‘We found your picture in her room.’
‘Oh, I see.’
‘Well, that’s all for now Jason. If I need more information, I will call you.’
The young man left the room as fast as his legs could carry him.
‘What do you think?’ Tim asked when they went back to their office.
Jude shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t think he’s got anything to do with it. And if I’m wrong, he’s a damn good actor.’
‘I agree. I only wonder why Bodini had that pink lingerie in her drawer, when all the rest was very decent and practical.’
‘Maybe she wanted to but couldn’t. You have to be a woman to understand.’
He gave her a sideways look but she kept a straight face. Foster arrived just as they were about to enter the office.
‘How did things go this morning?’ he asked.
‘Not very pleasant,’ Tim said, trying to get his hand out of Fosters iron grip. ‘I have had better ones’.
Foster entered the office with them. ‘Did the jogger reveal anything?’
‘No, not really. He jogged there a few times a week, but before this morning he hadn’t noticed anything.’
‘Could that mean her body has been brought there recently?’
‘Don’t think so. He needed a pee, that’s why he went to the river bank. According to me, she has been there for a few weeks already.’
‘Any idea who she is?’
Tim hesitated for a few moments. ‘I have my suspicions but I want to wait for the autopsy report and that will be here tomorrow morning.’
‘Who do you have in mind?’
‘It could be the one from the library, Lilly Fitzpatrick.’
‘I thought she was on holiday in Florida’, Foster said surprised.
‘According to her parents she is, but a colleague was really stunned when I told her. She didn’t seem to believe me at all.’
Foster turned to Jude. ‘And how was your morning? A strange experience for you I take it on your second day, and that’s probably an understatement.’
‘You can say that again’, Jude said rolling her eyes.
‘That reminds me’, Tim said, ‘how come you were at the scene so early this morning? You even arrived before I did.’
‘Fast girl’, she smiled. ‘No seriously, I stay in a hotel in Corvallis during the week. Much more convenient than queuing on the Interstate every morning.’
‘That must be very expensive’.
Jude looked at Foster and he nodded. ‘The bureau pays’, she said. So, she had to be single or have a very tolerant boyfriend.
‘Did you interrogate Trent?’ Foster asked Tim.
‘Yes, but I don’t think he’s got anything to do with it. Not a choir boy but no, but I don’t think so. He seemed very tense but an interrogation by the cops has that effect on most people, even if they have nothing to hide.’
‘I got the feeling he didn’t know Fitzpatrick at all’, Jude said.
‘Keep me posted’, Foster said. ‘I’m expecting a lot of media attention on this one.’ He pulled his tie, tossed his thinning hair and ran up the stairs to his sanctuary.
‘I wonder if someone is born a killer or that something happened in his youth that triggered it’, Jude wondered out loud.
‘Well, if you believe the highly paid profilers they all started with pulling off the legs of insects, then go on to drowning cats and dogs and last but not least, they are all bedwetters’, Tim said in a condescending way. ‘All in their thirties and problems with their mother,’ he added.
‘I don’t think highly of profilers either, but sometimes they get it right. Most serial killers go for prostitutes.’
‘Then Bodini isn’t the usual victim if we are to believe Trent.’
‘Everything points in the direction of very poor social contacts, except for Trent.’
‘You think he ended the affair himself like he said?’
‘You mean it could be possible she ended it and that he killed her because of that?’ She thought about it for a while. ‘No, I don’t think he lied about that. I can imagine a guy getting frustrated if he can only feel breasts. And the way he looks….. no, I take it he is used to more.’
‘You find him attractive then.’
‘I wouldn’t call him attractive really and he isn’t my type at all, but he’s got something about him. Sometimes women go for muscles.’
He wanted to ask her what her type of men was, but it didn’t really matter at all. The rest of the afternoon they ploughed through the files David had highlighted. In each one a lot of people were interrogated but no arrest was made. It struck him that in two cases the same man was interrogated, but released for lack of evidence.
It was too early to go to bed and Jude decided to have a bite to eat in the hotel. She had been hoping Tim would ask her out but he hadn’t. She had seen some doubt in his eyes, but obviously he decided he still didn’t like her and acted accordingly. His opinion was almost certainly based on the fact she was a senator’s daughter and because of that she couldn’t have gotten her degree by her own strength and intelligence. He had no idea she broke up with her parents years ago because her father couldn’t keep his filthy hands off her younger sister. Her mother was a very weak and egocentric woman, only interested in her husband’s title and the advantages attached to it. She had given him children only to keep a firm grip on him. She had always looked the other way when once again he went to Sarah’s bedroom for a good night kiss.
It all started when Sarah was eight. Jude was six years older and knew very well what was going on. He came to her room too a few times but stopped quite quickly because Sarah was a much easier prey. Once Jude told her mother what was happening between her father and Sarah, but she waved everything away with: ‘Your father isn’t like that at all Jude, you’re seeing ghosts.’ When Jude suggested taking Sarah in her own room, she even got very angry. During the years, Jude had watched this with growing sadness and at that time decided to leave home at eighteen and take Sarah with her. During four years Sarah was abused but never said anything to anyone, not even to her own sister. Her father in the meantime was elected senator again, overwhelming her mother with pride and joy. The result was that she turned a completely blind eye to the relationship between father and daughter. The day Jude turned eighteen she moved to her own flat and took Sarah with her. Her mother hadn’t even dared protest. Her father had the fairness to give her a large amount of money, and she had taken it without any regrets. Hush money. Again he had been elected for another term. The following years Sarah had problems with her studies and social contacts. She had a very low self esteem. But eventually, with the help of her psychiatrist, she had risen from the depths and had found her own way. She even started biology classes. After getting her degree, she almost immediately found a job in the Ocean center in Crescent, North California. She even had bought a flat in the area. They kept in contact and phoned each other regularly. But Sara had never returned home, neither had Jude.
She sighed. The waiter brought her steak but she wasn’t hungry anymore. She picked at her salad, put a little slice of meat in her mouth, took her mobile out of her purse and called Sarah.
That night she didn’t sleep very well. Images of the mutilated body and her father’s and Tim’s face floated through her mind. When she woke she felt like a wreck. Even a hot shower couldn’t alleviate her anxiety. The breakfast buffet in the hotel couldn’t tempt her. She only had a coffee and left for the office.
CHAPTER 11
‘How in Gods name is this possible?’ Tim groaned loudly. ‘How did the press get hold of this so soon?’ In front of him was the local newspaper. On the front page was a title in large bold letters: ‘SECOND BODY FOUND IN CORVALLIS. After the discovery of a young woman’s body on June 9, about which our newspaper reported earlier, a second body also of a young woman, was found yesterday. The identity is not yet known. Corvallis police did not release any details. The body was found early in th
e morning by a jogger on the bank of the river Mary. The body was in an advanced state of decomposition. Could it be that Corvallis has a serial killer???’
‘No better way to start a panic’, he said all red in the face.
‘The press is always looking for breaking news’, Jude said. ‘Same in Springfield.’
‘I don’t give a damn about what happens in Springfield. Corvallis, that’s what’s important to me and this is disgusting.’
‘Maybe Endergard talked to the press. You never know.’
‘Why would he do that?’
Jude looked at him startled. ‘His minute of fame maybe, although they didn’t mention his name.’ Tim sighed as he read the article again. ‘Our guy will be very happy to have made the front page.’
‘I bet he is. If we’re truly dealing with a serial killer, he will get a kick out of this.’
‘I still find it strange Endergard didn’t see the body earlier in the week. It must have been there a while already.’
‘He probably never had a full bladder before’, Jude laughed. ‘You don’t suspect Endergard, do you?’ She arched her brows. ‘He seems like a grey mouse to me.’
‘I don’t know. Wouldn’t be the first time a murderer helps the police along when he thinks it takes too long to find the body. Look at Ted Bundy. You wouldn’t suspect a serial killer behind that angelic face.’
‘True. But wouldn’t it have made more sense if he had done it anonymously, a telephone call or something like that? He wants the body found, wants his moment in the limelight, but facing the police directly, I doubt it.’
‘We can’t possibly imagine what is going on in that sick head. We think in a logical way, he doesn’t.’
‘But if he had wanted her to be found earlier, he would have dumped her in a more public place. Bodini too was found in the bushes at the river. She was only discovered by accident by a few children. This one was discovered because of a full bladder. Another coincidence.’
The ping on his PC indicated an incoming mail. Tim hoped it would be Sell’s autopsy report and the 3-D picture. That was indeed the case. He first opened the folder with the picture. It didn’t surprise him it was almost identical to the one he found on the site of the library. He turned the screen so Jude could take a look. She nodded. He turned the screen back.
‘I’ll forward the mail so you can follow the report.’ His eyes flew over the first part with the description of the injuries. Strangulation marks on the throat, broken larynx, removal of left nipple, removal of left eye, marks of metal chains on ankles and wrists, removal of the womb after death. In the open cavity a wrist watch was found with the alarm set at 13:05.
‘A watch again’, Jude sighed.
‘That doesn’t really surprise me. Only, I haven’t got a clue why a watch and why the alarm. What is it he wants to tell us?’ Tim leafed through the report till he arrived at the conclusion : death by strangulation, probably between June 2 and June 4. ‘She called her parents on her cell phone May 28. That could mean he forced her to make that call that day.’
‘He must have known her habits very well then.’
Tim continued his reasoning. ‘Let’s say she was kidnapped May 27 and he took her to his house or wherever he was going to hold her.’
‘Why 27?’
‘That’s the last day she showed up for work.’
‘Okay.’
‘So, kidnapped on May 27, probably killed June 2 or 3. He kept her in the house for at least six days then.’
‘And tortured her’, Jude added sadly.
Tim nodded. ‘Probably. That means she lay rotting on the river bank for almost two weeks.’
Jude grimaced. ‘I’ve seen a few bodies before, but this one was incredible, almost inhuman. If we have a serial killer on our hands, this won’t be his last victim I’m afraid.’
‘Sells has included the dental records as well. I’ll mail them to all hospitals and dentists in Corvallis and surroundings. We won’t have results before Monday probably, but I think we can assume this is Lilly Fitzpatrick.’ He picked up the phone, called Foster and filled him in on the latest news.
‘I’ll make sure you get a search warrant for her flat right away. You call technical division for stand by and I will call the lock smith’, Foster said.
As usual on Friday afternoon traffic was bad. The judicial building was located in a side street off Madison Avenue, only 800 yards from the office, but it took them fifteen minutes to get there. The judge had promised to have the warrant ready by two o’clock. At first he had been very reluctant because the identity wasn’t verified yet, but when Foster had mailed him both the 3-D picture and the one from the website, he had agreed. It was quarter past two when they left for Fitzpatrick’s flat.
Jefferson Avenue was a quiet street with a few villa’s, small apartment blocks and bungalows. In front of number 1070 was a well kept lawn. The apartment block contained four units. The right hand side was partially obscured by the leaves of an old oak tree. The technical division was there already. He felt relieved that this time he didn’t have to work with Ed Dolan. Tim’s colleague, Sean Douglas, lent against his car and raised his hand when he saw Tim and Jude arrive. He pointed to a spot in front of his own car.
‘All by yourself?’ Tim asked surprised as he got out.
‘Just before we left, Michael got a phone call from the maternity ward. His wife wasn’t due for over a month, but you can’t control nature can you?’ he said laughing. ‘Luckily that time is over for me.’
‘You know Jude?’ Tim asked while pointing at her. ‘She is standing in for David during his recovery.’
‘Nice to meet you’, Douglas said while he shook Jude’s hand.
She nodded. ‘Likewise.’
‘Nicer to look at than David’, he smiled.
Tim didn’t react, neither did Jude. At that moment the black Volvo of the lock smith stopped in front of the house. He parked his car half on the street, half on the lawn. He reminded Tim of Danny De Vito.
‘Hi men, hi lady. Haven’t got a lot of time today. Where do you want me to break in?’ He waved a small toolbox in front of them.
There were four mailboxes outside. Box D had a name plate: ‘Fitzpatrick.’ The only other box with a name on it was A. ‘Flat D’, Tim said.
The front door wasn’t locked and the men entered a small hallway. The stone stairs led to the first floor with flat D on the right hand side. De Vito fiddled the Yale lock and after twenty seconds he opened the door. ‘Man, what a smell’, he said, one hand in front of his nose. He stepped back to let the others in. The smell was indeed overpowering. Douglas had put his paper suit on in the hallway and entered the flat too. It was dark and Tim switched on the light. He held a hand in front of his nose and saw Jude do the same. The lock smith had left already.
‘Jesus, look over there’, she exclaimed and pointed at something indefinable on the floor, a cloud of buzzing flies above it.
‘A dead cat’, Tim murmured as he approached. The little animal’s body was not a lot more than a bundle of fluffy grey hair that hung in tufts on the decomposing flesh. Dried out excrement lay all over the floor.
‘Call the Animal Control Center’, Tim said sighing. ‘They have to remove this right away. Any idea how long she may be dead?’
‘I don’t know a lot about cats, and certainly not dead ones. I would say at least one or two weeks.’
Tim opened the kitchen window to let some fresh air in. Jude called inquiries and got connected with the Center. Douglas started to look for fingerprints and blood traces.
The flat was small but furnished in a practical way. There were colorful curtains in front of the windows. The walls were painted in a soft yellow. The cupboards in the small kitchen were light beige. Next to the window a small table and two chairs. The litter tray underneath it gave off a ghastly smell. The food and water dishes were empty. On the draining board was a washed up cup. In the living room Douglas was busy powdering all the surfaces, making
sure he stayed away from the dead cat. They left him to it and went to the bedroom. On top of the unmade bed lay a pair of jeans that looked rather new and a blue linen jacket. Next to the bed a pair of black shoes with low heels. The flowery curtains were partially drawn.
‘You do the night stand while I take the wardrobe’, Tim said.
They pulled on the plastic gloves Douglas had given them. On the night stand Jude saw a half empty glass of water and a digital alarm clock. Next to it a book by Karin Slaughter. She searched through the drawer. Apart from some lingerie and paper tissues she also found a strip that had six contraceptive tablets left. ‘This one must have had a boyfriend’, she said while holding the strip up. ‘Although, taking birth control doesn’t necessarily mean you have a boyfriend. You can also take it when your period is not regular. Perfect solution.’
‘If you say so’, Tim smiled, but he felt a bit uncomfortable.
She rummaged through the rest of the drawers but didn’t find anything of importance. ‘How about the wardrobe?’
‘The usual suspects. Trousers, jackets, sweaters.’ He rubbed his chin. ‘There is something missing though.’
‘Like what?’
‘She went jogging every evening, but I don’t see a tracksuit. Normally she would have at least two in that case.’
‘That could mean she was kidnapped while jogging.’
‘Possibly. I think she changed after work’, Tim said pointing at the pair of jeans on the bed.
‘But according to her colleagues she went to a birthday party in the library. She must have left late then.’
‘Not necessarily. Maybe she altered her schedule and left at her usual time. There was no sign of a meal in the kitchen.’
‘You could be right. Anyway, she didn’t return that evening.’ Jude took another look in the room. ‘Something else missing too.’
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