Poppy
“Excuse me, thank you. Sorry,” she whispers. When she reaches Lillith, she bends down and asks, “Is this seat for Hendrick?”
Lillith glances up. “Of course not. It’s for you.”
“Where is he—Hendrick?” she asks. “I thought you said—”
“I’m not sure if he’s coming.”
“Do you know him? I mean, from before the cruise?”
“Why do you ask?”
Poppy notes that Lillith’s cheeks are flushed. And her eye glitters. She’s been drinking, that’s for certain, but she also appears . . . oddly unsettled.
“Just wondering.” But before Poppy can probe further, the lights in the auditorium dim, the spotlights on the stage brighten, and the host interviewer, Sophia Kritikou, walks onstage. Applause erupts.
Poppy eagerly joins the clapping as she glances around the auditorium again. Still no sign of Arrabella. No Patrick. No Tan Man, either, thank heavens. She catches sight of Hendrick.
He’s seated. By himself. Right at the very back. Behind him, leaning against the wall and clutching a tablet against her body, is Roshaan. The lights over the audience go dark, and the applause swells as Dr. Gideon Marsh enters and crosses to one of two big leather chairs in the center.
Poppy’s attention is riveted back to the stage.
Dr. Marsh sits, and Sophia Kritikou takes the chair opposite him. On a low table between them is a pile of his books, a jug, glasses of water.
A hush falls over the audience.
Dr. Marsh looks magnificent—he’s everything Poppy expects from an old Quantico mind-hunting GOAT. She’s seen him on TV, but in person he’s more, and larger. He takes up space and radiates ease and confidence. Even from where she sits, Gideon Marsh has tangible presence.
“Welcome to our first Midnight Salon event. I’m Sophia Kritikou, and I’ll be your host for the evening.” Sophia is appealing, too—maybe mid-fifties. Midi skirt, pretty white blouse, hair tied back, loafers. “And please join me in a big welcome for Dr. Gideon Marsh.” She holds her hand out to him.
The crowd breaks into applause again.
He nods, smiles, his arms relaxed.
“Dr. Marsh—”
“Gideon, please,” he says. Pleasure ripples over Poppy’s skin at the gravelly sound of his voice.
The whole trip is already worth it—just to see and hear him in person.
She reaches for her wine, sips as she settles deeper into her seat, and allows the world to fade to nothing save Gideon on the stage.
Sophia smiles. “I’m sure everyone here already knows your backstory, but just in case, you first joined the FBI in 1969, right?”
He nods. “Yes, then I was very quickly sidelined after sustaining an injury in the field. I used my rehab period to earn a doctorate in abnormal psychology. It led to an invitation to join the FBI’s newly formed Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico.”
Sophia consults the notebook in her lap.
“And from 1977 onward, you helped craft the foundations of modern criminal profiling. Your work has contributed to countless landmark investigations into serial offenders, and it’s been instrumental in developing nationwide—even global—protocols on serial homicide and victimology. ” She turns to the audience.
“And, of course, as we know—it’s why we’re all here—Gideon now writes riveting bestsellers based on his work, and he lectures on the psychology of deviance. He lives in Los Angeles, and—” She turns to Gideon. “I believe your daughter, Sarah, and grandson, Carter, are traveling with you?”
“Sarah is here with me tonight, in the audience. Carter, of course, would love to be present, but he’s eight.
” Gideon grins and raises a finger. “He does, however, fully intend to follow in my footsteps. In fact, he currently keeps a notebook—a running list of what he believes are suspicious things that warrant his investigation. He calls it the List of Suspicious Happenings to Be Investigated by Carter J. Frost.”
The audience laughs.
Poppy’s pulse kicks—the kid who bowled her over—he’s Dr. Gideon Marsh’s grandson. She saw that title on his notebook.
Sophia says, “Gideon, you’ve written several books, each focusing on specific serial killers, but your recent release—In His Grip: The Psychology of Women Who Sleep with Devils—is unlike the others in that it profiles the women who—either knowingly or unknowingly—enable their partners to kill.
In some cases they even help lure or assist in the torture and murders.
What drew you to their stories? But”—her hand shoots up—“before you say ‘behind every successful killer’ . . .”
Laughter erupts among the audience, and Gideon smiles.
“It was a pattern I saw emerging during my interviews over the years with men like Ted Bundy; Ed Kemper—the Coed Killer; Paul Bernardo—the Scarborough Rapist; Dennis Rader, the BTK killer—”
“The Bind, Torture, Kill guy?”
“Yes. Rader, for example, was married to Paula Dietz for over thirty years, and they had two children. Paula, by all appearances, was a conventional small-town wife and mom, and apparently unaware of what her husband was doing. Her husband hid his heinous crimes for decades by presenting himself as a family man, a church leader, a Boy Scout volunteer. He used Paula and his kids as a front, a mask. They enabled him to compartmentalize his crimes, and to keep on killing. Without them he might not have been able to do so. Rader described his murders as being like a hobby that existed in a different ‘mental box.’ It was a similar story with Ed Kemper and his girlfriend. People who knew the couple described her as ‘sweet’ and their relationship as ‘normal.’ She, too, claimed to have no idea what her partner was doing. Kemper backed this up. He maintained that he kept his ‘dark side’ hidden from her.”
“They didn’t even suspect?”
“If they did, they never acted on it.”
“What about denial? Can women like them harbor suspicions, but then compartmentalize their doubts in the same way their men compartmentalize their murders?”
Gideon nods. “This is where the spectrum gets layered and interesting. You go from the Paula Dietzes on one end—where it appears the spouse or partner really was innocent and unaware—to a more middle ground with the partners of killers like Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer; John Wayne Gacy; Robert Yates; Russell Williams; Israel Keys; Robert Hansen; Harvey Louis Carignan; and others. They all had partners who did in fact grow suspicious, or who noted their men’s erratic behaviors, but never said or did anything. ”
“So they were enablers but not active participants?”
“No participation in the ritual of the killings, correct. Then you get the far end of the spectrum—women who grow suspicious, perhaps even express doubts or resistance, or try to get away, but they are instead gradually co-opted by their partners. They become actively complicit in their men’s crimes. Either partially or fully.”
“By ‘partially’ you mean knowing what they do, but turning a blind eye?”
He nods. “Yes. It can range from knowingly providing a cover, to actually helping lure victims for him, to actively assisting in the torturing and killing them. Like Karla Homolka with Paul Bernardo.”
“So my question is, Would these women have become criminals—sadistic killers, even—had their paths not crossed with a killer?”
“Many of them started life as ‘good girls.’ Good students. Kind, friendly, sociable. Decent families. In my opinion a lot of them would never have crossed legal lines—let alone become killers—had fate not crossed their paths with a true devil. Karla Homolka, for example. She went from an apparently well-adjusted, likable young woman who loved and worked with animals, to Bernardo’s lover, then accomplice.
She even helped kill her own sister. In the end she presented herself as a victim of coercion. ”
“The battered wife syndrome?”
Poppy shifts uncomfortably in her seat. She sneaks a glance at Lillith. But Lillith is transfixed by the pair onstage. Poppy reaches for her wine and quickly empties her glass. She needs to blunt the emotions being triggered in her.
Sophia leads Gideon into a deep dive on the psychology of several of the female partners of killers he has written about in his book—many of whom he has interviewed himself—painting a picture of women who genuinely seemed destined for normal lives, until they met a devil.
While Sophia asks another probing question, Poppy gestures to a server moving discreetly through the aisles. She points to her empty wineglass, and within moments she has another full one in hand. She settles back into her chair, feeling a bit better now.
“So these women who did cross from victim to villain, and who did actively lure victims or participate in the serial murders—they are not your Aileen Wuornos, Dorothea Puente, Jane Toppan, or Belle Gunness types?”
“On the contrary. A different class entirely.”
“What about Aline-Claire Lavoie, the partner of Vincent Kapoor? You mention her in your book as well—is she a victim or a villain? Would you put her on the Karla Homolka end of the spectrum—someone who might claim coercive control or psychological entrapment, as Karla claimed with Paul Bernardo?”
“Aline-Claire’s case is murkier than Karla’s, in my opinion.
Her complicity remains hotly debated. She was a demure medical secretary from Quebec—the middle child of a large and devout Catholic family.
Plain. Mild mannered. Responsible. Devoted to looking after her parents and siblings.
She worked hard—often at more than one job at a time—to help with family finances.
She eventually got engaged to a nice local guy in Quebec, but the romance wasn’t really there.
It fizzled, and they eventually called marriage plans off.
She still had big dreams. She still wanted adventure and travel in her life, but deep down she seemed to have accepted she was doomed to a gray life in a small town across the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal. ”
“So how did her path intersect with Vincent Kapoor’s in the heat and vibrance of Kashmir?”