A Killer's Mind (Zoe Bentley Mystery #1)(94)
“Okay,” Tatum said. Her enthusiasm was not infectious, and he felt mostly disturbed. “So what does this mean?”
“Well, the killer would be someone who never had a long, successful relationship,” Zoe said. “He’s witnessed other people in love and wants the same. But he can’t manage it himself—”
“Why?”
“Well, I would imagine his obsession with total control makes a relationship almost impossible. He’s also erratic, and it’s possible that if the woman is alive, he can’t sexually function.”
“Okay, so he grabs a woman, strangles her to death . . . why embalm her?”
“Because he wants a lasting relationship.”
“That’s crazy logic, but fine. And then what? He puts her in his bed? Does he carry her to the dining room table in the morning? Put her in front of the TV with him? Hold her hand?”
Zoe nodded slowly. “Pretty much, yes.”
“Okay,” Tatum said. He began to feel it. “And then he dumps them . . . why?”
“Because it doesn’t work out.”
“Come on. Are they having issues?”
“No. But he stops feeling it, whatever it is. He gets lonely again. Her presence stops reassuring him. The playacting becomes . . . empty.”
A shiver ran up Tatum’s spine. “So he looks for another one. That’s pretty deranged thinking, Zoe.”
She shrugged.
“So how do we use this?” Tatum asked.
“I don’t know yet. We know how the story ends, right? The killer presumably breaks up with the woman, leaves her somewhere, poses her as if she’s heartbroken.”
“Corniest serial killer ever.”
“Sure. How does the story begin?”
“Well, he finds a prostitute—”
“That’s not the beginning. That’s like . . . preparation. He doesn’t have full control yet, right? The story starts when he finishes embalming the body.”
“Okay. So I guess he takes her home—”
“I’m going to stop you right there, but it’s not because I don’t appreciate your opinion, okay?” Zoe said, trying to smile encouragingly.
Tatum burst out laughing. “I’m glad to see you don’t want to hurt my feelings.”
“I just have a . . . knack. I can imagine these things. He finishes embalming her. Now, embalming is a messy business, so I assume he’s taken off most of her clothes first. Remember Lily’s body? There was blood all over her neck, but her shirt was mostly clean.”
“Okay, so he cleans them up and dresses them. He didn’t clean Lily up.”
“No, he didn’t have time, and he was panicking. He wasn’t thinking straight. But with the other victims, I think you’re right. He cleans them up, dresses them . . .” She stopped, staring at the pictures.
“What is it?”
“He doesn’t dress them in their own clothing. He doesn’t want to be in a relationship with a prostitute. He would dress them up in new clothing.”
“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Tatum said. “So he bought the clothing beforehand . . .”
“Their clothing fits, Tatum. All of them.”
“So?”
“How did he know what to buy?”
“They’re all thin girls. I mean, he probably—”
“But Krista Barker was much taller than Monique Silva. And Lily wasn’t as thin as them. And these aren’t cheap one-size-fits-all clothes. With Susan Warner there was no issue—he had her entire wardrobe at his disposal, since he killed her at home. But the prostitutes only had what they were wearing.”
“You’re saying he took them shopping,” Tatum said slowly.
Zoe nodded. “Before he killed them, when they still thought he was a client. He probably told them he wanted to dress them up nicely for their night. And then he took them somewhere—”
“A shopping mall.”
“Probably.”
“All right.” Tatum smiled. He sat down at her laptop and opened the browser.
“What are you doing?”
“We know where he picked up Lily, right? At the corner of Clark and Grand, at River North.” He opened up Google Maps and found it.
“Yeah.”
“And we know he took Lily to Huron Street, somewhere . . . here.” Tatum pointed at a segment of Huron Street on the map. “He would have taken Lily somewhere in the route between those two locations, right? Either that or a place near where he killed her.”
“You can’t be sure,” Zoe said. “He may have a shop he prefers. Somewhere that’s halfway across Chicago.”
“That’s true. But I can guess, right? If it’s halfway across Chicago, we have nothing. But if it’s on this route . . . we have a finite number of malls.”
“It’s still a large number,” Zoe said, but Tatum could hear she was excited by the idea. “But if you’re right, he’d probably pick somewhere close to where he killed her.”
“Why?”
“Well, I assume that’s where he embalms his victims. He’d be tense and would prefer a place he knew well. Somewhere he had visited several times before. Somewhere he’d feel he has more control.”