7
Monday morning hits without any developments in the case. Stone had no luck at the university IDing our John Doe or the girl from the sketch and the university was a total blowout for me too. I sat at the crime scene for nearly an hour yesterday, hoping a premonition or a flashback would come to me but, just like before, this gift seems to have two purposes—to frustrate me or to scare the hell out of me. Neither option is appealing.
I’m making my way up the stairs with a tray of coffee when my phone rings. I juggle the coffees and fish my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans. “Anderson.”
“Why am I getting a request from you on your vacation?” It’s Barry Evans, the VICAP consultant.
I laugh but ignore the question. “Just tell me what you found.” Barry would have been able to perform a much more detailed search than Darren and I.
“Nothing.”
“Oh. Definitely no matches?” I’m both relieved and surprised.
“Definitely no matches. Are you thinking serial or one-off?”
“I don’t know. The body was naked, posed postmortem with the handcuffs behind his back. And there was that heart.”
“Yup, I saw that.”
“I was kinda leaning toward serial, but I must be wrong.” Hunches aren’t always right, even mine.
“This could simply be the first kill,” he says. “Tucson might get another one in a few months’ time.”
“True.” I pause. “What about hits on female killers, male victims?”
“Got a few on that. Including one killer we’ve been tracking for some time. But the MO and scene are all wrong. Your vic matches the profile, but this killer takes them to a motel room, handcuffs them to the bed, has sex with them and strangles them.”
“Some elements match.”
“Yes, but she leaves them there. She likes them to be discovered in some seedy motel room. Plus there’s no love heart on the chest, and they’re handcuffed to a bed, not cuffed behind their back.”
“Yeah, okay.” I climb the last step and my breathing is slightly irregular.
“Did I interrupt something, Anderson?” I can hear the innuendo in Evans’s voice.
“No! I’m climbing steps, you jerk.”
“Just making sure. I know what I’d be doing if I was on vacation.”
“Goodbye, Evans.” I hang up and make my way through to the Homicide area. Stone sits at her desk looking expectantly at Darren, who’s on the phone and looking animated. News. He puts the phone down and looks up, his eyes wide with excitement. “We’ve got an ID on the John Doe!”
Stone and I crowd him.
“The vic’s name is Malcolm Jackson. He was arrested on a possession charge in 2003. Marijuana.” Darren pauses to pick out his coffee from the tray. “In Chicago.”
“Chicago?” Stone says. She also takes her coffee, leaving my caramel macchiato in the tray.
“Could have moved here in the last few years,” I say before taking a sip and letting a small amount of the hot, sweet drink trickle down my throat. I know coffee is a stimulant but it’s also soothing somehow.
Darren grins, a big grin. “Either way, we’ve got an ID.”
“Now we’ve really got something to investigate,” I say.
Stone shakes her head. “You’re not enjoying the Tucson sights? Was the museum that bad?”
“I had a great time,” I say, but it’s a partial lie. The museum was amazing, but I couldn’t keep my mind off the brunette from my dream.
Darren puts his coffee down and his grin disappears. “The parents.”
“Oh, yeah.” I sit down. No one likes being the bearer of bad news, but telling someone their child is dead…
Darren opens a window on his computer.
“And the ME’s office got back with some of the lab work,” Stone says. “Blood-alcohol level was 0.05 and no other drugs or toxins in his system. The meat substance in the stomach has been identified as ham, and the heart shape was body paint. The lab compared its chemical composition with some of the major manufacturers and got a hit. It’s Stage F/XTube Makeup from FX Inc. Color’s red, obviously.”
“Is that a common brand?” I ask.
Stone nods. “Retails at $2.95.” She pauses. “The sand and wood are still with trace.”
I move my attention back to Darren’s computer screen. A couple of seconds later Malcolm Jackson’s details come up.
Malcolm Jackson
Illinois driver’s license: 4583-1254-5001
Date of birth: 01/15/1985
Brown eyes
6’ 4”
215 pounds
212 E Randolph Street
Oak Park, IL 60601-6401
Traffic offences:
Speeding 05/05/2002, 70miles/hour in 60 zone
Criminal record:
10/05/2003 Arrest for possession of marijuana
Darren turns around to face us. “I guess I’d better call Oak Park.”