Hearing the grief that was about to overwhelm her, Gabriel covered Erin’s cold hand. “Focus, Erin. She needs your help now. Do you think she’s one of them? Could she be F?”

Taking a deep breath, Erin scanned the police report. She read aloud, “‘Mrs. Harriet Knowles. Lived near the college. She was the assistant to the head of St. Ignatius’ Academy for more than thirty years. According to his affidavit, she did everything for him.’” The word revealed itself, but she tapped the picture of the weapon. “I think it’s famulus.”

“Fabulous?” Gabriel’s head shot up. “Did you say ‘fabulous’?”

“No. Famulus. It’s German, from the Latin. It means private secretary or attendant.” She examined the date. “Mid-April. It fits. But I don’t recognize the weapon.”

Gabriel stared at the strip of wood. “It’s called a fid. Sailors use it to open the strands of rope on a ship. Or a shrimping boat. He used it to stab her.”

Very slowly, she closed the file. “So much death,” she whispered. “How can he do it?”

Gabriel fought the urge to console. Right now, she needed to talk, not be coddled. And she needed logic, not sentiment. “You know why. Murder isn’t unnatural. It’s an innate part of the human condition, whether we like it or not. Gruesome but real.”

“I know. But taking a human life tears at you. It can eat you alive.”

“Murderers don’t care about human life. I doubt they feel a thing.”

“You can’t know that.” Erin thought of that night, the way the gun had kicked and emptied its bearings into Nathan. “Maybe they feel everything. Too much.”

“A killer isn’t a tragic hero,” he chastised. From experience, he knew there was nothing beautiful or lovely about the violence of murder. Nothing poignant in apprehending the brutal, the vicious. “They take something that can never be returned.”

“What if they have no choice?”

Gabriel snorted. “I told you. There’s always a choice. Sometimes it’s not one we’d like to make, but it’s a choice.” He watched her thoughtfully, then added, “But murder is not the same as protecting yourself. I think taking another person’s life can be necessary to save your own.”

“Sometimes it’s the only way.” Indeed, Erin knew it had saved her life. But the police and a jury of her peers would not be as sympathetic as Gabriel. More likely, they would share the killer’s blood thirst. “He isn’t motivated by self-protection.”