3بخش

• You want your chair? - You go ahead.

Yeah?

Phone.

Package deal. Comes with the office.

Mills.

Honey…

You okay? Something wrong?

You dingleberry, I told you not to call me here when I’m working.

Yeah. Why?

Why?

Okay.

It’s my wife.

Sorry?

She’d like to speak to you.

This is Detective Somerset.

Well, yes, it’s nice to talk to you too.

I appreciate the offer, but…

Well, in that case I’d be delighted.

Yes, thank you very much.

Bye.

Honey, what…?

Well?

Sorry?

I’m invited to late supper at your apartment. I accepted.

At my… How’s that?

Tonight.

Hello, men.

That’s Tracy Tracy.Hello.

Glad to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.

Except your first name.

It’s William.

Well, it’s a good name…

William.

William, I’d like you to meet David.

• David, this is William. - Alright, I’ll be right back.

• How are the kids? - Good. They’re in the room. Come in.

Aw, good dogs.

How are all the good dogs? How are you, pretty?

Smells good.

Yeah, I mean, thank you.

Please have a seat, if you like.

• Would you like a drink? - No thanks I’ll wait.

Throw that anywhere. Excuse all this mess.

We’re still unpacking.

I hear you were high school sweethearts.

Pretty hokey, huh?

You know something?

On our first date I knew he was the guy I’d marry. - Really?

He was the funniest guy I ever met.

It’s kind of rare nowadays.

I mean, that level of commitment.

Oh, don’t worry.

I won’t wear it to the dinner table.

No matter…

how often I see guns, I just can’t get used to them.

Same here.

• Why aren’t you married, William? - Tracy.

What the hell?

I was close once.

It just didn’t happen.

It surprises me.

It really does.

Well…

Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable.

Just ask your husband.

Very true.

Very, very true.

How long have you lived here?

Too long.

How do you like it?

You know…

takes time settle in…

it’ll be good.

Well, you get numb after awhile

There are things to any city…

Subway.

It’ll go away in a minute.

This real estate guy.

Fucking piece o sorry, honey.

He shows us the place a few times, I think he’s good he’s efficient.

Tracy really likes him.

Then I start wondering why he’ll only bring us here 5 minutes at a time.

We found out the first night.

The soothing, relaxing vibrating home, huh?

I’m sorry.

Yeah, alright, laugh it up.

I don’t know why you’re laughing.

Alright, already.

He had to get into the building…

before the office closed. Gould would have been working late?

I’m certain. He was the biggest defense lawyer in town.

• Infamous, really. - Body was found on Tuesday morning.

The office was closed on Monday so he could have gotten in on Friday.

Laid low till the cleaning crew left, then had…

his way with Gould Saturday, Sunday, maybe Monday.

Look.

Gould was bound, right arm free.

He was handed a butcher’s knife.

Check out the scale.

A pound of flesh.

“One pound of flesh”

“No more no less No cartilage No bone

only flesh”. “Merchant of Venice.”

Didn’t see it.

“This task done and he would Go Free”.

I tell you that chair was…

• soaked through with sweat. - Of course.

The killer wanted Gould to take his time…

deciding which cut to make first.

Imagine it.

There’s a gun in your face.

Which part of your body is expendable?

The love handle.

Cut along the side of his own stomach.

Let’s take a fresh look at these. The corpse is there, but…

Look through it. Edit out your initial shock.

The trick is to find one item, one detail and focus on it…

until it’s an exhausted possibility.

I’ll get another beer. Beer?

Wine, please.

He’s preaching.

Punishing.

The sins were used in medieval sermons.

7 cardinal virtues, 7 deadly sins…

• used as teaching tools. - Yeah. Like in…

• “The Parson’s Tale,” and Dante. - You read them?

Yeah.

Parts. Remember in “Purgatory”…

Dante and his buddy climb up the hill and check out all the sinners?

• The Seven Terraces of Purgation. - Yeah, right.

But there pride comes first, not gluttony.

For now let’s consider…

the books as the killer’s inspiration.

The sermons were about atonement for sin.

These murders are like forced attrition.

Forced what?

Attrition’s when you regret your sins, but not because you love God. Because there’s a gun in your face.

No fingerprints.

Nope.

• Totally unrelated victims. - Yep.

And no witnesses of any kind.

Which I don’t get…

because the fucker had to get back out.

In any major city, minding your own business is a science.

In rape prevention, the first thing they teach you is never cry for help.

Always yell, “Fire!”.

Nobody answers help.

Holler “fire,” they’ll come.

That’s fucked up.

He must have left another puzzle piece.

You know what? Thank you for talking this out, but I must sleep.

Walk the dogs.

This is just to satisfy my curiosity.

• I’m leaving at the end of the week. - Shit. No, wait.

Gould’s wife. She was out of town at the time.

• So this means she saw something. - What if it’s a threat?

I put her in a safe house She wasn’t too happy about it.

What if it isn’t what she has seen…

but what she’s supposed to see but hasn’t had the chance?

Yeah, okay. What?

I don’t know.

But that’s the one thing.