'Okay, moving on then,' Underwood said. 'This last killing, Patrick Collins, shortens the time frame between events to a four-day clock. That means he's only off lunar phase by a scant two days, well within a predictable margin of error depending on TOD estimates.' TOD stood for time of death.
Underwood went blithely on. 'The fourth John Doe, the one found at Forest Lawn Drive, appears to have been beaten first, then shot. What this means is, our unsub is closing to a lunar cycle as well as degenerating badly, becoming more violent and increasingly dangerous.'
I needed some air, but I was stuck. As Underwood droned on, my mind started to wander. I had been instructed by Captain Callaway to keep Forrest in the serial case despite my growing suspicion that he might be a copycat. Cal also instructed me to keep this theory to myself. However, if we pulled Forrest out of the Fingertip case, it would shred all this lunar nonsense. But, for reasons of my own, I decided to hold on to my suspicion. . Was that hoarding? Should I start thinking about getting a book agent?
Judd Underwood raised his voice, bringing me back. 'Most serial criminals are underdeveloped personalities who crave authority. Very often we find they have tried to become police officers or often impersonate police and will frequently attempt to insert themselves into the investigation. So look closely at anyone calling in with tips or questions and report them directly to me.'
'I'd like to report Detective Diaz,' Ruben Bola grinned. 'He's an underdeveloped personality; he volunteered us for this case, and when it's a full moon, this Cuban asshole goes into Santeria mode and starts killing chickens in the backseat of our Crown Vic.'
The room broke up, but Underwood wasn't smiling.
'Are these murders in some way amusing to you, Detective?'
'No, sir.' Bola pulled his smile down as Underwood continued.
'Crack wise again in one of my briefings and I'll talk to your supervisor. This unit will not engage in comic nonsense. Is that absolutely clear?'
The room sobered quickly as Underwood gave us his best Murder One stare.
'So, ladies and gentlemen, if we're through making stupid jokes, I'd like to bring this into sharper focus. The murdered men are selected at random. Victims of opportunity. The beating of John Doe Number Four found at Forest Lawn Drive, along with the mutilations, in my opinion, indicates severe sadosexual rage and a disorganized killer.'
I disagreed, but I didn't raise my hand or shoot my mouth off. I just wanted to get out of here.
Underwood continued. 'Since females constitute less than five percent of the known serial murderers and because they are rarely known to mutilate, I'm predicting that our unsub is male.'
Finally, I agreed with something this dirk was saying.
'Further, since the mean age of all serial killers is twenty-five, and because disorganized killers tend to be younger, I'm going to subtract two years. This takes the profile on the unsub's age down to twenty-three. Are we all square on that?'
Nobody said anything, but a few in the room nodded. Again, I showed my maturity and held my silence.
'Generally there is an inverse relationship between the age of a serial killer and the age of the victim,' Underwood pontificated. 'The reason for this is serial murder is generally a desperate act by an unsub who has lost control over his everyday life. He's stressed out, so domination and control are big motives in the crime. Young unsubs are generally more worried about controlling their victims, and often target the old and infirm, people they feel they can dominate. Because of this, I'm lowering the peril's age again, this time to twenty.'
He looked at us. 'This is pretty damn important stuff. Aren't you people going to take notes?' All over the room keyboards started clicking.
'Regarding the matter of modus operandi where the unsub covers the victim's faces, I have a theory on that.' The typing stopped until Underwood went on. 'The unsub covers the eyes because I think our killer believes he is ugly. He might even be disfigured. He's embarrassed of his appearance and doesn't want his victims to stare at him, even in death.'
Another beat right out of Manhunter, and just for the record, that wasn't part of the MO. It was part of the killer's signature-a completely different category.
'So pulling it all together, my preliminary profile says we're looking for a possibly disfigured twentyyear-old white male with sadosexual rage against older males, probably father substitutes.' Underwood looked around the room. 'Questions or comments?' he asked, obviously not expecting any.
'Agent Underwood?' someone asked. I wondered what idiot would prolong this silly meeting by asking this asshole a useless question. Everybody turned around and looked in my direction. Naturally, the idiot was me.
Chapter 15
You're Detective Scully, one of the original primaries on this. Am I right?' Underwood said, glaring.
'Yes, sir.'
He looked down at a roster sheet. 'Where's your partner, Detective Farrell? How come he's not here?'
'My partner's out running down a lead. He'll be along shortly,' I lied.
Underwood looked thoughtful, then agitated, then like he was about to pass gas. 'Well, what is it?' he finally asked impatiently. 'What's your question?'
'I've been on this case for seven weeks and I've given it a lot of thought. I'm not sure I agree that the unsub is a disorganized killer.'
'You're not?' Agent Underwood sneered. 'And this insight, I presume, is a result of your endless study in the field of criminal psychology.' A snooty tone rose out of him like swamp gas fouling an already overheated, sweat filled environment.
'I don't think-'
'Because, Detective Scully, when an unsub kills an older person in a murderous rage, then mutilates and takes fingers off, we're looking at a sadist who is psychologically and pathologically immature, probably just a few years past puberty.'
'I just don't think these are disorganized crime scenes,' I persisted. 'The unsub moves the bodies and dumps them at secondary sites. That indicates a high level of sophistication. The killer seems very knowledgeable about police techniques. This act of dumping is analogous to cleaning up after the murder. He's disguising evidence, even leaving the body in flowing water to eliminate trace evidence. That's pretty smart. I think that constitutes organized, post-offense behavior.'
Underwood just stared. Since all the eyes in the room were on me, I lurched on. 'Further, while there is certainly rage involved with these murders, in my opinion the mutilations are not rage based. He's removing the fingertips so we can't get prints and identify the victims. Since the chest mutilations are postmortem wounds, they don't necessarily indicate rage. I think he's labeling these victims with this. For that reason, I have him classified as organized and older, maybe even thirty or thirty-five. He knows what he's doing and he's been at this for a while. I don't think these homeless men are victims of opportunity as you suggested, but victims of choice. The different geographical locations all over town indicate he's searching for a victim that suits a certain profile. We need to look closely at the victimology. Something about these particular homeless men drew him to them. Maybe something as simple as the signs some were holding saying they were Vietnam vets. I think it's also possible he's a transient who has committed similar murders in other cities.'
'You're aware that there are no similar murders listed in the VICAP computer,' Underwood replied.
VICAP is the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, a computer database. Police departments all over the country were encouraged to enter all ritual-type killings into VICAP so other departments could match up signature murders that occurred in their cities. Serial killers tended to move around, but their signatures rarely changed. The problem with VICAP was, not all police departments went to the trouble of listing their ritual crimes on that database.
'The missing fingertips, the chest symbol, would jump out on a VICAP scan,' Underwood defended.
It was now dead quiet in the room. My remarks had dropped the temperature in here a few thousand degrees. I had only one more thing I wanted to say. Might as well go down swinging.
