At Rope's End (A Dr. James Verraday Mystery #1)(21)
“What’s he like, the real killer?”
“Probably white male. He’s got that much in common with Cray. Sex killers are usually attracted to members of their own race. It’s not written in stone, but it’s almost always how it is. This guy’s probably not much older than his victims, or he’s a somewhat older person who is into alternative culture and hangs out with people who are mostly younger than he is. The killer probably saw Rachel Friesen and Alana Carmichael while he was cruising those websites. Reading the comments from the ‘fans,’ seeing that other men were turned on by Rachel and Alana, made them more attractive to him as well.”
“If he’s so attracted to them, then why does he want to kill them?”
“Because they make him feel inadequate. They’d probably reject him if he wasn’t paying for them. Something in his past makes him feel he’s not good enough. Luring them, taking away their power, makes him feel superior to them. This guy wants to feel cool, but he’s deeply insecure.”
“What’s his temperament?”
“He’s filled with rage. Explosive rage. He feels emasculated on some level and sexually inadequate. Serial killers are usually socially stunted. As children, their family situations are unsocial and unstable. Eventually it becomes self-fulfilling. They never learn how to have real relationships, so their lives are mostly fantasy. Fantasies of control over people that they can’t have in real life. And when they can’t control even themselves any more, they act out those fantasies. He’s a fuckup. But that doesn’t mean he’s stupid. The fact that Cray’s DNA was all over Alana Carmichael was a perfect cover for the real killer. I think our perpetrator is highly technical in his approach. For example, he must have had a UV light to check for semen phosphorescence. When he found traces of semen on Alana Carmichael, he left them there so it would throw an investigator, at least a second-rate investigator like Fowler, off the trail.”
“But how could he know that she would have semen on her?”
“He couldn’t. Not entirely. But it’s a reasonable assumption if you’re having sex with someone who does it for a living that they might have DNA from other johns on them. From the time of death of both victims—late at night—it wouldn’t even surprise me if the killer purposely arranged to be their last customer of the day so there would be a better chance that there would be DNA contamination on them from other people.”
“Seems like a long way to go for someone in a rage.”
“The rage is what drives him, but he controls it until the last moment. He plans these murders like they’re a moon launch. The smart killers always do. The Unabomber collected pubic hairs from public washroom urinals and planted them in his bomb packages to throw off investigators and lead them to other suspects.”
“I guess it just goes to show that being smart doesn’t mean you can’t be crazy too. What else do we know about the killer?”
“The Cupid’s arrow that Alana Carmichael wore in the missing persons photo is absent in the postmortem pictures. Plus she had a pierced navel, but there was no jewelry in that location on the body. Same thing with Rachel Friesen. The dream catcher she wore was missing.”
“Maybe they just got tired of those pieces and took them out in between when the first photos were taken and when they were murdered.”
“It’s a possibility. But Alana Carmichael liked to make an impression. She hadn’t changed her style of hair, makeup, or clothing, so it’s unlikely that she would suddenly stop wearing jewelry, especially something really attention getting like that arrow. Same with Rachel’s dream catcher. She had only recently gotten it too, so there was probably still a lot of novelty value in it for her. She wouldn’t have wanted to stop wearing it yet. And serial killers almost always take souvenirs from their victim’s bodies. Not only would the Cupid’s arrow have drawn his attention by being the largest item of jewelry on her, but think about the symbolism. What does it say?”
“It implies that the wearer has some special romantic or sexual power?”
“Exactly. Just the kind of symbol and statement that would antagonize someone who wanted power, wanted to dominate and subjugate another human. So the killer would have gotten particular satisfaction from taking it from his victim, the same way a scalper gets pleasure from taking a bloody prize from an opponent they’ve defeated in combat. Rachel’s dream catcher was eye catching, and like the arrow, it also implied a certain kind of power.”
“The power to stop nightmares.”
“That’s right. If the killer understood its meaning, it would have given him an extra thrill to exert his dominance over it, defying its power and actually becoming the nightmare that Rachel couldn’t control.”
“What else do the photos tell you?”
Verraday began to pull a couple of photos out of his briefcase then stopped when he noticed the waitress approaching with his green tea. He noticed her noticing him doing it. He knew that she couldn’t possibly have overheard him. He had been too careful for that. But he realized she was able to intuit that he was pausing because of her, hiding something from her, and it caused her to visibly cool toward him.
“There you go,” she said, placing his tea on the table, her flirty grin now gone. “I’ll bring the check whenever you’re ready.”