"You saw all of this when you were 13 years old, commander?" asked Shelton. Stasya nodded in agreement. "Believe me when I tell you I was just as confused as you are now. At first I thought the visions were brought on by the drugs the doctors had been giving me.
"You see, when I first awoke from my coma, the KGB interviewed me relentlessly about what had happened to me. I tried to give them details of the assault, but I couldn't. I was in shock. My shock was not only from the fact I had been raped and survived when no one else had, but I was pregnant and about to deliver within the month."
"So when you came out of the coma, they thought it might be the only chance to find out who the killer was, right?"
"Exactly. Of course, at the time I did not understand all they were doing to me. I was still practically a child and I was scared. When they interviewed me I would tell them things that even I did not remember or understand. But whatever I was saying seemed important to them."
James felt chills as he listened to her. "Do you remember anything while you were in the coma?" he asked.
"I remember the coma felt like I was simply just sleeping for a along time. But I also remember dreaming. I dreamt of many girls like myself being lured into the woods and never coming home. I dreamt of concentration camps and a grand hotel where a monster lurked and crawled between the walls."
"You saw all of that while in the coma?" questioned Shelton.
"Yes, but when I gave birth everything changed. I began to see murder."
"You mean you saw the details of Chikatilo's earlier killings?" asked James.
"Not exactly. I mean, yes I did begin to sense Chikatilo. The more he killed, the more in tune I became to him. In fact the KGB began to know exactly when he had committed a new killing because I would become blind until the victim was completely dead."
James rubbed his arms as a chill seemed to overpower the entire room. Stasya could see what she said was affecting James.
"I understand it does not make sense to you yet. At the time it did not make sense to me. I had been subjected to so many tests I was not sure if it was real thoughts or imagined thoughts from all the drugs. The doctors were certain I had severe brain damage from the blow of the hammer. Except now I saw things I had never studied. I saw things that would make a normal person become insane. It was as if giving birth triggered something paranormal inside my mind."
"Why did you lose your eyesight when Chikatilo killed?" asked James.
"Chikatilo used to stab out the eyes of his victims," she said.
"Was it just a result of overkill frenzy?"
"No, he feared that the last image a person sees at the time of their death is forever recorded in their eyes."
"So by stabbing out the eyes he believed it would keep him from being caught," stated Shelton.
"Precisely. Belief in the human eye taking a final snapshot is an old wives tale. Chikatilo probably learned that Scotland Yard took photographs of Mary Kelly's eyes just in case the myth was true, and it made him paranoid." added Stasya.
"So, you said the more Chikatilo killed the more you could sense him," stated James.
"Yes, even though I would become blind during the murder itself, once he left the victim I was able to see the crime scene with complete clarity. This was of course after my daughters were born. When the KGB were able to go directly to the crime scene within hours of the murders they knew somehow clairvoyantly, I was connected to him. We could never figure out if it was because I survived the rape or gave birth to his children."
"So because of your gift, the KGB recruited you to hunt down Chikatilo?"
"I would call it a curse, Inspector, but yes you are correct. I was 14 years old by then. I spent the next three years of my life being exposed to every type of paranormal testing the KGB could imagine. After the fall of the Soviet Union your government took charge over me."
"So you're not really a translator for the FBI are you?" asked Shelton.
"No."
"Then what have you been doing for our government since you were 17 years old?" asked James.
Stasya looked at James with surprise that it took him this long to ask this question which, to her, was obvious.
"Hunting serial killers."