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Part One

CHAPTER

1

WHEN MARCUS SUNDAY ARRIVED at Whodunit Books in Philadelphia around seven that evening, the er told him not to expect much of a crowd It was the Tuesday after Easter, lots of people were still away on vacation, and it was raining

But Sunday and the er were pleasantly surprised when twenty-five people showed up to hear him read and discuss his controversial true-crime book The Perfect Criminal

The , “Marcus Sunday, who has a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard, has hit bestseller lists around the country with this book, a fascinating look at two unsolved inal mind focused on the depths of the criminal soul”

The crowd clapped, and Sunday, a tall, sturdy man who looked to be in his late thirties, stepped to the lectern wearing a black leather jacket, jeans, and a crisp white shirt

“I appreciate you coht,” he said “And it’s a pleasure to be here at Whodunit Books”

Then he talked about the killings

Seven years earlier, two nights before Christmas, the five members of the Daley family of suburban Omaha had been slain in their home Except for the wife, they were all found in their beds Their throats had been cut with a scalpel or razor The wife had died similarly, but in the bathroom, and naked Either the doors had been unlocked, or the killer had had a key There had been a snowstorht, and any tracks were buried

Fourteen months later, in the aftermath of a violent thunderstorm, the Monahan family of suburban Fort Worth was discovered in a sie of thirteen were found in their beds with their throats slit; the wife, also with her throat slit, was found naked on the bathroom floor Once more, either the doors had been unlocked or the killer had had a key Again, owing to the storm and the killer’s meticulous methods, the police found no usable evidence

“I became interested because of that lack of evidence, that void,” Sunday informed his rapt audience

Sunday said that the dearth of evidence had confused hi the case, but they were equally baffled Then his acadean to theorize about the philosophical worldview of such a perfect killer

“I came to the conclusion that he had to be an existentialist of soless, absurd, without value Someone who does not believe in God or laws or any other kind of moral or ethical basis to life”

Sunday went on in this vein for so how the evidence surrounding the murder scenes supported his controversial theories and led to others The killer’s disbelief in concepts like good and evil, for example, “perfected” hiuilty, which hat allowed him to commit such heinous acts with dispassionate precision

A man raised his hand “You sound like you admire the killer, sir”

Sunday shook his head “I tried to describe his worldview accurately and let readers draw their own conclusions”

A woman with dirty-blond hair,a sleeve tattoo that depicted a panther in a colorful jungle setting

“I’ve read your book,” she said in a southern accent “I liked it”

“That’s a relief,” Sunday said

Several people in the audience chuckled

The woman smiled, said, “Can you talk a little about your theory of the perfect criminal’s opposite, the perfect detective?”

Sunday hesitated, and then said, “I speculated that the only way the perfect killer would ever get caught was by a detective as his direct antithesis—someone who believed absolutely in God, someone as eful life The problem is that the perfect detective does not exist, and cannot exist”

“Why is that?” she asked

“Because detectives are hu some confusion in the audience