think that’s a good place to start.”
He shrugged. “Well, that’s a better idea than my complete lack of ideas. I’ll call the university.”
Faith changed quickly. Michael glanced her way once, then hurriedly looked away. Faith hadn’t stripped completely naked, but she felt a blush climb her cheeks. She’d changed in front of him without thinking. She wasn’t trying to catch his eye, but sheshould have gone to the restroom or at least warned him to look away.
Well, she could worry about that little trespass later. She needed to catch a killer right now, not explore her latent feelings for her best friend.
Michael hung up the phone just as Faith finished dressing. “Is it safe to turn around now?” he asked, a little testily.
“Yes, sorry. I didn’t think.”
After a brief pause, he said, “Fair enough. Maybe we both agree to change in the bathroom from now on, though.”
“Fine with me,” she said. “Again, sorry.”
“No worries. Anyway, I called the university. Cranston’s out of town today. He’ll be back in two days. We can wait for him, or we can talk to another instructor, Nina Verbeck. She’s a historian, but she’s working on a book on alchemical traditions.”
“That works for me,” Faith said. “A fresh perspective would be nice.”
“Perfect. I’ll give her a call.”
He dialed the number and Faith tried to imagine her killer as a sick, terrified, desperate man rather than a calculating murderer. It strained credulity, but Faith had encountered killers of that sort before. When pushed far enough, people would do anything to save their own life.
