Oliver Stark - American Devil

She beckoned him into her office. She saw his right hand twisting the attitude band and smiled. ‘How’s the anger management?’

‘I’m still angry,’ he said.

She shook her head with mock disapproval. ‘I know what you’re going to tell me.’

‘What?’

‘You didn’t twang.’

‘I feel stupid twanging.’

‘But if you don’t twang, there’s no psychological movement. There’s no learning. Listen…’

Tom smiled broadly. He couldn’t help it. He liked it when she was earnest, even if he didn’t buy into all the CBT shit. Still smiling, he twanged, looking directly into her eyes. Then he twanged again.

‘Yeah, yeah, I get it, you’re thinking I’m just a quack with stupid ideas.’

‘I need to talk about the case, not myself,’ he said.

‘Okay. Talk me through the victims.’

‘He disempowers them by force or fear, then he rapes them and tortures them. His preferred method of killing them is asphyxiation. Then he takes something.’ Tom paused. ‘He took Mary-Jane Samuelson’s eyes, Grace Frazer’s hair, Amy Lloyd-Gardner’s heart, Jessica Pascal’s breasts. He poses them. Mary and Grace were posed to humiliate, with their legs apart. He posed Amy and Jessica in quasi-religious poses and added a line of poetry to each. He leaves cherry blossom at every scene. Sorry. It’s not nice.’

Levene pulled her Powerbook across the glass table and clicked a couple of times. ‘Listen,’ she said. ‘I want to help you get back out there and catch this monster. You know my research. We were trying to detect early neurological signs in these killers, so I spent time working with these guys.’

‘What happened?’

‘If I’m honest, I couldn’t handle seeing them close up. Hey, Tom, just so you know — I’ve got baggage that would put yours to shame. I’m just better at the makeover than you are. All I’m saying is that I got to know a thing or two about profiling killers. That’s why I took this job, to find out more about them from you guys.’

‘A profile can’t work in all cases. This guy defies profiling.’

‘Maybe, maybe not. The key is, Tom, to isolate the important points from the noise.’

‘How?’

‘Look, your killer is working on all kinds of different levels. He’s taking psychological reminders, he’s hiding himself from the victims, he’s sexualizing and degrading them, he’s also romancing them and then giving them some afterlife. It’s a lot of detail.’

‘Don’t we know it.’

‘Look, we just got to work facts and deductions from facts. Deductions, you know — necessary factual conclusions, not guesses.’

‘I get you. If you can work up a profile, we can see if we can use it. But I need something else.’

‘What?’

‘I got a strong feeling that Mary-Jane wasn’t premeditated.’ He paused and looked across to her. ‘I think he’s been getting closer to these women and he broke into Mary-Jane’s apartment to be near to her stuff, maybe even take something. But she came back unexpectedly, and then I think things went bad.’

‘In many cases I’ve studied, the killer isn’t sure what he’s going to do until he interacts with the victim. It depends on the victim’s reaction. Sometimes the killer sees no way out except by silencing them, especially if they struggle. It can trigger a very aggressive reaction. It’s self-protection.’

‘But he got a taste. He liked it.’

‘Yeah, this guy really liked it.’

‘The thing I’m thinking, Denise, is this. If I’m right, then we’ve got a piece of useful information about him. You know, something that we might use to lure him in, maybe even get him to speak to us. You think that’s possible?’

‘You want to interact with him?’

‘There’s a greater chance of finding him if we can get him to talk to us. I want to know if he’s responding to what we say. Can you help with this?’

‘Yeah, but I’ve got to understand him a little better.’

‘Okay, what do you need?’

She smiled thinly. ‘You give me the case files and as a quid pro quo I will try my damnedest to resolve your aggression against women. Not, of course, your aggression against me, which is textbook defensiveness for your psychological weakness. By the look on your face, you’d say that isn’t what’s wrong with you, but I’m here to tell you that’s what you’ve done with all that sadness. Turned it to something hard and unpleasant.’

Tom stared at her. It felt like a relief to hear someone identify things he didn’t dare identify for himself. ‘Okay. We have a deal. I’ll get you the files, but based on what you’ve heard so far, how do you read him?’

‘Well, first off, your killer is focusing on the key romantic symbols from his women. Eyes, hair, heart, breasts — they all have romantic symbolism. He’s afraid of the power that women — or a particular woman — have over him. What they make him feel. He’s afraid of the effect they have on him. If he’s a stalker, then he needs to control not only the women, but the way they excite him. He can go to them or their artefacts or pictures whenever he wants. He wants to neutralize the real threat, though, because he’s been hurt and humiliated by them. You’re looking for someone with a problem relating to strong women. If he’s in a long-term relationship it’ll be with someone weak. He’s smart, too. He’s someone who would be able to hide all of this from the person he lives with.’

‘Will he kill again?’

‘Yes. He’s compulsive. It might be his weakness. Now he’s been triggered, he might just keep on going until you stop him.’

‘What else?’

‘Here’re the thoughts I’ve been having. Forget trying to work out all the noise. Let’s focus on one or two things. Here goes. He attacks women he has stalked, right?’

‘I think so, yes; there’s evidence he’d been stalking. Jessica Pascal was spotted with a tall, handsome guy and Grace Frazer reported a stalker.’

‘He photographs them and takes their clothes. He wants to know them intimately and they’re all quite refined and educated girls. Forget all the symbols. He likes these girls. In his head, he might believe they like him. He might even believe he loves them. My first profile note would be this — your killer is building a relationship with these girls and he also feels bad about what he’s done. The religious posing suggested, to me, a kind of naive attempt at forgiveness. He can’t help what he wants to do, but he tries to absolve himself from it with romance and religion.’

‘So how does that help?’

‘Well, you lost Lisa, didn’t you — what did you do, after she’d gone? Move on and forget?’

‘No.’

‘What?’

‘Visited places that reminded me of her.’

‘One thing I can be sure of, he will return to the scenes. He’ll want to continue the buzz it all gives him. That’s why he takes the trophies, to relive the kill.’

‘Yeah. But what can we do? Surveillance? We do that at the crime scenes anyway. It’s standard.’

‘No, not surveillance. You asked me how you could interact, based on your information about Mary-Jane. You need a set-up. ’

‘That’s what I was thinking. Tell him we know Mary-Jane was a mistake, that he can get out of this… that kind of thing.’

‘Maybe, but if you want him to talk to you, give him something to talk about. You need to press his buttons.’

‘Go on.’

‘He’s a control freak. How do I know? Because he doesn’t mind hurting these women when they’re alive. A disorganized type would kill them first because he’d be too afraid. This guy can communicate okay. Perhaps he’s even charming. But the point is, he likes to control everything — including, I’m guessing, his reputation. Part of this is about making society notice him.’