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Valerie held back. Will was working his skills into the conversation and getting under Patrick Ives’s skin.
“Did you ever have any sexual fantasies about Agatha Mitchell?”
“What the hell kinda question is that?” Patrick shot back. “I’m not some pervert.”
Valerie was fascinated by his reaction. It seemed like he was getting more and more defensive the longer they talked to him. Will must have seen it, too, because he decided to change tactics.
“What about Gillian Pugh? Did you ever fantasize about her?”
This time, Patrick’s reaction was even more extreme. He stood up abruptly, knocking his chair over in the process. His face was red, and he was shaking with anger.
“I didn’t hurt them!” he shouted. “I didn’t do anything to them! I swear!”
Will remained calm in the face of Patrick’s outburst. Valerie looked at her colleague and saw the keen intensity that always burned in them when he was close to a breakthrough. Will clearly knew that if he could keep Patrick talking, eventually he would slip up and reveal something important.
“Sit down, Patrick,” Valerie said calmly. “We’re not accusing you of anything. We just want to understand what happened.”
Patrick hesitated for a moment before finally sitting back down in his chair. He still looked angry, but he seemed to have calmed down slightly.
“I didn’t do anything to them,” he repeated quietly. “I swear. I swear.”
Valerie focused in on that last statement. He had repeated himself. Valerie remembered one of her tutors back at the FBI in her academy days telling her that when a person repeated something, it was sometimes a deceptive attempt to appear more sincere.
Valerie wasn’t buying it.
Will had struck a nerve asking about Patrick’s attraction to the two victims. It was a nerve Valerie intended to squeeze harder.
“Patrick,” she said sternly, leaning in closer to him. “You didn’t hurt them. But you did do something to them, didn’t you?”
Patrick looked away, but not before Valerie saw the guilt flicker in his eyes. She knew she was right.
“What did you do to them, Patrick?” she asked, switching to a gentler tone. “Tell us what happened.”
Patrick shook his head, still avoiding her gaze. But Valerie could see the conflict written all over his face. He wanted to tell them what he had done, but he was clearly struggling with some kind of inner demons.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Patrick started to speak. “I didn’t mean to hurt them,” he said quietly. “I just wanted to ... I don’t know ... touch them.”
Valerie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She had heard this story a million times before from other serial killers. They always claimed that they didn’t mean to kill their victims, that it was just a momentary lapse in judgment or something beyond their control. But the truth was, they enjoyed it. They got off on the power and the control they had over another person’s life and death.
“How did you touch them, Patrick?”
“If you don’t tell us,” Charlie interjected. “You could end up with a much harder sentence.”
“Sentence?” Patrick said, his face in shock.
A cold dread began to wash over Valerie. Will winced slightly and gave her a quick glance. He had obviously noted it too.
Why would a guilty man be so surprised that he was going to go to jail?
“For killing Agatha and Gillian,” Valerie said.
Patrick put his head in his hands. “No way, man. No way.” He looked up. “You think I did it?”
“Isn’t that what we’re talking about?” Charlie asked. “You said you touched them.”
“But I didn’t kill them. I would never do that.”
“What exactly did you do to them, Patrick?” Valerie asked again, her patience wearing thin.