That?s how it was personal. That?s why I wouldn?t stop. That?s why I?d prowl the monastery grounds, and the woods, and the bars and back streets of the Main. I?d persuade Ryan to follow this up. I?d figure out Julie?s client. I?d find Gabby. Maybe this was connected. Maybe not. No matter. One way or another, I?d flush out the sonofabitch responsible for this shedding of female blood, and I?d help shut him down. For good.

SPURRING THE INVESTIGATION TURNED OUT TO BE HARDER THAN I thought. Partly because of me.

By five-thirty on Friday afternoon my head and my stomach ached from the endless cups of machine coffee. We?d been discussing the files for hours. No one had turned up much, so we kept rehashing the same things over and over, sifting through the mountains of information, desperately searching for something new. There was little.

Bertrand was working the realtor angle. Morisette-Champoux and Adkins had listed their condos with ReMax. So had Gagnon?s neighbor. Huge firm, three different offices, three separate agents. None of them remembered the victims, or even the properties. Trottier?s father had used Royal Lepage.

Pitre?s former boyfriend was a doper who?d killed a prostitute in Winnipeg. Could be a break. Could be nothing. Claudel was on that.

The questioning of known sex offenders was continuing, coming up empty. Big surprise.

Teams of uniformed officers were canvassing the neighborhoods around the Adkins and Morisette-Champoux condos. Zero.

We had nowhere to turn so we were turning on one another. The mood was gloomy and patience was in short supply, so I bided my time, waiting for the right opening. They listened politely as I told them about the situation with Gabby, about the night in the car. I described the drawing, my conversation with J.S., and my surveillance of Julie.

When I finished, no one spoke. Seven women watched mutely from portable bulletin boards. Claudel?s pen wove complex webs and grids. He?d been silent and withdrawn all afternoon, as if disconnected from the rest of us. My account made him even more sullen. The sound of the large electric clock began to dominate the room.

Buzzzz.

?And you have no idea if this is the same sack of shit we chased from Berger?? Bertrand.

I shook my head.

Buzzzz.

?I say we bust the cocksucker.? Ketterling.

?For what?? Ryan.

Buzzzz.

?We could just be there for him, see how he deals with pressure.? Charbonneau.

?If he is our boy that might spook him. The last thing we want is for him to panic and blow town.? Rousseau.

?No. The last thing we want is for him to shove a plastic Jesus up someone else?s sweet spot.? Bertrand.

?The guy?s probably just a wienie wagger.?

?Or he could be Bundy with an underwear twist.?

Buzzzz.

Round and round it went like that, zigging and zagging from French to English. Eventually, everyone was drawing Claudel lines.

Buzzzz.

Then.

?How unreliable is this Gabby?? Charbonneau.

I hesitated. Somehow daylight colored things differently. I?d sent these men on a chase before, and we still didn?t know if it had been for wild geese.

Claudel looked up at me, eyes reptilian cold, and I felt the tightening in my stomach. This man despised me, wanted to destroy me. What was he doing behind my back? How far had his complaint gone? What if I was wrong?

And then I did something I would forever be unable to change. Deep down maybe I didn?t think anything bad would really happen to Gabby. She?d always landed on her feet before. Maybe I just took the safe path. Who knows? I did not elevate concern for my friend?s safety to the level of urgency. I backed off.

?She has taken off before.?

Buzzzz.

Buzzzz.

Buzzzz.

Ryan was the first to respond.

?Like this? Without a word??

I nodded.

Buzzzz.

Buzzzz.

Buzzzz.

Ryan?s expression was grim. ?All right. Let?s get a name, run a check. But we?ll keep it low profile for now. Without something else, we couldn?t get a warrant anyway.? He turned to Charbonneau. ?Michel??

Charbonneau nodded. We discussed a few other points, gathered our things, and broke.

In the many times I?d look back on that meeting, I?d always wonder if I could have altered later events. Why had I not sounded the cry over Gabby? Had the sight of Claudel dampened my resolve? Had I sacrificed the previous evening?s zeal on the altar of professional caution? Had I compromised Gabby?s survival rather than risk my professional standing? Would an all-out search begun that day have made any difference?

That night I went home and warmed a TV dinner. Swiss steak, I think. When the microwave beeped I removed the tray and peeled back the foil.

I stood there a moment, watching synthetic gravy congeal on synthetic mashed potatoes, feeling loneliness and frustration tune up for the overture. I could eat this and spend another night fighting back demons, with the cat and the sitcoms, or I could be the conductor of the evening?s performance.

?Fuck this. Maestro . . . ??

I threw the dinner into the trash and walked to Chez Katsura on Rue de la Montagne, where I treated myself to sushi and exchanged small talk with a card salesman from Sudbury. Then, declining his invitations, I moved on and caught the late showing of The Lion King at Le Faubourg.

It was ten-forty when I left the theater and took the escalator to the main level. The tiny mall was largely deserted, the vendors gone, their wares stowed and sealed in carts. I passed the bagel bakery, the frozen yogurt stand, the Japanese carry-out, their shelves and counters stripped and barricaded behind collapsible security gates. Knives and saws hung in neat rows behind the butcher?s empty cases.

The movie had been just what I needed. Singing hyenas, pounding African rhythms, and lion cub romance kept me from thinking of the murders for hours.

Well orchestrated, Brennan. Hakuna Matata.

I crossed Ste. Catherine and walked toward home. It was still hot and very humid. Mist haloed the streetlamps and hovered over the pavement, like steam from a hot tub on a cold winter night.

I saw the envelope as soon as I left the lobby and turned down my hall. It was wedged between the brass knob and the doorjamb. My first thought was Winston. Perhaps he needed to fix something and would be turning off the power or the water. No. He?d post a notice. A complaint about Birdie? A note from Gabby?

It wasn?t. In fact, it wasn?t a note at all. The envelope held two items, which lay on the table now, silent and terrible. I stared at them, heart pounding, hands trembling, knowing, yet refusing to admit their meaning.

The envelope contained a plastic ID. Gabby?s name, date of birth, and num #233;ro d?assurance maladie appeared in raised white letters below a red sunset on the left-hand side of the card. Her image was at the upper right, dreadlocks winging, something silver dangling from each ear.

The other item was a two-inch square cut from a large-scale city map. The map was in French, and showed streets and green spaces in an agonizingly familiar color code. I looked for landmarks or names that would help me pinpoint the neighborhood. Rue Ste. H #233;l #232;ne. Rue Beauchamp. Rue Champlain. I didn?t know those streets. Could be Montreal, could be a score of other cities. I hadn?t lived in Quebec long enough to know. The map contained no highways or features I could identify. Except one. A large black X covered the center of the map.

I stared numbly at the X. Terrible images formed in my mind but I fought them off, denying the one acceptable conclusion. It was a bluff. It was like the skull in the garden. This maniac was toying with me. Seeing how frightened he could make me.