?L?h #244;pital Pinel. Puis-je vous aider?? A female voice.

?Dr. LaPerri #232;re, s?il vous pla #238;t.? Please let him still work there.

?Un instant, s?il vous pla #238;t.?

Yes! He was still on staff. I was put on hold, then led through the same ritual by a second female voice.

?Qui est sur la ligne, s?il vous pla #238;t??

?Dr. Brennan.?

The sound of more empty air. Then.

?Dr. LaPerri #232;re.? A female voice, this one sounding tired and impatient.

?I?m Dr. Temperance Brennan,? I said, fighting to keep the tremor from my voice, ?forensic anthropologist at the Laboratoire de M #233;decine L #233;gale, and I?m involved in the investigation of a series of murders which have taken place over the past several years in the Montreal area. We have reason to believe one of your former patients may be involved.?

?Yes.? Wary.

I explained about the task force, and asked what she could tell me about Leo Fortier.

?Dr. . . . Brennan, is it? Dr. Brennan, you know I can?t discuss a patient file on the basis of a phone call. Without court authorization, that would be a breach of confidentiality.?

Stay cool. You knew that would be the response.

?Of course. And that authorization will be forthcoming, but we are in an urgent situation, Doctor, and we cannot delay in speaking with you. And at this point that authorization really isn?t necessary. Women are dying, Dr. LaPerri #232;re. They?re being brutally murdered and disfigured. The individual doing this is capable of extreme violence. He mutilates his victims. We think he?s someone with tremendous rage against women, and someone with enough intelligence to plan and carry out these killings. And we think he?ll strike again soon.? I swallowed, my mouth dry from fear. ?Leo Fortier is a suspect, and we need to know whether, in your opinion, there is anything in Fortier?s history to suggest he could fit this profile? The paperwork for production of his records will catch up, but if you have a recollection of this patient, information you provide now may help us stop the killer before he strikes again.?

I had wrapped another quilt around myself, this one a blanket of icy calm. I could not let her hear the fear in my voice.

?I simply cannot . . .?

My blanket was slipping.

?I have a child, Dr. LaPerri #232;re? Do you??

?What?? Affront vied with the weariness.

?Chantale Trottier was sixteen years old. He beat her to death, then cut her up and left her in a dump.?

?Jesus Christ.?

Though I?d never met Marie Claude LaPerri #232;re, her voice painted a vivid scene, a triptych done in metal gray, institutional green, and dirty brick.

I could picture her: middle-aged, disillusionment etched deeply in her face. She worked for a system in which she?d long ago lost faith, a system unable to understand, much less curb, the cruelty of a society gone mad on its fringes. The gang bang victims. The teenagers with vacant eyes and bleeding wrists. The babies, scalded and scarred by cigarette burns. The fetuses floating in bloody toilet bowls. The old, starved and tethered in their own excrement. The women with their battered faces and pleading eyes. Once, she?d believed she could make a difference. Experience had convinced her otherwise.

But she?d taken an oath. To what? For whom? The dilemma was now as familiar to her as her idealism had once been. I heard her take a deep breath.

?Leo Fortier was committed for a six-month period in 1988. During that time I was his attending psychiatrist.?

?Do you remember him??

?Yes.?

I waited, heart pounding. I heard her click a lighter open and shut, then breathe deeply.

?Leo Fortier came to Pinel because he beat his grandmother with a lamp.? She spoke in short sentences, treading carefully. ?The old woman needed over a hundred stitches. She refused to press charges against her grandson. When Fortier?s period of involuntary commitment ended, I recommended continued treatment. He refused.?

She paused to select just the right words.

?Leo Fortier watched his mother die while his grandmother stood by. Grandma then raised him, engendering in him an extremely negative self-image that resulted in an inability to form appropriate social relationships.

?Leo?s grandmother punished him excessively, but protected him from the consequences of his acts outside the home. By the time Leo was a teen, his activities suggest he was suffering severe cognitive distortion along with an overwhelming need to control. He?d developed an excessive sense of entitlement, and exhibited intense narcissistic rage when thwarted.

?Leo?s need to control, his repressed love and hatred toward his grandmother, and his increasing social isolation led him to spend more and more time in his own fantasy world. He had also developed all the classic defense mechanisms. Denial, repression, projection. Emotionally and socially, he was extremely immature.?

?Do you think he is capable of the behavior I have described?? I was surprised at how steady my voice sounded. Inside I was churning, terrified for my daughter.

?At the time I worked with Leo his fantasies were fixed and definitely negative. Many involved violent sexual behaviors.?

She paused and I heard another deep breath.

?In my opinion, Leo Fortier is a very dangerous man.?

?Do you know where he lives now?? This time my voice trembled.

?I have had no contact with him since his release.?

I was about to say good-bye when I thought of another question. ?How did Leo?s mother die??

?At the hands of an abortionist,? she answered.

When I hung up, my mind was racing. I had a name. Leo Fortier worked with Grace Damas, had access to church properties, and was extremely dangerous. Now what?

I heard a soft rumble and noticed that the room had turned purple. I opened the French doors and looked out. Heavy clouds had gathered over the city, casting the evening into premature darkness. The wind had shifted and the air was dense with the smell of rain. Already the cypress was whipping to and fro, and leaves were dancing along the ground.

One of my earliest cases unexpectedly came to mind. Nellie Adams, five years old, missing. I?d heard it on the news. There had been a violent thunderstorm the day she was reported missing. I?d thought of her that night from the safety of my bed. Was she out there, alone and terrified in that storm? Six weeks later I?d identified her from a skull and rib fragments.

Please, Katy! Please come back now!

Stop it! Call Ryan.

Lightning flickered on the wall. I latched the doors shut and walked over to a lamp. Nothing. The timer, Brennan. It?s set for eight. It?s still too early.

I slid my hand behind the couch and flicked the timer button. Nothing. I tried the wall switch. Nothing. I felt my way along the wall and rounded the corner into the kitchen. The lights would not respond. With growing alarm, I stumbled down the hall and into the bedroom. The clock was dark. No power. I stood for a moment, my mind grasping at explanations. Had there been a lightning strike? Had the wind felled branches onto a feeder line?

I realized the apartment was unnaturally quiet, and closed my eyes to listen. A m #233;lange of sounds filled the vacuum left by stilled appliances. The storm outside. My own heartbeat. And then, something else. A faint click. A door closing? Birdie? Where was it? The other bedroom?

I crossed to the bedroom window. Lights glowed along the street and from the apartments on De Maisonneuve. I ran back down the hall to the courtyard doors. I could see the lights in my neighbors? windows gleaming through the rain. It was just me! Only my power was off! Then I remembered: the safety alarm had not beeped when I opened the French doors. I had no security system!