The Incident Room was still busy from the lecture Carson had given not long before, the detectives muttering between themselves. Joe had gone to the back of the room, paperwork growing into a pile by his keyboard. Laura walked over, ignoring the icy glance from Rachel Mason as she passed her.
Joe looked up as Laura got close. ‘Did you see anything?’ he said, leaning back, taking a breather, rubbing his eyes.
‘No, nothing,’ she said. ‘If the leak was in here, he’s cool. What are you doing back here?’
‘So I’m near the printer,’ he said, and lifted up the paperwork scattered on the desk. ‘I’m looking for anything related to arsons or animal cruelty from twenty or thirty years ago.’
‘Any joy?’
He shook his head. ‘None whatsoever,’ he said. ‘It seems like the system purges itself every few years, and so the further back you go, the less there is, and go back more than fifteen years and it’s like entering some world where computers didn’t exist.’ He tapped his pen on the desk, frustrated. ‘If we had a name, we could do a better search, just to see if the suspect had anything relevant, but we don’t, so we can’t.’
‘How come arson or animal cruelty are relevant?’
Joe stopped tapping his pen. ‘Why do you think men kill pretty young women?’
Laura thought about that. ‘Sex, I suppose. Lust. They want what they can’t get, or maybe they get their kicks by killing, and prefer young women to older women.’
‘But why do they get their kicks by killing? You have to know the why to find the suspect.’
‘Power, would be my guess,’ Laura said.
Joe smiled. ‘You are nearly right, because it’s about having no power and then striking back.’
‘Isn’t that the same thing?’
‘Not quite,’ Joe said. ‘Some people kill because of the power trip, because they feel powerful, like predators, where it’s all about picking on the little man, or woman, whatever the case may be. But killers who have a history of arson or being cruel to animals do it for the opposite reason, because they have no power.’
Laura sat down. She could tell that this was going to be a long conversation, and with Joe Kinsella, you had to have your mind clear to let it all sink in. ‘Explain.’
Joe twirled his pen. ‘Children burn things down or torture animals as a way of striking back,’ he said. ‘Imagine an abused child, or a bullied child, or even just an odd or insecure child, different from the rest. How can he protect himself?’ Joe raised his eyebrows. ‘He can’t, is the answer. So he hits back secretly, at things that can’t strike back. Small animals, or buildings, where he can set the fire and retreat. It’s cowardice, but borne from revenge, not anger.’
‘But not all child arsonists turn into murderers,’ Laura said.
Joe nodded in agreement. ‘But most serial killers have arson or animal cruelty in their history. Something happens that takes them from the bud to the bloom. So it might be puberty, some misconnect of the wires, or an abnormally strong sex drive. All we have are generalities, not as good as neat forensics, but these best guesses are usually right.’
‘So why would he choose these women?’
‘That’s an important part of the puzzle, the future victim,’ Joe said. ‘Killers rarely attack the source of their resentment. If they were humiliated or abused as children, you would expect them to go back and kill the people who did it. But they don’t.’ He paused, before continuing, ‘Imagine spending your childhood as a victim of bullying, and the constant dreams of striking back, the satisfaction those dreams provide. So what happens when you hit puberty, and you are excited most by fantasies of revenge? They become something to masturbate to, something with more of a kick than watching the girl next door getting changed, and so hatred gets mixed up with sexual desire, and it becomes almost impossible to separate the two.’
‘So the motivation is desire mixed up with revenge?’ Laura said.
Joe nodded. ‘Something like that.’
‘Can we expect the next victim to be young and attractive, like Jane and Deborah?’ Laura asked.
‘Probably,’ Joe said, ‘but still connected in some way. Remember what I said about the location of Jane’s body. There is so much we don’t know about Jane’s movements. Deborah’s family were more helpful, but Don Roberts has put up a wall.’
‘Do you think it might be someone known to both of them?’
Joe thought about that. ‘Probably not, but it’s a close run thing. Just over half of killers like this attack strangers, and so we should try and root out the local psychopath, but we would be foolish to rule out a connection. It might be worthwhile going further back with Jane and Deborah. Were they friends at school, or at the youth club? Did they both know anyone called Emma? Or what about their parents? But this could just be about the weedy kid who was always humiliated by the pretty girls. Now he is all grown up, he sees the pretty girls as the cause of his problems, and so pretty girls are in his revenge fantasies.’
‘Do we have someone going to the schools?’
He pointed towards Rachel, who glanced over. ‘Rachel is doing the rounds. When I’ve finished trying to get something from the computer about grown-up child arsonists, I’m going to research Jane and Deborah, see if anything comes up from their past.’
‘Why didn’t you start there?’ Laura said. ‘You once told me that the victims are the most important thing to look at, because they help to identify the type of killer.’
‘And that’s still true, but I don’t think the killer is someone from Jane or Deborah’s past, because that would mean that the killer is in his early twenties, maybe even younger,’ he said. ‘That seems too young, especially for a well-developed method like this, repeated both times. We have to consider everything, so I’m looking, but I would put the age of the attacker as being nearer forty, or maybe even older.’
‘Because the young aren’t as controlled?’ Laura said, and when Joe smiled, she added, ‘you’ve told me that before.’ She pointed at the papers. ‘So how long will you be doing this for?’
‘Not much longer,’ he said. ‘I’m hitting too many blanks.’
‘What sort of person are you looking for,’ Laura said, ‘apart from someone with arson or animal cruelty in their past?’
‘Mr Invisible,’ Joe said, and frowned. ‘This person will not be immediately obvious. Think about the scenes. You mentioned control. That’s how they were, well-ordered, with the bodies laid out, clothes gone, no forensic trail. This killer is no fool, and most importantly, the bodies weren’t mutilated.’
‘They had dirt and leaves jammed into their mouths and other orifices,’ Laura said.
‘I think that was part of the fantasy, because it happened before they were killed. If the killer is some oddball, unable to control himself, the body would have been badly mutilated. There would have been forensic trails everywhere, and we would have probably caught him pretty quickly. The fact that the bodies were not like that suggests that the whole killing was controlled and considered, which means that the life that he leads will be just like that, a façade, where no one knows what he really thinks. He may have built up the picture-perfect life. Steady job, local church. Maybe even marriage and children. His house and car will be neat, and everyone will comment, when he’s caught, that he seemed such an ordinary man.’
Laura exhaled. ‘So he won’t be on the radar much then?’
Joe shook his head. ‘This is a desperate trawl, nothing more, but we need to build up a suspect list.’
‘Don’t let Don Roberts see it,’ Laura said. ‘There’ll be a bloodbath. He’ll see it like a hit list.’
‘And that’s why we need to find whoever is sending the emails, in case there is a leak,’ Joe said. ‘So Don is still not cooperating?’
Laura shook her head. ‘That’s where I’m heading next, just for one more try,’ she said. ‘There are people working their way through Jane’s friends, but it’s all a mystery so far.’
‘And what about Jack?’
Laura sighed at that. ‘He’s writing the leak story.’
‘It’s a risky business,’ Joe said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’m worried that Jack’s first instinct was right, that he might be something more than a leak, because there is one person who does know all the details, and that’s the person who killed the two women. If the leak is the killer, we risk giving him a platform, because he thinks he can communicate with us through Jack.’
‘Why do you think he’ll do that?’
‘Because that’s what they do,’ Joe said. ‘Whoever is killing these women, they’re displaying power, maybe for the first time. One thing he will enjoy is the mayhem it creates. He will follow the news story and take pride in beating us, the police, because this whole thing is about flexing his muscles.’
‘It’s a calculated risk then,’ Laura said, ‘because if the description of the bodies makes someone think of a name, or decide not to shelter him anymore, it will be worth it.’
‘That’s the problem with risks,’ Joe said, waving his pen at her. ‘They can go wrong, and in this case, that will mean another dead woman.’