by J K Franko
“Okay. That’s good.”
“But,” Rosa chimed in, “why change it later to McCall?”
“And who changed it?” Eddie asked. “Harlan, or the killer?”
“If it was the killer,” said Rosa, “then you’re dealing with someone who is very meticulous. And, you’re dealing with someone who didn’t want ‘Cruise Captain’ showing up in Harlan’s contacts. Are the C’s capitalized?”
“In ‘Cruise Captain’ you mean?” Travers asked. “Yep, both capitalized. Most of his contacts are. But that could just be auto-formatting.”
There was a pause.
“The contact change could be based on new information,” Rosa suggested. “I mean, in that Harlan got new information. What if he initially receives a call, and it’s Cruise or a boat captain of some sort, so he lists the contact as ‘Cruise Captain,’ right? Then, later, he learns that the call was made from someone else’s phone—McCall’s. So, he changes the contact?”
“Following that thinking, if it’s Cruise as in Cruise Capital, that would tie Cruise and McCall together. Using the same phone,” Travers added to Rosa’s thought.
They paused, reflecting.
“Gotta think on that,” Eddie replied. “What else?”
“That’s all for now,” Travers said.
“Did you call the Seattle number?” Rosa asked.
“Yeah, right. Yes, we did. No answer. Tracked the number to a mobile carrier. The number was assigned to a prepaid phone. It’s only been used twice, to call Harlan. Both times, the calls came from Miami cell towers. No other activity on the line.
“The physical phone, we traced back to Target—they bought it as part of a batch from a company in Korea. We’ve traced it to part of a shipment of phones received at a Target distribution center. We’re still trying to see if we can track the specific phone to a specific Target store and see if we can get a final sale date on the phone itself. I won’t go into all the details, but it’s not that easy to trace a phone—the hardware, I mean.”
There was another pause in the discussion. Travers could hear Eddie and Rosa speaking again before he broke in and started summarizing. “Okay. So, persons of interest. I’ve got the Wises—Tom, Debra, Kristy—and Marty McCall, David Kim, and possibly Roy Cruise.”
“Yep.”
“Anyone else?” Travers asked.
“We read through your write-up on Harlan,” Eddie answered. “All the Wises definitely have a motive. McCall—with the lawsuit, yep, I get that. The oddballs here are Kim and Cruise.
“I mean, Kim’s on the list because Harlan came to town to see him, and there’s the weird text message, I guess. Cruise, because he owns the company Kim works for, and the ‘Cruise Captain’ contact. But, we need to know more if we’re going to find a motive for Kim and Cruise.”
“Yeah,” Travers confirmed, “I agree. Let’s stick with the basics. Motive first. The Wises? Clearly, revenge. Any one of them has a motive. McCall—the lawsuit could get you there, I suppose. If we put McCall and Cruise together with Kim, that could work. Especially if there’s something related to the lawsuit or the business.”
“Money, sex, or revenge,” Eddie said, naming the three classic motives. “We got alibis for the Wises. We need alibis for the other guys.”
Travers responded, “On that, I have a bit more—all confirmatory.”
“Ooh,” Eddie said. “Fancy word.”
“We followed up on the Wises. The girl, Kristy, we’ve got in Austin. Confirmed she attended a martial arts class. Spoke with the owner of the studio.
“Dad—we contacted his dentist. Excellent dental hygiene; he was there that day.
“The mother’s tennis alibi checks out, as well. Playing doubles with three other ladies, and a lunch at the club after.
“I haven’t done anything further on McCall—wanted to wait until after we talked today. Same with Kim and Cruise. I think we look for a money connection there somewhere.”
“We need more info,” Eddie confirmed.
“I think we should make an initial contact with McCall, Kim, and Cruise. Keeping it general and very nonspecific. Just ask about their whereabouts. If they’ve got alibis, we short-circuit a lot of this. If they don’t...”
“Okay,” Eddie agreed. “How do we do it?”
“Why don’t you pay the Miami guys a visit? I’ll give McCall a call. Again, let’s not give them any details—just go fishing and find out where they were, see what they say.”
“Got it. Okay. What else?”
“What about the dad?” Rosa asked. “He’s a politician and the kid’s caused him a lot of headaches. Wants to get rid of his son, so he arranges for him to disappear?”
“It’s possible,” Travers said. “I’ll add him to the list. I can check on his alibi, too.”
Eddie added, “Meanwhile, we’ll keep chasing leads here. We’ll get some folks to walk Saks, talk with the Uber drivers—see what more we learn. We can also call the few bay cruise and dinner cruise outfits we have down here—the commercial ones—and see if there’s anything there. I’ll call Sweet Miami myself and see if there’s any more information to be had on that end.”
“What about marinas near the hotel? If he got on a private boat of some sort, he could have walked there,” Travers said.
“Or someone could have picked him up in a car and driven him to any marina anywhere in South Florida, but yeah, sure. The hotel’s near Bayside—there’s a marina there. We can send someone down there, show Harlan’s picture around, see what we find.”
“Sounds good,” Travers said.
“Okay. I think that’s it,” Eddie said after a moment.
“What about the psych profile guy?” Travers asked.
“Oh, right. I’m meeting with Van der Parts this afternoon,” Eddie said. “I’ll email you the profile and anything interesting he has to say after.”
“Okay,” Travers said. “Looks like there’s quite a bit to work on. Let’s keep in touch.”
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
Travers sat back and reviewed his notes.
He added Harlan Sr. to his list of persons of interest. He’d been wrong not to—preconceived notions. Like it or not, over the course of his years spent dealing first with the rape trial and then with the assault on Joe at Whole Foods, he had gotten to know the senator. He’d formed certain opinions about the man. The senator was first and foremost interested in himself. His career was his life. He had not remarried after his wife died. And, although there were rumors about him and his assistant, Meg, Travers believed them to be just that. Harlan was dedicated to politics one hundred percent. And to his son. Which was why he hadn’t instantly seen him as a possible suspect.
During the rape trial, the senator had stood by Joe Jr. unfailingly. No matter how much the trial was tarnishing his relatively squeaky-clean reputation, he’d refused to distance himself from his son. He could have spun some bullshit story about his having some kind of addiction and banished him to rehab until it all blew over, but he didn’t.
To Travers, that was very telling.
Then there was the look in the man’s eyes when Travers had gone to interrupt his lunch at Abel’s on the Lake. They were alone in the booth when Travers shared the gruesome details about finding the penis on the door. The senator’s hard-ass composure melted away and the man disintegrated into a blubbering mess. Either he was an incredible actor or he was a man who had just faced the undeniable probability of his only son’s death. And not just any death, but most likely a rather painful and gruesome death.
But Travers was a professional. He would keep the senator on his list until all lines of inquiry were complete and he was completely satisfied that the man was not involved in the disappearance of his son.
In the meantime, he reviewed the notes from his telephone call with Eddie Garza and Rosa Pérez.
Timeline
May 2, 2018
1:47 p.m.airplane lands in Miami (Source: American Air lines)
2:28 p.m.check-in at hotel (Source: Surveillance video)
3:22 p.m.phone call to Sweet Miami (Source: Phone records)
3:44 p.m.call from Seattle number (Source: Phone records)
3:47 p.m.phone contact created (Source: Phone records)
– “Cruise Captain”
3:48 p.m. phone call to Sweet Miami (Source: Phone records)
4:12 p.m.Uber to Brickell Centre (Source: Credit card/Uber)
4:14 p.m.leaves hotel (Source: Surveillance video)
4:58 p.m.shoe purchase at Saks (Source: Credit card/Saks)
(buys boat shoes)
5:11 p.m.Uber to hotel (Source: Credit card/Uber)
5:25 p.m.arrives at hotel (Source: Surveillance video)
5:40 p.m.sends text to D. Kim (Source: Phone records)
“Sorry you can’t make dinner. See you in the morning.”
5:47 p.m.leaves hotel (Source: Surveillance video)
(in boat shoes)
5:56 p.m. call from Seattle number (Source: Phone records)
7:57 p.m.text from D. Kim (Source: Phone records)
“Joe. Did you mean to text me? What dinner? See you at 10”
8:12 p.m.phone contact edited (Source: Phone records)
– “Marty McCall”
Other:
Penis in Austin
Cut with sharp instrument
Fish DNA
“4 Kristy” in Sharpie
Seattle phone (206-576-1324)
number listed as McCall.
Prepaid phone
Purchased in Seattle
Persons of interest:
Tom Wise, Debra Wise, Kristy Wise
Marty McCall
David Kim
Roy Cruise
Harlan Sr.?
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
Eddie Garza arrived at Dr. Van der Put’s office at 3:45 p.m. He was fifteen minutes early and the doctor’s assistant showed him into a small conference room containing a round table with four chairs. Eddie took a seat and looked around. The doctor had remodeled since the last time he’d been there. The office was now decorated in muted tones and natural woods.
On the wall hung a number of framed degrees, titles, and licenses. There was pan flute music playing over the speaker system. Or was that Enya? He wasn’t sure. Whatever it was, it was making him feel sleepy. Eddie stood up to try to stay awake and alert.
Thankfully, Dr. Van der Put entered the room a few minutes later. He was wearing a cardigan and carrying a thin manila file folder. He shook hands with the detective and then sat across from him at the table.
“So,” Eddie began, sitting up in his chair and giving his head a shake, “what have you got for me, Doc? Hard one, right?” he asked with a grin.
Dr. Van der Put didn’t react to the dark humor; instead, he went straight to his findings. “Well, Eddie, you would think so. At first blush, there doesn’t seem to be a lot to go on here. But the lack of evidence in this case is actually evidence, at least from a psychological perspective.”
Eddie scowled and leaned forward. “How so, Doc?”
“Well, due to the dismemberment of the body, and the part that was removed, the case can be categorized as a ‘lust murder.’ Mutilation, dismemberment, posing the corpse—all of a sexual nature—these are signatures to this type of crime. Psychologically, it would fall under sadism—paraphilia, technically. But, the gist of it is that the killer is acting out a fantasy of a sexual nature. And that fantasy includes the severing of the penis.”
“Taking a trophy, right?”
“Exactly. Now, there are two typical lust murderer profiles. Organized and disorganized. Your murderer falls into the first category,” Van der Put paused, “precisely because there is no evidence.” He looked up from the folder with a supercilious grin on his face.
Eddie could see that the doctor thought he had come up with a very clever analysis, and was being intentionally cryptic. Eddie just wanted to get the damned profile and go, so he played along. “Okay Doc. So, tell me, how can ‘no evidence’ be evidence?”
“Your classic organized offender is going to be very smart; high IQ. And he is going to methodically plan his crime. He is cunning. He often kills and moves the body to muss up the crime scene. Confuse the forensics. This individual takes great pride in considering himself smarter than the police.”
“So, you’re saying that because we haven’t got a body or a crime scene, that our guy’s an organized offender, and based on that you can tell me what a typical organized offender is like?”
“Exactly!” Van der Put exclaimed. “Very good, Eddie. The typical organized offender chooses his victim carefully. Usually, a stranger. He likes to hunt far from his home or work. He thinks he’s smarter than the police. He even likes to flaunt his crime at the authorities—a sort of ‘catch me if you can’ mentality.
“I think the penis nailing incident here fits the bill. He’s saying, ‘Look at me, everybody. Look what I can get away with,’ to the police and to the world, all while making his point.”
Dr. Van der Put opened the manila file folder he’d brought in and slid a document across to Eddie entitled “Clinical Assessment.” Eddie skimmed through the document, which captured much of what the doctor had shared but in greater detail.
“So, when you say ‘all while making his point,’ I’m assuming you’re referring to the revenge angle? Someone avenging an alleged rape for example? No sex fantasy or anything, just payback.”
“I see no reason why that can’t fit into this analysis. Organized offenders carefully choose their victims. They look for certain types of profiles. Your killer here may have sought out the victim because he was abused himself. Or possibly someone close to him was abused.
“But, this is not a crime of passion. This is a well-thought-out and meticulously-planned murder. The victim was selected carefully. Most likely lured into a trap. He was probably tortured—I suspect the penis may even have been removed while he was alive. Then, the killer disposed of the body and used the victim’s member to announce himself to the world.”
“By nailing the dick on the door.”
“Precisely.”
“So, how’d he get it to Austin?”
“I suspect he drove it there, and that he lives near there. The killing in Florida was designed to throw you off the scent. Young Harlan disappeared on a Wednesday. The penis appeared on the door the following Thursday. Why so long?”
Eddie chuckled.
Van der Put was oblivious to his own pun and plowed on. “That is more than enough time for our killer to have driven back to Austin.”
“And how did he know our guy was coming to Florida?”
“Ah, Detective. Now we leave the world of my expertise and enter yours. Who knew he was coming to Florida? Who did young Harlan tell? That may very well be the key to your entire case.”
Eddie read through the profile again and pondered. “Interesting, Doc. Very interesting, as always,” he said with a big grin.
* * *
Back at his office, Eddie scanned the assessment and emailed it to Travers with a note:
Art:
See attached. We have a new suspect—Lust Murderer in Austin.
We need to find out who knew Harlan was traveling to Florida.
Eddie
Attachment
(Garza.Harlan.pdf)
CLINICAL ASSESSMENT
DR. EMILE VAN DER PUT
Case Facts:
A twenty-four-year-old male disappeared after leaving his hotel room in Miami, Florida. The following week, the victim’s penis was found nailed to
the door of the victim’s father’s house in Austin, Texas. On the penis in indelible ink was hand-written the phrase “4 Kristy.”
The victim had previously been accused of sexually assaulting a woman named Kristy. After trial, the victim was acquitted. There was speculation that the victim’s father, a politician, may have had a hand in having the conviction set aside.
Assessment:
A homicide that includes sexual mutilation can be categorized as a Lust Murder. Lust murders can be categorized as organized or disorganized.
The typical organized psychopathology would involve a structured killing, including torture and severing of the penis as a part of the murder.
In the case of a disorganized offender, the crime scene would present signs of uncontrolled rage, with the victim likely succumbing to a violent and rapid attack, followed by post-mortem mutilation and a possibly symbolic posing of the corpse.
Lust murders of both types are often associated with necrophilia.
Normally, crime scene forensics provides information that allow for distinguishing between organized and disorganized offenders.
The instant case is utterly devoid of crime scene forensics as a crime scene has not been located. Nor has the victim’s body, other than the penis.
These facts point to an organized offender, as only an organized offender could successfully execute such a crime without leaving a crime scene. The dearth of evidence in the instant case leads to this assessment.
The organized offender is cunning and typically plans his crime carefully and in great detail. He is of above average IQ. He is methodical in his thinking and in action. The organized offender typically kills far from his home or place of work. He is often mobile, owning a vehicle in good working order.
For the organized offender, victim selection is a process. This type of killer does not kill randomly, but selects his victim in advance and based on specific criteria. If he kills more than once, his victims will share similar criteria. The victim is typically a stranger—which is consistent with the lust murderer’s focus on escaping detection and arrest.
The organized offender knows full well the nature and illegality of his crime. He considers himself smarter than the police and believes he can flaunt his crime without risking detection or arrest.
