Chris Carter - The Crucifix Killer

‘Wait a second, Captain. Don’t even go there,’ Hunter replied, immediately going into defensive mode. ‘We got together a couple of times, but I met her before I even knew she’d had an encounter with a possible suspect. She’s just someone I met in a bar and… she’s not a potential witness. She hasn’t witnessed anything.’

‘You know what I mean. Getting involved with anyone that, in one way or another, is part of an ongoing investigation is at the best of times risky, not to mention against protocol and dumb.’

‘We slept together, Captain. That doesn’t really qualify as being involved. Especially in LA. And she ain’t part of this investigation. She’s not a witness and she’s not a suspect, she’s a lucky break, and to tell you the truth it was about fucking time we got one.’

‘Have you gone stupid all of a sudden?’ The captain’s voice firm and dry. ‘You know how serial killers work. More to the point you know how this one works. He profiles people just as much as we’re trying to profile him. He studies his selected victims, sometimes for months because he knows if he picks the wrong person his game is over. If this is our guy, I know you don’t think he just happened to bump into your lady friend in a bar?’

That same thought had been playing in the back of Hunter’s mind ever since Isabella told him about the man she’d met at the Venice Whaler. Hunter knew this killer was very methodical, no mistakes, no slip-ups. He stalked his victims, studying their habits, their schedules, waiting for the best time to make his move.

‘Yes, Captain. I know there’s a possibility that that’s how the killer chooses his victims. He first approaches them with some sort of frivolous conversation just to size them up in a bar or a nightclub.’

‘And that doesn’t bother you?’

‘Everything about this case bothers me, Captain, but this particular incident gives me some hope.’

‘Hope? Have you gone mental?’ the captain enquired wide-eyed.

‘Their meeting was over two months ago, Captain, before he started killing again. As you remember the first killing happened just over a week ago. Maybe he did size Isabella up and he didn’t like her, she didn’t fit his victim’s profile, so he passed her up and looked for someone else.’

‘The faceless woman?’

Hunter nodded.

Captain Bolter had a sip of his coffee and immediately made a bitter face. ‘But why would that be? What made him not like her? She lives alone, doesn’t she?’

‘Yeah, she does.’

‘That makes her an easy target. What made him discard her?’ He walked back to the coffee machine and dropped two more sugars into his cup.

‘I’m not sure yet, but that’s one of the reasons I have to be close to her. I need to find out why she didn’t fit. Maybe she’s just too strong-willed. Isabella is not the kind of woman that would take crap from anyone. Maybe the fact that she’d noticed his tattoos straight away scared him off. Maybe he realized she wasn’t such an easy target after all.’ Hunter paused and looked uncomfortable for a moment. ‘Or maybe she’s still a possible target and the killer has simply moved her further down the list.’

Captain Bolter hadn’t thought of that possibility. ‘Do you think?’

‘With this killer anything is possible, Captain. You know it and I know it. Anyone could be his next victim,’ Hunter replied skeptically. The heat inside the office was starting to make him feel uncomfortable. ‘Can I open one of these windows?’

‘And let the city smog into my office? Hell no.’

‘Aren’t you hot?’

‘No, I’m fine.’

‘How about one of these fans, can I turn one on?’

The captain leaned back on his chair placing both hands behind his head with his fingers interlaced. ‘If you must.’

‘Thank you.’ Hunter set one of the fans to full speed.

‘What do you think? Could this be our guy?’ the captain asked.

‘It’s hard to say, but he’s definitely a person of interest.’

‘So if he’s our guy you’re saying he made his first mistake in three years?’

‘As far as he’s concerned, he made no mistake.’

Captain Bolter gave Hunter a puzzled look.

‘You see, Captain, he simply approached someone at a bar, and as we’ve said that could be how he makes first contact with his victims.’

‘But he wasn’t counting on the woman he’d approached becoming your girlfriend.’ A half malicious grin had formed on the captain’s lips

‘She ain’t my girlfriend,’ Hunter replied firmly. ‘But yes, he wasn’t counting on us knowing each other. And we’d never have known they’d met if not for the fact that I unconsciously drew the double-crucifix on a piece of paper while waiting in the living room. That’s why I said it’s a lucky break.’

‘We’re not gonna be able to keep this out of the papers for much longer you know. If he kills again the press will pick up on it and then it’ll be just a matter of time before some smartass reporter links these murders to the old crucifix killings. When that happens, we’re finished.’

‘I can tell we’re getting closer, Captain. You have to trust me this time.’

Captain Bolter ran his hand over his mustache and stared at Hunter with a laser-sharp gaze. ‘I turned a deaf ear on your opinion about a case before and it cost me dearly. It cost the entire division and I know you’ve never forgiven yourself for it. That big-shot record producer. John Spencer was his name, right?’

Hunter nodded in silence.

‘You told me and Wilson that we had the wrong guy. That he couldn’t have murdered his wife. He didn’t have what it took to be a murderer. We didn’t wanna hear it. You wanted to carry on with the investigation even after the case had been officially closed and I told you not to, I remember that. Hell, I almost suspended you.’ Captain Bolter leaned forward placing both elbows on his desk and resting his chin on his closed fists. ‘I’m not making that mistake again. Do whatever you need to do, Robert. Just catch this goddamn Crucifix Killer.’

‘We’ve got some news from Doctor Winston,’ Garcia said as Hunter walked back into the office.

‘Go ahead,’ Hunter said after refilling his coffee cup.

‘As we expected, Catherine has identified the body of our second victim as her husband’s, George Slater.’ Hunter showed no reaction. Garcia continued. ‘It will be about five days before we get a result on the DNA test done on the hair found inside George’s car, but they’ve confirmed it isn’t his.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Hunter said. ‘We don’t have a suspect yet for a DNA comparison.’

‘That’s true.’

Hunter noticed that Garcia looked overly tired. Even his desk seemed a little messier. ‘Are you OK, rookie? You look hammered.’

It took Garcia a few seconds to register Hunter’s question. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Haven’t had much sleep in the past few days, that’s all.’ He paused to rub his eyes. ‘I’ve been studying the files on all the past victims, trying to find some sort of connection between them or with one of our two new ones.’

‘And have you found anything?’

‘Not yet,’ Garcia replied in a half-defeated tone. ‘Maybe it’s not in the files. Maybe it’s something that was missed during the initial investigation.’

‘Missed? What was missed?’

‘Some link… something that would connect all the victims. There’s gotta be something, there always is. The killer can’t just be picking them at random.’ Garcia sounded annoyed.

‘Why, because the books say so?’ Hunter pointed to the forensic psychology books on his desk. ‘Let me explain something to you about this link, this connection between the victims that you so blindly keep looking for. I searched for it just like you’re doing now, like an eagle searching for food, and it ate me inside just like it’s doing to you. What you have to understand is that this link may only exist in the killer’s head. It doesn’t have to make sense to us or to anyone else for that matter. To us it could be the most superfluous of things like… all the victims’ last names contain three out of the five vowels, or they all sat at the same park bench on a particular day of the week. It doesn’t matter what it is. To the killer it’s something that enrages him. Something that makes him wanna kill. Finding the link is just a small part of what we have to do. OK, I admit it, it can help us, but I don’t want you to burn out on it… like I did.’