Page 84 of Tell Me Your Desires
“Kate…”
“I’m sorry, Anya! I know you’re tired. I am, too. But what you’re asking me is more than just a simple favor. So, forgive me if I don’t want another massacre on my conscience.”
Anya pressed her ear to her shoulder, stretching her tired neck muscles on both sides. Ten hours had turned into fifteen, with more takeout thrown in and not enough downtime. Her eyes were dry and weary, her brain was fried, and she desperately wanted to be back with Jaime, whose condition had not changed yet. But Kate was right. What Anya was asking of her exceeded what Kate owed her.
“You pour the tea, and I’ll go over it again.” Anya had cleaned the table of everything except what she needed to make her case to Kate. While Kate busied herself making the umpteenth pot of tea, Anya organized the evidence in chronological order.
“Your tea.” Kate placed a mug in front of Anya, then sat across from her and sipped her tea. “I’m going to have to find this stuff in New York. Either it’s the best tea I’ve ever had, or I’ve become addicted after having so much of it in such a short amount of time.”
“Probably a little of both,” Anya chuckled. “But if you can’t find it, I’ll be sure to send you some in a care package. Ready?” Kate saluted with her mug. “Our persons of interest are Ruby and Theodore Arnold. Mother, Margaret Arnold. Father Dr. Philip Arnold.” Anya paused as a thought crossed her mind. “Did you know Margaret means pearl in Greek?”
Kate’s eyebrows shot up. “I, uh, no, I didn’t. Is that relevant?”
“Relevant? Probably not. Just an interesting tidbit,” Anya said, mostly to herself. “Moving on. While we were waiting for the DNA results, I did some digging into the parents’ background. Something wasn’t adding up for me. Merely… seeing ‘prostitutes’ wouldn’t be grounds for losing your kids unless Philip was exposing them to things they shouldn’t be seeing, or he wasn’t taking care of them. But they weren’t malnourished when they arrived at foster care, so there had to be something deeper going on. It turns out that Philip wasan oncologist, and after Margaret succumbed to cancer, he was consumed by guilt for being unable to save her life.”
Anya reached for a sheet of paper and pulled it toward herself. “Our first cold case was twenty years ago in rural Connecticut in the same city where Philip was a respected doctor, Margaret was well-liked, and Ruby and Teddy were popular kids.”
“So, what happened?” Kate asked as if it were the first time she had heard this story, not the third. Based on Anya’s past experience working with Kate, this was what Kate did when she was focused: she questioned everything until she was sure she hadn’t missed any answers. It was a technique she often used in interviews with suspects and witnesses as well. “Was losing Mom enough to make them all go crazy?”
Anya flinched slightly at the use of that word. “In a sense. I refuse to play the ‘blame it on the mom’ game. Philp, Ruby, and Teddy each had their own issues before Margaret left them. Without Margaret’s guidance, however, I believe those issues were exacerbated. Especially with how Philip handled his grief.”
Kate sat up and leaned her elbows on the table. “Let’s get more into that. I still can’t believe you found people to talk to after twenty years who remember Philip and those kids.”
People, Anya thought with a silent chuckle. “Twenty years isn’t that long, Kate.”
Kate’s eyebrows shot up. “Maybe not in the grand scheme of things, but do you remember everyone you’ve ever…uh, I mean, you were an agent for a long time. We’ve interviewed countless people. Surely you can’t remember them all. I wouldn’t think a…lady of the night would either.”
“Nice save,” Anya smirked. “And really? Lady of the night? What is this? The eighteenth century?”
Kate laughed. “I’m sorry! Prostitute sounds so disrespectful. What do you or, uh, what…” she sighed and shook her head. “Ishould just put my foot in my mouth right now and save myself the trouble.”
“You’re fine,” Anya smiled. “Sex worker is the correct term. And you’re right, prostitute is disrespectful. It’s what the case files used, but that’s not what these women were.” Anya flipped through more photos she’d had Kate print out and found the one she wanted. “Temptress Lilith.”
“A dominatrix?”
Anya nodded. “A hardcore one. Philip needed punishment for failing his wife, and Temptress Lilith did that for him. My conversation with her was quite interesting. We have a very different philosophy on what it means to be a dominatrix. Temptress Lilith relies heavily on humiliation and pain. She’s a true sadist when it comes to her submissives. And Philip became a masochist, seeking retribution for his failures.”
“What kind of retribution are we talking about?”
This was one area they hadn’t discussed previously. Some of the kink was a little too much for even Anya to process. “If you want details, they’ll be in the report. But there was knife play, CBT—not the therapy kind, trampling…”
Kate raised her hand and shook her head. “I have no idea what any of that means.”
Anya cleared her throat. “Without getting too graphic, knife play includes, well, a knife. It could consist of cutting or just the feel of the blade across the skin. CBT is, um, torture of the male genitalia, and trampling is pretty much what it sounds like.”
Kate’s face was a picture of shock. “As in walking all over someone? And, yes, I’m deliberately skipping over the others because I…got nothing.”
Anya couldn’t help but snicker at Kate’s obvious discomfort. “Yes, kind of like that. Or more to the point, stepping on someone in a certain area with or without shoes. Like a stiletto.”
“Holy shit.” Kate sat back and blew out a breath. “And the kids saw all of this?”
“I believe so, yes. Under normal circumstances, this would be a distressing experience for children to witness.” Anya rummaged through the papers once again to find the one she needed. “But beyond their mother’s death, these weren’t normal circumstances. We’re looking at two disturbed individuals with possible narcissistic, psychopathic, or sociopathic tendencies.” Anya tapped her chin. “Exposure to this type of unrestricted conduct could explain why Teddy fixated on girls he couldn’t have. He was scared of them. Especially if he was orisstill a virgin.”
“And Ruby?” Kate took out her phone and made a few notes. “Why would she do this? Did Teddy force her?”
Anya turned the photo of a young Ruby toward Kate and pushed it closer. “Look at her eyes. No one is forcing her to do anything, Kate.Sheis the enforcer. She’s the mastermind. She’s calculated and likes to dominate, and from what Temptress Lilith tells me, full of questions about BDSM and being a dominatrix. I would classify her as having psychopathic tendencies. Teddy, on the other hand, is more impulsive and fueled by rage, which fits the sociopath.”
Kate nodded as she finished her notes and sent them off to her team. “And you’re sure about who you think they are? I mean, without a doubt, you know who Ruby and Teddy Arnold are?”
