by David Archer
"We don’t know enough to make any guesses," Pete said. "Either way, the one thing we can be certain of is that someone is in danger." He looked around the room sternly. "And we need to find out who before the killer can get to them."
“What gets me,” Tina said, “is the way this guy is almost gentle when he kills them, almost like he’s trying to put them out of their misery, somehow. It just doesn’t sound like this guy is out to hurt people with depression issues. It’s not like he’s trying to eradicate some kind of weakness, it’s more like he’s trying to—I don’t know, maybe he’s trying to understand it.”
“Depression problems can be pretty severe,” Gabriella said. “After my sister died, I developed a form of depression, and it still haunts me to some degree, even today. I can control it most of the time, so it isn’t really affecting my life that badly, but I still feel it now and then. This guy could have some kind of depression problem of his own.”
“You could be exactly right,” Pete said. “Okay, we all agree that the victims seem to be substitutes for his real target, and it’s possible, maybe even likely, that the physical and emotional traits of the victims are becoming more and more similar to the woman he really wants to get to. What that means is that soon, his original target is probably going to be taken. It might not be long now, for that matter.”
“Then we better get out there,” Chance said. “Somebody out there is running out of time, and we need to do all we can to figure out who it is.”
They gathered up all the information and headed out to the Southeast Area Substation of the LVPD, where the case command center had been set up.
"I don't get it," said Jake, looking out the car window at the parking lot of the sheriff's office, which was teeming with reporters and news vans. There were dozens of news agencies represented, and a number of people who were just milling around with video cameras, hoping to get a shot they could sell to one of the big ones.
"Don't get what?" Pete asked from the front seat.
"How he can dump the bodies without getting caught. Look at this media circus! When the press starts acting like this, every newshound wannabe is going to be out scouring the city for a scoop that will land them a big job."
"Maybe our killer's a reporter," Chance theorized.
"Maybe," Pete agreed. "But the killer is definitely somebody who lives in this town, he knows the layout, and he has no trouble choosing his victims. Jake, you and Tina can also look into the people who found the bodies."
Jake swallowed. “Yes, sir,” he said.
Chapter 3
They walked into the Station Command Office at just before two o'clock, all of them declining to comment for the reporters who were pushing microphones and cameras into their faces and shouting questions.
“Mr. Dixon, is it true you were called in because of incompetence in the Sheriff’s Department?”
“Mr. Dixon, considering how long you have been out of the investigations business, why do you believe the families of the victims would want you involved in this case?”
“Mr. Reddick, is it true that you are the illegitimate son of Pete Dixon?”
“Mr. Dixon, how long have you been sober?”
“Mr. Claridge, considering that your father was a decorated police officer who died in the line of duty, why would you prefer to be a private investigator, rather than follow in his footsteps?”
“Mr. Dixon…”
The door closed behind them and a pair of deputies ensured that none of the reporters got inside. Pete looked at his colleagues and shrugged. “Long as I was lost in the bottle, there’s bound to be lots of rumors and speculation. You work with me, you gotta be willing to put up with that kind of crap. Everybody good?”
They all said they were fine, and ready to go over all the details with the detectives and officers that were already on the case. Pete wanted to get insight from people who had already been working on it, but they all knew they were likely to be unwelcome visitors.
The substation was a two-story building. When they walked in, they were greeted by a lobby area, with a reception desk and chairs spread out in the waiting area, all surrounded by green plants and vending machines. By the right wall was the stairs up to the second floor, which contained a few offices, the bullpen and locker room. When they arrived, they were greeted by the Station Commander himself, an older, graying man who appeared to keep in shape, accompanied by two other men. Both of them were well built and clearly had experience in the field, though one of them was obviously quite a bit older than the other. Carol, who would be acting as their liaison with the department, approached the three first, her right hand outstretched. Station Commander Rex Motley shook hands with her.
"Hello, I'm Carol Musgrave, we spoke on the phone," she said.
"Yes, of course," he greeted. The rest of them came closer, and Carol introduced them.
"Guys, this is Station Commander Rex Motley," Carol said. “Commander, this is Pete Dixon, Chance Reddick, Gabriella Reddick, Tina Reynolds and Jake Claridge.” Each of them shook hands with the Commander. “They are the investigators who will be working with you, while I facilitate communications between all of you.”
"Thanks for coming out," Commander Motley said genuinely before gesturing to the men by his side. "This is lead detective Lewis Lambert, and his partner Jason McCoy. They've been working the case so far, but I'm afraid we haven’t been getting anywhere. They know what they’re doing, but this case has got us all baffled. Under other circumstances, I would’ve thrown a fit about bringing you folks in, but if I'm going to be honest, we need all the help we can get. If there’s anything we can do to help you help us, don’t even hesitate to ask.”
"Thank you," Pete said. "One thing we need to do pretty soon is talk to the families and friends of the victims, maybe tomorrow morning. For now, is there someplace we can all go and sit down, because we’d like to go over some of the details of the case with you guys."
"Sure," Jason said. “Lewis will take you to the command center, and I’ll have one of the uniforms get started on setting up those interviews.”
"The command center is already set up for us to use," Lewis said. "Follow me, and we can get started talking about the case until Jason gets back."
Pete nodded and they all followed Lewis as he showed them to the command center, which had a long table in the middle and two white boards. Pictures from the crime scenes were put up already, and files were on the table ready for them. As they got settled into their seats, Jason joined up with them again, confirming that he had someone setting up interviews with the family and friends of the victims for the next morning.
"There isn't a whole lot to work with at the moment," Pete explained. "There isn't much of a connection between the victims, but talking to the families tomorrow might give us more answers."
"Right now, it looks like we are dealing with something other than just your normal, average serial killer," Chance said. "Whoever he is, he seems to be somewhat intelligent and probably knows how to cover his tracks."
"Wait a minute, I'm sorry," Jason interrupted. "Do you people honestly think we haven’t already thought all of that through? Just what the hell do you think we’ve been doing over here for the last few weeks? I don’t mean to be disrespectful, I know the families want you involved, but don’t think we need you to come in here and tell us how to do our jobs, okay?"
"I promise you, we are not trying to do that," Pete said. “All we’re trying to do is give you our own take on the situation.”
"Well," Jason said, "I'm sorry if I sounded like I was trying to be rude just then, but it sounds like you’re basically just saying that you’re better than us. This isn’t our first multiple homicide case, and we’ve done pretty well over the years."
"Jason, that’s enough," Commander Motley said, coming into the room. "That’s Pete Dixon you are talking to, and I can assure you he’s solved as many homicide cases as all of us put together.” He turned to Pete. “I apologize for the
detective’s attitude. Please go right ahead, Mr. Dixon, and we’ll try not to interrupt so much."
Pete shook his head. “There’s no need for an apology,” he said. “Gentlemen, we are all trying to put a stop to the killer here, right? I think we can all agree that the goal is to prevent the next victim from even being taken, if we possibly can.” He pointed to Jake. “Mr. Claridge, here, helps us get into the mind of our suspects. Jake?”
Jason started to speak, but Lewis cut him off. “Hold on,” he said. “Keep your shirt on, Jason, let these guys talk. You’ll get your turn.”
"We don't think this suspect is on any kind of mission," Jake finally continued. "The gentleness he shows his victims makes it appear that he feels no anger or disgust with them, and he isn’t really out to hurt them. The fact is, he probably just gets bored with each of them after a while, probably because she isn’t the person he really wants to have under his control."
Jason looked at him and pushed his partner’s hand away. “What are you, some kind of psychologist or something? How could you possibly know all of that?”
Pete cleared his throat. “Actually, he is,” he said. “Jake is very good at giving us an idea of who we might be dealing with. Ignore the fact that he’s still pretty young, he has a PhD in psychology, and another in criminal justice. He generally knows what he’s talking about.”
“And we’ve been going over all the details that you sent us,” Chance added. “We wanted Jake and the rest of us to have a little bit of a head start, so we could hit the ground running on this when we got here.”
Jason started to say something more, but a look from Lewis silenced him. Lewis turned back to Jake and nodded. “Please, go ahead.”
"We believe these victims may well be substitutes for an entirely different woman that he wants, but for some reason believes he can't have," Jake continued. "It's possible that he has some sort of romantic feelings for this woman, and that he feels genuinely afraid that he'll hurt her. That could be why he targets the victims in an attempt to keep himself from somehow going after her, maybe even as a way to protect her."
"Okay," Jason said, “so you’re saying that he ends up killing these girls just because none of them is the one he really wants?”
"We believe so, yes," Chance confirmed.
"Sick son of a bitch, isn’t he," Jason muttered under his breath.
"Mr. Claridge, do you think there’s any possibility that the suspect actually wants us to be trying to catch him?" Lewis asked. “Like maybe he is hoping we will actually accomplish it?”
"That’s possible," Jake said. “I'm curious, though, what makes you ask?”
"Well, I’ve just been paying attention to the victims, and how they were found. They say that if you want to understand a serial killer, you have to get to know the victims, right? Well, all of these women lived pretty mundane lives, without a lot of risky behavior, and all of them had the support of friends and family who noticed immediately when they went missing. That makes them high-risk targets for a guy like this. Then, we have the fact that he seems to keep them tied up for a week before he kills them, which is also risky; they could be discovered or might escape. Then he dresses them up and takes them out to someplace where he could be seen as he’s disposing of them, always leaving them in a place where they are certain to be found. To me, that sorta looks like he wants to be caught, doesn’t it?"
“You could be right,” Jake said. “He’s definitely taking some risks of exposure in the way he’s operating, but he also seems to be capable of maintaining control over the situation, and that’s making any attempt to trace him very difficult. I read about cases in college where serial killers worked very hard to keep the police interested, apparently because they thought of it as some kind of game. Most of those, though, did other things that were designed specifically to draw the attention of law enforcement. They wrote long letters to newspapers and radio and TV news programs, and sometimes they even wrote directly to the investigating officers. This guy isn’t doing anything like that, though. I don’t think he’s trying to draw any attention to himself, and it’s possible that dumping the bodies this way, dressed and wrapped like that, is some kind of ritual he needs for his own sense of propriety.”
Jason cleared his throat. "You said that you think he’s using these women to keep himself from bothering the one he really wants," he said. "If you are right and he’s trying to distract himself from that particular person, seems to me that having the police crawling up his butt would be a good way to do it. And as far as the bodies go, he’s just dumping them out there, leaving them where somebody’s going to find them so that we know he’s done his thing again. I don’t see any kind of ritual in it."
"Detective, do you even listen to what you’re saying?" Gabriella asked suddenly. They all turned to look at her, and her face quickly went red. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off like that. I was just listening to all of this and it suddenly hit me that—well, you're all missing something about the way he’s getting rid of the bodies."
"Gabriella," Chance said. “What are you trying to say?”
Gabriella glanced at her husband, then squared her shoulders and looked around the table. "Well, first off, take a good look at how he prepares these women before he takes them out there. They’ve been dressed in nice clothes that were not the ones they were wearing when they were taken. He closes their eyes and applies makeup, folds their hands over their chest and then wraps them in plastic so the weather and environment can’t ruin anything. He isn’t dumping the body, he’s engaging in some kind of ritual, almost like a funeral. It's not for him or the cops, it's for the victim."
The others turned to the pictures of the victim's bodies, and then looked at Jake.
"I would have to say,” Jake said, “that she has a point. Ritual placement of murder victims is not exactly a common practice, but it could be exactly what he’s trying to do here. If she’s right, it could mean we’re dealing with someone who has a deep religious upbringing."
"I think it’s more than that," Gabriella said, her eyes wide. "It’s almost like he’s somehow revering these women. I get the impression he may see their deaths as some sort of a sacrifice."
"I think she’s right," Jake said. "I think that’s exactly what he is trying to do with the way he places them. He sees them as having been sacrificed for the sake of the safety of his original target. The ritual is a sign of respect and honor for what they have given him."
Gabriella was nodding. "Exactly," she said. “That’s what I was trying to say.”
"A good observation,” Pete said, “and it makes sense."
Gabriella looked at him. “Thanks, Pete,” she said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, though.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Pete said. “As Jake said, you are making a lot of sense.”
"Assuming you guys are right," Lewis said, trying to get everyone back on track, "is there anything we can infer about whoever it is this guy really wants to get hold of? Who’s his real target? Anybody got any ideas?"
"Obviously, we don’t know anything about her," Pete said. "The only thing we could even speculate about that might concern her is that she undoubtedly has some kind of depression problem. That’s the only connection between these victims, so it’s probably what connects them in his mind to the real object of his desire."
"That makes an awfully big potential victim pool," Jason muttered. “I don’t know how we could narrow it down any, though.”
"What we’re hoping is that we’ll be able to come up with some ideas after we talk to friends and families tomorrow," Chance said. “We know that you’ve already talked with them, but maybe having some fresh ears listening will let us pick up something new that might help.”
"We’ve been talking to them all along," Lewis said. "I can show you the files from our interviews with them, if you want."
"We'll take a look at them, but we'd still prefer to conduct our own interviews," Pete said.
They al
l continued to talk about the case and the crime scenes for the next couple of hours, bouncing ideas around but not really coming up with anything new that seemed helpful. There really wasn’t a lot more they could do that day, so they finally gave it up about five thirty and promised to get an early start the next morning. It was likely that the only hope they had of locating the killer was to try to identify the mysterious woman he wanted and figure out just how she was connected to him.
They left the command center and made their way down the hall toward the exit. The plan was to meet up at their own office the following morning and get an early start. They decided that Pete and Chance would interview Juliana Willets' friends and family, and later, Chance and Gabriella would head up the interview with Adrienne Moore's family, while Jake and Tina would go to visit Zoe Castellanos' friends.
As they were talking, they saw the two detectives make their way toward the exit of the substation. "Well, they were certainly interesting," Carol said at last.
"I get the impression they don’t care much for the idea of having private investigators helping out," Chance said. Everyone noticed that he was grinning when he said it. Chance’s disdain for conventional law enforcement was well known.
They made their way out to their cars and climbed in. They had all driven over in two cars, so they had to go back to the office to pick up their own vehicles. Jake had ridden over with Chance, Pete and Gabriella, who looked back at him in the rear view mirror.
"Hey, Jake," Chance said. “Everything okay?”
“What?” Jake asked, appearing to be lost in thought.
"You've been pretty quiet for a while. What's happening inside that brainy head of yours?"
"Nothing," he said. “I'm just thinking over everything we talked about in there.” He fell quiet again, but there was something in his eyes that said he was trying to figure out an important detail.
When they got back to the office, Pete, Chance and Carol went inside to talk about the business end of the case, while Tina, Jake and Gabriella got into their own cars and headed for home. Chance kissed Gabriella and said he’d see her at home a little later, and she looked at him for a moment before she got into her minivan and drove away.