Chapter 26

Saturday, July 3, 9:37 p.m.

Sam was bone-tired, frustrated, and unhappy with the lack of progress. He still had no line on the mystery Chevy; only a fair-to-poor description of the suspect; little confidence that the suspect remained in the area, and few ideas about how to keep the investigation going.

The film taken from Emma Majeski's cameras had been developed, and the photographs told him nothing. All three rolls of film were filled with nature shots, mostly birds. Emma's car had revealed no useful fingerprints and sparse other forensic evidence. Hemphill -- Billy's father -- had called in response to Sam's message. He had seen nothing, and in particular, he'd seen no one near the crime scene on the previous Saturday.

They had a few strands of hair that might prove useful, if a suspect could be found. They'd gotten the suspect's blood type from the semen. Type "O". That really narrowed it down. They had a DNA profile that would be solid as a rock if only there were somebody's DNA to compare it to.

Thinking about the sketches made Sam remember Madeleine Deneau. In truth, he had thought about her with great frequency in the several days since she'd returned to Greensboro. Perhaps he should call her, bring her up to date on the case. She'd be interested, Sam was sure. Even though there had been no progress.

"Hi. This is Madeleine. I can't come to the phone right now, but if you'll leave a message, I'll return your call. Wait for the you-know-what..."

"Madeleine? It's Sam Wicks. Twin Rivers? I was just calling to..."

"Sam? It's me. I'm on. Live, from Greensboro, it's Saturday Night! You have news?"

"Not really. I was only calling to mark the temporary end of the struggle to identify this bird. Hugh Fulcher and I have declared tomorrow a National Holiday. We've had no luck at all. I'm a little bit discouraged."

"No leads at all, huh?"

"A couple of false IDs, where we confronted the possibles with Wallace and Mumford and they said, 'That ain't him'."

"Well, I've been working on your case a little, from 'way up here. I took a run down to the University this morning, and talked to a psychology professor on the faculty. I knew her from my old days at UNC-Charlotte. She used to be down there."

"You went over to Chapel Hill?"

"That's right. Her name's Alicia Elias. She's just an assistant professor, not the world's foremost authority or anything, but I felt more comfortable raising the questions with somebody I know. Anyhow, in my opinion, Alicia's a first-rate psychologist."

"So, what were you looking for? What did..."

"I asked her about exhibitionism. Female exhibitionism. Well, she didn't have a lot to tell me. It seems that exhibitionism is pretty much the province of you male-type people. Not quite exclusively, but almost. Alicia said there was virtually no reliable literature on female exhibitionism in modern psychology. However, Freud and his buddies had a little to say about the subject."

"Like what?"

"Well, I didn't get it all very systematically -- I really mostly wanted to talk to her about your perp. But according to Alicia, the usual Freudian motivation for female exhibitionism would be wrapped up in father-daughter incest fantasies. The people the exhibitionist woman is showing herself to are -- you know -- father-substitutes, that kind of thing."

"Humph. Sam interrupted. "'Doesn't sound much like Susan Hatfield's description of what was going on with Emma, but I guess it's possible."

"Well, I told Alicia as much as I could about the routines that Emma went through, about the old guys and young boys, and all. I was a little skeptical about the incest stuff myself. She was pretty quick to agree that Freud might not be the last word on the subject, but she said she really couldn't help me much: it was a relatively unexplored area. She said some, but not all, of the theories surrounding stuff like what motivates professional strippers, topless dancers, and so on -- some of that might apply. She was really interested. The idea of this well-balanced, middle-class woman doing her thing in the discount store. Well, Alicia was interested.

"Finally, she told me that, although she lacked any real data, she strongly suspected that this kind of female exhibitionism might be pretty common. Alicia thinks the reason we don't have any literature to speak of is because, when men confront this kind of conduct, they generally don't complain. Y'know, Sam, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, look at how many women enjoy the rush they get from showing off their clothes and their figures -- for men. I mean, society's tolerance for milder forms of exhibitionism in women is pretty high. It would be just one small step to take it beyond that, into deliberate self-exposure."