Tooth & Nail

Rebus sat back in his chair and picked up the pen again, pretending to study it. When he looked up, he saw that she was studying him. She was a psychologist after all. He put down the pen. `It isn't a game,' he said, `and this isn't' a lecture theatre. Four women are dead, a maniac is loose somewhere and right now we're quite busy enough following up all the leads and the false trails we've got. Why should we make time for you, Dr Frazer?'

She coloured, her cheekbones blushed a deep red. But she seemed to have no ready answer. Rebus hadn't much to add, so he too sat in silence. His mouth was sour and dry, his throat coated in a layer of resin. Where was the tea?

Eventually she spoke. `All I want to do is read through the material on the case.'

Rebus found some spare sarcasm. `That's all?' He tapped the mound of paperwork in the in-tray. `No problem then, it'll only take you a couple of months.' She was ignoring him, fumbling with the briefcase. She produced a slim orange, folder.

`Here,' she said stonily. `Just read this. It'll only take you twenty minutes. It's one of the profiles I did of an American serial killer. If you think it has no validity in helping to identify the killer or target where he might have struck next, fair enough, I'll leave.'

Rebus took the file. Oh God, he thought, not more psychology! Relating . . . involving motivating. He'd had his fill of psychology on the management training courses, But then again, he didn't want her to leave. He didn't want to be left sitting .here on his own with everyone in the Murder Room smirking at their little trick. He opened the folder, drew out a typed and bound thesis about twenty-five pages long, and began to read. She sat watching him, waiting for a question perhaps. Rebus read with his chin held up, so, that she wouldn't see the sagging folds of flesh on his neck, and with his shoulders back, making the best of his admittedly not very muscular chest. He cursed his parents for not feeding him up as a child. He, had grown skinny, and when eventually he had started to put weight on, it had been to his gut and his backside, not his chest and, arms.

Backside. Chest. Arms. He gazed hard at the words in front of him, but aware of her, body, resting in his line of peripheral vision, just above the top edge of the paper. He didn't, even know her first name. Perhaps he never would. He frowned as though, deep in thought and read through the opening page.

By page five he was interested and by page ten, he felt there might be something in it after all. A lot of it was speculative. Be honest, John, it was almost all conjecture, but there were a few points where she made a telling deduction. He saw what, it was her mind worked in a different orbit from a detective's. They circled the same sun, however, and now and then the satellites touched. And what harm could come from letting her do a profile for the Wolfman? At worst, it would lead them up another dead end. At best, he might enjoy some female company during his stay in. London. Yes, some pleasant female company. Which reminded him: he wanted to telephone his ex-wife and arrange a visit. He read through the final pages quickly.

`All right,' he, said, closing the thesis, `very interesting.'

She seemed pleased. `And useful?'

He hesitated before replying. `Perhaps.'

She wanted more from him than that. `But worth letting me have a go on the Wolfman?'

He nodded slowly, ruminatively, and her face lit up. Rebus couldn't help returning her smile. There was a knock at the door. `Come in,' he called.

It was Flight. He was carrying a tray, swimming with spilt tea, `I believe you asked for some refreshment,' he said. Then he caught sight of Dr Frazer, and Rebus delighted in the stunned look on his face.

`Christ,' said Flight, looking from woman to Rebus to woman, before realising that he had somehow to justify his outburst. `They told me you were with someone, John, but they didn't, 'I mean, I didn't know . . . ' He tumbled to a halt, mouth still open, and placed the tray on the desk before turning towards her. `I'm Inspector George Flight,' he said, reaching out a hand.

'Dr Frazer,' she replied, `Lisa Frazer.'

As their hands met, Flight looked towards Rebus from the corner of his eye. Rebus, beginning to feel a little more at home in the metropolis, gave him a slow, cheerful wink.

`Christ.'

She left him a couple of books to read. One, The Serial Mind, was a series of essays by various academics. It included `Sealing the Bargain. Modes of Motivation in the Serial Killer' by Lisa Frazer, University of London. Lisa: nice name. No mention of her doctorate though. The other book was an altogether heavier affair, dense prose linked by charts and graphs and diagrams: Patterns of Mass-Murder by Gerald Q MacNaughtie.