Chris Carter - The Night Stalker

‘The proverbial “soul mate”?’ the DJ interrupted.

‘Yes, your soul mate. I think that when we meet that person, we just know. Even from a silent moment. Even if he doesn’t say a word at first.’

‘OK, I guess I can see what you mean, but he can’t be silent forever. He’ll have to say something eventually. So what would that have to be? How would he grab your attention?’

‘He wouldn’t have to do or say anything in particular, but let me tell you my favorite romantic story.’

‘OK.’

‘As a teenager, my grandmother’s first ever job was as a flower girl in a street market in Perm in the old Soviet Union. My grandfather worked in a tailor shop, just a few streets from the market. Her first day at work was the very first time he saw her, and just like that, he fell madly in love. My grandfather was an attractive man, but he was also very, very shy. It took him sixty days to gather up the courage to finally say something to her.’

‘Sixty?’ the DJ commented.

‘Every morning on his way to work he walked past her stall. Every morning he’d promise himself that’d be the day he’d speak to her. And every morning when he saw her, he’d become too nervous. Instead of speaking to her, he’d just walk on in silence.’

‘OK, so what happened?’

‘What my grandfather didn’t know was that my grandmother had also fallen in love with him from the first day she saw him. Every day she watched him walk past the flower stall, and every day she hoped that he’d stop and ask her out. So one morning, he gathered all the courage he could muster, walked up to my grandmother, looked her in the eye and managed to whisper five little words: “You take my breath away.”’

Myers reached over and pressed the pause button.

Hunter’s memory flashed back to the deciphered answering machine recording Myers had given him a few days ago. The very first words Katia’s kidnapper had said had been exactly those – YOU TAKE MY BREATH AWAY…

By the way Myers looked at Hunter, he knew that there was more to come.

‘Fifty-nine days walking past the flower stall in silence,’ Myers said, her stare fixed on Hunter. ‘Fifty-nine silent messages left on Katia’s answering machine. And I’m sure you remember the first five words on the sixtieth message.’

Hunter nodded but said nothing.

‘Now this next part of the interview comes after a couple of commercial breaks. The DJ is asking Katia questions that were phoned or emailed in by listeners.’ She pressed the pause button again and the interview resumed. It started with animated laughter.

‘OK,’ the DJ said, ‘I’ve got another question here from one of our callers. This is going back to you being a hopeless romantic, and about you finding your knight in shining armor.’

‘OK…’ Katia sounded hesitant.

‘The question is: you said that you believe that love is a lot more than words, or looks. You also said that you believe that when you meet the right person, your “soul mate”, you’ll just know. Even from a silent moment, like your grandparents. What I’d like to know is how long is that moment? How much silence do you need before you know?’

‘Umm.’

Laughter from the DJ. ‘That’s not a bad question. So how long is that moment? How quickly do you think you’ll be able to know if you’ve met the right person?’

There was a pause as Katia thought about it. ‘Twelve seconds,’ she finally replied.

Hunter’s stare met Myers but neither said a word.

‘Twelve seconds?’ the DJ asked. ‘That’s a strange number. Why twelve?’

‘Well, I’d probably know in ten seconds flat, but I’d give it another two seconds just to be absolutely sure.’ Katia and the DJ both laughed.

‘That’s a very good answer,’ the DJ agreed.

Myers reached over and pressed the stop button. ‘Before you ask,’ she said, ‘I checked, the station has no record of who called in with that question.’

‘Remind me when that was aired again?’

‘Eight months ago, but this recording was passed on to other radio stations.’ She retrieved a notebook from her bag. ‘KCSN in Northridge, KQSC and KDB in Santa Barbara, KDSC in Thousand Oaks and even KTMV, which is a smooth jazz station. It’s been aired all over the court. I got this from KUSC’s website. Anyone can listen to it online, or download it. Even if the kidnapper wasn’t the one who called in with the question, he could’ve heard the interview and got his idea from there.’ She had another sip of her Scotch. ‘You and I know that those twelve seconds of silence in every message weren’t just coincidence.’

Hunter said nothing.

‘You know what this means, don’t you?’ There was excitement in Myers’ voice. ‘Katia’s abduction is about love, not hate. Whoever took her is desperately in love with her. So that pretty much discards the possibility of your sadistic killer being the one who kidnapped her.’

Hunter remained silent. His expression gave nothing away.

‘Katia had been seeing the new conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Phillip Stein, for the past four months. He was, and still is, completely obsessed with her. But she broke it all off just a few days before the tour ended. He didn’t take the break well at all.’

‘But he couldn’t have done it. He flew straight to Munich after their last concert in Chicago. I read your report.’

‘And you double-checked that just to be sure, didn’t you?’

Hunter nodded. ‘Any other lovers, ex-boyfriends…?’

‘Her previous boyfriend lives in France, where she was before coming back to the US. If she had any other lovers, she kept them well hidden. But I don’t think her kidnapper was a lover.’ She paused for a moment. ‘I think we’re dealing with an obsessed fan. Somebody who is so in love with her his whole reality is distorted. That’s why he took what she said in that interview so tremendously out of context. His wants to give her her fairy-tale love story.’

Myers almost jumped out of her skin when Hunter’s phone vibrated against the tabletop, announcing a new incoming call. The caller ID read Restricted call.

He didn’t even have to answer it to know that his night was about to get a whole lot darker.

Rain was still falling by the time Hunter got to Cypress Park, Northeast Los Angeles. He hadn’t said anything after he disconnected from the call. He hadn’t said a word during it either. He’d just listened. But Myers knew from the defeated way he closed his eyes for just a second – they had another victim.

Cypress Park was one of the first suburbs of Los Angeles. Developed just outside the downtown area at the beginning of the twentieth century, it had been created as a working-class neighborhood, whose main attraction was its proximity to the railroad yards. That’s where the victim’s body had been found, inside one of the abandoned buildings along the tracks.

The old railroad yards still occupied a vast area, but great parts of it were now just wastelands. One of these wastelands was located directly behind Rio de Los Angeles State Park. Half a mile north from there, still inside this desolated area and sandwiched between the train tracks and the LA River was an old maintenance depot. On a rainy, moonless night, the flashing police lights could be seen from quite a distance.

Forensics were already there.

Hunter parked next to Garcia’s car. A young policeman, wearing a standard issue LAPD raincoat and holding what could only be described as a kid’s size umbrella, came up to his door. Hunter pulled his collar up and tighter around his neck, refused the umbrella, and started walking up to the brick building. His hands were tucked deep inside his pockets. His eyes were low, searching the ground, doing his best to avoid stepping into any puddles.