The letter was penned by hand in bizarre red block printing, and drawn at the top was a crude crest of a bird with long tail feathers. Scrawled under it was the enigmatic Latin word ergo, or therefore, which in this context meant nothing to me. I unfolded the simple sheet of white typing paper by its corners and set it in front of him on the antique French oak breakfast table. He did not touch a document that might be evidence as he carefully scanned Carrie Grethen’s weird words and began running them through the violent database in his mind.

“The postmark’s New York, and of course there’s been publicity in New York about her trial,” I said as I continued to rationalize and deny. “A sensational article just two weeks ago. So anyone could have gotten Carrie Grethen’s name from that. Not to mention, my office address is public information. This letter’s probably not from her at all. Probably some other cuckoo.”

“It probably is from her.” He continued reading.

“She could mail something like this from a forensic psychiatric hospital and nobody would check it?” I countered as fear coiled around my heart.

“Saint Elizabeth’s, Bellevue, Mid-Hudson, Kirby.” He did not glance up. “The Carrie Grethens, the John Hinckley Juniors, the Mark David Chapmans are patients, not inmates. They enjoy our same civil rights as they sit around in penitentiaries and forensic psychiatric centers and create pedophile bulletin boards on computers and sell serial killer tips through the mail. And write taunting letters to chief medical examiners.”

His voice had more bite, his words more clipped. Benton’s eyes burned with hate as he finally lifted them to me.

“Carrie Grethen is mocking you, big chief. The FBI. Me,” he went on.

“FIB,” I muttered, and on another occasion, I might have found this funny.

Wesley stood and draped the towel over a shoulder.

“Let’s say it’s her,” I started in again.

“It is.” He had no doubt.

“Okay. Then there’s more to this than mockery, Benton.”

“Of course. She’s making sure we don’t forget that she and Lucy were lovers, something the general public doesn’t know yet,” he said. “The obvious point is, Carrie Grethen hasn’t finished ruining people’s lives.”

I could not stand to hear her name, and it enraged me that she was now, this moment, inside my West End home. She might as well be sitting at my breakfast table with us, curdling the air with her foul, evil presence. I envisioned her condescending smile and blazing eyes and wondered what she looked like now after five years of steel bars and socializing with the criminally insane. Carrie was not crazy. She had never been that. She was a character disorder, a psychopath, a violent entity with no conscience.