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the next knot I untied could be my last.
Millie Bradford, huh? Sounds like you have a lead on the phantom brown bag.
I looked up at Carlos and smiled. It could be a big break.
What is she doing with it?
Nothing now. She dumped it.
Hid it?
Yup.
Why?
I don t know. None of this makes sense. First, people are getting cut up like sausage, and then the very
people we are trying to protect go out and kill each other. I just don t get it.
What exactly did the old girl say?
She told me she found the bag in Doctor Lieberman s office.
Oh?
And get this. For whatever reasons, the others all thought that Doctor Lieberman was the Surgeon Stalker.
They had Bradford rummage through his office to find incriminating evidence.
They?
The group: all the other members of the workshop.
Carlos took a seat opposite me. All right, let me get this straight. The members of the workshop, including
Millie Bradford, believed Doctor Lieberman was the Surgeon Stalker. So, they have the old lady search his
office and she finds this bag with bloody towels inside. Right so far?
I nodded.
Okay. The old lady shows the bag and the bloody towels to the others and they...what? Decide to kill Doctor
Lieberman?
I guess so. That s certainly the way it looks, isn t it?
Carlos eased his chair up on its two back legs. His face soured as he digested the facts, but one thought kept
returning to him. He dropped the chair back on all fours and folded his hands up on the desk. It does look that
way, but if there s one thing I ve learned from you over the years, it s that things are not always what they
seem.
What do you think?
I think Doctor Lieberman wasn t the Stalker, was he?
No, not after
After someone cut out his liver.
That s right. He didn t do it himself.
I think I get the picture now. I see these guys killing Doctor Lieberman, but then the next morning they find
out that the real Surgeon Stalker had come along and cut out the doctor s liver. Realizing their mistake, the
twins threaten to go to the police with the truth. The others vote against it. They argue about it at the gazebo.
Unfortunately, the twins are unable to convince the others to turn themselves in to the police. A fight ensues,
they bludgeoned the twins to death, and in an effort to cover up the crime they set the gazebo ablaze.
This time I shook my head. No. I don t think it s that simple, Carlos. I think you are overlooking a couple of
small details. For instance, how did the Stalker know to find Doctor Lieberman s body hanging from the tree?
And why were the bloody towels in Doctor Lieberman s office in the first place?
You think he was set up?
It sure looks that way. I think someone set him up.
Someone? You re thinking the twins?
Perhaps, and then maybe the others found out. So they killed the girls.
Or maybe it s the other way around. Maybe the twins figured out that Michael or Gordon was the Stalker,
and were killed for discovering his secret?
I agreed, remembering how Michael actually did the deed according to the flashback I witnessed at Lilith s
house. That brings us full circle then, doesn t it?
How so?
There s still Valerie s role in all of this. Don t forget; yesterday while you were strolling around the pool, I
had an opportunity to read her thoughts about the bloody towels.
That s right. You did, didn t you?
Oh, how times have changed, I thought. Not twenty-four hours earlier, if I had made a statement like that,
Carlos would have accused me of bordering on the lunatic fringe, unable to resist making snide comments laced
with sarcastic overtones and stinging innuendoes of psycho dribble. Now it seemed amazing how readily he
accepted the notion that I could read another person s mind.
I m not really sure what to make of her thoughts, Carlos, I said. The image is very strange. I think she
may have performed a psychometric analysis on the towels.
Psycho& ?
It s when someone reads the events connected with an object by holding the object and concentrating on it
until it produces an image of past events in one s mind.
Oh, I thought it was the study of psychos.
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