Hollis was staring at him. “Yeah, about that. Since when do we have a drug that suppresses psychic ability?”

“Not all psychic ability. Just telekinesis.”

“The question stands.”

“Something we developed in the lab.”

Hollis opened her mouth, then closed it. “I need to pay more attention to that lab the next time I’m there,” she said finally.

“Different lab,” Bishop said.

Hollis looked at Miranda. “He does that deliberately, doesn’t he?”

“Does what?”

“You’re getting as bad as he is.”

Miranda smiled at her.

Whatever Hollis might have said was interrupted by a giant yawn she hastily covered with one hand. “Last night’s catching up with me,” she muttered. “And today. Well, at least Daniel was so eager to explain himself that his confession is pretty damned clear. Not much room for a defense, if you ask me. He’s evil and probably crazy, but not clinically insane, I’d say.”

Finn said, “No, hardly insane. And he didn’t have to tell us much, really. You guys were right about him.”

Diana said, “At least he can’t go on killing now. And it’s obvious he would have if he hadn’t been stopped. Imagining all those grievances, being convinced that both Cole Ainsworth and Simon Cavendish had been after Megan.”

Finn said, “At least he thought Simon had only smiled at her, and so deserved a chance to live.”

Nellie shook her head, absently petting Leo as the dog sat beside her chair. He’d finally stopped sulking over having been locked in the Jeep and missing all the action. “And Cole was killed so horribly because he’d dared to give Megan a ride for a couple of days while her car was in the shop. Talk about obsessed.”

“At least he had some reason for choosing the victims he did,” Hollis said. “The men because he was jealous and Aylia because he was convinced she’d talked Megan into leaving. I imagine he would have convinced himself there were others threatening his relationship with Megan, invented threats if he had to. You heard how much he obviously relished what he did to Cole; he enjoyed himself too much to stop.”

“It could have been a bloodbath,” Finn agreed. “I hope I don’t have to state the obvious about how grateful I am.”

“You would have put it all together,” Quentin told him.

“Maybe. Eventually. But not before a lot more people had died.” Finn brooded for a moment. “No matter what, we’ll nail his ass for killing his mother and grandmother. I still can’t believe he did that just because he knew they wouldn’t approve of him holding Aylia in the house. Christ, why didn’t he just tie them up somewhere?”

Miranda said, “I think he’d wanted to kill them both for quite a while. It was obvious from what he said to us and to Aylia that one reason he spent so much time hiking was to get away from their domination. They tried to control him. To keep him close. Maybe because they knew what he was, or suspected. Either way, sooner or later, that need to control him was going to backfire.”