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“But—”
The door drowned out whatever protest Nina was going to make. The agents walked to the other side of the two-way mirror. Detective Hilary waited for them, his hands folded across his chest.
“This is her?” he asked.
“That’s her,” Faith confirmed.
“You’re sure about her?”
“Not one hundred percent,” Faith admitted, “but we found mica powder at her house, and small quantities of black, white, yellow and red are missing. She is obsessed with alchemy and seems to actually believe in it. She also sounded a little offended when we referred to the killer as he and made a point to say that the killer could be a she.”
“So she was bragging.”
“Sure sounded like it,” Michael confirmed.
“Hmm.”
He seemed unconvinced. “You think we’re on the wrong track?” Faith asked.
Hilary sighed. “No, I don’t think so. It’s just different from what I expected. I don’t know, maybe I was biased toward a male too. Did she give a reason for stripping the victims naked?”
“She kind of danced around all of her answers,” Faith said. “That’s another thing that made me suspect her. She wouldn’t really give a straight response to anything. The information wedidget we had to almost force out of her, and she was clearly nothappy providing it. The final nail in the coffin though was Turk. He identified the smell that he had found at the crime scenes and led me to the mica powder.”
Hilary seemed encouraged by that. “So it’s not just any mica powder. It’sthemica powder that was used at the scene.”
“Looks that way,” Faith said.
“Well, go ahead and talk to her,” Hilary replied. “Maybe we’ll get lucky, and she’ll tell us what we need to know.”
The three agents returned to the room. Turk trotted to Nina’s side and watched her closely, his body once more coiled like a spring. Nina looked at him and trembled slightly.
Michael began the conversation. “Okay, Nina. We’re going to talk now. If you play nice and tell us what we need to know, then this can be a cordial conversation, and we can get you comfortable and get out of your hair. If you’re difficult, then we get difficult. I promise you, it’s in your best interests not to be difficult.”
Nina didn’t respond. After a moment, Faith said, “We have the evidence, Nina. We have the mica powder, we have Turk’s nose—”
“His sense of smell is admissible in court?” Nina asked incredulously.
“Oh yes,” Faith said. “Absolutely.”
Strictly speaking, Turk’s nose wasn’t really evidence, but the mica powder was, and hearing that a K9 unit had identified the same scent at Nina’s house as was present at all three crime scenes would likely impact the jury’s opinion.
“Not to mention your attitude surrounding the whole thing,” Michael said. “You didn’t act horrified at the idea that three women were killed to complete some spell. You didn’t act sorrowful or upset or saddened. You acted excited. Almost like you were glad someone was finally completing the Magnum Opus.”
“I didn’t actsorrowful?That’syour argument?”
“More that you acted happy about it. You couldn’t wait to talk about the traditions the killer was following. Like it excited you to share the details of each murder and how they applied to alchemical traditions.”
“You two don’t get excited when you come across serial killers whose actions match your personal theories and experience.”
“No,” Faith said. “Never.”
Nina turned to Michael and found the same cold expression on his face. She looked away with a slight pout. "I suppose it's a trait that's more common in academia. Obviously, I'm not happy that women were murdered. But…" She lifted her hands as far as the shackles would allow, which wasn't far. "This ishistory!And it’s history that I’ve dedicated fourteen years of my life to studying. It’s…”
“Exciting?” Faith offered after a moment.
Nina didn’t reply.
“I wonder how you’d feel if your neck was broken and you were stripped naked, posed and sprinkled with powder?” Michael said. “Would it be exciting? Would it behistory?”
