Page 59 of Deadly Secrets
Emma stopped mid-sentence and looked abashed. “I’m sorry. When I get started talking about the baby, I gush. Which is so unlike me. I’m a forensic psychologist to the bone. I’m not usually so…hormonal.”
They shared a laugh. Brooke really liked her. “I know the feeling. Science is my comfort zone—anthropology, religion, criminals. Babies and motherhood? I don’t know what to do with that stuff.”
Emma grinned. “Trust me, criminals are much easier to understand, and from a forensic psychologist to a doctor of anthropology, they make handling a husband look like child’s play.”
“What made you want to study criminals?”
“I admit to finding the criminal mind fascinating.”
Weird, but Brooke respected it. “People often think being interested in buried bones and relics from past centuries is unhealthy. They’d rather I got worked up about politics and the Kardashians.”
“You’re preaching to the choir, sister.”
They continued chatting amicably for another few minutes. “I’d rather talk about anything but my attacker,” Brooke admitted, “but maybe you could give me some insight.”
“You’re just saying that so I don’t bore you with more stories about nursery themes and whether it’s okay to let your baby sleep with you or not.”
“Actually, I’d love to hear more about baby stuff, but Roman will ask me how our talk went and I want to be able to honestly say we discussed the killer.”
“Smart.” Emma adjusted herself on the couch, hugging a pillow to her pregnant tummy. “I haven’t read your file or the reports from that night. All I know is what’s been shared here today. Care to fill in the details?”
Brooke had repeated them so many times, she knew the condensed version by heart. It took less than a minute to lay out the bones for Emma. As she did so, the psychologist watched her closely.
Not the first time. But where other therapists had watched her with a clinical fascination, Emma seemed to be listening more as a friend and colleague. “Do you think the man found out afterwards that you were a witness?”
“He must have, even though the cops didn’t release it to the press. Some people at our church knew. My mother told them.”
“After that night, though, he never came after you?”
“His face was covered, so I couldn’t ID him regardless.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“That he never showed his face? Oh, yeah. If he’d removed the mask and he thought I could ID him, he had plenty of chances to eliminate me. My father was out of the picture at that point, and my mother continued her struggle with alcohol. I was on my own a lot and was even more of an outcast after the killings. People treated me like I had a disease.”
“And it’s your opinion the killer attacked the Dunkirks because they were black.”
Brooke thought about that for a moment. “I was so young, I’m not sure I even really thought about his motivation. The police ruled it a hate crime right from the start and others jumped on the bandwagon.”
“If the killer had had the chance to kill you, do you think he would have because you were a witness or because of your own ethnicity?”
Had Roman told her about the adoption?
It wasn’t like the color of her skin and her kinky hair weren’t dead giveaways to the fact she had some non-Caucasian blood in her, but still… “Why do you ask that?”
“I’m curious if it really was a hate crime. The records show there were no other killings in your town or the surrounding area in that timeframe, and few hate crimes of this severe of a nature. Those that were reported were attributed to the Aryan Nation.”
The current mass suicide/murders were definitely in the hate crime category. The psychologist might have a point.
But then that gave weight to the theory about the “bad man.”
Brooke stifled a shiver. “You could be right.”
“You remembered the cross hanging from your attacker’s neck that night twenty years ago. I’m concerned you might recall more.”
“Isn’t that what everyone wants?”
“I saw the effect that one memory had on you and I’m sure you blocked what happened next for a reason. One that could be very uncomfortable if you begin remembering more.”
