With Sophie bathed and dried-and powdered, another one of her new things-Jessica began to relax. And with the calm came the doubts. She considered her life as it was. She had just turned thirty. Her father was getting older, still vibrant and active, but aimless and alone in his retirement. She worried about him. Her little girl was growing up by the moment, and somehow the possibility loomed that she might grow up in a house in which her father did not live.
Hadn't Jessica just been a little girl herself, running up and down Catharine Street, a water ice in hand, not a care in the world?
When did all this happen?
While Sophie colored a coloring book at the dining room table, and all was right with the world for the moment, Jessica put a videotape in the VCR.
She had taken a copy of Psycho out of the Free Library. It had been quite awhile since she had seen the movie start-to-finish. She doubted if she could ever watch it again without thinking about this case.
When she was in her teens she had been a fan of horror movies, the sort of fare that took her and her friends to the cineplex on Friday nights. She remembered renting movies while she babysat for Dr. Iacone and his two little boys-she and her cousin Angela watching Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, the Halloween series.
Her interest faded the minute she became a cop, of course. She saw enough of the reality every day. She didn't need to call it entertainment at night.
Still, a movie like Psycho certainly transcended the slasher fare.
What was it about this film that made the killer want to reenact the scene? Beyond that, what made him want to share with an unsuspecting public in such a twisted way?
What was the mind-set?
She watched the scenes leading up to the shower sequence with a dark anticipation, although she really didn't know why. Did she really think that every copy of Psycho in the city had been altered? The shower scene passed without incident, but it was the scenes directly afterward that got her added attention.
She watched Norman clean up after the murder-spreading the shower curtain on the floor, dragging his victim's body onto it, mopping the tile and tub, backing Janet Leigh's car up to the motel room door.
Norman then carries the body to the open car trunk and places it inside. Afterward, he returns to the motel room and methodically collects all of Marion's belongings, including the newspaper containing the money she had stolen from her boss. He stuffs all of it into the trunk of the car and drives it to the edge of the lake nearby. Once there, he pushes it into the water.
The car begins to sink, slowly being consumed by the black water. Then it stops. Hitchcock cuts to a reaction shot of Norman, who glances around, nervously. After an excruciating few seconds, the car continues to descend, eventually disappearing from view.
Cut to the next day.
Jessica hit PAUSE, her mind racing.
The Rivercrest Motel was just a few blocks from the Schuylkill River. If their doer was as obsessed with re-creating the murder from Psycho as he appeared to be, maybe he took it all the way. Maybe he stuffed the body into the trunk of a car and submerged it in water, the way Anthony Perkins had done with Janet Leigh.
Jessica picked up the phone and called the Marine Unit.