CHAPTER ELEVEN

"City University!" Margot exclaimed. "That's where I heard the name Franklin Edwards! He and his wife were the victims at the University, the President of the school and his wife."

Cranston nodded, looking intently ahead through the cab's windshield.

"Then that must mean that Franky is..."

Cranston turned to her, nodding again.

"President Edwards' son!" She sat back in amazement. "How did you come to such a conclusion?"

"It wasn't easy, Margot," Lamont replied. "The convoluted timeline of the discovery of the murders made our job more difficult. You recall the order of the killings?"

"Yes, Lamont," Margot replied, thinking. "The Edwards' were killed first, followed by the Embry's, then that poor man James Barston and his staff, and then poor Bram, though I hope he isn't dead."

"Correct, Margot," Cranston's predatory eyes flashed. "But we didn't discover them in chronological order. Had we done so, we might have looked to young Franky immediately. You remember we discovered him at the Sanitarium, but at the time we didn't consider him because he was still incarcerated and because we were looking for the clues of the other crimes - missing books, framed objects, and the like."

"Franky was at the Sanitarium, Lamont?"

"Yes, I'm sure you remember that I mentioned his name was on the patient list. Do you recall the young man we saw sitting beneath the tree just as we entered the complex?"

Margot thought back and remembered the distant image of a young man drawing on a large sketchbook.

"But how could he be the killer? Wasn't he confined in the Sanitarium?"

"Yes, Margot. What we didn't know was that he possessed this chameleon-like ability to change his appearance. He could have literally walked out without a single man or woman noticing."

Margot absorbed this, puzzling the issue out further.

"But why would a young man like him care about old books, a jade dragon, or the mysterious framed object from the second and third crimes?"

Cranston nodded, smiling coldly.

"Exactly, Margot," he answered. "Why? What would be his interest? That's why we are going back to City University. I think there we will find a man who does have such an interest. A man who felt the presence of a growing mind like Franky's, perhaps after the mental break that caused him to commit patricide. He knew that he would be able to manipulate such a mind to his own purposes. Perhaps with the offer of assistance in developing further mental powers..."

Lamont's voice trailed off as he was lost in thought.

"Who is it, Lamont?" Margot asked, completely confused.

Cranston shook his head sadly.

"I fear that I know, Margot." His voice was quiet, almost pained. "And I wish that I did not. I fear that this threat is not a new one at all...

...it is one that I know all to well!"