Equivocal Death
Page 12
left off reading. In fact, it had been less than an hour. Her mind 16
darted from thought to thought. Andrea. She should call Andrea 17
to be sure that she knew. She picked up the receiver and dialed.
18
The phone rang once, twice, three times, in Andrea’s East Side 19
apartment, before the answering machine engaged. Kate hung up 20
without leaving a message. It was late; maybe Andrea was sleeping.
21
She tried once more, hoping her friend would wake up, but again 22
she got the machine.
23
If only she had someone to talk to.
24
She thought about calling Justin back. But what did she have to 25
say? All she really wanted was the sound of a friendly voice, the 26
feeling that she was not alone. She was overcome by a sense of des-27
olation. Suddenly, she missed her parents, missed them with a des-28
perate fervor. The mother she’d loved, the father she’d barely 29
known. With a sigh, she went back to her chair and sat down. She 30
looked at her watch: Ten minutes before midnight. The Supreme 31
Court’s Meritor case remained folded open, just as she’d left it on 32
her desk.
33
Placing her mug on a ceramic coaster, Kate began to read.
34 sh
w
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It was raining, waves of crystal beads hammering against his win-2
dows. Inside, he felt safe, content.
3
He was glad to be alone. There was a lot to think about.
4
Finally, he could relax, glory in the knowledge of his first suc-5
cess.
6
Madeleine Waters was dead. Because of him.
7
He felt a renewed sense of power. For a time, he’d worried about 8
overreaching. Worried that he was foolish to make changes when 9
success was so very close. That was when mistakes were made.
10
But he was an artist. Artists worked with the materials at hand.
11
Madeleine’s appearance had been a stroke of fortune. He’d been 12
right to make use of her. Contemplating his plan, he’d never 13
thought anything was lacking. But he’d been wrong. Without 14
Madeleine, his work would have been incomplete. And now, now 15
it was perfect.
16
Yet something was nagging at him. In the restaurant last night, 17
Madeleine had said that he was crazy.
18
Crazy.
19
A silly word. A child’s word.
20
He’d tried to shrug it off. Just one small word, tossed off in the 21
heat of battle. It was nothing, nothing at all. Silly to let this bother 22
him, to prevent him from enjoying this moment. And even if it 23
were true, what did it really matter? He was, after all, an artist.
24
Artists were often mad. It was part of what made them great. Part 25
of what distinguished them.
26
Still, the word grated on his mind.
27
A flash of lightning ripped the sky in two.
28
Twice, he paced the length of his apartment, trying to calm him-29
self. Then he had a new idea. Crossing the room again, he slid 30
open the door of a large storage closet filled with neatly stacked 31
boxes. He rapidly reviewed the printed labels. The container he 32
needed was second from the top. Standing on a chair, he reached 33
up and pulled it down.
ort 34
Back on the floor, he used a Swiss Army knife to slice open the reg 35
sealed top. The box was filled with books. He removed them one 9858_01_003-152_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:57 PM Page 81
E Q U I V O C A L D E A T H
8 1
by one until he found what he was looking for. Criminal Law and Its 1
Processes: Cases and Materials.
2
He turned to the Index. Insanity. There were more than a dozen 3
entries. But it was the classic definition that he was looking for —
4
the seminal M’Naghten rule. The standard handed down by the 5
House of Lords after the attempted murder of Sir Robert Peel. The 6
genesis of the modern insanity defense.
7
Again he flipped through the book, until he found the famous 8
case, then scanned it for the definition. There. He’d found it.
9
Neatly underlined in red: “to establish a defence on the ground of 10
insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the commit-11
ting of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect 12
of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and 13
quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it, that he did not 14
know he was doing what was wrong.”
15
The language was difficult to follow. He went over it several 16
times, reading the words out loud. So. Had he known the nature 17
and quality of the act he was doing?
18
Certainly.
19
He had murdered Madeleine Waters. In cold blood. For a pur-20
pose of his own.
21
Under that first definition, he was certainly not insane.
22
But the second part of the rule required further thought: Had he 23
known that he was doing wrong?
24
He folded his legs beneath him and gazed out the window at the 25
driving rain.
26
Doing wrong. It all depended on your point of view. Of course, 27
he knew that murder was prohibited by law. But was it wrong?
28
That was a different question. Madeleine’s murder had been the 29
crowning touch. A fitting prologue for the plan’s unfolding.
30
No, he could not, did not, believe that it was wrong.
31
A wave of displeasure passed through him, as if he’d lost an im-32
portant debate.
33
But he refused to give in. Impatiently he flipped ahead. There 34 sh
must be something else, an interpretation that would prove him 35 re
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A M Y G U T M A N
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right. Prove that he was no less sane than Madeleine herself had 2
been.
3
State v. Crenshaw. This was it, the case he’d been looking for. As 4
his eyes passed down the page, he began to smile. He read the 5
words slowly, relishing what they said. It was interesting what had 6
happened here. A man believed his new wife to be unfaithful. And 7
so, during their honeymoon, he’d killed her. Stabbed her twenty-8
four times. Sitting back on his heels, he tried to imagine the scene.
9
The terrified young wife, watching her husband change from lover 10
to enemy. How much blood there must have been!
11
As much, perhaps, as when he killed Madeleine Waters. . . .
12
After a dreamy moment, his eyes moved back to the text. N
ow 13
this Crenshaw fellow had tried to mount an insanity defense. Had 14
argued that since God condoned the murder of an adulterous wife, 15
he’d had no knowledge of a moral wrong. But the court had refused 16
to accept this logic. Crenshaw had known that murder was barred 17
by law. And that, the court said, was enough.
18
A much better rule. More in accord with reason, with common 19
sense.
20
And under the Crenshaw rule, he, too, would be considered sane.
21
Slowly, he felt the tension ease from his neck and back, felt the 22
vertebrae unclench. Of course, he had no intention of being 23
charged, no intention of ever being caught. Still, it was comforting 24
to know. It would be humiliating to be thought crazy. Humiliating 25
and unfair.
26
Replacing the book in its carton, he stood up and stretched his 27
legs. It was getting late, but he wasn’t the least bit tired. Already, 28
he was moving on. To the final act of the drama. The final step in 29
his plan.
30
January 16. A Saturday. Just ten days from tonight.
31
For years now, he’d marked this day, created rituals to acknowl-32
edge its passing.
33
But now the time of waiting was over. His fantasies would be-ort 34
come real. He was finally taking action.
reg 35
And the circle would be complete.
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1
Thursday, January 7
2
3
Darkness everywhere. At first, Kate didn’t know where she was.
4
The room was hot and dry. Beneath a weight of bedding, a layer of 5
perspiration drenched her chest. Something was wrong, but what?
6
Then, as she turned her head to one side, everything flooded back.
7
She was at home, in her New York apartment.
8
And Madeleine Waters was dead.
9
Kate lay still for a moment, letting the knowledge sink in. Then 10
she kicked off the blankets and swung her legs to the floor. The 11
fluorescent numbers on her bedside clock read 6:48 a.m. She’d 12
slept about six hours. The alarm was set for 7:30. She turned it off, 13
flipped on a lamp, and clambered out of bed.
14
The Times had already arrived, and Kate quickly scanned its 15
contents. The brief news item about Madeleine was short and to 16
the point. Nothing she didn’t already know. She’d have to go to 17 sh
the newsstand. The tabloids would certainly have more.
18 re
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A M Y G U T M A N
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Kate moved quickly around the apartment, eager to get out the 2
door. No need to make coffee, she’d go by Starbucks after picking 3
up the daily papers. She took a five-minute shower then slipped on 4
a loose gray jersey dress and black tights. A long strand of cultured 5
pearls, a black scarf, and black suede shoes completed the ensem-6
ble. It was an outfit she kept on reserve for days when she couldn’t 7
deal with the constrictions of a suit. Slightly funky but still suitable 8
for office wear. She clipped her hair back with a black suede-9
covered barrette — she didn’t have the time to wash and dry it —
10
grabbed her red cape and black leather gloves and was out the front 11
door of her apartment.
12
A bitterly cold day. No snow yet, but a leaden sky loomed over-13
head. The sidewalks glistened with ice, the residue of last night’s 14
downpour. Carefully picking her way, Kate headed for the nearest 15
newsstand, one block over to Broadway and two blocks down to 16
Seventy-ninth Street. The bold-faced headlines jumped out at her 17
from a distance. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: MEGA-LAWYER
18
FOUND DEAD IN SEX SLAYING. She bought copies of the 19
city’s two tabloids and walked quickly toward the Starbucks at 20
Eighty-first Street.
21
Once inside, she didn’t bother to stand in line. Instead, she im-22
mediately grabbed a stool at the counter that ran along the store’s 23
plate-glass front and spread out the Daily Press. The front page fea-24
tured the same studio portrait of Madeleine that was broadcast on 25
TV. Flipping through the ink-smudged pages, Kate found what she 26
was looking for. The dogged tabloid press had managed to dig up 27
information to supplement the brief report on the late-night news.
28
Had, in fact, managed to interview the unemployed mechanic who 29
had found and reported the body. Madeleine’s body. “Worst thing 30
I ever seen in my life,” he’d told a reporter. “I could barely tell it 31
was a woman, there was so much blood all over. The lady was 32
stripped naked, with some sort of object — looked like a candle —
33
sticking out from her lower parts. Her face and chest was all cut up.
ort 34
Looked like someone took a cleaver to her.”
reg 35
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E Q U I V O C A L D E A T H
8 5
through her. Still, she kept reading. Investigators had refused all 1
comment on the eyewitness account. But a criminal psychology 2
expert had been more forthcoming. “From the description, this 3
sounds like the work of a disorganized offender,” he concluded.
4
“The insertion of an object into the vaginal cavity, the extreme as-5
sault to the face — these are all hallmarks of disorganized killers.
6
This type of less intelligent criminal is most often a young male be-7
tween the ages of seventeen and twenty-five, an underachiever 8
with no close friends. He’s likely to be delusional.”
9
Lifting her eyes, Kate gazed out the window at the well-heeled 10
Manhattanites streaming toward the subway entrance, oblivious to 11
the nightmare underside of city life. Two days ago, Madeleine had 12
been just like them, rushing on to the next appointment, the next 13
meal. And now she was dead. It was a terrifying reminder of what 14
could happen when you started taking safety for granted. Thanks 15
to the city’s declining crime rate, Kate gave little thought to the 16
dangers around her. But the fact that murder was rare didn’t mean 17
that it never happened. Thinking of her own tendency to jump on 18
the subway regardless of the hour, Kate told herself she’d be more 19
careful. There was no reason to take foolish risks. Yes, that was it, 20
she’d take more taxis. Kate felt her muscles relax. There was some-21
thing reassuring about the thought.
22
A practical step she could take to protect herself.
23
w
24
Carter Mills composed his features in an expression of weighty 25
sorrow as he
accepted condolences from Mike Glaser, one of two 26
NYPD detectives now seated in his office. The other was a woman, 27
Hispanic. Her name was Cathy Valencia. As Glaser spoke, Mills’s 28
eyes briefly, almost imperceptibly, flickered over Valencia, before 29
shifting to the grandfather clock behind her. It seemed to be run-30
ning slow. He made a mental note to look up that clock expert he’d 31
read about in the Times. Clara would remember the name.
32
Glaser flipped open a notebook. He appeared to be in his early 33
forties, with thinning brown hair and frank blue eyes. He had one 34 sh
of those disarmingly guileless faces that often hide a keen intelli-35 re
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gence. Like a good trial lawyer, he’d use his appearance to effect.
2
Mills knew better than to underestimate him.
3
“Mr. Mills, like I said before, we’re gonna need to get into Ms.
4
Waters’s office. The longer you put us off, the harder it is for us to 5
do our job.”
6
Mills concealed his growing annoyance. “We’re moving as 7
quickly as possible, Detective. Once we’ve determined that confi-8
dential client information won’t be at risk, you’ll have full access.”
9
“So when are we talking about?”
10
“Later today. Sometime this afternoon.”
11
Glaser frowned. Mills could tell he wasn’t happy with the delay.
12
But short of going for a warrant, which in itself would take some 13
time, there really wasn’t much the detective could do.
14
“I assume you understand the importance of leaving everything 15
just as it was.” Glaser’s voice was hard.
16
“Of course, Detective. You have my word.”
17
“D’you think we could at least get a snapshot of the room? I’ve 18
got a camera with me.”
19
“I’ll get back to you on that, Detective.”
20
Glaser seemed poised for another push, but in the end he let the 21
subject drop. “You got any idea at all who could have done this, 22
Mr. Mills?”
23
Mills raised his hands for a moment before placing them flat on 24
his desk. “Absolutely not,” he said. “This came as a total shock. I 25
can’t imagine anyone less likely than Madeleine to be a murder 26
victim. Especially this sort of thing. Horrible. I can only think that 27
it was some terrible stroke of misfortune.”