Michael Morley - Spider

Howie leant towards his microphone, 'We need to discuss cross-operational issues, involvement of the authorities in South Carolina, mutual database access and such like, but we can take those discussions offline, if you prefer to.'

'Let's do that, please,' agreed Massimo. 'Maybe you can brief Jack and we'll supply him with a liaison officer at this end?'

'Sure,' said Howie.

'As you know,' continued Mass, diving into the agenda, 'my team here at the Ufficio Investigativo Centrale di Psicologia Criminale has contracted Jack to join us as a consultant in the case of Cristina Barbuggiani. We have done that because we believe there are disturbing similarities to your BRK cases in the United States. To be clear, Jack does not have any police powers and is solely here as an expert civilian. His role is to give us executive input: analysis and profiling work on present and emerging case details, plus, if we make an arrest, psychological input on interview strategy. The last factor will of course be very important if the killer turns out to be a non-Italian and purely American offender.'

'You couldn't have made a better choice,' said Howie, warmly. 'Nothing pleases me more than to see the old bull back in the ring.'

'Indeed,' said Massimo, not quite sure what the American compliment actually meant. 'We are sending this evening, by secure line, copies of photographs, translated reports and photographic evidence related to the case of the young woman I mentioned to you, Cristina Barbuggiani.'

Fernandez cupped her hand and whispered in Howie's ear, 'I've already pulled some background from Italian news reports and there's an Interpol bulletin too, though no mention of BRK.'

'The press in Italy,' continued Massimo, 'especially in Cristina's home town of Livorno, is treating this as an isolated local murder. They are unaware of any possible link to a serial killer. And we would very much like to keep it that way. Even talk of Italian serial killers is enough to drive Mr Berlusconi's media mad, and then they make our job all the more difficult. Any mention of an American serial murderer, or a former FBI profiler working with us, would result in our investigation being overrun by the scarafaggi – the cockroaches – of international news agencies. And this we can do without.'

'Don't worry, Mr Albonetti,' said Howie. 'We're good at keeping the scarafaggots, or whatever you called them, out. If the Italian link were known, it would make our life hell as well.'

Massimo nodded, approvingly. 'So that has cleared items one and two from our agenda.' Another thought hit him. 'I should just add, once we have liaison officers in place, we will adopt the standard practice of routine twice-a-day report exchanges, morning and night, other communication between designated senior investigating officers coming as and when needed.' He ticked the top two items on his list. 'Now let us turn to item three, the head of Cristina Barbuggiani, delivered, anonymously, to us here in Rome, in a package marked simply "To Whom It May Concern".'

'You say anonymously,' interjected Howie. 'Does that mean you don't know the name of the courier company, or the name of the delivery person from the courier company?'

'At the moment both,' conceded Massimo. 'We do not have a name for the person who delivered the package, and while we do have a name for the courier company we cannot at present make contact with them.'

'Why is that?' pushed Howie.

Massimo gave a small sigh. The Americans always wanted to dig another level, or rush things. 'You need to have a little patience with us on this matter. The address of the courier company isn't listed; we cannot find a telephone number or any business registrations with our authorities. This may mean the company doesn't exist. Or it may mean someone is operating a company illegally and is trying to avoid paying taxes. We think it most likely that it does not exist, but please trust us that we will find out all the information first and then share our report on this.'

Howie could sense the frustration of his Italian counterpart. 'No problem. I'm sure you guys will get to the bottom of it. I just wanted to check out what similarities or differences there were between the way your package was delivered in Italy and the way we got ours over here.'

Massimo nodded at the giant Howie on the conference screen. 'I understand your point. More significant though, I think, is a note we discovered in our package. It was left for us inside the head of the victim. Jack and I have spent much time discussing this note, and he already sees great importance in its content.'

'There's a copy coming over to you,' said Jack, taking his cue. 'In brief, here's what it says: "Buon giorno Italian police!" Folks, please note that he spells buon giorno correctly and ends the sentence with an exclamation mark.'

Both Howie and Fernandez made notes.

'"Here is a gift for you, with love from BRK,"' continued Jack. 'He makes the clear claim that he is BRK and then ends the sentence with a point and again there are no spelling or grammar mistakes. The next line is a sizzler, get yourselves ready for this. He says "Call it a 'heads-up' of what I've got in store for you!" Heads-up hyphenated and again the exclamation mark. The language is simple, literate and there is a huge emphasis on trying to impress and engage us.'

'And is this all handwritten, or typed?' asked Howie.

'Handwritten,' answered Jack, 'but in block capitals, so the experts won't get much from his style.'

'We'll throw it over Manny Lieberman's desk when we get the copy in,' said Howie. 'He'll pick something up, he always does.'

'Any sign-off, a PS, or anything like that?' asked Fernandez unemotionally.

'Ha, ha, ha,' said Jack.

'I'm sorry, say again?' queried Fernandez, not sure if Jack was mocking her.

'The letters H and A – HA – he wrote them three times, and in capitals, and with an exclamation mark after each,' said Jack.

'Sure loves those exclamation marks,' said Howie. 'It's like he got a box of them for Christmas.'

'Then, he finished off with a smiley face and the letters BRK,' said Jack. 'So that's the second time in this short note that he's tried to tell us that this is all BRK's work.'

'You mean he's trying too hard?' asked Fernandez. 'Do you think this is a BRK copycat, Jack, rather than the real McCoy?'

'Mass and I have talked quite a bit about this, and we can't rule out that possibility,' said Jack. 'Though to be honest, I'm not sure it matters. Either way, we have a deadly psycho on our hands.'

Massimo raised a hand, 'Or two deadly psychopaths.'

'You're right,' said Jack, fixing his eyes on Howie on the screen. 'There are certainly similarities between the BRK's files and the new Italian case, but we can't lose track of the fact that there are big differences too.' Jack turned to Massimo. 'Okay if I give some bullet points on this?'

Mass nodded his consent, so Jack continued. 'Victimology looks right for BRK. Cristina was a slim woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. As we know, he likes long, dark hair. He never goes for short-haired victims, so he has an image fixation here, meaning the victim represents a real person in his life. We're thinking usual suspects – ex-girlfriend, former wife, first love, mother, grandmother; some woman out there is the model for the victims he selects.'

'It's the old love – hate see-saw again, eh?' said Howie.

'Exactly,' confirmed Jack. 'Some offenders pick certain victims to kill because they represent people they hate but for some reason, usually psychological, they are powerless to harm that actual person. It's Kemper-like.' Everyone nodded, remembering the classic case of American serial killer Ed Kemper who was mentally bullied by his oppressive mother. Instead of killing his parent, he murdered his grandmother and grandfather, then a long list of co-eds at the school where his mother worked, even burying some of their heads in land beneath his mom's bedroom window and then making private fun of her, by telling her how all the girls at school really looked up to her.