Mariella winced and shook her head. “Curious? Gleeful? Somewhat absent? His eyes, they were so bright, kind of exploding. And he saw me, and he let the woman fall, the screwdriver blade coming out of her lower back so slowly. The state police, they asked if I said anything to him. I didn’t say shit. I fired my weapon I don’t know how many times. I put that crazy son of a bitch down.”

Mariella exhaled, having gotten through the account one more time, relieved to be finished. Not counting on Odessa to push her for more.

“And then what?”

“Then…he was down and I went running the other way. I was out of the building so fast. It took the police forever to come.”

“I mean…” Odessa tried to put this delicately. “After you shot him. After he went down. Did you run off before he died, or did you…?”

Mariella looked low-eyed at Odessa for an extra beat, and the hair on the back of Odessa’s neck stood on end. “I don’t know if he was dead. I was too far down the hallway. But I waited until he was still.”

“…And?”

Mariella’s breathing deepened. “What are you getting at?”

She knew. Odessa could see that she knew. Odessa came closer, her voice quiet. “You saw something—something come out of the body?”

Mariella was scared. “I thought I saw something. My mind played a trick.”

“What kind of trick?”

She didn’t want to answer. “I don’t know.”

“It’s not part of my report,” said Odessa, “if that’s what you’re worried about. But other survivors of rampage killings such as this…they’ve reported seeing something leave the assailant’s body at the moment of death.”

Mariella looked as though she was going to be sick. She found a bottle of water and took two quick swigs. She looked at Odessa, not trusting her…but needing to share this.

“It was…like a presence.”

Odessa felt dizzy hearing this. “Go on.”

“Not a…not a ghost or anything. An essence.”

“Was there a smell—a burning smell?”

Mariella shook her head fast. “I ran. I don’t know.” She grabbed the floppy handles of the canvas bag and lifted it off her desk. “I’m sorry, I can’t…I have to go.” Then, as though she remembered she was speaking to an FBI agent: “Can I go?”

Odessa nodded. “Thank you,” she said.

With a strange look at her, Mariella stepped past Odessa and strode out of the office. Odessa swiped her own face with her hand, heartened to have her experience corroborated by another…and then newly frightened by the similarity. If it was true…what did it all mean?

Odessa drove back in a daze. Numerous times she blinked and looked at the road ahead of her and realized suddenly she had been driving without thinking about driving for many minutes.