Apex Predator (34 page)

Like Garcia, this individual was particularly well informed. He also had contacts in the right places to find out the information he was looking for, but he had to be careful not to show too much interest, not to seem too eager for more details. He could always claim professional interest if anyone were to ever question his intense interest in the case. As a neuropsychologist and criminal-profiling consultant, it would only make sense that he’d be especially interested in the Riche case. Only he and he alone knew that his interest in the case had nothing to do with his profession, that his interest in the case was intensely personal.

Dr. Nigel Barlow had not given up hope yet. His sources had informed him that the investigation to find Riche’s killer continued. He would keep his ear to the ground. He knew that sooner or later there would be more information about the case and that when that happened he might be able to learn what he needed to learn, what he was really interested in. Barlow’s interest in the case was not driven by professional curiosity or even sick voyeuristic interests. His interest in the case was more akin to the interest that a hungry wolf might feel when it caught the smell of prey in the air.

Barlow had just finished up a session with one of his oldest and most important projects. His visitor grabbed his coat from a rack and walked over to the wet bar that was on the far wall of the office they were in and put the glass he’d been drinking 50-year-old Scotch from in the sink. Barlow walked to the door to let him out. The man stopped before leaving, “So, Nigel, any chance we’ll be able to get together for golf anytime soon?” Nigel shook his head smiling, “I will absolutely try to make that happen, but I am in the middle of a project, and you of all people know what a hectic time that can be.”

His visitor grinned, “Ah, I understand. I absolutely do. Still, let me know if you’re able to get away and I will send the chopper to bring you up to Westchester. You have got to see the redone 17th and 18th holes at the club. They are amazing.”

Barlow smiled, “Splendid! I shall contact if you if I am at all able to take a few hours off. In the meantime, don’t forget what we talked about and what we decided.”

The man put his coat on while nodding and walking toward the elevator, “I got it, I won’t forget. Good night, Nigel.”

Barlow raised his hand, “Good night, Senator.”

Steven got to the GIC building just after five, when administrative staff had gone home for the most part or were in the process of packing up for the day. He didn’t stop on his floor. He didn’t want to run into Stephanie or anybody else. He wanted to talk to the General and to get the show on the road. Now that he had a concrete plan, he wanted to move forward with it.

He got to the old man’s floor, went to his office, and knocked lightly on the door, which was open as usual.

The General looked up from a file on his desk and Steven could see the genuine pleasure on the man’s face. “Steven! It’s good to see you! Come in, come in, have a seat. Just move that crap from the chair and put it on the table.”

Steven put a stack of files on the table on the other side of the office and sat down across from his boss. “Thank you, sir. It looks like you’ve been busy.”

Goodman made a shooing motion with his hands, “That? They’re just files on some of the deals we’ve closed in the past couple of years. I like to look at them from time to time. There’s a lot you can learn from looking back at how the business landscape has changed from then to now. You look great, rested. I knew spending time with your family, away from all this shit, would do the trick.”

Steven nodded, “That it did. I do feel better, clearer. You were right, being with my family gave me some perspective and allowed me to focus on figuring out what my next move should be. Actually, that’s what I came to talk to you about.”

The General leaned back in his chair and folded his hands on his lap, “Okay. I didn’t think you came to talk about old files. What’s on your mind?”

Steven shifted in his chair. One thing was thinking about what he needed to do, but it was quite another to actually articulate the words, to say it, especially to this man. “Well, sir, I think we both know what happened at the courthouse. I wanted to speak with you about it in a more meaningful way afterwards, but I honestly wasn’t sure what my intentions, my ultimate intentions, were.

“I want you to know, no, I need you to know, that I didn’t do what I did because of some desire for vigilante justice. I didn’t make the decision out of anger. Don’t get me wrong, when I saw the warehouse and what he’d done to my daughter, I was enraged, I wanted him dead, but you need to know that in spite of that, I really believed that I would let the court system handle it. It’s ironic, my anger and rage actually ensured that I wouldn’t make a decision until I had a chance to cool down and think about things. It’s the way I was trained and I don’t need to tell you that it sticks with you for life.”

He paused to assess the man’s reaction to what he was saying. The old man just sat there, with a focused and curious expression, but he didn’t say anything.

Steven continued, “I made the decision to shoot Riche because I felt that our system, our justice system, just wasn’t prepared for someone like Riche. Wherever he got sent, for however long he got sent there, he would never believe or think of it as punishment. Even if he got the death penalty, he would still not see it as a punishment. He would have seen it as something that we needed to do in order to be safe from him, in order to contain him and what he represented. He would have seen it as our weakness.

“I did a lot of research about this, sir, and what I have found is absolutely incredible, fascinating but also terrifying. There are a number of researchers who have dedicated their careers to studying people like Riche. These scientists have been exploring the idea that there are individuals out there who do not fit within the parameters we have set for human behavior, even sick human behavior.

“There are reams of information, but I only printed out the most pertinent data to show you. Basically, these scientists have concluded that there is another species on the planet that shares a common genus with us, but it is completely different. They interviewed thousands of people and categorized them using established scales for psychopathic and sociopathic behavior. They ruled out every mental disorder and they developed scales of their own.

“The most accomplished researcher when it comes to this field is a professor at Queens College, here in New York. Dr. Tyrone Leonard has defined this new species as
Homo sapiens predaer
or
Homo predator
. They look human and they act human, but they act the way they do as a part of pursuing their prey. They are born predators with the best camouflage known to man and with the intelligence and cunning to use it.

“After reading all of the research and speaking with Leonard, I realized that’s exactly what Riche was, a born predator with the drive and the intelligence to take nine little girls in broad daylight without leaving a trace. You’ve been hearing the news, most people believe that his last nine victims were definitely not his only victims. Authorities in some of the places he’d been have begun to put together lists of missing persons that they now believe fell prey to Riche.

“Art, I know how this must sound to you. I know it sounds crazy, but what I saw in that warehouse, the care and thought that he put into it, is like nothing I’ve ever come across, and you know what I’ve come across.”

The General was nodding. Steven didn’t usually address him by his first name, only doing it in very intense and critical situations.

He looked at Steven, not in judgment or with skepticism, but with something closer to impatience. “Why would I think it sounds crazy? I’ve seen the pictures and I’ve heard the details. Hell, even before this, before Riche, I’ve pondered many times how it is that someone can do some of the things we’ve seen, and I know I’m not the only one. For decades people have speculated about what makes someone like Ted Bundy or Dennis Rader tick. People make offhand remarks here and there about how these things are monsters, not possibly human. They say those things and get a chill up their spine, but they never stop to think, really think, about what creates these monsters.

“So now that this tragedy touched you and your family, you decided to go through the looking glass and find out what these things really are. You found what you were looking for and you made a decision that needed to be made based on the best information you could get. Why would I think any of that is crazy?”

Steven’s shoulders relaxed and he was surprised to find out just how tense he had been when he first walked into that office. He realized that the General was his first audience, the first person to hear his ideas and his reasons for doing what he’d done, and if he hadn’t believed Steven or just thought he was crazy, Steven’s hopes that the world might believe him would be very slim.

He got the files from his briefcase and slid them across the old man’s desk, “Here’s all the research I’ve done. There are some of my notes from my own conversations with the experts in there as well.”

The General took the files, put his reading glasses on and skimmed through them. “Christ, I need a new pair of reading glasses. I swear I think I’m going blind.”

After a couple of minutes of leafing through the material, he looked up over his glasses and asked Steven the hardest question, “So, now what? I know you also didn’t come here just to give me these files. What are you planning to do next?”

Steven shifted in his chair again. This was exactly the reason he had come here, to let his boss in on what his plan was. The old man hadn’t shown even the slightest surprise or incredulity at what Steven had shared with him so far, but then again he hadn’t told him everything yet.

“You’re right, that’s not why I came here. I came here because you have been more than generous with my family and me and I wanted you to be the first one to know. I also hoped that you might have some advice for me, that you might let me know if you think I’m crazy.”

The General went back to just sitting with his hands on his desk and looking straight at Steven, “Well, you’re right about one thing, I will absolutely tell you if I think you’re crazy. You know that I don’t like to be bullshitted and I don’t like to bullshit others, so I’m all ears.”

Steven went on, “I’ve known even from the beginning, from the time I made the decision to shoot Riche, that I would eventually turn myself in. Maybe I should have done it right away, but honestly I didn’t really know if that would be the smart thing to do. I was operating on adrenaline and training and I felt hazy, like I used to feel when we ran ops with no sleep for days.

“Anyway, I wanted to make sure that I hadn’t done it out of anger and revenge. I wanted to understand the reason I did it and I wanted to make sure that it would be worth it, that everything I knew my family had and would be going through would have a higher purpose.”

Steven paused and leaned forward in his chair, “When I talked with Leonard, the scientist I told you about, I was amazed that nobody knew about his work, none of what I’d read was anywhere to be found in the public consciousness. It seemed like the world would or should know about it by now, like there would be headlines everywhere, but there weren’t. To find out about his work, about the science of it, you have to do a lot of research in a lot of obscure places and I couldn’t understand why.

“After talking to him, I realized that I really shouldn’t have been surprised by the lack of interest. He told me about other scientific discoveries, stuff that’s been found recently too, not years and years ago. Amazing stuff, General, growing human eggs from embryonic stem cells, discovering the God particle, things that will literally change humanity and I hadn’t heard about any of it. We keep an ear to the ground because of what we do, so I think we’re better informed about news events than most and I hadn’t heard about any of it. Once I understood that, it made sense that nobody would have heard about the discoveries he has made.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think the best thing I can do now is to bring attention to them, to the science and what it means, I mean
really
means, day to day, how they can destroy a life in the blink of an eye.”

Steven paused again to get a sense of where the old man was. He went from looking directly at Steven to looking out the window of his office, obviously thinking about what he’d just heard. Steven knew the man and knew he wouldn’t say anything unless he was certain about what he was saying, and he’d just heard his best and most senior executive tell him that he believed there is another species on the planet higher on the food chain than human beings. It was understandable that he’d take his time before responding.

When he finally looked back at Steven, his demeanor had changed. He was not simply listening to him saying what he had to say, but ready to take an active role in whatever Steven was planning.

“You started this conversation by telling me that you knew you’d be turning yourself in, and now you’re telling me that you intend to bring attention to this science, so I am assuming that you’re about to tell me how it is you are going to do both. I think I have an idea of what you’re planning to do, so let’s hear it.”

Steven couldn’t help but smile, the man knew him too well, “You’re right, that’s exactly what I’m planning on doing. To be honest with you, I made things way more complicated than they needed to be. I was overthinking everything.”

The General nodded, “Happens sometimes, especially when you’re operating on adrenaline and coffee.”

Steven went on, “Once I had a chance to take a step back and think about everything, it was almost ridiculously obvious. If I turn myself in, the question of who shot Riche and how he was shot would obviously be answered.

“I read the statute for murder and when you think about it, most people charged with murder defend themselves by arguing that they didn’t do it, that it wasn’t them who killed anyone. When it is obvious it was them that killed, they argue that it was an accident, that they didn’t mean to kill anyone. In my case, none of that is in question. I did it and I intended on doing it, planned it in fact. When I turn myself in, it will be clear who did it and how I did it.”