Sugar & Spice (US edition)

by Saffina Desforges

  “William Herschel, the astronomer, in 1858,” Ceri said quietly. “But the idea had been around since the 1820s. Professor Johann Purkinje first suggested it.”

  “But wasn't it Francis Galton, cousin to Charles Darwin, who developed the idea?” A nod from Ceri encouraged Matt. “Then Edward Henry set up Scotland Yard's Central Fingerprinting Branch early last century.”

  “1901,” Ceri confirmed. To Claire: “Not bad, for a journalist. But Matt's missed out some crucial points. You see, even the slightest contact between the human body and another surface will leave a contact trace. But the fingers and the palms of the hand are key, because of the patterns of ridges left by body oils and skin debris. What's less well known is that men generally have more ridges than women, and that in either sex the right hand has more ridges than the left. The exceptions are indicative. A significant proportion of women have more ridges on the left hand than the right. It's my bet that the prints from the CD show this irregularity, hence the police assertion that the prints are probably female.”

  “But doesn't that just confirm the FBI position, that the prints are not Uncle Tom's?”

  “Not necessarily. Years ago a Canadian university, Ontario I think, followed up the idea that homosexuality, like any other sexual variation, can be traced to pre-natal hormonal imbalances. Did you know that all fetuses start off as female?”

  “Gavin... Professor Large, mentioned just that,” Claire said. “That all fetuses start out as female, but that the Y chromosome develops in some and they become males?”

  “That's right. The appearance of the Y chromosome slows down the growth of the fetus, which is why girls are more developed than boys at birth. It may also account for maturation rates in later years. But again, the PC brigade frown upon this sort of research, so the findings haven't had the serious examination they deserve. In a similar way findings that show differences between achievements of boys and girls at school, or between black and white kids, are dismissed as sexist or racist without ever considering there might be sound scientific principles at work.”

  “And the fingerprints?”

  Ceri stretched out in her chair. “Well the Canadians tested fingerprints of gay and straight men and found the prints of gay men showed a trend towards high ridge counts on the left hand consistent with that found in women generally. So while the print lifted from the CD could be those of a female, as the FBI say, they could just as easily be from a gay man.”

  Matt poured more wine. “I don't follow you, Ceri. One of the few things in the Dunst profile that made any real sense to me was that the killer must be heterosexual, given he only attacks girls.”

  “I actually agree with him there, but for different reasons. Bear in mind there's been no suggestion of a knife used in any of the assaults.”

  “A knife?”

  “Classic Freud. The knife equates to the penis.”

  “Like the old chestnut about people watching slasher movies because they're sexually frustrated?”

  “Exactly. The knife becomes a penis and the act of stabbing is the act of penetration. According to Kraft-Ebbing there's a direct corollary between intercourse and a knife attack. Stab, pierce, penetrate. I'm no Freud fanatic, don't get me wrong. The idea that an aero plane or a tower-block can be seen as a phallic symbol is just ridiculous. But there may be some credence in the phallic symbolism of a knife attack. Knives are usually associated with heterosexual assaults, often where the assailant is impotent or otherwise sexually dysfunctional, but still shares the basic male sex-drive. But there's no evidence that Uncle Tom carried a weapon.”

  Ceri paused briefly to allow Matt to catch up with his notes. Then, “Dunst believes Uncle Tom is small in stature. That he picks on children because they are easy targets. Because he doesn't feel confident enough to tackle a grown woman.”

  Matt shrugged. “That seemed pretty fair to me. “If someone needs to chase after little kids to get his rocks off, that surely because he's incapable of getting an adult woman.” He looked up at Ceri. “Isn't it?”

  112

  Ceri demanded, “And your evidence for this assertion is what exactly?”

  “It's just common sense.”

  “Common sense?”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Only to you.”

  Matt shrugged. “Your point being?”

  “That your reasoning is egocentric, Matt. You're falling into the same trap as Dunst and the FBI.”

  Matt looked inexplicably guilty. “I am?”

  “I think I know what you mean, Ceri,” Claire said. “Thomas made me aware of it. About judging other people's motives by your own preconceptions.”

  “Precisely,” said Ceri. “Dunst may just be right. Maybe the killer is some stunted dwarf incapable of so-called normal relationships. But there is an alternative that has to be considered. That Uncle Tom genuinely finds little girls sexually appealing in their own right. And that maybe he genuinely gets pleasure from killing them. We have to understand the murders from his perspective, not ours. We have to keep our options open with Uncle Tom. Just because he kills young girls doesn't make him insane of mind or warped of body. Most serial killers are quite normal in their everyday lives. The real weirdo’s, like Albert Fish, are thankfully few and far between. It's the ones that appear normal that are the hardest to pin down.”

  “But hold on, Ceri,” Matt said, searching his notes. “There was a weapon involved. Forensics determined a blade had been used to cut the cord that tied Rebecca to...”

  “The cord was cut with a short, blunt knife, Matt. Knives used as weapons in sex attacks are habitually long-handled, long-bladed and gleaming clean. The only knife Uncle Tom used was an old pen-knife. If the attacks were on boys, or there was evidence of anal interference that would be different. But there's no evidence of either rape or buggery being attempted.”

  She realized Claire was wiping moist eyes. “I'm sorry, but we have to deal with every aspect. I simply don't believe intercourse of any sort was a consideration for Uncle Tom.”

  Matt refilled his and Claire's glasses. “You're saying Uncle Tom is so obsessed with little girls that he'll abduct, sexually assault and kill them, but won't try to rape them? I'm sorry, but it doesn't make sense.”

  “Like I said, Matt, you need to try see things from his perspective, not yours. Not everyone attaches the same importance to the act of intercourse. Take the British serial killer Robert Black for example. Probably the UK’s most notorious child-killer. They’ll never know for sure how many little girls he killed. But rape was never attempted. The victims were sexually abused in the most obscene ways, but he never once attempted to use his penis.”

  Ceri spoke in detached tones, weighing up the evidence objectively, unemotionally, using clinical terms to depersonalize the heinous acts she was describing. “Dunst argued that the calling card was a form of substitute rape. I disagree. Uncle Tom just wanted to be sure the card was found.”

  “So why not just tie it to the body?”

  “So it wouldn't drift off, maybe. But primarily, to maximize the impact. The media sensationalism. He wanted the bodies to be found.”

  Claire asked, “But if there was no rape, why clean the bodies so thoroughly?”

  “First, an obsession with hygiene. It's common among sex offenders to find obsessive neurotic traits. Sexual anxieties often manifest themselves in some form of OCD. I don't believe Uncle Tom's psychotic, but that doesn't rule out the possibility he's neurotic. I would imagine the victims were gently bathed, post-mortem.”

  “But they were still alive when the assaults took place?”

  “There's no suggestion of necrophilia, so yes.”

  Claire was struggling to keep control. Matt took her hand. “Dunst hinted that there might have been.”

  “Dunst would just love that.”

  “The only necrophiles I've ever heard of involved men with other men's corpses. Dahmer. Nielsen.”

  “Don't close your mind to the poss
ibility, Matt. Recorded examples of necro-paedophilic dysfunction are extremely rare, but Albert Fish springs to mind. He ate little girls, stewed, and what he did to little boys you just do not want to know. Uncle Tom is quite tame by comparison. But I'm thinking maybe the post-mortem cleansing is seen by Uncle Tom as making amends in some way. Some kind of warped guilt complex. But that's pure conjecture. We have to operate, to reason, within a band of probabilities based on the evidence.”

  “Dunst argued the hygiene obsession reflected forensic awareness, thereby proving Uncle Tom had previous convictions.”

  “Dunst is wrong.”

  “Just like that? He's wrong? What happened to reason, to a band of probabilities?”

  “I think we're seeing evidence of professional blindness here.”

  “Of what?”

  “Professional blindness. It's a natural, subconscious process of reasoning, in any professional field, that the work you do yourself is of special value. Anybody can stack shelves in Wal-Mart or pick up trash in a park, but skilled jobs, like journalism or lecturing, psychiatry or medicine, or police forensics, are special, and the people who work in them are beyond reproach. The bad guys always come from other backgrounds, never your own.”

  “You're saying Uncle Tom could be a cop?”

  “Let's just say someone with a professional knowledge of forensics, rather than someone who's learned about it from the wrong end. It seems to me the Police, the FBI and Dunst in particular, have subconsciously dismissed that possibility. By imposing these preconceptions they've ruled out the girl in the trunk of the car being connected.”

  “So you're still convinced Saranac and Troy are linked?”

  “One hundred per cent. But let me finish debunking Dunst first.” There was just a hint of mischief in her voice.

  113

  “Let's consider his proposal that Uncle Tom has a marine background,” Ceri said. “Dunst argues it from several points. The attacker preys on children because he's inexperienced with women, which could indicate a background in a masculine environment. Dunst suggested the navy, followed by time in prison. I can see his angle. Both macho, male environments. The nautical associations also come to mind with the types of knot used to secure the bodies to the bikes, and of course the disposal of the victims in water. Now the first point is fair. I googled some yachting sites and both types of knot are commonly used. Obviously the knots are part of his modus operandi, nothing unusual there. The Boston Strangler had a special butterfly knot he always used.”

  She let Matt catch up with his notes.

  “But I'm not so happy with the second point. I think Dunst is trying to make an equation with burial at sea. But then, why canals? What could be less like the sea than the still water of a canal? Why not a harbor or an estuary? Or the sea itself. Or at least the Great Lakes? Someone with marine experience as Dunst suggests would surely know the tides. It wouldn't be difficult to ensure the bodies were carried away, not back to land. But as I've already said, I believe Uncle Tom wanted the bodies to be found. And that he's neither a known offender, nor someone with a marine background.”

  “But the knots...you just agreed they were nautical.”

  “They are, but don't read too much into it. Profiling is an inexact science. Dunst likes to treat it like art, going for the poetic flourish, but I think there may be a more mundane explanation. Consider how Uncle Tom kills his victims. Ligature strangulation, using something the girls had on them when they were abducted. But in each case a garrote was effected using a stick of some sort to tighten the tourniquet.”

  “A medical background?”

  “That was my first thought too. But tourniquets are an obsolete concept. I checked on some first-aid sites, which were indicative. Modern first-aid theory is quite explicit in stating tourniquets are dangerous and should not be used. But historically, by which I mean a few decades earlier, a tourniquet was considered an essential tool. Which could mean our killer learned rudimentary first-aid many years ago, which would push him to the latter end of the age-band Dunst has established.”

  “Late thirties?”

  “Or older. Generally, older men tend not to be sex killers, just abusers, but let's rule nothing out. Take the factors together: an out-dated knowledge of basic first-aid, familiarity with sea-faring knots and a pen-knife to cut ropes. Doesn't that ring any bells?”

  “No.”

  “I'm thinking Uncle Tom could be in his forties or older, with boyhood experience in the scouting movement or some similar boys’ adventure outfit.”

  “Well that narrows it down to a few million people.” The sarcasm in Claire's voice was barely disguised.

  “It's a start, Claire. There's more.”

  Matt uncorked a fourth bottle. The note-taking had subsided. Alcohol and shorthand did not mix.

  “Let's come back to the Saranac abduction,” Ceri said quietly. “I'm convinced she was a victim of Uncle Tom.

  “Dunst argued her being in a car ruled that out.”

  “Dunst is wrong. The girl in the car was abducted by Uncle Tom on the spur of the movement, a day early. An impulse abduction.”

  It was too much for Claire. Through tears she said, “An impulse abduction, a day early? Ceri, maybe we should leave this until the morning. When we're all sober?” She looked to Matt for support. Matt nodded his agreement.

  “It's only my second glass,” Ceri said. “You and Matt have drunk the rest.”

  The guilty parties adopted suitably shamed expressions.

  The empty bottles lay scattered before them, incriminating them further.

  114

  Ceri drove home her advantage.

  “Since I wrote my original profile I've had the chance to think through a few ideas. One thing was particularly bothering me, but I couldn't quite get it to work until this afternoon, thanks to you two bringing me here.”

  “Us?”

  “Bear with me. There's a pattern to the attacks that we've all overlooked so far. I'm amazed Dunst missed it, but that's how it goes sometimes. The really obvious pointers stick out so far you look round them rather than at them. A case of not seeing the wood for the trees. Consider the five abductions together. Look.” She grabbed a pen and paper and listed the girls, one beneath the other, in order of abduction.

  “Rebecca. Lara Coverton. Brianna Stamp. Madison Morgan. Hannah Whiteman.”

  “It's not official yet that the last girl was even abducted, let alone by Uncle Tom.”

  “It was Uncle Tom, Matt. The girl's body will turn up in due course.”

  It was a sobering statement, said without emotion.

  Dabbing her eyes, Claire asked, “How can you be so sure?”

  “Look.” Ceri listed the dates of the girls' disappearances besides their names. “August second, September first, September thirtieth, October first.

  “So?”

  “All the girls were taken on the first two days of the month.”

  “Except Madison. September thirtieth.”

  “Like I said, an impulse abduction. A day early.”

  Matt was dismissive. “I'm sorry, Ceri, but even after four bottles that's a bit much to ask us to believe.”

  Ceri was undeterred. He listed the places where the girls had vanished from, in order of disappearance, one below the other. “Pittsford, Queensbury, Red Hook, Saranac, Troy. Don't you see?”

  Claire took the list, staring at it, not comprehending. She handed it to Matt.

  “So?”

  Ceri took the paper back and folded the page so only the first letters of the place names were showing.

  “Oh god. P, Q, R, S, T. But...”

  “I didn't realize at first. The newspapers reported Rebecca as missing from Rochester, being the nearest significant town. It was only when you actually brought me here I realized she's actually been taken from a place called Pittsford. That's when it all fell into place.”

  “But why?”

  “The possibilities are endless. My initial thou
ghts are an obsessive dysfunction. Someone fixated with order. It would sit well with the hygiene neurosis.”

  Matt stared at the list, searching his mind for old news stories that demonstrated similar patterns. How often had killers followed such clichéd traits, like attacking on the night of the full moon? It was by no means unheard of. “Can you flesh this out for us?”

  “I can try. It's agreed the killer would most likely use a van. It was one of the factors in Dunst disassociating Madison's abduction from the others, as you said. A car is just too risky. But suppose Uncle Tom uses rental cars to get to and from the van? A van customized in some way to facilitate the abductions? Sound-proofed. Windowless. Inconspicuous from the outside.”

  “It’s possible,” Matt said quietly.

  “Suppose Uncle Tom planned to take a girl from Saranac on the Tuesday? Tuesday October first? He was in town on the Monday, probably selecting target areas to return to the following day. Madison was last seen leaving a candy store. Just suppose Uncle Tom was, by sheer coincidence, nearby at that time. Try to imagine it. He's all psyched up by then, fantasizing about the attack planned for the following day. Then suddenly a lone child appears before him. A young girl. It was just too much for him to resist.”

  Claire shuddered, holding back the tears, searching her mind for an excuse to dismiss this all too simple scenario. “Why leave her in the car?”

  “Control. Self-control. Having acted impulsively in seizing the girl prematurely, he had no choice but to bind and gag her. I would imagine he intended to transfer her to the van, where I'm convinced the assaults take place. Dunst is right on that point. Having acted on impulse Uncle Tom has time to calm down, to compose himself. To get back to his schedule. He leaves the girl in the car, intending to travel on to wherever it is he keeps his van. By tragic coincidence the car is stolen. The rest we know...”

  “So one way or another, the child was doomed,” said Matt quietly.

  “And the Troy girl?” asked Claire.

  “If I’m right, all we can do is wait for the body to be found.”