Death on Pilot Hill

and forensic crime investigation. . Don’t forget those advances Chief Inspector.”

“Forensics are important and sometimes the only thing to go on. . but nothing beats good profiling and interrogation techniques. Too bad the Academy believes all that junk about hiring psychologists and psychiatrists as profilers when the cop on the beat or the detective on the case should be the profiler. Of course I can see the love affair with profilers. . they are very useful in making excellent American movies and television series.”

Wangelin chortled. “So what happened with Eliassen and the serial killer?”

“Anton Ronning would not break down and confess. . despite a lot of psychological pressure put on him during the nine days. But Eliassen broke him by the end of day nine. He does this by questioning and talking to Ronning every day at the little local jailhouse. . until Ronning breaks down. Eliassen makes the pedophile killer realize that by confessing he has a chance to avoid the death penalty overseas in death penalty countries where he raped and killed children. The killer also sees that he can stay in Norway and probably not get extradited if he’s deemed insane. That way he can spend the rest of his life explaining his story to psychiatrists who might eventually cure and release him to enjoy his life and wife and adult children and grandchildren.”

“Chief Inspector. It’s always a shock to me how even the most hardened criminals at one point or another in their life of crime always expect or demand or beg for mercy.”

“Nine-nine percent always ask for the mercy and compassion they refused their victims. One my colleagues in America. . Alec Mikesell the Chief Homicide Detective in Salt Lake City Utah. . once shared with me this bit of wisdom:

“‘Justice must always be satisfied and yet mercy is needed to balance the scales because sometimes justice blindly delivered is an injustice by itself.’

“That’s pretty good. . So what exactly made the Smiley Face Killer confess?”

“Eliassen knows that his suspect is a physical coward and terrified of winding up in any prison here or overseas with inmates who might not be as tolerant as many judges are about child molesters or child rapists or child killers. Ronning fears the rape and the torture and the death that he so freely imparted.”

“Typical.”

“Anton Ronning finally confesses when Inspector Eliassen offers him a chance to explain himself and therefore perhaps avoid prison here and the death penalty overseas if Ronning can show that he’s sick enough and in need of psychiatric treatment.

“Eliassen tells Ronning that a full confession with all the grisly details of all his crimes will help prove Ronning’s insanity. Ronning sees that he might even get out of the all-too-lenient sentence of a maximum twenty- one years in prison that he’d receive here in Norway for all the molestations and rapes and killings.”

“Ja. I can see his motivation in confessing.”

“Of course the ultimate motivation is that the Smiley Face Killer knows for sure that he will get the traditional Russian method of execution with a Makarov pistol shot behind the right ear if he’s ever extradited to any of the Russian Republics where he committed dozens of crimes. Anton Ronning confesses that he is the serial killer but still does not offer details.

“The weekend comes and when it’s time on Monday to provide the details Ronning instead gets a lawyer and tries to limit his confession to molesting children while he worked as a tax collector for a few years as a young man. Of course that’s long before he started killing.”

“Again. . that’s typical. . offering a partial confession to throw off the investigator.”

“Well a partial confession won’t do for Eliassen. . so he shows Ronning how he’s caught Ronning in all these lies during the interrogation. Eliassen tells Ronning that he now knows the exact details of Ronning’s work-and- travel schedules and how these match up perfectly with all of the times and places of the horrible crimes. Eliassen shows Ronning how all of these facts and circumstances will be enough to convict him in any country with the death penalty.

“Eliassen reminds Ronning about the knives and ropes that Eliassen found in Ronning’s briefcase. . and he also reminds Ronning about the numerous eyewitnesses who saw Ronning at the crime scenes trolling for victims.

“For example, one woman in the United States. . in Miami Florida even took a picture of Ronning at the beach where he was trolling for children. . of course two boys were later found dead near his hotel. Ronning’s stupid lawyer says they’ll go to trial and the idiot leaves the room. Eliassen decides to again toss Ronning a lifesaver by making the offhand comment, ‘It’s too bad you want to do it this way when you could’ve gotten off with insanity.’”

“Does it work?”

“Like a charm. It works perfectly well because Inspector Eliassen knows the killer’s mind. . and in Ronning’s mind Ronning knows that he’s doing totally insane and repulsive crimes and yet he’s using his sanity and logic to prevent capture by leading a so-called normal life with his wife and children and grandchildren. .

“You see. . Ronning used his sanity to avoid capture by never leaving evidence at the crime scenes. . and he used his sanity to evade the nationwide manhunt by not killing at all for long periods of time. . or by killing in distant locations when he has to do that to throw off investigators.

“So. . Inspector Eliassen gets Ronning to use the sane part of his mind to logically chose the insane part of himself to avoid going to prison and getting extradited. . basically Ronning’s again been offered the chance to get off scot-free by having psychiatrists treat him for a few years and later declare him sane.”

“That’s awful Chief Inspector.”

“Ja. . the ugly truth is that it’s a great deal for the killer. . no? After all. . if some shrink could ever come up with a treatment to cure Ronning from his insane compulsions then it’s all real good for the killer. He’s finally free of his insane half. And if they can’t treat him then he gets a second proverbial bite at the apple when he’s released after his maximum twenty-one-year sentence here in Norway.”

“Uuughh!”

“That’s the way of the world unfortunately.”

“So what happens to the Smiley Face Killer?”

“Anton Ronning breaks down completely and confesses. Inspector Eliassen even gets him talking about his childhood. . Ronning breaks down in tears. . literally trembling and shaking when he talks about the horrible childhood he had with a mother and grandmother who beat him mercilessly. The two women starved him for days while he was locked up in a small dark closet. He also talks about how he had been molested and raped as a child by his mother’s boyfriend. The confession lasts almost two weeks.”

“Wow! That’s something else.”

“Do you see Constable Wangelin?. . You must get inside their heads. You must find their passions and fears. . find out their true thoughts however irrational or illogical or disgusting. . You must see the world from their point-of-view.”

“How will this Smiley Face Killer help us?”

“A craftsman always recognizes similar handiwork. Ronning will tell us if a stranger took Karl Haugen. Ronning knows all about taking little boys.”

“What an animal.”

Sohlberg glanced at Constable Wangelin. She shook her head in disgust.

“Ja Constable Wangelin. You are right. Ronning was. . is an animal. . a predator. . By the early seventies Anton Ronning had already killed at least twelve children here in Norway and Sweden and many many more in Germany and Russia and the United States. And Hungary. Bulgaria. Spain. Portugal. Greece.

“During a two-week summer vacation he killed three boys in Iceland alone and four in Greenland. He was a master at luring and taking the children without anyone seeing him in broad daylight. . much like Chikatilo in Russia. I’ve always suspected that Anton Ronning killed many more innocents in Canada and the U.S.A.”

“What was his M.O.?”

“He’d lure them with a story about him or his pet being lost. He’d molest them and then kill them. . all under twenty minutes. . because he didn’t want them to live with the nightmare of the molestation. . the same nightmare that had haunted and tortured him since he was molested as a six-year-old. Or as he told me. . ‘I needed to break the chain’. . and he did. Whenever possible he used a heavy gold chain to strangle them. He then left a Smiley Face painted in lipstick or red crayon or red ink marker on their bodies.”

“Smiley Face. . what’s that?”