by Hadena James
dossiers we give you or look at the pictures?” Gabriel asked me. The others had turned to look at me. I shrugged, I wasn’t going to admit that I mostly looked at the pictures.
“We aren’t sure,” Xavier shook his head at me. “And if you thought about it for more than about three seconds, I’m sure you’d figure that one out on your own.”
I did think about it. I thought about it for more than three seconds. I frowned at him.
“Whatever answer you wanted me to come up with failed to go to seed,” I told him.
“Because of the nature of the body, specifically, the torched genitalia, we don’t know if they are being sexually assaulted. There is no semen present in the uterus, but that doesn’t mean anything other than there was no semen left in the uterus. If he does, he uses a condom,” Xavier looked at me.
I looked back for a second before turning to look at Lucas. In hindsight, I could see that my question was indeed answerable by looking at the situation for a few moments. However, I was a master at getting hung up on small details and overlooking others completely. This meant that at times, I was very good at this and at times I wasn’t.
“I would guess that he doesn’t,” Lucas said after I had stared at him for a minute. “It seems to be more about the suffering than it does sex.”
“Sadist,” I said quietly.
“I don’t think so,” Lucas said. “Sadism implies a sexual component. This is more about control.”
“We’re looking for a man that needs to be in control?” I gave him a look.
“I know, it’s a broad generalization that fits most people, including you,” Lucas answered.
I shrugged and yawned. He was right on both accounts. Although I didn’t consider myself a control freak, there were instances where everyone else would disagree.
“Are we boring you?” Arons asked.
“This part usually does bore me to some extent. I don’t like sitting on my hands waiting for him to take another victim. I like to go in, guns blazing and rescue the damsel in distress,” I answered curtly.
“What exactly do you do, Marshal Cain?” Arons looked at me.
“She provides valuable information in places where we can’t,” Gabriel said the words slowly, as if chewing on them before spitting them out. There was a tone to his voice that told me not to press that issue. Arons was oblivious to the discouraging tone.
“But what exactly? She’s bored by the investigation, doesn’t understand crime scene processing, and doesn’t seem to care about the victims. So, I’ll ask again, what exactly is her role?” Arons pressed forward.
“Marshal Cain gives us all a sounding board. Most of us are intelligent but can’t keep up with each other, we are all specialized. She is not. She can look at a problem with different eyes than us. And she has a unique perspective on serial killers,” Lucas broke in, stopping Gabriel from using his sharp tongue again. “In a world where the serial killer is king and usually has an IQ that puts him over genius level, Ace levels the playing field.”
“That doesn’t answer the question,” Arons huffed.
I stood up and walked to the white board. I pulled down all the pictures, placing the first three victims on top. I looked at Arons. The calm washed over me and I was unwilling to try to pull myself out of it. I wanted him to see just how angry I could be and just how different that anger was from anyone else’s. When I got angry, it was like staring into an abyss, not a tantrum-fueled cartoon.
“When we figure out who he is, I’m going to take point when we breach his lair. I’m going to secure any innocents and hostages while keeping an eye out for our killer. Chances are good that if we get into a physical altercation, I’m going to walk away with a few bumps and bruises, but he’ll need a body bag. If he’s smart, he’ll surrender when I come through the door. Because that’s what I do, I convince serial killers to surrender,” I sat perfectly still after I finished speaking, staring at Arons.
“I love it when you’re angry,” Lucas stood up. “It always gives me ideas. We don’t know how he is taking the ones that would normally resist, Ace suggested he uses some sort of device to keep them from struggling. Zip-cuffs wouldn’t leave a mark.”
“Zip-cuffs break,” I answered.
“True, but most people don’t know how to do it,” Lucas replied.
“I like the idea,” Gabriel said. “And if he is on the inside, he’d have access to all the zip-cuffs he’d want.”
“Even if he isn’t, he would still have access to zip-ties. They can be found anywhere,” Arons finally started talking again.
“Very true,” Gabriel looked at Xavier. “You seem hung up on something.”
“It’s the victims. I’ve been staring at these spots here for a few days now and I think I just figured out what they are from,” Xavier started circling the marks he was talking about.
“All ears,” I chimed.
“I think it’s the hook end of a tanner’s knife. And a tanner’s knife would be sharp enough to do the work,” Xavier answered.
“A tanner’s knife?” Arons asked.
“A tanner’s knife,” Xavier repeated. “It’s a very sharp blade used to separate dermis from the layers of fat under it when taking the hide from an animal. It usually has a weighted handle to keep the tanner from cutting too deep or not deep enough. Once in, it’s stable as it cuts the flesh. It has a small curved tip used to puncture the skin without leaving much of a mark. In this case, I think they are mistakes made by the killer. They don’t appear on any but the first three.”
“Different knife?” Gabriel asked.
“I doubt it. Few things are made specifically for the task of removing flesh. A scalpel would work, but you wouldn’t get the nice thick cuts that you would with a tanner’s blade,” Xavier looked at me.
“Don’t look at me, dead animals creep me out. I know nothing about tanning,” I shrugged.
“Dead people don’t bother you, but dead animals do?” Lucas gave me a look. It spoke volumes. Mostly it said my lack of humanity and compassion had just shown through.
“I didn’t mean it quite like that,” I adjusted my position. “I just meant that the process of butchering animals for food grosses me out. The same with tanning.”
I stopped and sat down. I was just digging myself in deeper. I couldn’t explain why animals bothered me more than people. It had something to do with the makeup of my psyche. Dead people bothered me, but I didn’t eat people and for some reason, my mind made a distinction between the two. I would end up a vegetarian after a visit to a slaughterhouse. I was fine eating after a crime scene.
“Ace’s mental state aside,” Gabriel pressed forward. “There are probably dozens of tanneries in the area. So are we looking for a tanner?”
“The first three, I’d say yes,” Xavier looked at the fourth victim. “After that, I’d say no.”
“How many young men died in that four week period?” Lucas asked.
“If I was in a team and murdered my partner, I’d make sure he wasn’t found,” I said.
Everyone looked at me. I stared only at Lucas. He pinched his face up and frowned at me.
“You think he did something different with the body?” Lucas asked.
“I’m saying that if I was serial killer number two and I wanted complete control, I’d kill serial killer number one and make sure that his body couldn’t be found. I’d chop him up and use him as bear bait or fish bait or something. I’m sure there are tons of disposal methods around here,” I met Lucas’s gaze and held it firm.
“How would you dispose of the body?” Lucas sat down on the table, it gave a slight groan under his weight that he ignored.
“Me? I’d use acid, but if I didn’t have access to such a thing...” I shrugged. “Bears would be hibernating. Most of the lakes would have been frozen over in December. There are carnivorous fish in Alaska and the food levels would be dropping along with the oxygen level
s. I’d go drill a hole, weight the parts and drop them in. That would give me at least three months to make sure that the corpse was unidentifiable. I’d know the area, I’d know which lakes held things like white sturgeon. They’d make short work of it, good chance even the bones would be chewed on to some degree.”
“It’s late and there are extra patrols out. He hasn’t grabbed a woman yet, nothing more we can do tonight. We’ll go back to the hotel and get a good night’s sleep and revisit everything in the morning,” Gabriel stood up. “We’ll be back here at eight, barring something happening during the night.”
I followed everyone out to the SUV. The dashboard clock read that it was just after nine at night as we began the drive back to the hotel. It would be late in Missouri, but I had a feeling I needed a dose of humanity.
Once I was locked inside my room, I dug out my cell phone and dialed Nyleena’s phone number. It rang six times before her sleepy voice came over the line.
“Are you alright?” She asked.
“Define alright?” I said back.
“Where are you?”
“Alaska, it’s a bad one. I did a poor job of faking it tonight.”
“The guys all know,” she was starting to wake up.
“That may be, but there was another person in the room and he didn’t know. Doesn’t know? I’m not even sure how to word it.”
“Are you feeling bad that you let it slip or that you couldn’t connect?”
“Both perhaps.”
“Talk to me Aislinn.”
“I can’t.