This extensive excerpt comes from the novel Sacred Sins by Nora Roberts, chronicling a gripping Washington, D.C. police investigation into a serial killer targeting women. The narrative follows Detective Ben Paris of Homicide and Dr. Tess Court, a psychiatrist brought in to create a psychological profile of the killer, who is fixated on religious purity and appears to be saving his victims from sin. The text details the strained professional and emerging romantic relationship between the skeptical Detective Paris and the empathetic Dr. Court as they race to identify the killer, revealed late in the excerpts to be Detective Roderick, before he can make Dr. Court, who he sees as his final victim, the subject of his deadly mission. The narrative also includes subplots about Tess's work with patients like the suicidal teenager Joey Higgins, and Ben's traumatic past involving his brother's death and a disdain for psychiatrists.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.