The Night Stalker

Seventy-Four

‘Fifty-nine days walking past the flower stall in silence,’ Myers said, her stare fixed on Hunter. ‘Fifty-nine silent messages left on Katia’s answering machine. And I’m sure you remember the first five words on the sixtieth message.’

Hunter nodded but said nothing.

‘Now this next part of the interview comes after a couple of commercial breaks. The DJ is asking Katia questions that were phoned or emailed in by listeners.’ She pressed the pause button again and the interview resumed. It started with animated laughter.

‘OK,’ the DJ said, ‘I’ve got another question here from one of our callers. This is going back to you being a hopeless romantic, and about you finding your knight in shining armor.’

‘OK. .’ Katia sounded hesitant.

‘The question is: you said that you believe that love is a lot more than words, or looks. You also said that you believe that when you meet the right person, your “soul mate”, you’ll just know. Even from a silent moment, like your grandparents. What I’d like to know is how long is that moment? How much silence do you need before you know?’

‘Umm.’

Laughter from the DJ. ‘That’s not a bad question. So how long is that moment? How quickly do you think you’ll be able to know if you’ve met the right person?’

There was a pause as Katia thought about it. ‘Twelve seconds,’ she finally replied.

Hunter’s stare met Myers but neither said a word.

‘Twelve seconds?’ the DJ asked. ‘That’s a strange number. Why twelve?’

‘Well, I’d probably know in ten seconds flat, but I’d give it another two seconds just to be absolutely sure.’ Katia and the DJ both laughed.

‘That’s a very good answer,’ the DJ agreed.

Myers reached over and pressed the stop button. ‘Before you ask,’ she said, ‘I checked, the station has no record of who called in with that question.’

‘Remind me when that was aired again?’

‘Eight months ago, but this recording was passed on to other radio stations.’ She retrieved a notebook from her bag. ‘KCSN in Northridge, KQSC and KDB in Santa Barbara, KDSC in Thousand Oaks and even KTMV, which is a smooth jazz station. It’s been aired all over the court. I got this from KUSC’s website. Anyone can listen to it online, or download it. Even if the kidnapper wasn’t the one who called in with the question, he could’ve heard the interview and got his idea from there.’ She had another sip of her Scotch. ‘You and I know that those twelve seconds of silence in every message weren’t just coincidence.’

Hunter said nothing.

‘You know what this means, don’t you?’ There was excitement in Myers’ voice. ‘Katia’s abduction is about love, not hate. Whoever took her is desperately in love with her. So that pretty much discards the possibility of your sadistic killer being the one who kidnapped her.’

Hunter remained silent. His expression gave nothing away.

‘Katia had been seeing the new conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Phillip Stein, for the past four months. He was, and still is, completely obsessed with her. But she broke it all off just a few days before the tour ended. He didn’t take the break well at all.’

‘But he couldn’t have done it. He flew straight to Munich after their last concert in Chicago. I read your report.’

‘And you double-checked that just to be sure, didn’t you?’

Hunter nodded. ‘Any other lovers, ex-boyfriends. .?’

‘Her previous boyfriend lives in France, where she was before coming back to the US. If she had any other lovers, she kept them well hidden. But I don’t think her kidnapper was a lover.’ She paused for a moment. ‘I think we’re dealing with an obsessed fan. Somebody who is so in love with her his whole reality is distorted. That’s why he took what she said in that interview so tremendously out of context. His wants to give her her fairy-tale love story.’

Myers almost jumped out of her skin when Hunter’s phone vibrated against the tabletop, announcing a new incoming call. The caller ID read Restricted call.

He didn’t even have to answer it to know that his night was about to get a whole lot darker.