“Not so far. Josh has worn me down to the point where I’m letting him drive himself to work again. I don’t draw a breath without worrying though. The clinic isn’t all that secure. At least his office isn’t.” He shook off the thought. “What did the sister mean? She’s worried about hismentalstate?”
“She told us he was...” Donald hesitated, then continued. “She said he wasodd. Said he could be charming and affectionate, but there was never any real feeling behind it. It was all an act he put on.” Donald’s eyes lifted and met Colin’s. “She said he wascold.”
“Well,that’sfucking scary.”
“Have you discussed him with Josh? Seems like this would be his area.”
“Oh, to some extent. I can’t use him as an expert witness, of course. Not allowed. But his advice is always invaluable.”
“I hope you’ve managed to scare off the asshole who was threatening him. Josh is a good guy. He doesn’t deserve that.”
Colin nodded, staring down at the case files littering his desk. “You’re telling me.”
Donald rose. “I’ll be in touch,” he said, throwing Colin a wave as he strode from the room.
Colin nodded, following him with his eyes. He typed up a brief report on Thompson’s information and forwarded it to Clayton. “Damn!” he muttered flushing with frustration. “Every fucking lead in this case turns into a dead end.”
* * *
That nighthe shared Donald’s information with Joshua who frowned when Colin repeated the sister’s observations about Page’s emotional state. “She said he’s cold?”
Colin nodded. “And that’s bad?”
Joshua quirked his face and tilted his hand back and forth. “I can’t diagnose someone based on what his sister says about him, but what she’s describing indicates an absence of empathy. And that’s often an emotional problem shared by serial rapists.” He met Colin’s eyes. “They can’t put themselves in someone else’s shoes. They havezerointerest in how their actions affect others.”
“Oh, this guy sounds like a realsweetheart,” Colin grumbled.
“It’s also fairly common that they’ve been abused physically, sexually, or both when they were children.”
“He’s gonna kill one of these kids,” Colin mumbled, staring down at the floor. “I canfeelit, Josh. He’s building up to it with every abduction. Each one gets a little worse.”
“It tends to work that way,” Joshua replied. “What satisfies them at first eventually gets old, and they have to look for new ways to achieve the same thrill.” He reached for Colin’s hand and clutched it tight. “Are you making any headway on the case?”
Colin wrinkled his nose and shrugged. “We’ve gone down the rabbit hole. The guys are investigating every piece of information they lay their hands on. I mean, all of it’s valuable I guess, but none of it has been all that helpful so far.” He glanced at Joshua. “That’s why your guidance means so much.”
“Colin, please don’t consider anything I’m saying here to beexpertadvice. I might be wrong aboutallof it. I’d need to talk to this guy.”
Colin scoffed and threw him a tight frown. “If I have anything to do with it, you’ll never get within a hundredmilesof this guy!”
“I’m just saying. This isn’t expert advice. This is your husband spouting psychobabble.”
“You ramble on occasion, but you rarely ever babble,” Colin teased. He pulled Joshua across his lap and lifted him in his arms to kiss his soft, full lips again and again as his fingers carded through Joshua’s hair. “I wish I could take you a million miles away from all this stuff,” he grumbled.
“Colin, even if you could do that, there would still be dangers, even a million miles away.” Joshua reached to brush a sandy curl from Colin’s forehead. “That’slife.”
“Yeah? Well, when it comes to compromising your safety, life can go fuck itself!”
Joshua pressed his face to Colin’s broad shoulder, quivering with laughter.
Colin tipped his chin up until their eyes met. “You haven’t had any contact with Alensworth, have you?”
“I haven’t heard from either one of them.”
“Good! You’re still checking the lot for bad guys, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Joshua told him. He kissed Colin’s lips, then sighed. “I do feel bad about Chrissy.”
“Why? It was herchoice! You offered her a chance to find healing, and shechoseto walk away.”
