Play Dead (D.I. Kim Stone, #4)(85)

Kim shook her head, as did Bryant.

‘David Reimer was born in 1965. He and his twin brother underwent routine circumcision surgery at the age of six months. The surgery went wrong and David’s penis was irreparably damaged.’

From the corner of her eye she saw Bryant cross his legs.

‘To cut a long story short the family was referred to a Doctor Money who used them to prove his theory that nurture over nature could define a person’s gender. He believed in a Gender Identity Gate, the point after which a child is locked into an identity as a male or female. He believed it to be between two and a half and three years of age.’

‘What happened?’ Bryant asked.

‘Surgery for gender reassignment was carried out and he was raised as a girl.’

‘Alongside his twin brother?’ Kim asked.

Ted nodded. ‘As the years passed, his natural instincts grew, as did his wish to do normal boy things. Money’s answer to the fears of the parents was to treat him even more like a girl.’

‘Jesus,’ Bryant whispered.

‘Exactly. Just imagine the confusion, the battles in his brain and his body.’

‘What happened?’

‘Eventually his parents told him the truth. The surgery was reversed and he began to live life as a male.’

‘And he lived happily ever after?’ Kim asked, raising one eyebrow.

‘He committed suicide at the age of thirty-eight.’

Bryant sat back in his chair.

‘By that time he couldn’t live in his own head. He didn’t know who or what he was any more.’

‘You said about a game, a re-enactment?’ Kim asked.

‘It sounds like a sacrifice, an offering. He could be trying to recreate episodes from his childhood. Games he played with his mother.’

‘But why all this if he hates her so much?’

‘Because he loves her too and possibly misses what they had together. There would have been times in his childhood that he felt happy. There might also have been times he was humiliated. There’s a great deal of conflict here, especially if he has not been helped in the right way. Bear in mind that he is unlikely to have felt disgust at himself until he saw it in someone else.’

Kim nodded her understanding. ‘We think the girls have marks from being in a high chair, and they are always scrubbed clean.’

‘Tea party,’ Ted offered.

‘Oh shit, he’s treating them like dolls,’ Kim said as the realisation dawned.

Ted nodded. ‘A dolls’ tea party is synonymous with the childhood of a little girl. One for me and one for you. It could be that it was his mother’s favourite game.’

‘He has another. The death has not been fulfilled.’

‘Then you’d better find her quickly – because just like any other game, eventually a child will get bored.’

Kim suddenly had another thought. ‘How likely is he to change his ritual? I mean we have suspicions that there is another girl involved. Would he have two at the same time?’

Ted scrunched up his face and then shook his head. ‘It would be highly unlikely if that’s not what he’s done in the past. This is not escalation, Kim. He’s not growing the crimes with each one. It seems far more likely that he insists on keeping the same routine with them all.’

His answer took her thoughts right back to a girl named Mandy. Someone for whom she suspected they were too late. Forensics were still at Westerley, and it was beginning to look more likely there was something more there to find. If Ted was correct about routine then Mandy could be buried there too.

Bryant sat forwards. ‘Are we definitely looking for a male?’

‘In physicality, probably. In appearance, it’s hard to say. There’s a chance he could present as a woman or a man. He may even switch between the two. Much depends on the help he got early on. Eleven years is a long time and every year of that time is formative.’

Bryant nodded his thanks even though the answer had offered them nothing.

The situation in which they found themselves was certainly unique to Kim.

For once they knew their killer’s name – yet they still had no clue who it was.





Seventy-Eight





‘Okay, guys, let’s get up to speed. I don’t think we have much time.’

Kim’s mind whispered that it was Tracy who was running out of time.

It was six p.m. on a Friday and the station was beginning to thin out. The shift was changing over, and the clerical staff had already said their goodbyes as they headed off for the weekend. Kim’s team should have been doing the same.

‘We know that Jemima was abducted on Saturday and dumped Sunday night, found by us Monday morning. Isobel was taken on Monday and dumped Tuesday night. He’s keeping them one night, so…’

‘Tracy was taken yesterday so will be dumped… tonight?’ Dawson asked.

Kim nodded.

‘So, to clarify, we know that Louise Hickman, Jemima Lowe and Tracy Frost were all present when Graham Studwick was held down and taunted at school.’

She turned to Stacey. ‘Anything on the name Mandy yet?’

Stacey shook her head. ‘There were seven Mandys at Cornheath at that time. I’m working my way through ’em, boss, but so far they’re safe and accounted for.’