“I believe that it was originally a splinter group from the Methods of Mad White Boys—one of Garvey McKenna’s survivalist militia groups up in the Idaho area.”

“Survivalist militia group,” Webster repeated. “Is the man from military stock?”

“I believe so. Marines if I’m recalling correctly.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Webster said. “Does the name Hank Tarpin ring a bell?”

“Not until thirty seconds ago,” Kate answered. “Holt’s Web site is linked to Tarpin.”

25

Decker said, “If Tarpin murdered the Baldwins because of his racist beliefs, why did he wait so long?”

“He needed help,” Oliver answered. “The Baldwins had a variety of psychos going through their nature camp. Tarpin had to find the right one.”

“So you’re saying it took him, what…eight years to find the right psycho?” Wanda Bontemps was skeptical.

“Tarpin is a patient man,” Oliver answered.

Wanda didn’t dispute him. Scott had seniority, and she didn’t want to piss him off by arguing with his conjectures that nobody else was buying, either. It was almost two in the afternoon, and Decker’s office was as stuffy as a gym sock. The desk fan had been turned up to the max, but it wasn’t cooling much. It was blowing papers all over the place. Decker had run out of coffee mugs to use as weights for his paper piles. The group was fanning itself with flyers of the police Fourth of July picnic at Rodgers Park. Have a safe and sane Fourth and enjoy the city fireworks. The loo was waiting for the pathology reports, waiting for the ballistic reports. Maybe Forensics would point to a killer.

Marge said, “Pardon my ignorance, but aren’t the Baldwins, being therapists, supposed to be savvy when it comes to reading people? You’re saying that they didn’t have an inkling that Tarpin was out to get them?”

“They were arrogant,” Oliver persisted. “You know, kind of like that Greek thing…pride before the fall.”

“Hubris,” Marge answered.

“How’d you know that?”

Marge stiffened. “First of all, Scott, I’m not a moron. Secondly, Vega’s studying Oedipus Rex in school.”

“Tarpin was the first one to find the bodies,” Oliver said. “He was the only one capable enough to pull it off. The kid that Webster talked about…Riley Barns. He thought he saw a couple of shadows.”

Decker said, “Barns was vague. He might have seen shadows; he might have been dreaming.”

“He wasn’t dreaming,” Oliver insisted. “He saw two shadows—Holt and Tarpin. They’re both survivalists; they’re both militia based. They wait until everyone’s asleep, they slip into camouflages, do Baldwin and Ernesto, then slip back into the woods. Tarpin goes back to the boys, Holt does Dee—”

Martinez said, “Scott, it’s just as likely that Dee Baldwin whacked herself in remorse for whacking her husband in a fit of rage after she found him with Ernesto.”