William Bernhardt - Dark Eye

“I didn’t want to do it.”

I quieted. “You didn’t?”

“Do you remember anything about last night?”

Thinking hurt, but I made myself do it anyway. I recalled the phone call from Edgar, of course, the bar, the thing on the hood of the car. After that, it got a little hazy. Well, actually, it was a void.

“Maybe you’re used to, um, this sort of activity, Susan, but I have to tell you-I’m not.”

“Look, just undo the cuffs, okay?” He reached over and freed me. He smelled good. He was already scrubbed and dressed and aftershaved and ready to tackle the day.

I didn’t realize how stiff my arms were until I could move them again. They ached. I managed to work them back down to my side. They tingled as if they had been asleep for a thousand years. “Where are my clothes?”

He pointed. I crawled out, clutching the sheet to me, and started dressing. “I hope I didn’t-”

“No. You were great.”

“I… was?”

“Unpredictable. Intense. But great. Really.” He grinned. “Something like that is good for you every now and then. Shakes things up a little.”

“Yeah. I feel the same way,” I said, wondering what the hell had happened.

“I got some food from the diner downstairs if you want it. But my hunch is-” I made a gagging face. “Yeah. That was my hunch.” He smiled. “I’ll be in the next room. When you’re ready, I’ll drive you to work. You don’t have a car, remember?”

“Okay.” It went against the grain, but damn it, I had to say it. “Patrick?”

“Yeah?”

I tried to smile. “Thanks.”

I actually ventured a slice of toast as we drove to the office. And even after we arrived, I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye. We walked together to my desk.

“What’s this? Another package?” I picked it up. It was about the size of a bowling ball, wrapped in brown paper. “It has my name on it.”

“Susan! Get rid of it!” Patrick cried. He shouted for assistance, but I was already unwrapping it. “Susan! We need to have it-”

“It’s not a booby trap. He wants me alive.”

“Not again! For God’s sake-”

Too late. I lifted the lid.

The stench emanating from that box was unlike anything I had ever smelled in my life. And I’ve been around corpses, sickness, all kinds of filth.

“My God!” Patrick cried, covering his nose and mouth, staring at the wet, viscous, blackish red lump in the box. “What is it?”

There was a card, hand-lettered in block print. He hadn’t bothered to encode it.

DR. FARA AND I HAD A NICE HEART-TO-HEART. SEE?

BEHAVIORAL PROFILE-EDGAR

BY SUSAN PULASKI, M.A., LVPD,

AND PATRICK CHAFFEE, BSS, FBI

Based upon what is generally accepted about serial killers and their crimes, Edgar is probably a white man, between twenty and forty. He is more likely a book-reader than an athlete. He may have some physical deformity. He is literate, perhaps highly so. He is intelligent, as evidenced by his familiarity with and adoption of the works of Poe and his proficiency with ciphers. Various witness statements have described him as both tall and short, thin and wide. Although this could indicate that Edgar is in fact two people, it is more likely that some of the descriptions are inaccurate. At this time, we have no way of knowing which reports are erroneous.

Although he has used a southern accent in his telephone communications, that is probably an affectation associated with his idolization of Poe. If he has any natural accent at all, it is more likely that his origins are in the western United States, Nevada or the surrounding states. Although he has used many Vegas-area locations for his crimes, we cannot assume that he is a native or even that he currently resides here, especially given the propensity of serial killers to move from one place to another. It is possible that the Sin City reputation attracted him. Many of his actions-punishing strippers, removing body adornments or nail paint, dyed hair, etc.-evidence a desire to enforce old-fashioned values.

There are no indications of great wealth, but he must have some income flow. Several of his crimes have required unusual props or equipment. All have involved a drug that cannot be obtained legally in this country without a prescription. Tire tracks suggest that he drives a truck.

Serial killers commonly bear great hostility toward women, often triggered by a negative early female influence. In this case, however, despite the fact that he has murdered at least four women, there are some indications that he holds women in an almost Victorian-era reverence. His background may reflect the conflicted influence of both females he adored and females who abused him. In any case, he likely had a violent and chaotic childhood with little stability. Broken marriages, domestic violence, and early exposure to death are all likely. It is also likely that the male head of his household was absent for a protracted period during his childhood.

Given this rather bleak upbringing, detectives should look for an adult who as an adolescent, or even earlier, was lonely, isolated, withdrawn, angry, and violent. He likely had an active fantasy life in which he imagined himself an important or powerful personage. His fantasies may have involved domination and retribution against those who he felt wronged him. He was probably preoccupied with sex, even more so than most adolescent boys, and had no close friends, much less a girlfriend or sexual partner. During these years, his psychological disorder would have become progressively more apparent, making interpersonal relationships more unlikely. Sports, extracurricular activities, and hobbies would not have appealed to him. He may well have developed an interest in pornography, possibly involving young girls.

The psychological portrait of Edgar that emerges from all the information we have gathered is that of a narcissistic, self-absorbed, antisocial individual. He has an insatiable desire for attention. Despite his antisocial tendencies, deep down he wants to impress, wants people to be appreciative of his work. The crimes Edgar has committed evidence an ability to compartmentalize and rationalize extreme behavior. Thus far, he has acted in conformity with a preestablished pattern, but his recent variation from his previous victimology model-in order to wreak revenge on Fara Spencer-suggests that his innate psychological controls may be slipping.

Edgar’s demands for attention-the coded messages, the gifts, the phone conversations, depositing corpses in clever “theme” locations where they are certain to be found-are all classically infantile. Presumably his basic needs were not met early in life and he is psychologically overcompensating for that deficiency now. He has not progressed beyond the self-absorption that characterizes the infantile stage. Although he justifies his acts with some purpose we do not as yet understand, fundamentally he is trying to give himself the psychological nutrients he did not receive in youth.

A sense of superiority and a desire for control characterize the antisocial personality disorder and paranoid personality disorder. The DSM-IV does not require us to choose between the two diagnoses, and indeed, Edgar shows traits of both. Because Edgar is afraid of being controlled by outside forces, he will increasingly attempt to control others and subjugate them to his will.

Another disturbing possibility is dissociative personality disorder-what is commonly called multiple personality disorder. Although this has been used in the past as a legal defense by multiple murderers who showed no true pathology of it (Bianchi, Gacy), there are instances of it being a bona fide aspect of the psychological makeup of a serial killer. Of course, even normal personalities can develop imaginary friends and playmates, talk to themselves, etc. But for those suffering from the disorder, one or more alter personalities acquires a specific sense of self. The alter personality can become an outlet for the individual’s worst instincts and desires. Should such a personality emerge, the scale of Edgar’s activities could escalate to a horrifying degree…