“You have solved the case already? Just like that?”

He ignored her. “I’m not Hannibal Lecter, and you haven’t come here to play twenty questions with a serial killer. That would be too trite, and we both know you are anything but. No, you came here for closure. Unfortunately, that’s not easy for you to achieve for two reasons. One, you won’t admit it to yourself. Two, you do not live in the real world. You use this case as an excuse to confront me. But this afternoon is wasted on you because you’re a product of your upbringing. You’re still living in your books, in your fantasies. It almost killed you to go after me alone and you repeat the same mistake with this guy.” He added, “All heroes have a death wish.”

“It’s you who’s mistaken,” she replied. “I’m no hero at the Bureau. They think I screwed up, nothing more.”

“I doubt that. But let us leave that aside for the moment. Like I said, you came here for closure. But how is such a thing achieved in the fantasy world? You cannot go to a psychotherapist. They do not have them. You cannot take a pill. They do not sell them. No, you can only go after the dragon. And go after him you did, and defeat him you did as well—in a manner of speaking. Yet you did not slay the dragon. He still lives, and while he does you cannot rest.”

She was not impressed. “I didn’t come here to kill you.”

“You are wrong. That is precisely why you are here.”

She snorted. “I kill you and I go to jail. Anyway, you are an excellent literature professor and a superb killer, but you’re a lousy psychotherapist. You don’t know me. I prefer you alive and crippled. That chair is better than any jail. It pleases me to know you suffer constantly for the pain you caused me.”

“How do you sleep at night?”

“What?”

“How do you sleep? Never mind, I know the answer. You hardly rest at all. It is not because of your injuries or the loss of your family. Yes, I know your husband has left you for another woman. All these things are secondary. They do not address the core of your wound. I can help you with that if you help me.” He paused. “You said once that I owed you.”