Dance flipped through one of the books. It was about the Peterson murder case in California a few years ago. It seemed well written.

TJ looked up from his laptop. “He’s clean, boss. At least no priors. DMV pic checks out too.”

“I’m writing a book. It’s all legit. You can check.”

He gave them the name of his editor in Manhattan. Dance called the large publishing company and spoke to the woman, whose attitude was, Oh, hell, what’s Morton got himself into now? But she confirmed that he’d signed a contract for a new book about Pell.

Dance said to TJ, “Uncuff him.”

O’Neil turned to the author and asked, “What’s the book about?”

“It isn’t like any true crime you’ve read before. It’s not about the murders. That’s been done. It’s about the victims of Daniel Pell. What their lives were like before the murders and, the ones who survived, what they’re like now. See, most nonfiction crime on TV or in books focuses only on the murderer himself and the crime—the gore, the gruesome aspects. The cheap stuff. I hate that. My book’s about Theresa Croyton—the girl who survived—and the family’s relatives and friends. The title’s going to be The Sleeping Doll. That’s what they called Theresa. I’m also going to include the women who were in Pell’s quote Family, the ones he brainwashed. And all the other victims of Pell’s too. There are really hundreds of them, when you think about it. I see violent crime like dropping a stone into a pond. The ripples of consequence can spread almost forever.”

There was passion in his voice; he sounded like a preacher. “There’s so much violence in the world. We’re inundated with it and we get numb. My God, the war in Iraq? Gaza? Afghanistan? How many pictures of blown-up cars, how many scenes of wailing mothers did you see before you lost interest?

“When I was a war correspondent covering the Middle East and Africa and Bosnia, I got numb. And you don’t have to be there in person for that to happen. It’s the same thing in your own living room when you just see the news bites or watch gruesome movies—where there’re no real consequences for the violence. But if we want peace, if we want to stop violence and fighting, that’s what people need to experience, the consequences. You don’t do that by gawking at bloody bodies; you focus on lives changed forever by evil.

“Originally it was only going to be about the Croyton case. But then I find out that Pell killed someone else—this Robert Herron. I want to include everyone affected by his death too: friends, family. And now, I understand, two guards’re dead.”