Allison Brennan - Speak No Evil

“It doesn’t sound like a crime of passion,” Nick said carefully. “Too carefully planned. Premeditated. Generally crimes of passion are sudden, unplanned attacks fueled by some perceived wrong.”

Dillon leaned forward, nodding. “I agree.”

“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t an elaborate setup. To make the murder look like something it’s not,” Will said.

“Anything’s possible these days. But I’m just saying, in my experience, Angie’s killer enjoyed it.”

“This is unofficial, right?” Dillon asked, looking at Carina.

“Completely off the record,” she said, realizing that Nick was right. Whether the killer had attacked Angie for lust or anger or power, he’d enjoyed it. And when he stopped having his fun, he killed her.

“We need a little direction,” Will said. “If there’s a better than fifty-fifty chance that the killer is our suspect, we’ll work hard to find the evidence to prove it. If we’re barking up the wrong tree, we need to learn the identity of each and every man the victim wrote about on her website, then everyone who posted comments. That’ll take weeks, months, and I don’t see the chief giving us any more help on this one.”

Carina concurred. She hated it, but that was the politics of working in a big-city police department. Angie’s murder wasn’t high-profile enough.

“Your chief will give you the resources when the killer strikes again,” Nick said.

Dillon concurred. “Nick’s right.”

Carina’s stomach sank. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“A crime of passion might have some elaborate cover-up to make it look like something else,” Dillon explained, “but I don’t see that here. The killer glued her mouth shut before he killed her, and according to Dr. Chen, before he raped her. You might think it’s a variation on a gag, but it’s more than that. A gag can be removed. Glue might be seen as a permanent seal. The killer was essentially telling her to be quiet forever. He didn’t want to hear anything she might have to say.”

“Could that be some sort of grotesque punishment for what she wrote online?” Will asked.

“Possibly. Something she wrote may have set him off.”

“So we’re looking for someone she wrote about. That’s one of at least eight men, all of whom are identified only by their initials.”

Carina commented, “Her friends might be able to identify some of them. We know of Steve Thomas and Doug Masterson. There must be others they’ve met.” She jotted down a note to remind herself.

Dillon put up his hand. “While it may be someone she was intimate with, I’m more inclined to think it was a lurker, someone reading her journal, becoming excited by her comments, and hating himself for it. If he already has an unhealthy fantasy life, her blatant sexuality may have spurred him to action.

“But I’m undecided on that point,” he continued. “I’ve read the coroner’s report in detail. Because she was repeatedly raped with foreign objects, including a capped beer bottle, the damage to her body was extensive. However, piecing together the evidence, Dr. Chen believes she was initially raped by the killer, then he used a beer bottle and other devices on her.”

“Why?” Will asked. “Isn’t rape about power? Isn’t the ultimate power for these sick bastards to dominate?”

“Having forcible sex with her wasn’t enough of a high for him,” Nick said quietly.

Dillon stared at Nick. “Exactly,” he said. “After he raped her he didn’t obtain the satisfaction he thought he would. It angered him and he blamed her. So he tried other means of bringing on the reaction he wanted.”

“Each weapon he used on her,” Carina said, “was a common household item. Nothing that had to be specially purchased.”

“Yes and no,” Dillon said. “Rope and glue? I’d say he planned to kidnap her and rape her. Maybe he didn’t plan on killing her, or hadn’t thought it out completely. But once she was captive, he knew he was going to kill her. He had to. She wasn’t blindfolded, and unless he had a mask on the whole time, she’d be able to identify him.”

“The question remains how he kidnapped her,” Will said. “She came home late Friday night, but disappeared before her mother woke up Saturday morning. She wouldn’t have left the house voluntarily with a stranger.”

“She knew her attacker,” said Carina.

“Yes. Someone she trusted or had no reason to fear.”

Nick played devil’s advocate. “If she was scared of Steve, why would she go off voluntarily with him?”

“Maybe she was drugged,” Carina countered. “Forensics is running additional tests.”

“Let’s consider another possibility,” Dillon interrupted. “For the sake of argument, put aside the restraining order for a moment. The manner of death is particular. The glue. The journal is anonymous, but you and I both know how easy it is to learn the real identity of the posters.”

Carina nodded. “Patrick explained it to us.”

“There was a case I consulted on last year where a girl in Poway had one of those journaling Web pages. A sexual predator tracked her down, lured her out by convincing her he was a high school senior at a neighboring school, then raped and killed her. Her content was all very innocent, and her parents had helped her set it up according to all the safety rules-no personal information, no identifying comments. One of her friends had a picture of her on their journal page and identified her by her login name; another friend on the list mentioned some geographical information; another friend talked about losing a big game on Saturday night and named teams. The killer put all the information together, tracked her down, lured her out, and killed her.”

“So even being anonymous doesn’t help,” Nick said.

Dillon shook his head. “Unfortunately, it’s a false sense of security. Getting back to this killer, I think you need to look at the manner of her murder.

“Using industrial-strength glue to seal her mouth may have been personal, but I think it’s simpler than that. He didn’t want to hear her cry; he didn’t want her to say anything. Maybe he feared he could be talked out of it, maybe he was in a location where someone might hear her. With the glue, the victim would be in extreme pain if she tried to move her mouth. She would be focusing on breathing through her nose and not choking. But there’s something about her mouth and her voice that sets him off.

“The other thing that really stands out to me is that he didn’t kill her with his own hands. He put her in garbage bags, bound them, and she suffocated to death. This might indicate that he’s removed from the killing, that he feels it has to be done but he doesn’t want to do it.”

“So this isn’t some elaborate setup?” Will asked.

“Setup?”

“Like some guy wanting payback for the victim talking about him online. Rapes her, hurts her, kills her, but then trying to make it look like some psychotic asshole.”

Dillon looked at him. “Anyone capable of a murder like this is a sociopath.”

“May I look at the report?” Nick asked.

Carina hesitated, then handed him Dillon’s copy. “It stays here,” she said.

“Of course.”

Dillon continued. “Your killer is very immature. The crude manner of the rape, the awkwardness of the way she was bound, writing across her breasts in marker-it all points to someone who isn’t a seasoned killer. The supplies he used were common household supplies, as you already noticed.”

“Why is writing in marker a sign of immaturity?” Will asked.

“Virtually every similar case I’ve investigated, a killer marks a body by carving into it or taking something away like hair or an appendage. Writing on the body with a marker or pen or paint seems almost like an afterthought. Not so much branding the victim, but sending a message as to what he thought she was in case anyone missed it. It wasn’t for him so much as for anyone who might find her.”