‘Wife found bound and drowned, and the husband off with his new mistress? Who knows?’
Harper got down flat and peered at her head wound. It was difficult to tell through the matted hair, but it was a neat little hole. Close range.
‘When do they think they can get her out?’
‘Two boats are on their way. Coroner’s also coming. Couple of hours.’
‘The Capske killer liked to look down on his victim,’ said Harper. ‘Shot him through the forehead from above.’
‘What else you got for me?’ Selinas said.
‘Look for dirt under her fingernails. If it’s boot polish then we might have a match.’
‘What’s your theory?’ Selinas wanted to know.
Harper looked at her hands. It looked like she had the same black dirt under her nails. ‘Someone likes to torture his victims. He likes to draw it out. He goes through some ritual with boot polish. We guess he makes them kneel and clean his boots. There’s writing too. Our guy had the word
‘Marisa Cohen fits most of your killer’s MO,’ said Selinas.
‘Look at her hands,’ said Harper. ‘She’s been tethered. I don’t think it’s to prevent the body floating away. I don’t think he cares about the body once it’s dead. As if it’s meaningless then, like a piece of garbage.’
‘Then why tie her there?’
‘She’s hanging there, isn’t she, with her head just out of the water. He didn’t want her to drown. In fact, he’s tried to prevent it. She’s tried to struggle. Why?’
‘To get away?’
‘Look at the rope marks. She’s tried to pull downwards. That would take her closer to the water.’
‘What for? To escape?’
‘No, I think it was because she wanted to die. She wanted to drown. Because he was keeping her alive for as long as he could.’
‘Sick bastard. Why?’ said Selinas.
‘Because that’s his thing. That’s what excites this maniac.’
The two men let the thought dwell in their minds for a moment.
‘When did you get to the body?’ asked Eddie.
‘We had a team here yesterday afternoon in the area but we didn’t find her until this afternoon.’
‘Why were you searching? Someone call it in?’
‘She called a friend just before she disappeared. The friend missed the call, but she listened to the voicemail and then called the cops. We got another call from some building by the park. They heard screaming.’
‘So what, patrol searched the area?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Then he wanted us to find her. He’s getting even more fearless,’ said Harper. ‘He’s taking risks. He might have taken her out by the park and transported her here. Pretty risky.’
Harper let the thought take him. Marisa was different. She hadn’t been staged to look like something else. Not this time. Maybe the killer was feeling the urge and losing his control. Maybe he was feeling the pressure mounting.
‘I hope you find a slug in her body somewhere.’
‘No doubt,’ said Selinas.
‘Listen, get it to Ballistics, tell them to give me a call.’
‘Will do.’
Harper looked down at the brown-haired woman at their feet. ‘If the bullet and the boot polish match up, then I’m going to ask to take this over. Sorry to butt in like this.’
‘Reckon you might need to,’ said Selinas.
‘I’ll get Lafayette to square it with your squad.’
Harper moved in and sat on the platform by the body. His mood changed. He wanted to reach out, put his hand on her, pull her out of that horrible painful position. Even though she was dead, you still empathized with the body. It still hurt to see it cold and in a position of pain.
Why had the killer gone for Capske and now Marisa Cohen? Were they randomly chosen? What if Abby Goldenberg was linked somehow?
Harper wasn’t sure. Even if Marisa Cohen was also the victim of some hate crime, David Capske hadn’t been. Or, Harper suddenly thought, he hadn’t reported it. The link was Leo Lukanov or someone connected to Lukanov. He called Eddie across.
‘Eddie, see if you can talk to Lucy Steller and any friends of David Capske. Ask about hate crime. Did he ever get targeted?’
‘I’ll get on to it,’ said Eddie.
Harper looked at the hands again. The marks of someone thrashing about for freedom. The water must’ve been so damn cold. How long would a body last? An hour at most.
Harper stood up. He turned to Eddie. ‘He was here for an hour, sitting by the water’s edge as she froze to death. Tell Crime Scene. He might have left something.’
Harper looked down and shone a flashlight into the dark water. ‘Eddie, I don’t think she’s got a blouse on. Tell Selinas to keep a look out.’ Harper leaned out further and tried to peer through the water. The woman’s bra was dark against her white skin. He felt intrusive, like a voyeur, but he leaned in closely. ‘Come on, you bastard, what were you doing? Did you tattoo her too?’
Harper walked along the sea front, trying to locate the position the killer would have watched from. He knew that the killer liked the excitement of getting seen, so he presumed he’d sit somewhere he could see the floating body and the road. Harper moved right to the edge of the platform, out to the last raised post. He knelt and looked. It didn’t take long. This killer wasn’t hiding his mark. There it was, a small, neatly carved 88 on top of the post.
Chapter Forty-Three
Harper sat with Blue Team watching Garcia interrogate Lukanov. ‘It’s not him,’ said Harper. ‘He might be a little cog in this wheel, but he was in here when Marisa Cohen was killed.’
‘How tight is the link?’
‘I followed the body to the morgue. Dr Pense looked it over. Three similarities. The boot polish, the same caliber bullet with a close head-shot, and she had something tattooed on her chest.’
‘What was it?’
‘88.’
‘Shit.’
‘And then something indecipherable.’
‘No idea what it says?’
‘We don’t know yet, but it’s our guy.’
‘So Lukanov is out of the picture.’
‘For now,’ said Harper. ‘Denise is working on this new information. She says that the writing on the corpse is important to him. He does it before they’re dead. It might dehumanize them.’
‘What about Esther? Did she have a number on her?’
‘No, there’s no record of it. I’ve got the autopsy photographs coming across, so we’ll have a look ourselves. Seems that they ignored the overkill once they had evidence linking this mugger to the crime.’
They looked through the two-way. Garcia slapped the table and stood up. A moment later, he appeared in
