The Murderers' Club
Page 19
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.
May 2002
January 2003
November 2003
December 2004
June 2005
January 2006
February 2007
April 2007: Jane Doe
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?
24
I sit at a spare desk in Tucson Homicide and work on the profile for another case, something Rivers sent me. The case here is on the go-slow, with no victim last week and no leads left to follow. The fact that we never got our next victim makes me both happy and nervous—could it be over and the serial killers are now inactive? Or is the next victim simply waiting to be found? They changed locations once for the dump site, maybe they’ve done it again. We had teams at the university and Himmel Park last Thursday night, but nothing happened.
The room starts to swim a little bit, but I concentrate on reading the file in front of me, focusing on something else until the sensation passes. Another vision avoided—good. I let out a heavy sigh and check my watch: it’s 8:00 a.m., which makes it 1:00 a.m. at night in Melbourne. I decide to check The Age, my hometown newspaper, before concentrating on work again. I often check the news a couple of times a day. It gives me a taste of home and helps me keep upto-date with what’s going on. That, with phone calls to my parents and friends, is my connection back to the homeland.
The Age homepage loads and the top headline instantly sends chills down my spine: Online child-porn ring prosecuted. It’s a horrific story, true, but there’s some other reason it bothers me so I read the full article. It is an international case, with simultaneous raids in Australia, Germany, France, America and Singapore, capturing more than thirty individuals. The perps range from organizers who held victims against their will and forced them to do sexual acts while they took photographs, to the passive recipients of the pictures. The ring communicated online, in a specially set up chat room. Nowadays most child pornography happens online—it’s all too easy.
I go back to the paper’s homepage and stare at it vacantly. I vaguely notice that the weather’s going to be twenty-two Celsius and that the footy season has started. I think back to the story, the online porn ring. We thought about e-mails and instant messaging, but what if they’ve set up aWeb site with a chat room, just like the pornographers did?
I walk over to Darren’s desk. He’s also working on other cases. He looks up. “Hey.”
“What if they’re communicating via a Web site chat room?” I say.
“That’s a definite possibility.” He pauses for a couple of seconds. “That means one of them is very, very technically minded.”
“Hadn’t got that far, but you’re right. They would have had to build the Web site and presumably they’ve got security in place.”
“Exactly. Unless they got someone else to set it up and then killed them.”
A potential avenue has emerged from the swarm of dead ends. “I’ll give Agent Gerard another call. See what he says.”
“We need something.” Darren pauses. “You know what today is, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I say. “April twenty-second, two days until our next body’s due.” I’ve been trying not to think about it.
“Uh huh. Maybe they’re getting more careful now, dumping the bodies better.”
“If that’s the case we might not find anything in two days’ time either.”
“Maybe not.”
Back at my temporary desk I dial Gerard’s number. The phone rings several times and I’m just about to hang up when he answers. “Morning, Daniel Gerard.” He sounds a little breathless.
“Hi, Gerard. It’s Agent Anderson.”
“Hey, Anderson. What’s up?” His breathing is still uneven.
“You sound like you just ran a marathon, Gerard.”
“Hardly. I just got in and had to run for the phone.”
I look at my watch—just after 8:00 a.m., which makes it 11:00 a.m. in DC—very late to be getting in. “Do you want me to call back later? Let you settle in first?”
“Nah, shoot.”
“What if our killers are using some sort of secure Web site? Or maybe a chat room?” I’m no computer whiz, but I’m not computer illiterate either. Lots of sites use security systems and have areas that can only be accessed by members with a log-in. “You could set up a Web address so that the site wasn’t visible at all unless you logged in, right?”
“Sure. Your initial homepage would be a blank page, with a login box for a username and password. If you don’t have log-in details, that’s all you’d see.”
“Okay. So how would you find this site?”
“That’s the tricky part. If someone set it up without search stubs, it would be virtually impossible to find without the URL.”
“Virtually?”
He laughs. “The Bureau runs a special computer program, more like a virus really, that might pick it up.”
“Go on.”
“Last year we developed a software tool that does a similar thing to Echelon but on the World Wide Web. It searches Web sites, looking for suspect text.”
“So why haven’t we caught and prosecuted every kiddy-porn ring in the country? In the world?”
“TheWeb’s just too big. My system spits out URLs which we investigate, and we have caught and prosecuted quite a few people in the past year. But if you’ve got someone in the know on the other side, they move their site around every couple of weeks and set up shop with a new Web address that promptly gets e-mailed to all the members.”
“I see.”
“So we just have to wait until Betsy picks them up again.”
“Betsy?”
He clears his throat. “I named it after my dog.”
I suppress a laugh.
“Go on, laugh. Everybody else does.”
“Sorry. So you actually built this thing?”
“I wrote the code, yes.” There’s a hint of pride in his voice—and rightly so. It sounds awesome.
“Agent Gerard, mind if I ask what you did before the Bureau?”
Now he laughs. “Got a theory, huh?”
“Sure do.”
A computer start-up sound comes bursting through the phone line. “Yup, I was a hacker.”
“So, is working for the Bureau part of your court order?”
“No, nothing like that. I did get into the U.S. Army’s network when I was sixteen, but they never found me.”
“Sixteen!” Shit, he’s one of the good ones all right.
“But a couple years later I came across some real bad guys online. I called the Bureau and somehow wound up working here. Go figure. My folks sure were happy.”
“I bet.” They probably saw jail on the horizon for their son. Jail or working for the FBI. “So, Betsy. Can she search for particular words?”
“Sure. What’s the word?”
“How about murder or victim?”
“She searches for those words now, she searches for all words related to violence. But it’s a big bad world out there.”
“You’re telling me.”
“And I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Lots of sites would have those words. Even sites without sinister motivations. Think about the FBI Web site itself.”
I hang my head back. He’s right. The FBI site would mention murder and victim hundreds if not thousands of times. I’m silent. There must be something else we can search on. “What about Mojave Desert?” I say, but as soon as I finish the sentence I realize that will be the same. Too many hits.