The Third Victim Quotes

“Chances are that he’s experiencing a great deal of guilt and self-loathing. Someone needs to help him come to terms with that. Otherwise, there is the danger that he will simply shut down that part of himself. He will start actively considering himself to be a remorseless killer. And he will become one.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“An authority-complex killer generally comes from a family with an extremely domineering parental figure,” he heard himself say. “This parent either physically or verbally abuses him as a child. The child grows up fantasizing about facing down his parent but never has the ability to do so. Instead, his rage becomes focused on other people in power. Except rather than seek out direct violence against them, the killer manipulates others into acting. This, of course, makes him feel powerful and omnipotent. “I need to look up additional case studies, but authority-complex killers are generally charismatic, verbal, and possess excellent socialization skills. The interesting thing about them is that they are mental. Even more than violence, they enjoy toying with people in charge, creating elaborate ruses such as we’ve seen. This person doesn’t want things quick or easy. He wants to watch the police sweat and gloat over our seeming stupidity.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“Dorie is only seven years old, and we’ve had problems with her imagination before. Once she had the entire second-grade class convinced they couldn’t go to the bathroom because little trolls hid inside the toilets to snatch children for lunch. You have no idea how messy it can be when twenty-one seven-year-olds won’t use the rest rooms. I”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“considers this case a slam dunk.” “So you’re pleading not guilty,” Quincy said.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“with his daughter.” “Incest?” Rainie looked at Quincy incredulously. “Jesus, SupSpAg, how do you sleep with that mind?” “I can’t be sure,” Quincy said modestly, “but it has all the classic signs. Domineering father alone with his young daughter for the first thirteen years of her life. Seems very doting on the outside. I’m sure if you conducted further interviews you’d find plenty of neighbors and teachers telling you how ‘close’ Mr. Avalon and his daughter were. How ‘involved’ he was in her life. But then she hits puberty and the jig is up. To continue risks pregnancy, plus she’s starting to get a woman’s body, and many of these men aren’t interested in that. So Mr. Avalon goes ahead and takes a wife, some poor, passive woman to serve as window dressing and help him appear suitable to the outside world. Now he clings to the fantasy of what he once had. And protects it jealously.” “Does Mr. Avalon have access to a computer?” Rainie asked Luke. “In his office.” She turned to Quincy. “If Mr. Avalon was involved with his daughter, would he have problems with her relationship with VanderZanden?” “He’ll have problems with any of her relationships. In his mind, she’s his.” “That’s it then. He found out, got angry—” “And got an alibi,” Luke interrupted flatly. They looked at him sharply. He was nearly apologetic. “I tried, Rainie. I stayed in town till eleven last night trying to break this guy’s story. I’ve probably pissed off every blue blood in the city and it still holds. Mr. Avalon was in a business meeting all day Tuesday. His secretary swears”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“five toddlers on this block alone. Two of the girls in Becky’s class lived just four blocks over. There were a number of boys as well, though most of them were too young for Danny. Sandy had always thought that was a shame. It was so easy for Becky to find someone to play with, whereas Danny had to be driven to someone’s house. That took planning. That took having a parent home to serve as chauffeur. Danny had never complained, though. He seemed content to read books or stay at school or play on the computer. Later in the evenings she’d sometimes go on walks with him around the”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“it, Shep does his ordering for the department and for himself all from the same manufacturer.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“the front doors. Flashbulbs flashed. A roar rose up from the crowd at the sign of fresh activity. Then Rainie caught a new sound—the faint beating of helicopters bearing down upon them. The medevac choppers had finally arrived to carry the wounded away. And Rainie couldn’t help thinking that it would be much later before the ME’s office came for the bodies.           Officer Luke Hayes was thirty-six years old, balding, and shorter than most women. His trim build, however, was a compact one hundred fifty pounds that turned many ladies’ heads and became useful in a fight. In Rainie’s opinion, however, Luke’s biggest asset was his steely blue eyes. She”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“Society is not filled with evil souls. But it is filled with people who are mobile, fractured, overworked, overweight, overcrowded, and overtired. That’s a potent combination, particularly for people with poor coping skills and volatile tempers. And we’re seeing the proof of that in the increasing number of impulsive, angry acts, such as mass murders and road rage.” Rainie sighed. She rubbed her temples.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“but I’m still the child of an abusive alcoholic and we don’t make great parent material.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“Oh no. I don’t do children. They’re small, needy, easily destroyed. Let’s be honest. I’ve come a long way from my family history,”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“Dual-income families have turned out a batch of superpredators who have no sympathy or remorse. Blast ’em up on Nintendo; blast ’em up on the streets.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“We’re about to be overrun by an entire generation of juvenile psychopaths.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“Special Agent Quincy had earned his stripes as one of the Bureau’s finest profilers.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“Honestly, I think people should be required to get a parenting license before they’re allowed to have children.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“I want the building to be welcoming, but I don’t want to pretend nothing happened. I want us to move on, but I don’t want us to forget. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to do all that. When I was training to be a principal, the biggest threat we could imagine was an earthquake. They certainly hadn’t started the duck-and-run drills in the L.A. schools for drive-by shootings. Nor had they ever envisioned that schools would become war zones for rival gangs and street disputes. Now we have teachers and students dying in the halls. Small towns, big towns, black, white, upper class, lower class—it doesn’t seem to matter. And the human in me wants to rail against that, wants to live in denial, while the principal in me knows I can’t do that. I have an obligation to my students. If this is the world we live in, then this is the world I must prepare them for. But how do I do that? I’m not sure I’m prepared for this world. I know Miss Avalon wasn’t.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“study. Something you can write up for the American Society of Shrinks—otherwise known”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“away from the window and the night descending upon Bakersville’s streets.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“go one of two ways—an underachieving drunk or an overachieving workaholic. Since”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“intentions don’t matter in parenting. Kids don’t understand what you mean. They understand what you do.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim

“In the wake of the recent shootings, several school districts have implemented ‘student profiling.’ School administrators have a checklist of ‘suspicious’ behavior to use to evaluate each student’s potential for violence.”
― Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim