“I was getting to know Carla,” he said. “I didn’t really want to believe she could have been killed, but I knew it was likely. I didn’t think she would have gone away without telling me. So I thought if I could just find out how a guy like this thinks, maybe I could catch the bastard. I’ve been out for the last couple of nights, just looking for her … for them. I swear I’ll kill him if I ever see him.”

“I’m so sorry, Jerram,” she said. She wanted to embrace him, but there was a new awkwardness between them.

“Anyway,” he said briskly. “We need to put our heads together and figure things out. You know what Mom always says, two heads are better than one.” He gave her a hesitant smile.

She told him about seeing Detective O’Hara, but Jerram knew all about it. She had talked to him in the school conference room before seeing Rose.

“Then O’Hara knew you knew Carla?”

“Why not? Her father met me. I’d been over to Westley a couple of times.” His face closed up for a moment.

Jealousy threatened to flare up. He had no right to keep all these secrets from me, she thought. She tried to squelch it. “It must have been terrible, having to talk about your feelings to O’Hara.”

“Yeah. We talked a lot about feelings. O’Hara wanted to know all about them.” He laughed harshly. “I think she suspected I did it. Can you believe that?”

Rose felt her face burn. She covered up with reason. “That’s ridiculous. You didn’t have anything to do with Nancy or Cyn. My God, five years ago, when Helena Klout was killed, you were only ten years old, Jerram!” As she talked, she saw the truth in what she was saying.

“I felt the same way,” he said. “But in the library I figured it out. Copycat killer, right? Maybe Carla and I had a lover’s quarrel, and I decided to murder her and pass it off as just another job by the Christmas Killer.”

“Not seriously.” Rose didn’t want to think about more possibilities. She was satisfied now. She had to be satisfied.

“Well, I didn’t get arrested, did I?” Jerram’s face twisted. “It was lousy. But forget it. What I wish now is that we had more to go on. Like if you’d been getting messages for the past five years instead of just since Nancy. This killer’s been out there for that long.”

“It brings us back to the same unanswered question. If I’m receptive now, I probably was then. So it has to be something to do with Nancy. Either she’s the only victim who has the power to come back from the dead, or the only one who has wanted to.”

“Or, the only one who made an impression on you.”