Kenny the Making of a Serial Killer 1

by Patrick Laughy

  When Kenny was out on the property he still set his snares, but the bunny population on the property was thinning out. It was beginning to be hit and miss for a catch. Besides, he was finding that these episodes had become a little old hat now, seeming to offer only short-term stimulation for him. The snuff films, which Kenny now watched obsessively, went a long way toward scratching the surface of the niggling new itch for heavier stuff he was feeling, but he knew that a need to experience some form of stronger stimulation was growing within him.

  It had been a long time since he’d killed Bob. For him, doing Bob had been the highlight of his life. It had been extremely gratifying on so many levels. He still regularly masturbated to the image of that idling truck in the dark garage, but the reliving of the experience didn’t get anywhere near to producing the level of high he’d garnered at the time of the original act.

  What he really wanted was to repeat the awesome adrenaline-rush and subsequent sexual high that he’d experienced while killing that asshole, Bob.

  Late in the month Dave found the time to begin to use his new profiling expertise.

  Encouraged by those upstairs to begin experimenting with the process on some of the outstanding cases when he had any extra time, he began to work at applying the system to a few cases that seemed to be stonewalled for one reason or the other.

  He was both surprised and pleased when he managed to achieve three promising outcomes, each pointing the way to an investigative lead, before the end of the month.

  The first related to a series of robberies committed at jewelry stores. In that case he could pinpoint a possible geographical area in relation to the robbery locations and the team working on the case used this information coupled with some other facts in the file, to set up surveillance at a likely target. That surveillance paid off and the three perpetrators were caught in the act within a week

  The second involved a peeping-tom who was working a small area in south Vancouver. It was a small thing, but Dave found that the file held enough general information that it was worth a shot. After working on his profile over an afternoon he was able make some headway on a probable suspect. The team handling the case used this information to justify an interview and subsequently charged a sixteen-year-old who then copped to several offences shortly thereafter. Being a juvenile, the kid wouldn’t do any time, but at least they had nailed him and given pause to anyone else considering wandering in the neighbourhood at night peering into windows. And the department wouldn’t be getting the flood of calls that had been plaguing them over the past few months.

  After these small successes, Dave created a profile for a rapist who was working in the west end of the city. Using the info his profile contained, the team of detectives assigned went back through the case files on it and found themselves newly interested in an earlier interview they’d conducted. It had been with a known convicted molester, who had been checked by a patrol unit in the general area of one of the rapes. Although they had ‘liked him’ for the crimes after that first interview, they had dismissed him as a suspect shortly thereafter because he had come up with a reasonably solid alibi for a couple of the earlier rapes.

  Armed with Dave’s info, they rechecked those two alibis in greater detail and found both had been provided by the same person, an old girlfriend. They paid her a visit and, under a little pressure, she buckled and admitted that at the time of the earlier rapes he hadn’t in fact been with her as he’d claimed. He had told her he was being railroaded, hadn’t done it, and asked her to do cover for him. She burst into tears and justified the whole scenario to them by telling them that she was living with the guy at the time and that he liked to get physical. She’d been too afraid of him to say no.

  After leaving her apartment the team had gone directly to the suspect’s place of employment, picked him up and hauled his ass back downtown for another interview.

  Once there, they’d left the suspect alone to sweat for an hour in one of the small, overheated and windowless interview rooms. When they finally rejoined him, they casually dumped a thick file onto the table between them and the suspect, identified themselves, gave him the official warning and told him they were charging him with the rapes.

  It took them a while to wear him down, but two hours later they came into Dave’s office and presented him with a photocopy of a signed confession, covering the entire batch of rapes.

  The charges of rape that resulted cleared up four old cases, and when word got back to the Chief, he was ecstatic and came downstairs to congratulate Dave personally.

  During the visit, the Chief and David discussed the profiling process a little and then out of the blue, the Chief asked him what he could do to help him expand the process to more stalled cases.

  He didn’t respond for a second, then let out a deep breath and settled back into his chair before answering.

  “Well, there is so much information to go through and then a study of that all has to be inter-related to produce results. It would be a definite help if we could manage to computerize the information we compile to produce a profile.

  “I’m not all that conversant with computers, but I think if the significant information already gathered on any specific investigation could be entered by a clerk, after all the reports had been visually reviewed and culled by a detective, then the whole process could be handled much more quickly and effectively.

  “The detective doing the initial assessment would need to be computer-friendly, and then he could teach me the fine points of how to use the results produced by to assist in building a profile.”

  The Chief thought for a moment and then shrugged.

  “OK, you’ve accomplished quite a bit in a short time doing this profiling business. If you think using a computer to sort and store information will speed things up, I’ll get one for you and send you a clerk with entry skills. In the meantime, you select someone of detective rank that you want to add to your unit and when you got that nailed down, I’ll see to the necessary transfer.”

  The Provincial Ministry, where Linda worked, had been switching over a lot of their files and records over the past couple of years to a new computer system which, according to her, was streamlining a lot of their access to information and record keeping.

  Unlike Dave, who only knew the basics, Linda was very comfortable sitting at a keyboard. She had been using them at work for some time, and it was she who had originally suggested the computerization of the investigative files.

  When he got home that evening he told her what had transpired with the Chief and she congratulated him. They went out to dinner that night to celebrate.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  - May 1995 –

  Life for Kenny had not changed much over the past eight months. When around the others, his façade formed automatically now. It had become second nature to him. He no longer had to work at it.

  As far as how each of his days were spent, little had changed. He still felt he had successfully managed to get a good hold on controlling most of his own life.

  Kenny’s puppy, who he had named ‘Vicious’, because he was anything but, was now nine months old. For the first six months of its life, the dog the had spent most of its time with Walter during the day, while Kenny was in his classes, and out with them in the truck when they did their various errands.

  Its nights were spent following Kenny around, and the dog slept in his room.

  The dog idolized Walter, but didn’t quite hold Kenny with the same level of reverence. That fact irritated Kenny to no end. Not because he particularly liked the dog, but because he figured the dog’s strongest loyalty should be to him. It was his dog after all. Once again, he was being rejected.

  Shortly after the dog’s arrival, Kenny had asked to take him out with him when he went up to the yard in the evenings, but Walter had disagreed, saying the dog was too young to be out in the bush. It wasn’t until April that Kenny could have the dog accompany him on his daily sojourns to the far end of the pro
perty.

  Kenny had been toying with an idea of how to straighten the animal out, but that meant getting the dog outside alone and until April such an opportunity had not presented itself.

  About a week into the month, he had been given permission to take the dog up to the yard and the bush with him. Kenny now had the opportunity to act out on one of the little fantasies he’d been formulating. The goal of which was, in addition to pure enjoyment, to teach it who was really in charge.

  The afternoon after he gotten permission to take ‘Vicious’ with him the two of them headed out. When they were deep into the bush using the excavator, Kenny called the dog to him, and led him off further into the bush. Then, using some of the fishing line he used to set up his snares, he tied the dog to a tree by one rear leg and left him.

  The dog immediately tried to follow him but Kenny ignored the frantic barking and garnered a great deal of satisfaction when he was far enough away to be out of the dog’s site line, and heard the animal begin to utter a plethora of pain-filled yelps.

  Kenny began to whistle and calmly climbed back into the excavator to continued to work. He left the dog alone for almost an hour.

  When he returned he found the dog laying exhausted, the tied leg extended, raw and bleeding where the fish line had cut into it as he’d struggled to be free.

  Kenny was initially pleased with the results.

  He stood watching the whimpering animal for a little while before he began to utter, what he thought the dog would consider to be soothing words, based on things he’d heard other members of the household use when comforting the animal, mimicking what he could remember of them, while he used wire cutters to free the injured leg.

  Once freed, the dog was unable to use the leg, so Kenny picked him up and carried him back to the excavator, tossed him into the cab and leisurely made his way back to the yard.

  By the time he’d arrived at the compound, he’d had time to think the whole thing through and had realized that, while the incident had certainly taught the dog who was boss, the sight of the injured leg was going to have to be explained away to those back at the house.

  He loaded the dog into the little Ford pickup and sat for a few moments trying to figure out how he could rationalize the dog’s injury in a manner that it would be acceptable to them as just a horrible accident.

  Completely ignoring the dogs pitiful whining as he licked the injured leg, Kenny ran through some possibilities.

  He could say that the dog was running around and got caught in one of his snares, but then he would have to explain why he had set snares in the first place. He wasn’t about to do that.

  He could say he had no idea of what had caused the wound. That the dog had wandered off and he’d had to look for him and when he found him the leg was injured.

  He turned to look at the actual injury and figured, nope, that wouldn’t fly.

  In the end, he decided to tell them that the dog had been playing and had tangled himself somehow in some of the heavy brush. He had panicked and fought Kenny when he had gone to help him and, in so doing, damaged the leg.

  He knew it was a little farfetched, but in the confusion of seeing the dog, he reckoned that they might not be thinking straight enough to question it.

  When he got down to the house, he left the moaning dog in the truck and sat for a second preparing himself for how he should react when he went in. He reflected on how Granny had responded when Gordon died. He decided to mirror as much of her reaction as he could manage.

  It went well. Everybody was so concerned and worried. They asked what had happened, of course, and, breathing heavily, he’d disjointedly given them his story.

  They were so worried about the dog, Walter determined to get the dog to the vet as soon as possible, and the others tearing up and trying to soothe the dog, that they weren’t even paying much attention to Kenny.

  So far so good. It had occurred to Kenny, by this time, that the vet might not buy the story, once he examined the dog. He hadn’t considered that angle before.

  Walter was already carrying the dog to the other truck when Kenny asked, in his best pitiful voice, if he could come and hold the dog on the way to the animal hospital.

  In the end, he was glad that he had decided to go with Walter and the dog.

  While she was working on the dog, the vet, an older lady, asked how the injury had occurred. Kenny, standing in the background and doing his best to look devastated, stayed mute and let Walter speak.

  Walter explained to her that the dog had got his leg caught in some heavy brush.

  The vet paused in her work and turned to face him, a questioning expression on her face. Kenny bit his lip and held his breath. The vet said it looked to her like a wire of some kind had done the damage.

  Kenny mumbled out a response. “

  We have some old fences out there. They are all broken down barbed-wire.”

  It was bullshit of course, but it was the first thing that came to mind for him and he was desperate to bury the discussion quickly before it expanded. Walter wouldn’t know one way or the other about any downed fences on the property. He’d never even been out in the bush at the back of the property.

  Kenny didn’t say a word. The questioning-look on the vet’s face didn’t exactly disappear, but she did turn her attention back to administering to the dog. As she cleaned the wound she spoke over her shoulder to them.

  “I would have thought a smaller wire, but I suppose it could have been frayed barb. At any rate, you two might as well go back into the waiting room while I finish up here. You’ll be able to take him home when I’m through. You will need to pick up a proper sized cone for the dog to wear to keep him from fussing with it until it has a chance to heal. Talk to the receptionist and she will fix you up. I will also be giving you a prescription to get filled, so you’ll have to stop at a pharmacy and fill it within a day or two. Before you leave I’ll give you enough medication to keep him going for a few days.”

  Kenny let out a sign of relief and, realizing that he’d been holding his breath while she spoke, gulped in some air. The Vet saw him do it and her features softened.

  “Don’t worry, son, there doesn’t appear to be anything seriously damaged. Your dog will be running around again in a week or so.”

  It was a close call and Kenny remained mute on the way home. As he had anticipated, Walter just figured he was so quiet because he’d been really shaken up by the whole incident. Kenny was using the time to silently thank his lucky stars and give the whole screwed up scenario a lot of thought.

  He had been stupid to do what he’d done without thinking it all out carefully. As result, he’d damn near been found out. He’d acted on impulse and that was damn stupid.

  Before Walter left for the evening, Kenny overheard him ask Granny if she was aware of any old collapsed fences on the property. The old woman had thought for a moment and then said that she didn’t think so. She then enquired of him as to why he had asked.

  Walter had shrugged and told her that he was just curious.

  Bloody amazing how gullible people were.

  It had been a stupid thing to do but he seemed to have gotten away with it.

  Kenny had learned a good lesson from it though. Acting on an impulse was not a mistake he would ever make again.

  On May the sixth, Linda bought a computer for David on his birthday.

  The past eight months had been busy for the two of them. Linda had been promoted again, this time to the position of Regional Manager for emergency services. It was a big jump in both salary and responsibility abut it also meant that she would have to return to working nightshifts and Monday to Friday.

  Since Dave had been told that he could set his own hours in his new position, he was able to shift over to nights as well and, as luck would have it, the change in office hours surprisingly worked out very well for him.

  The Chief had been very pleased with the results of the new unit to date.

  Dave was now pro
filing about one-third of their serious cases and results were producing solid leads, which in turn meant more evidence and further lines of investigation.

  This had occasioned the Chief to authorize an expansion of his manpower.

  Dave now had three civilian entry clerks and an additional detective to help with the process of assessing files and culling the vital material available, prior to its entry into the new system. Dave asked for and was granted his request to have his old partner Ed Hamilton take up the position. Ed was both a computer nerd and a known entity and Dave was looking forward to working with him again.

  With the odd exception, the remainder of Dave’s staff remained on days, which allowed for witnesses to be interviewed more easily.

  Dave, the new entry clerk and Ed, fresh out of the Drug Squad who was doing the file culling, worked nights.

  Dave quickly found that he could work much more efficiently on all ongoing active files at night than he had been during the day, which seemed to be punctuated with constant interruptions.

  The shift he’d chosen in the end allowed him to overlap the dayshift members of his team by one hour. This provided him with the opportunity to interact personally with all the working detective teams in Major Crime every morning at the start of their shifts, making it possible for him to point out to them any new line of investigation he’d picked up on while he’d been reviewing the files overnight.

  His supervisory responsibilities were therein simplified, more immediate, and took up far less of his time.

  The new computer system for the unit had been functioning well using the software that had come with it, but both Ed and Dave were finding themselves frustrated of late with some of the many program glitches. The system was also having difficulty handling the expanded volume demanded of it.