I DESCRIBE HER INJURIES, explaining that she was killed in Cambridge near the Charles River and so was Elisa Vandersteel.

Both of them were attacked as it was getting dark, meaning the visibility would have been poor, and moisture was a factor in each case. Molly was standing in wet grass as she sprayed a hose, and Elisa would have been sweaty. Moisture and electricity like each other.

“But it’s curious. Why would Carrie Grethen be interested in either of the women?” Perry wonders over the phone.

“If you want my opinion? Carrie wouldn’t be,” and it’s amazing how much I resist saying her name.

But I’m thinking of what Lucy said. If I make no effort to understand Carrie Grethen, I’ll never have a hope of stopping her. And I do know her. I know her far better than I let on to anyone, including myself.

“Carrie would be interested in Briggs,” I explain. “I can understand her targeting him, and mostly the choice is personal for her. Benton and I had worked with him for decades. You know how close I was to him. She’s paying us back. Mostly she’s paying me back.”

“For what?”

I start to give him my stock flip answer of who knows? But I do know what Carrie will never forgive, and it’s not really about Lucy or any of us. It’s about Temple Gault. I killed him in a confrontation, stabbed a knife in his thigh and severed his femoral artery. I knew exactly what I was doing, and he gave me no choice. Carrie’s never gotten over it, and according to Benton she’s never gotten over him.

“But there’s nothing personal about the victim selection with the other two,” Perry says.

“There probably is but probably not for Carrie Grethen,” I reply. “The more we’re seeing, the less likely it is that she’s working alone. So maybe her accomplice, her new Temple Gault, is killing the women while Carrie is on to bigger game like John Briggs or who knows who might be next.”

“You know the problem with accomplices, don’t you? They don’t always do what they’re told.”

“Suggesting Carrie might not have anything to do with the Vandersteel and Hinders cases.”

“If someone goes rogue.”

“That would make her very angry.”

“And her partners always go rogue. But let me ask you this first,” Perry says over the phone. “From an evidence standpoint what justifies your deciding these cases are homicides? Has something turned up that I wouldn’t know about?”

He wouldn’t know about certain developments because the FBI doesn’t yet, and I’m in no hurry to share the information. If the secretary-general of Interpol tells them, that’s his business.