“See here? And here? The openings are active. Things like ‘I am the one who killed you’ and ‘I watched you having dinner last night.’ They’re attention-grabbing, or at least they’re meant to be.”

“Do you draw any specific conclusion from that?” I had some of my own, but I was here for her perspective.

She bobbed her head side to side. “It’s engaging, but also less spontaneous. More crafted. This person is choosing her words carefully. It’s certainly not stream of consciousness.”

“May I ask what else you see in the writing? This is very helpful, Professor Papadakis.”

“Well, there’s a sense of . . . detachment, let’s say, from the character’s own violence.”

She looked up at me, as if for approval. I couldn’t imagine she was usually this tentative. Her air was otherwise so earthy and grounded. “Except, maybe, when she talks about the children.”

“Please, go on,” I said. “I’m interested in the children. What do you see, Professor?”

“When she describes what she’s done, it’s very declarative. Lots of simple sentences, almost staccato sometimes. It could just be a style choice, but it might also be a kind of avoidance. I see it all the time when writers are afraid of their material. If this were a student, I would tell her to pull at those threads a bit more, let them unravel.” The professor shrugged. “Of course, I’m not a psychiatrist.”

“Everything but, from the sound of it,” I told her. “I’m really impressed. You’ve added some clarity.”

She dismissed the compliment with a wave of her hand.

“Anything else I can do? Anything at all? Actually, this is fascinating. Morbid curiosity, I suppose.”

I watched her face as she weighed her thoughts, then opted not to continue.

“What is it?” I asked. “Please, just brainstorm. Don’t worry about it. No wrong answers.”

She set down her red pencil. “Well, the question here is whether you’re reading a person or a character. In other words, is the detachment that I see coming from the writer’s subconscious, or is it just as crafted as the sentences themselves? It’s hard to know for sure. That’s the big puzzle here, isn’t it?”

It was exactly the question I had asked myself several times. The professor wasn’t answering it for me, but she was certainly confirming that it was worth asking in the first place.

Suddenly she laughed nervously. “I certainly hope you aren’t giving my assessment any critical role in your investigation. I would hate to misguide you. This is too important.”

“Don’t worry about that,” I said. “This is just one of many factors we’re taking into account. It’s an incredible puzzle, though. Psychological, analytical, literary.”

“You must hate having to run all over the place for these tiny crumbs of information. I know I would.”