Brian Freemantle - In the Name of a Killer

‘What about the hair?’

Meadows turned down the corners of his mouth, in a doubtful expression. ‘A lot of scope here. Could be he’s ugly: wants to make the people he kills ugly, too. Maybe he’s simply bald — could be medical baldness, from chemotherapy or nervous depilation — and just wants to make them look like he does. Certainly there’d be a connection to the obsessional neatness: so he won’t be completely bald. There’ll be hair that doesn’t fit his own idea of how he should look. Then again it could just be a souvenir. I’ve read that the hair is scattered about but he probably keeps some. Souvenirs are very important to them.’

‘So he’d have it, if we make an arrest.’

The bright smile came again. ‘That would make it all very easy, wouldn’t it?’

‘Which leaves the buttons.’

‘Nipple fetish,’ said the behaviour expert immediately. ‘Well documented, readily obvious. Ann Harris had bruised, bitten nipples: the Russian woman talked of her breasts being fondled.’

‘We think we know who bit Ann Harris. He was a lover who liked inflicting pain. He has an alibi.’

‘Russian?’

‘American.’

‘Does he fit the profile?’

Cowley tried to put the pieces together. ‘Similarities. They wouldn’t lead me directly to him. Are you saying it’s a sexual motive?’

Meadows came forward for better focus, forcefully shaking his head. ‘Not in the way that you and I would think of sexual gratification. There’s rarely penis penetration from an asocial attacker. The satisfaction is psychosexual. Where there’s a connection again. Asocials use sharp, pointed instruments: a penis substitute. Like the knife in this case. Never a firearm.’

‘Would there be a mental history? We’re obviously running institution checks.’

Meadows made another doubtful expression. ‘It’s always worth going through the system: your man could have shown disturbances involving one or all of the manifestations he’s now demonstrating. But don’t necessarily look for it progressing previously to murder. Killing is the final explosion: the ultimate towards which he’s been building. If you want to target, go for someone with a mental history that shows a nipple fixation: maybe actual mutilation that brought about his arrest and led to his being institutionalized. There’d be a progression there. When he mutilated the nipples before, he got arrested and locked up. Maybe because he was known to the women he attacked. Providing he evades capture, he’s not going to get locked up by killing them, is he? In fact he’s protecting himself by killing them. Cutting off their buttons is cutting off their nipples, a substitute like the knife is a penis replacement.’

Cowley wondered how Danilov would have reacted to this lecture. Despite the unquestionable eighty per cent statistical accuracy of behavioural profiles, Cowley found it easy to understand the Russian’s scepticism. ‘We seem to have shifted from generalities to specifics.’

‘Unavoidable,’ said Meadows, sharply. ‘Generalities again. Keep the murder area under surveillance. Asocial killers are often compelled to return to the scene. It’s another satisfaction for them, to relive the crime.’

‘Let’s revert to the sexual aspect, for a moment. Would he be heterosexual? Or could he be homosexual?’

‘Invariably heterosexual. I can’t recall a reference case where the man has been homosexual.’

‘So there would be a wife? Or girlfriend?’

‘Possibly. But not necessarily. An asocial is basically a loner: often someone abused in childhood. If there is a wife or girlfriend, he will have abused her breasts. If he’s unmarried, he might have employed a hooker, again to abuse her breasts. Probably wouldn’t have tried to screw her. I understand Moscow’s got a pretty active hooker fraternity. It would make a lot of sense to ask around.’

Cowley had the impression that he was learning and understanding a lot while at the same time discovering nothing of the man he was pursuing. Would Danilov be making any progress on his own in Moscow? Time, hopefully, to get back to specifics.

‘So when we find him he’ll be neat, his pants pressed, his jacket is cross-over, his shoes clean. He could possibly have a hair problem and be ashamed of it. He’ll live in the area we’ve already marked off. He’ll be a loner, although he might have a wife or girlfriend. He might also have used prostitutes, concentrating upon their breasts.’

‘Don’t tell me!’ protested the psychologist.

‘What?’

‘You know a hundred guys, just like him!’

Cowley smiled. ‘It is pretty general.’

‘I’m only sketching the outline: you’ve got to colour in the picture,’ Meadows insisted. ‘But let’s try a few more specifics. I’ve considered both autopsy reports: the Russian one was practically another attack, by the way. Your killer will be five feet eight inches tops, not less than five seven. Ann Harris was five feet five. The act of pulling her backwards, the way your killer attacks, would reduce that height by as much as five inches. So the knife goes in with just the slightest upwards bias. He’s right-handed, of course. And he’s strong. He’s not stabbing, giving himself some momentum to get the knife into the body. He’s pushing. That needs strength. And there’s strength in the hold over the mouth, leaving the nasal bruising. And that round chin abrasion is important, both on Ann Harris and on the woman who lived. Your man wears a ring, on the pinkie finger of his left hand. I read two things into those factors. He’s fit: maybe exercises. Although from the tobacco smell the Russian woman talked about he’s not fanatical about his health. And there’s a contradiction here to what I’ve already suggested. He’s not that obsessionally neat, to wash his hands a lot. If he’d washed his hands, he would have reduced that smell. From the way he clamps his hand over the mouth and nose he’s probably had some martial arts or military training.’

‘Something worries me about that known physical contact he had with the Russian woman, Lydia Orlenko,’ said Cowley. ‘I talked to her very soon afterwards: heard her describe it. She was revulsed by the hand. She said it was clammy, but not wet. That it didn’t feet like the skin of a hand. Neither was it any sort of glove. So what the hell could it be?’

Meadows frowned, surprised by the question. ‘I think it was a glove.’

‘But I just told you …’

‘… what about a rubber glove?’ Meadows broke in. ‘The sort of thing women wear in a kitchen. Even a surgical glove. Ever felt them, against your skin? Particularly the surgical type? It is a clammy sensation. But it’s not wet. Try it for yourself. I did, after the forensic guys back in Washington suggested it to me. Feels just like the woman described it.’ The man physically shuddered. ‘Nasty! And very clammy.’

‘If he wore surgical gloves, there could be some medical connection? The entry wound that killed both the man and Ann Harris went cleanly between the eighth and ninth rib. Which would indicate some medical knowledge.’

‘And the Russian woman was probably saved because the knife hit the rib. I’m a psychologist, not a surgeon. I would have thought in the circumstances — in a darkened alley, suddenly seizing a victim from the rear — it would be practically impossible even for a trained physician to guarantee getting between the two ribs.’

‘There’s something about the nipple fetish that worries me,’ said Cowley, speaking as the doubt came to him. ‘What about Vladimir Suzlev? Why would a man with a nipple complex attack another man? Unless our killer is homosexual.’