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would become.., and the selection of a young girl as the second victim may have been done deliberately to make him look like a psycho.

“Pretending to be abnormal... well, just the idea of doing that is abnormal enough,” L said. Misora was surprised to hear him express such a human sentiment. The emotion she felt was very similar to being impressed, and she quickly put the conversation back on topic —to cover her reaction, if not to hide it. “So, L, I feel ridiculous trying to figure out a connection between the victims. I think the police are doing a fine job with that, and... Frankly, checking out everyone who knew each of them seems more useful. I mean, the third victim, Backyard Bottomslash... she must have been involved in all kinds of business dealings at the bank.”

“But Naomi Misora,” L interrupted. “This is no time for idle musings. I believe there will be a fourth murder in the near future.”

He’d said something similar the day before. That there would be more victims. But based on what?

With the killer still at large, it was an obvious possibility, but it seemed just as likely the murders would end at three. It all depended on the killer’s whim—as an investigator, she found it hard to place the

odds higher than fifty-fifty.

“The number of Wara Ningyo,” L said. “Four where you are, three downtown with the second victim, and two at the third scene, in West L.A—one less doll at each scene.”

“Yeah. So?”

“The number of dolls can still decrease by one.”

She should have guessed. In fact, it made little sense to count backward from four to two and then stop. Even if Misora’s theory was right, and he was killing indiscriminately to camouflage his real victim, then the more victims the more effective this plan would be. Of course, each new murder was an added risk, but the return probably justified it. Frankly, there was no way of telling if this killer even considered murders a risk—there were certainly some killers who considered the murders themselves return enough. And it was abnormal to pretend to be abnormal...

“So, L... you think there will be as many as two additional murders?”

“More than a ninety percent chance,” he said. “I’d say a hundred, but there is a small possibility that something will happen on the killer’s side, preventing him from continuing. So maybe ninety-two percent. But Misora, if something does happen, it will not be two more—only one. There’s only a thirty percent chance of a fifth murder.”

“Thirty percent?” Quite a drop.

“Why? There are two more Wara Ningyo... and if he’s using the dolls to represent his victims...”

“But in that case, he won’t be able to leave a Wara Ningyo at the fifth crime scene. He will go from two dolls to one when he kills the fourth victim. That doll will make it obvious that these are the work of

the stifle killer, but...”

“Oh! I see,” Misora said, wincing at her own stupidity. Obviously whatever the killer’s motive, leaving a Wara Ningyo at the scene was part of his rules. He would hardly kill a fifth victim when the number of dolls had reached zero.

“There is a thirty percent chance the killer won’t think things through that far, but that’s extremely doubtful. After all, he did wipe the light bulb sockets...”

“So there will only be four victims total. The next one is the list.”

“No. The third was the last,” L said firmly. Despite being a synthetic voice. “There will not be another. Not with me involved.”

Confidence? Or hubris?

Neither one was something Misora had laid claim to for a while now. The last few weeks in particular. What had confidence been like?

What had pride been like? Misora no longer knew

“But I need your assistance, Naomi Misora. I expect great things from your investigations.” “Do you?”

“Yes. Please keep your heart frozen while you work. In my experience, what a case like this needs most is a mind that will not be moved by anything. Behave as if you are playing chess on the ice.”

“…”

Wasn’t that called curling?

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