Crime Zero (aka the Crime Code) (1999)

by Cordy, Michael

  Decker groaned. He was no advocate of the death penalty, so long as dangerous people were kept off the street. But the idea that genes determined violent behavior was abhorrent to him and to his work over the past fifteen years. Criminals already had enough excuses to avoid taking responsibility for their actions, without blaming their choice of parents too.

  "Dr. Kerr, could you please outline the key scientific evidence that demonstrates that biology is a central factor in violent behavior and crime?"

  Kathy Kerr cleared her throat and paused for a moment. "Let me start with a few facts. Firstly, biology is only one of several interrelated factors, including cultural, social, and economic influences, which lie at the root of violent crime. But the more we have learned over recent years, the more important we now understand it to be. Secondly, the biggest biological factor is gender. The world over, it is men who commit over ninety percent of all violent crimes."

  Decker remembered back to their Harvard days nine years ago. His criminal psychology Ph.D. on using patterns of behavior to diagnose an offender's state of mind and determine his likelihood to offend again, rather than rely solely on the patient's own opinion, had been much praised. But Kathy Kerr's Ph.D. paper on behavioral genetics entitled "Why Men Commit 90 Percent of All Violent Crimes" had been so groundbreaking it had been published in Nature, one of the world's two most prestigious science journals. He hadn't agreed with it, but he'd had to concede it was brilliant.

  Kathy continued, warming to her subject. "The male brain is different from the female brain, and understanding these differences is pivotal to understanding the small subset of criminally violent males. A chemical mixture of neurotransmitters and hormones drives the brain. Let me deal with neurotransmitters first. They are the chemical messengers controlling the flow of electrical messages in the network of nerve cells that allow the complex neural networks of the brain to communicate with one another. They influence and facilitate the thoughts of our mind and the actions of our bodies.

  "There are four key neurotransmitters. Three of them-- dopamine, adrenaline, and epinephrene--are very similar. They fuel the brain, stimulating many of our emotional and physical impulses, such as the fight or flight reflex. The fourth is serotonin; this is the vital brake that inhibits and modifies our waking behavior. Its specific function is to link the impulsive limbic part of the brain with the more civilized cortex. Put simply, without serotonin we would have no conscience or inhibitions.

  "While neurotransmitters are responsible for the instigation of specific actions, hormones influence the broad pattern of behavior, although the interaction between them is complex. Again put simply, the higher the level of androgens, particularly testosterone, the higher a man's aggression and the lower his empathy with the pain or feelings of others."

  Nodding, Latona stepped in. "So overall the male brain is more specifically wired and fueled for aggression, impulsiveness, and crime than is the female brain. But this doesn't mean that all men are violent criminals."

  "Of course not," said Kathy with a wry smile. "Violent criminals are the small minority of men well outside the norm, for whom these natural differences have become amplified, exaggerated. There exists a range of physiological tests on which they can be reliably assessed versus the norm. For example, we can measure in the blood levels of MAO, an enzyme that acts as a marker for the neurotransmitter serotonin. And we can monitor levels of brain activity with PET scans and electroencephalograms--"

  "OK," interrupted Latona. "So violent criminals are physiologically different. But how exactly does genetics fit into this picture?"

  "The recent invention of the Genescope has enabled scientists to read an organism's entire sequence of genetic instructions. By conducting aggression studies on primates, my team and I have identified seventeen key genes that code for the production of critical hormones and neurotransmitters in male primates, including humans.

  "These interdependent genes effectively determine man's aggressive behavior. And depending on how each gene's promoter, or volume control, is set, we can tell how loudly that gene will express its instructions. For example, we can predict dangerously low levels of serotonin or high levels of testosterone by studying the calibration of these genes. What we have discovered is that although everyone's gene settings change in reaction to particular stimuli, almost every individual has different base settings. If you see these seventeen key genes as cards, then every man is dealt a slightly different hand."

  "Is it true that although this work was done originally on apes, it is now relevant to humans?" Latona asked.

  "Yes, much of my recent work confirms these findings in men."

  "So a man's genes determine if he is going to become a criminal or not?"

  "To an extent. But I stress what I said earlier. Environmental, social, and cultural factors also have an influence. However, the crucial point is that humans are different from animals because they possess consciousness. This means that they are aware of the consequences of their actions. So regardless of any genetic predisposition, free will still plays a significant part in the choices humans make. But certainly some men, regardless of other influences, will find it more difficult than others to behave as society expects them to. The genes they inherited from their parents give them little choice."

  Decker smiled. She sounded convincing. But then she had always been a good teacher with a flair for simplifying the most complex problem. As far as she was concerned, the world was one big puzzle that, if she thought about it hard enough and long enough, could be broken down into its component parts to find the one overarching rule that explained everything. To her the whole was never greater than the sum of its parts. That had been their problem. To him the whole was everything. He could never understand how humanity could be reduced to a line of programming. In the short time Kathy Kerr and Decker had been lovers during that last summer at Harvard they had spent most of their time in heated argument. The only area where they hadn't been incompatible was in bed. He thought of the five or six half-serious relationships he'd had in the last nine years and quickly realized that despite or perhaps because of the friction, none shone as vividly in his memory as those few summer months with her.

  "You're aware of Wayne Tice's family history, aren't you, Dr. Kerr?" asked the lawyer, pulling out a large board and placing it on an easel by the judge. The network of names and lines on the board formed a simple family tree.

  "Yes. That's why I agreed to be involved in this case."

  As the lawyer turned to the chart, Luke knew what was coming. He too had studied Tice's family, and he shook his head as Latona explained that the spidery lines leading to boldly typed names revealed how four generations of Tice men had, with two individual exceptions, been drawn to crime. All were famed for their tempers and aggressive drives. "Think twice before you marry a Tice" was a watchword in their hometown.

  The chart infuriated Decker. What did Tice have to complain about? He still had both parents, and he had a brother. Apart from his domineering mother and his successful brother making him feel inadequate, Tice had had it better than most. Decker would have given anything to have a whole family and to have known his father.

  Fluent in Russian, Captain Richard Decker had been an interrogator with the U.S. Navy at the height of the Cold War. As a child Decker often fantasized about his father's using his psychological skills to prize a piece of information vital to the safety of the free world from some recalcitrant Red admiral. Decker's mother used to reassure him that his own uncanny and unsettling ability to see into the minds of others must have been inherited from his brilliant father. But of course the Russians hadn't killed Captain Richard Decker; some street punk in San Francisco had. That was one of the reasons Decker had joined the bureau: to fight the war on the streets.

  Turning back to Kathy, the lawyer asked, "Dr. Kerr, you have applied your battery of tests to my client and his immediate living family?"

  "That's correct. I conducted a gene scan on Wayn
e Tice and a series of ancillary tests, checking serotonin, testosterone, and adrenaline levels. I also gave him a PET scan to probe brain activity on his frontal lobe. Tice's readings put him in the top five percent, in terms of propensity to violence. His male relations also have dangerous readings, although not nearly as high."

  "So would it be fair to say that he and most of the menfolk in his family, through no fault of their own, carry a gene calibration that makes them predisposed to aggressive behavior and crime?"

  "Yes, but--"

  "But broadly speaking," interrupted the lawyer, eager not to let nuances of interpretation cloud his crucial point, "isn't it the case that Wayne Tice dances to the beat of a more violent drum?"

  "Yes," said Kathy cautiously.

  Latona smiled and turned to the judge. "So, Your Honor, Wayne Tice was born with a particular set of genes, calibrated in such a way that he had to commit murder."

  "That's not what I said," protested Kathy. "I am talking about predisposition. No more. No less. Ultimately a person decides--"

  "Excuse me, Your Honor." The lawyer deftly corrected himself before the frowning judge could intervene. "He was predisposed to commit violent crime. But the point is, How can Wayne Tice be punished for his actions? He should be counseled, not executed. He was doing only what he was born to do."

  Latona paused and turned back to Kathy Kerr.

  "How can we put a young man to death for simply doing what came naturally?"

  Chapter 2.

  After giving evidence to Latona and then the district attorney, Kathy Kerr retook her seat. Glad her session was over, she began to relax. Unless she was teaching, she always felt uncomfortable speaking in public, especially in court, where any words could be twisted to suit a purpose. After Latona had finished with her, the DA had given her a tough time, but she had expected that. Latona angered her, though, trying to use her evidence to shift all responsibility for the horrific murders from Tice. She had agreed to testify only because Tice was a classic case and would make an excellent research subject, if ViroVector received the expected FDA approval to begin the Project Conscience Phase 2 efficacy trials. Kathy didn't support the notion that Tice's genes allowed him to shirk all responsibility for his actions.

  There was one other reason she had felt uncomfortable giving her testimony. She had known that Luke Decker was going to be here.

  Watching the tall FBI agent take her place on the witness stand, she was surprised how much he'd changed. His appearance was similar, the lean physique a little broader perhaps, the blond hair shorter, and the face more defined, but those penetrating green eyes had lost none of their sensitive intelligence. It was his bearing that was different. He had more presence somehow; his gait was more confident, as if the hunted younger man she had once known had now become the hunter.

  Like most of America, she'd seen the press coverage of Decker carrying Tammy Lewis from the graveyard near Oakland, his face a mask of rage. She'd recognized that look from years ago, when his night terrors used to wake her at three in the morning.

  Back then they had been lovers. She'd known Luke Decker was different from that first time she'd walked into him in the Harvard library, knocking his pile of books all over the floor. Each book had been about the darker side of humanity, from biographies of Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy to textbooks on the criminal mind. But as she'd apologized, he'd just laughed and piled his books up under his chin, making a joke about how heavy a bit of nighttime reading could be.

  Even then she had discouraged men's advances, refusing to be distracted from her work, but she could still taste the disappointment when those soft green eyes had examined her, smiled again, and then moved on. Decker had made no attempt to exploit the occasion, so she'd had to stammer something about helping him carry his books, the least she could do after knocking them over.

  "If you like." He'd shrugged with a casualness that had both frustrated and delighted her.

  They couldn't agree on anything they discussed, but within two weeks they made love, and for those precious, magical moments they were in total accord. After that they had become inseparable, but he always seemed to retain some small part of himself. Kathy felt she caught a true glimpse of his soul only during those terrifying nights when he would sit bolt upright in bed, drenched in sweat, his eyes wide open. He would start speaking to some invisible presence directly in front of him, his voice angry: "You wanted control, didn't you? That was why you did it. You didn't actually want them dead. You only wanted slaves who would do whatever you wanted without ruining the fantasy. That's right," he'd conclude, having solved some puzzle troubling his subconscious. Then he would lie down again. At first she'd tried to soothe him, until she realized that he'd remained asleep throughout. In the mornings he would remember nothing, except resolving something that had been worrying him. It took her weeks to realize that he had an ability to understand man's baser desires that went beyond normal experience. And that this ability haunted him.

  His mother told him his intuition came from his father, but Kathy knew Decker felt it was more than just intuition. He was scared that somehow he was tainted.

  While still at Harvard, he would follow national cases and write in advice to the relevant police authorities or even the FBI. She always felt he was driven by some inner force, always trying to exorcise something deep within himself, something she could do nothing to reach, let alone soothe.

  She could handle the arguments and the fact that they couldn't agree on anything, especially their views on the roots of crime. It was his reserve she found the hardest to take. He could never relax and just be. He always seemed to be on the defensive, always on guard against himself. As independent as she was, she needed at least one thing from their relationship: to be needed.

  But now, as Luke answered the district attorney's questions, she found herself asking what might have been if the timing had been different.

  When she returned to the States from Cambridge, she often heard of him through her dealings with the FBI. But on the few occasions she made halfhearted attempts to contact him he had been unavailable. In fact he seemed to be forever in transit around the country, helping solve crimes or teaching local police forces profiling techniques. Despite the new regime's reliance on hard science and biology, time and time again Special Agent Luke Decker had proved himself indispensable in solving the more intractable cases. She'd heard that his colleagues, no mean mind hunters themselves, called him Luke the Spook, a tribute to his ability. She only hoped that by hunting down the demons in others, Luke had found some respite from those warring inside himself.

  "I don't know whether Tice should be executed or not," she suddenly heard Decker say. His voice wasn't raised, but from his tone she could tell he was angry. "That isn't my province. My only concern is that he isn't allowed out on the streets again--ever." For all his faults and distrust of the genetic revolution, Decker had one quality that she admired above all others: an almost naive integrity.

  But when Latona took his turn to question him, the defense lawyer soon realized that Decker was no patsy. "Surely after hearing Dr. Kerr's evidence, you must concede that Tice needs help? That he's genetically programmed to do what he did?"

  Decker smiled, a wide, disarming smile that seemed to say, "Surely you don't expect any reasonable human being to believe that." Then he turned toward her. "Dr. Kerr and I disagree on the relative importance of genetic predetermination. Genes may well be a factor, but they are only that, one in a series of factors. And they certainly aren't an excuse. Yes, I believe your client does need help, but I'm also convinced he will always remain dangerous whatever treatment he may or may not receive. Let me tell you something about how he came to be the way he is." At that moment Decker turned toward Tice. Decker was still smiling, and his smile was genuinely compassionate. For the first time in the glare of the court's attention Tice looked self-conscious, his cocky, defiant grin frozen on his face.

  "Wayne Tice is now twenty-one and until his
arrest lived at home with his parents. His elder brother, Jerry, is a successful manager for a major insurance company. Jerry attended UCLA and had a string of girlfriends. He has recently married and has a beautiful wife. Both parents doted on Jerry, whereas they told Wayne not to expect too much from life. His mother continually reminded him that he wasn't as smart or good-looking as his brother."

  Still looking at Tice, Decker began to address him directly, sounding as if he were Tice's best friend and confidant. There was no judgment or censure in his voice. "Your first overtures with girls weren't happy, were they, Wayne? They couldn't look beyond your crooked teeth, freckles, and red hair, could they--"

  Latona interrupted, his voice betraying a sudden slip in his slick composure. "Excuse me, Special Agent Decker, but I don't believe that manipulative questioning of the defendant--"

  Decker's eyes remained locked with Tice's, oblivious of Latona, of everything except his connection with the killer. He continued to talk. "And you felt shy. You wanted them to like you, but they were unkind. They laughed at you, didn't they?"

  Tice looked uncertain now.

  "Your Honor, this line of leading interrogations is outrageous," said Latona.