“No!” Jessica’s eyes grew hard. “I had a theory. About you. Want to hear it?” Not waiting for Erin’s response, she said, “The subject would be oblivious to the pain and suffering around her unless it became an intellectual exercise. How much more interesting if the victims were the ones to show her mercy?” Her voice trembled with sullen pique. “How badly would she suffer if she had to actually feel?”

“Why? Why hurt those who were kind to me?”

“Because then you’d feel like Nathan felt every time you turned him away. Rejected his love.”

Erin used the tail of her shirt to dab at the blood that trickled to her chin. “Nathan was incapable of love, Jessica. He was a narcissistic tyrant who abused women for his own ends.”

“He was a great man under too much pressure. Everyone wanted him to be perfect! You wanted him to be more than any mortal could.”

Enraged, Erin surged up from the bed. “Kill me if you have to, but understand this. Nathan was a bully and a thief. He preyed on the weak and the innocent and he used them. You and me and the woman in the cellar.”

“There was only one,” Jessica countered shrilly, gesturing with the pistol. “You. Always his precious Analise. Because of you, he pushed me away. Said I was inferior. That you were the most brilliant at everything you tried. Linguistics. Psychology. But I was better with the games. I knew how to please him.”

Over Jessica’s shoulder, she saw a swirl of light through the cabin’s front window. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement near the side window. She had to stall, give them a chance to rescue her. Erin returned to the bed, penitent. To pacify her, Erin said, “I couldn’t have done what you did, Jessica. The combination of weapon and occupation was inspired.”

“I researched every word.”

“Where did you find your weapons?”

“You’d be amazed at what the university has lying around.”

“Not insulin.” Erin needed to keep her talking. “How did you get it?”

Fondling the gun, she explained, “I’m diabetic, like Nathan. That’s how we first met. At the university pharmacy, getting our prescriptions filled.”

“I didn’t realize you took insulin.”

“How could you? You never asked about me or my life.”

“I’m sorry, Jessica. I owed you better.”

“You owe me respect. I beat you.” Jessica preened as she talked. “That day Harmony begged for another chance, all to join that sorority, it came to me.”

“An initiate.” Erin held back the grief. There would be time, she had to believe. “I admired the intricacy of your clues about Nathan. It must have taken you a great deal of research to find all those links.”

Jessica preened. “I got the idea after I killed Julian Harris. He had all those books. I added Nathan’s to his collection.”