“But you don’t think he is, do you?” Otherwise she didn’t think he would be investigating and writing about the case.

“I think it’s all oddly inconsistent. We have a man, with no history of violence, under the influence of opium, which is a passive drug, and intoxicated from absinthe, which is non-hallucinogenic.”

“You think. You said at the time they thought absinthe was a hallucinogenic. And can you really know what it was he took that night?”

“No, I guess not. We just have his words. And I’m sure quality of the product varied.” After sipping his water, Gabriel added, “But he stayed in the room. He sketched her. Why would he do that?”

“Because he had no clue what he was doing, what he had just done, out of it on drugs. Or because he took a sick pleasure in it? So he wouldn’t get caught leaving the house with blood on him?” Sara shrugged. “I don’t know. Why do criminals do anything? Crimes are random and weird.” She glanced over at the restaurant’s courtyard, its lush trees swaying in the night breeze, the fountain lit with a soft spotlight. There were tables out there, but none were being used, and it looked lonely, hidden, secretive.

“Not as random as you think. The reasons for murder are usually fairly simple. Greed. Rage. Curiosity. Greed is calculating, rage is messy, and curiosity kills are staged. It’s the psychopath who curiosity kills, and psychopaths all have two things in common—they feel no remorse and they don’t want to be caught.”

“Was John Thiroux a psychopath?”

Gabriel’s dark eyes stared steadily at her. “I don’t think in this case anyone at the time ever considered it could be a premeditated crime. They seemed to assume it was a crime of passion, and I would have to agree, given the frenzy of the kill. Mutilating the face is considered a personal crime by modern profilers. If he did it, he probably wasn’t a psychopath, because it would be odd for him to stay at the scene of the crime. Psychopaths don’t want to be caught, and you would think he would have planned an escape if he had intended to kill her. But the police and the prosecutor never approached the murder as intentional. The entire court case revolved around Thiroux’s culpability, his state of mind at the time of murder . . . Was he conscious of his actions? Strong enough in his stupor to kill violently? The coroner thought only a person of great strength could have committed the crime. The prosecutor contended that in a drunken rage, anyone can wield a knife to that fatal effect.”