23
I put my head in my hands. Time is moving faster than we can, faster than the evidence. We haven’t made any progress in the past few days and the next murder is closing in on us. If the killers keep on schedule, we’ve only got a couple of days to go and we’re still no closer to finding one of the killers, let alone all three—or four—of them. Agent Gerard drew a blank on the e-mail searches, which means they’re either not communicating via e-mail or they’re running a heavy-duty encryption program. With our normal investigative techniques drawing a blank, I know I should be trying to embrace my gift rather than reject it. And while there have been a couple of times when I’ve experienced the early-warning indicators of an oncoming vision, each time I’ve shut myself down hard, frightened of what I might see.
Darren’s cell rings. “Carter, Homicide… Excellent.” He covers the mouthpiece and looks up at me. “The lab results are back from our Jane Doe,” he whispers. He uncovers the phone and grabs a pen from his top pocket.
“Well?” I ask when he hangs up.
He goes over his notes. Tox screen was negative, no semen and no DNA. The plastic has been identified as manufactured by Lee Light Industrial Products Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong.
“And no ID yet?”
He shakes his head. “The dental X-rays have been e-mailed for matching.”
“I’m going to draft a profile of her killer. See if that doesn’t help us.” To date, we’ve been following leads on the case and discussing the killer’s MO and basic personality, but that doesn’t replace a full psychological profile. Now that we’ve received the complete files from the Dakota forces, including the essential photos, I’m in a position to draft the profile.
“Take the project room again if you like.”
“Okay. What about you?”
“I’m going to run the case files one more time. But there’s not much more to investigate. Not until we get our next murder.”
“The thought of another murder sickens me.”
“I know.”
We’re silent for a moment—there’s nothing else to say on the subject—so I pick up my laptop. “See you in a few hours.”
In the project room, I spread the seven files across the desk but before I’ve had a chance to open them up Darren comes in. His face is blank.
“What’s up?” I say.
He opens his mouth then shuts it, and then fidgets, smoothing his hands along his jeans.
“What’s up?” I repeat.
He takes a breath and speaks slowly, his voice controlled. “It’s been a few days now, Sophie.”
I give him a puzzled look.
“Since your last vision.”
“Oh.” I lean over the table and open up the files, revealing the top photo for each murder, each victim.
Darren takes my right hand. “Sophie.”
I look him in the eyes. “Yes, it’s been a few days.”
“And you haven’t had another vision? Or a dream?” There’s a hint of disbelief in his voice.
I gently pull my arm away from him. “No, I haven’t.”
He shakes his head. “Are you sure? You didn’t tell me about the one of the girl wrapped in plastic straightaway.” Now his voice goes from mild disbelief to accusatory. “What else are you hiding?”
I lean both hands on the desk and stare at him. “Nothing.”
“So they’ve just suddenly stopped?” His voice is controlled again, too controlled.
I pause, teetering between being angry and confessing. I could tell him that I’ve actively been repressing the visions, that I’ve been too much of a coward to let myself see anything, but I’m ashamed.
“Yes. They’ve stopped,” I lie.
He lingers for only a few seconds, before giving a quick nod and leaving the room. I don’t know if he’s pissed with me or not, but when one of the photos from the file catches my attention I no longer care. I’ve got a job to do, and that’s profiling, not becoming our resident psychic. I spread a selection of photos around each file, and the crime scenes are identical. The seven victims that VICAP turned up were all found in North or South Dakota, so our killer has either moved to Arizona or he’s here specifically for this murder. On a piece of paper I write down the rough dates of all the murders. In some, the body was discovered very late in the game, so they’ve estimated time of death based on when the person disappeared.
The only pattern is that most of the murders occurred in the winter months, which did, in fact, buy the killer extra time. The bodies were all found in woodlands that are covered by snow in winter. The snow not only hid the victim until the spring thaw, but also helped to slow down the decomposition process.
All victims had multiple stab wounds—from twenty-one to forty-three per victim—and while there were a few knife wounds on the victims’ backs, most were concentrated on the front of their bodies, specifically around the breasts and abdomen. The wound locations reflect the sexual nature of the killings, with the breasts and abdomen representing womanhood and perhaps fertility.
All victims were brutally raped, repeatedly, and all were restrained with ropes—except Jane Doe, who was cuffed. In each case no semen or other fluids were present. This evidence would normally indicate either the offender’s inability to perform sexually or the use of a condom. In our perp’s case, small traces of nonoxynol were found in the vaginal swabs, indicating the latter. The victims’ pose is also sexual—their arms raised over their heads and their legs slightly parted. He obviously doesn’t have sex with the women in this position—in my nightmare about the brunette she was tied to the bed, arms and legs at different angles—so this postmortem position must have some significance for him. Exactly what is difficult to say. It could represent his first sexual position, or it may have been something he saw, perhaps in a magazine or a skin flick, the first time he saw a sexual act. Either way, this posing gets him off.
I look at the photos that were taken of the women before their deaths and given to police for their records. Darren’s right, they are certainly on the larger size in terms of their breasts. Most of the women would be a C-cup at least, curvaceous, with a definite indent at the waist. I check the files for the victims’ height and weight. They range from five-seven to five-ten, and one-hundred and thirty to one-hundred and sixty pounds. He’s obviously not intimidated by taller women, so it’s likely he’s tall himself. I also notice that none of the women are blonde, none are fair-skinned. His type is more exotic-looking. To my piece of paper with the dates, I add some more victim information.
1. May 2002: 19 YO waitress, black hair, Italian descent
2. January 2003: 22 YO chicken-factory worker, brown hair
3. November 2003: 17 YO high-school student, black hair, quarter Native American
4. December 2004: 18 YO supermarket employee, black hair, Greek descent
5. June 2005: 24 YO barmaid, dark brown hair
6. January 2006: 20 YO McDonalds employee, dark brown hair
7. February 2007: 19 YO stripper, black hair, Asian descent
8. Jane Doe: April 2007—dark brown hair, occupation unknown, descent unknown
For some of the victims I can glean their heritage from the file, and for others it’s obvious by their names—the Greek girl’s last name was Mykonos. I find it interesting that he picks these types of victims. The cross-section indicates that he doesn’t belong to one of these groups himself. He’s seeking out difference, which means it’s likely he’s not only Caucasian, but fair.
A more complete profile is starting to form in my mind, so I fire up my laptop, open Word and create a new document using my standard profiling template.
| Sex: | Male |
| Age: | Chronological: 20-25 Emotional age: 16-20 |
| Race: | Caucasian—but hunts across non-Caucasian races and is attracted to difference. |
| Type of offender: | Organized—well-planned murders, transports victims before and after death, intelligent. Knife attacks are frenzied, but still organized—similar knife wounds from victim to victim and clean crime scenes forensically. Frenzy is indicator of youth. |
| Occupation/ employment: | White collar but likes his victims to be lower than him in socioeconomic status and intelligence. Office worker in middle management—has some power but not enough to satisfy him. |
| Marital status: | Single but sexually active with casual partners. Sexual partners more likely to be his equals—college-educated. |
| Dependants: | No dependants—stereotypical bachelor. |
| Childhood: | Quite a privileged upbringing—knife wounds and savagery of the rapes indicate a spoiled brat who’s used to getting his own way. |
| Personality: | Charming, but also very manipulative of others. Can be impulsive if things aren’t going his way. Needs to exert power through rape and murder because he cannot exert this violent power onto his peers. Hides his own sense of inadequacy by acting like an egotistical playboy. Channels these inadequate feelings into murder. |
| Disabilities: | None. |
| Interaction with victims: | Keeps his victims for a day or two—based on forensics. Long enough for multiple rapes and for him to feel in control. Stalks his victims and knows their routines. Nabs them at night, when they are in vulnerable positions—the barmaid disappeared on the walk home from work—something she did every night. Spends time with them postmortem—elaborate positioning of the body. |
| Remorse:
| The plastic wrapping indicates some feelings of remorse because he’s symbolically covering the victims. Yet the fact that the plastic is clear shows that he’s not overwhelmed by shame. Positioning a body facedown is normally done by a killer who doesn’t want the victim “looking” at him or “judging” him but in this case the face-down position is more about the sexual pose. He poses the victims in what he feels is a provocative stance. |
| Home life: | Lives alone in a modern apartment or townhouse—classic bachelor pad. Would spend a lot of his wealth on his home, which would have the latest gadgetry and be decorated with a modern, yet stark feel. |
| Car: | He transports the victims, so he must own a van or SUV. More likely an upmarket SUV to tie into his wealthy bachelor look. Also possible he has two cars—one for show, and one for dealing with his victims. |
| Intelligence: | High IQ. |
| Education level: | College-educated—although he probably spent more time partying at college than studying. Takes education for granted because his family is wealthy. |
| Outward appearance: | Highly educated and well-groomed—all the girls seemed to go willingly with him so he must look trustworthy in some way—although women are more likely to trust a man in a business suit with a nice car than a man covered in tattoos on a motorbike. Well-dressed at all times—designer suits or more casual wear. |
| Criminal background: | Probably no criminal record but it’s possible he was charged with something at college like drug possession or DUI—wealthy boy away from parents. |
| Modus operandi (MO): | Stalks the victims, getting to know their routines. Lures the victims into his car but then takes them to a remote location—not his house. Ties them up and repeatedly rapes them before stabbing them to death. Transports victims to wooded location for dumping—not much blood at dump sites, so he transports them postmortem. |
| Signature: | Frenzied knife attack. Posing of body postmortem, with plastic. |
| Post-offensive behavior: | May revisit the dump site and look at his victims—clear plastic facilitates this. |
| Media tactics: | This killer will follow the media very closely and will want to see his actions in the paper. He uses the media reports to fuel his ego—and cover up the underlying sense of inadequacy. This could be dangerous—if he gets lots of media coverage, this will excite him and may propel him into action in terms of taking his next victim. |
I look over the profile and one thing becomes clear: it would have been pure hell for this killer not to take the knife to the brunette. That shows me he can exercise control over his kills—a dangerous ability for any killer.
AmericanPsycho: Sold, to the man with a film fetish.
DialM: Thank goodness.
NeverCaught: Film fetish?
DialM: My username. It’s from the movie Dial M for Murder.
NeverCaught: Oh, yeah. Michael Douglas.
DialM: Not that one. The original. 1954, starring Grace Kelly and Ray Milland. Classic film.
NeverCaught: Take your word for it. Congrats, M, you finally got one.
DialM: No thanks to you, Never. You love driving that price up.
NeverCaught: If you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t be in the club.
DialM: I can afford it. But I do like to make sure the girl in question is worth it.
NeverCaught: Ling’s worth it, and you know it.
DialM: True.
NeverCaught: So, M, what are you going to do with her?
DialM: Chain her up in my personal dungeon. What else?