Fetish

by Tara Moss

  She couldn’t picture Tony Thomas smashing someone’s skull in, unless he was drunk. Let alone slicing them open. Disembowelling? She was pretty sure he couldn’t stomach it. He had access to beautiful, impressionable young girls, and he obviously took advantage of it as best he could. But was he a killer? Mentally, she crossed him off her suspect list, but reminded herself not to be too sure. A clever psychopath could play any role they liked to assure you of their innocence. She had to keep her mind open, and she had to find the identity of the elusive JT.

  CHAPTER 15

  Detective Flynn was immersed in the data on his laptop when the loud, deliberate coughing of one of his colleagues made him look up. Cassandra, his soon to be ex-wife, was striding into the office with a briefcase and a stack of papers under her arm. Jimmy was behind her, waving his hands and mouthing the words, “The picture! Get the picture down!”

  It was too late.

  Cassandra paused in front of the bulletin board and scowled at the poster-sized photo of Makedde. He watched uncomfortably as her eyes rested on the breasts.

  “I can see you’ve grown up, Andy,” she snarled, flicking her dark hair back. Anger was an unattractive emotion, and one he had seen from her all too frequently in recent years. He didn’t even attempt to explain.

  “What do you want, Cassandra?” he asked, leaning against his desk with his arms folded.

  She looked at him with disgust and threw a wad of papers onto the desk. “Sign these.”

  Jimmy was watching quietly.

  “Let’s do this somewhere private,” Andy said, pointing to the interview room. “Shall we?”

  Cassandra led the way, making a wide berth around the photo. Andy followed. Before he shut the door, he stopped to show Jimmy a clenched fist, mouthing the words, “I’m going to kill you.”

  They sat down at the table and he began reading the lawyer lingo.

  “Just sign it,” she insisted.

  “The car?” He gave her a steady look, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  “I need the car,” she said.

  He could feel his blood starting to boil. “ You need the car? I need the damn car. What I’ve got is a heap of crap. Jimmy’s gotta pick me up half the time.”

  “Tough.”

  “Tough?” He tried to restrain himself. “You have a car. You have two! What’s wrong with the Mazda?”

  “It’s an old piece of shit. I want the Honda. You can have the Mazda.”

  He began drumming his fingers slowly on the formica tabletop.

  “You know how I love that car.”

  She said nothing.

  He pleaded, “Cassandra, you’ve got our house. You’ve got most of the furniture. I just want the Honda…please.”

  She stood up. “When did you ever do anything for me? The whole time we were married it was you, you, you! Your career. Your life! Are you happy,” she jeered, “now that you’re a big senior sergeant with a big badge and a big gun, and a bunch of losers to laugh at your infantile jokes?”

  “You knew my lifestyle before we married,” he said quietly. She was doing it to him again; pushing his buttons. It was as if she actually wanted him to lose his temper. But he stared at the table with determination, gripping its legs with whitening knuckles.

  “Well, I didn’t know you! You petty little shit!” With that she ripped open the door, leaving him still gripping the table, and marched past the silent detectives in the office like a prize prima donna. “You’ll hear from my lawyer!” she yelled out as she disappeared into the busy hall.

  He let go of the table and slammed his fist hard into the wall. Once. Twice. Three hits.

  Damn that fucking bitch!

  A cut opened up across his knuckles.

  God, she made him angry. Why was she so damn greedy? Nothing would satisfy her. Nothing. Not when they were married and not now. Andy stormed back to his desk, brooding, aware of the silent pity from the other detectives. They weren’t laughing this time, probably because most of them had been in the same position at one point or another. It was an occupational hazard.

  They could have worked on their relationship, he believed that. But she didn’t want to. Cassandra had become worse over the four years they’d been married. Now that she had found success as a real-estate agent and was doing well, she wanted to get him out of her life. Yes, he worked long hours. Yes, he was wrapped up in his job. But when some guy is running around slicing women from head to toe, it’s hard to care about getting home on time for dinner. He flexed his hand and a trickle of blood flowed down from his knuckles into his fist.

  A rookie constable, whom he didn’t much like, noticed it. “Hey, sarg, whatcha done to yourself?” Hoosier asked, reaching towards his hand.

  “Fuck off,” Flynn spat. “Go arrest some fucking jay walker, will you?” Hoosier cringed back and slunk quietly away. Andy turned and ripped the photo of Makedde off the board and threw it in the garbage. His veins were pumping so hard, a thin spray of blood spattered the rubbish. He’d had enough. He wasn’t planning on copping any more crap over Jimmy’s pranks.

  Makedde arrived at Central Homicide in the evening, as arranged. She had her shirt sleeves rolled up, ready to be fingerprinted for the first time in her life. The duty sergeant had been expecting her and gave her an approving once over.

  “You can head on up, Miss Vanderwall.”

  She stepped into the elevator, which carried her noisily to the fourth floor. When the doors opened, she was struck by how quiet it was. Most of the detectives had gone home or were out on assignment, but she found Flynn glued to the laptop on his desk, surrounded by files and papers and tagged and pinned city maps. His jacket had been discarded, his tie loosened and his pale blue shirt was rolled up at the sleeves, just like hers. She noticed his right hand was decorated with skin-toned plasters.

  “Good evening,” she said simply.

  He jerked his head up at her greeting. She had startled him. “Miss Vanderwall, I’m glad you could make it in. This won’t take long.” He was all business as he rose to his feet.

  “Any updates on the case?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “Now, there must be something you can tell me. You don’t sit hunched intensely over a laptop like that without something on your mind.”

  “I’ll let you know of any progress.”

  Makedde didn’t believe that for a second.

  He rose and she followed him back to the elevator and stood with her arms crossed on the opposite side as it took them down several floors. As they rattled down in the otherwise quiet building, Andy turned and smiled weakly at her, shaking his head at the noise. She offered a thin-lipped smile in return. When the doors opened, he led her to an area housing a series of uninhabited holding cells. Along one wall she saw the fingerprinting station; the large black ink pad, and clips for holding the fingerprint forms in place. The wooden surface of the printing table was smeared with the efforts of uncooperative offenders, and the large sink which sat beside the set-up had no doubt once been white, but was now a grimy grey.

  “How many separate prints were picked up in the flat?” she asked, throwing her coat over a clean table.

  “Several.”

  “Several as in…three? Four? Sixteen?”

  “ We picked up at least four different clear sets. Happy now?”

  “Happier. But I’d be much happier if you,” stopped treating me like an airhead, “could tell me more about the progress of the investigation.”

  “You were wise to roll up your sleeves,” he said, ignoring her comment and taking her by the wrist. His grip took her by surprise. She didn’t pull away, and let him lead her towards the ink pad. He had a form already sitting in its clips, ready for her prints.

  He took her wrist in his left hand and held her thumb with the fingers of his right. He pressed her thumb to the ink pad and rolled it from one side to the other, thoroughly coating most of its circumference.

  “I don’t think it’s necessary to
—” Mak began.

  “ To get proper prints, I have to do this.”

  “Don’t I seem like a cooperative criminal to you, Detective?” she asked.

  She sensed subtle embarrassment. “Cooperation has nothing to do with it,” he stated. “I’ve had to redo loads of fingerprints when they weren’t done correctly.”

  He twisted her thumb to one side and placed it on the sheet, slowly rolling it across until the complete print was accomplished. They shuffled over to the ink pad together and he thoroughly smeared her index finger in the same way.

  Surely I could ink my own hands?

  “How do you ever get actual perps to do this?” Makedde asked.

  “Crims? Sometimes it takes a few of us.”

  “And some considerable persuasion I would imagine.” He looked like he could be quite persuasive when he chose to be. She gazed at his hands as he manipulated hers. She hadn’t noticed before, but his left knuckles were scarred, precisely where the Band-Aids covered his right ones. An ambidextrous bruiser?

  “Is that how you cut your hand? Persuading someone?” she asked.

  He stiffened. “Nothing like that.”

  “Uh huh.” She wasn’t convinced.

  They were both silent as he inked and printed her middle, fourth and pinkie fingers. When Senior Sergeant Flynn went to ink her left palm, he moved in closer, his chest pressing into her shoulder, and his face tilted in front of hers. She glanced at his wrinkled shirt collar and the smooth olive skin of his neck, recalling the way he had affected her in the interview room under the mad full moon.

  And the way he brushed me off.

  “So, you’re the daughter of a Detective Inspector?”

  “Indeed.”

  “How long have you been modelling?”

  “Started at fourteen, and a couple of years ago I began studying for my PhD in forensic psychology.”

  “You’re pulling my leg.”

  “No, you’re pulling my arm.”

  He let go.

  “Right now I need to continue modelling between semesters to pay my way through. Besides, I like the travel.”

  He swallowed hard, then smiled. “A shrink, huh?”

  “I doubt that shrink is the appropriate term. But I’m not yet a qualified psychologist, no.”

  He seemed to muse on that as she inked her own right thumb and brought it over to the sheet. He let her print it herself, then said, “May I?” before helping her print her index finger.

  He was leaning close to her when he said, “So, you’re studying to find interesting ways to get the crims I catch off with some screwy psychobabble?”

  “You’ve been watching too many movies. You should know as well as I do that few offenders go for the insanity plea and fewer still are acquitted. No, I’m more interested in criminal justice personnel psychology, so I can stop people like you from jumping off buildings after a bad homicide.”

  “Very cute.”

  She smiled.

  After printing her right hand, she walked to the sink and examined a peculiar gritty soap, also smudged with black ink.

  “That should get most of it off,” Andy offered.

  “I’ll bet,” she countered sceptically, and started scrubbing her hands. “Flynn’s an Irish name, isn’t it?” she asked casually.

  “Yup. My family’s been here for a couple of generations, but I’ve got a bit of Irish from way back. Scottish, too.”

  “Really? Can you do a Sean Connery?”

  “Well, Miss Money Penny…” he said in a rounded Scotch accent.

  She felt herself go weak at the knees. She had to get him to stop, or she would be jelly in his hands. “Beautiful countries; Scotland and Ireland,” she managed to say, grateful that her back was to him. “Have you been?”

  “Nope.”

  “I guess your work makes it hard to take time off.”

  He didn’t respond.

  Makedde scrubbed until her hands felt raw before deciding to give up on making them clean. Her skin was pink in spots and vaguely grimy in others. Her nails looked like they’d been done with a black French manicure.

  “Since I’ve been so cooperative, maybe you can put a little more effort into finding Mister Wrong,” she said. “I know you don’t have much to go on but—”

  “I assure you, we’re on to it.”

  “No new leads to his identity?” The ring?

  “No.”

  “OK.” She let it rest for the moment. “Just let me know what comes up.” She knew it was pointless to mention the ring before she had any more information. They would have found it in the search and had obviously thought nothing of it. Makedde picked up her coat, grateful that it was black, and started towards the door. What the detective said next stopped her dead in her tracks.

  “Would you like to go out sometime?”

  For a moment she simply stared at her hand fixed around the door knob.

  “Do you ask out all of your witnesses, Detective, or just the ones who are models?” she asked.

  “First time, actually. I guessed you probably didn’t have a lot of friends here.”

  “I have plenty of friends, thank you,” she fibbed. “So do you, by the looks of things.”

  He smiled. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. I’m sorry.”

  Detective Flynn escorted her politely to the elevator.

  “Thank you for your help Miss Vanderwall,” he offered coolly as she stepped out.

  Makedde felt the urge to apologise for being so terse, but suddenly he was gone. He had taken her completely off guard. What was it with that guy? One minute she wanted to wring his neck and the next moment she wanted to kiss it.

  She threw her coat on and walked out to the street. “Do you ask out all your witnesses or just the models?” she mumbled in an irritating impersonation of herself. “Blah-blah-blah. Idiot.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Detective Flynn braced himself. He had seen Wednesday’s paper, and instinctively knew his boss wouldn’t be happy. He rubbed his red-rimmed eyes and strode into the office, carrying under one arm the files he had stayed up all night with, and under the other the offending morning paper. He was met at his desk by his eager partner, performing his worst female-secretary impression with dead pan humour.

  “Detective Inspector Roderick Kelley wishes to see you in his office, sir,” Jimmy crooned.

  “Has he talked to you already?”

  “Oh, yeah. Actually, it’s surprisingly good news.”

  Andy unconsciously straightened his tie and ran a hand through his hair as he made his way to Kelley’s office.

  The door was open. Kelley was waiting.

  “Flynn,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “Come in.”

  Detective Inspector Kelley was a lean, grey-haired man in his early fifties. He had slate-grey eyes, thin lips and an angular, clean-shaven face. He was tough and economical in everything he did and said, and he was very intelligent. Andy respected him enormously. The morning newspaper sat open on his desk. It was facing away from Andy, but even upside down it was easy to read the bold headline.

  SYDNEY SERIAL KILLER, POLICE CLUELESS.

  “What do you make of this?” Kelley challenged as Andy took the hot seat.

  He paused, searching for the right words. “Well, Sir, we tried to keep a lid on it, but someone picked it up and ran with it, which is not surprising. We’ve been getting a lot of calls, none of them useful.”

  “And do we have a serial killer on our hands?”

  “I believe we do.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “These are clear, almost textbook, signature killings with distinct patterns of mutilation. Unfortunately, no connection has been found between the victims at this point. Just general age, appearance, that sort of thing. He’s not leaving a lot of clues. Just the shoes.”

  “He’s leaving clues, Flynn. They always do. It’s just a matter of finding and interpreting them.”

  He knew Kelley was unhappy with
him when he called him “Flynn”. “Of course—” Andy began.

  “And the shoe is the victim’s in each case?”

  “Cristelle was seen leaving the Red Fox wearing similar shoes. With Roxanne and Catherine, we don’t know.”

  “What else have you got?”

  “Head wounds inflicted with a heavy blunt instrument, probably your average garden variety hammer. Thousands bought in Sydney.”

  “And…”

  “The other injuries took time. A doctor or a surgeon might cut in that way, but then again, any sicko might as well. We’ve learnt that since the Whitechapel days.”

  “I’m listening,” Kelley pressed.

  “No one unusual at the dump site of the Gerber girl,” Andy continued his spiel. “He doesn’t seem to have come back. I’m still suspicious of the photographer. He seemed more affected by us wanting to see the film in his camera than he was by having just come across a slaughtered girl. He had worked with Makedde Vanderwall before and may have set her up to discover her friend. The ultimate thrill.”

  “Does he have an alibi?”

  “No.”

  “And this mystery man the last victim was involved with?”

  Andy hated being confronted with questions for which he had no satisfactory answers. “Could be anyone at this point. They kept it pretty quiet, and nobody has come forward. I doubt it’s related.”

  “Physical evidence?”

  “Nothing pointing to a specific suspect at this time. The killer uses condoms. No semen has been found at all, which I find unusual with this amount of violence. Our killer could be worried about disease or, more likely, leaving DNA. The traces of disinfectant found on the bodies fits with that.”

  “So he could be familiar with forensics. Someone who’s done time. Or maybe he’s just a clean freak. What else?”

  “On all the victims we found dark fibres consistent with a thick material like a blanket, not carpet fibre.”

  Kelley stared out his window. “A material used to transport or hide the body?” he asked.

  “That’s what I suspect. A few hairs were found in the wounds as well,” Andy said.

  “The killer’s?”