Bleeding Out

Clay paused and asked, 'Are you following my train of thought?'

Frank summed up: 'A physically indistinct person can indicate an emotionally indistinct person which may indicate a lack of confidence.'

'Exactly.'

'Which,' she continued, 'supports his blitz style of attack. He doesn't have the confidence or charisma for a direct confrontation.'

'Yes.'

Clay looked slightly disappointed that Frank had already reached that step. He was a methodical man and liked laying theories out in baby steps.

'I think this might be one of your greatest insights into his character. If we agree your fellow has a lack of confidence, we can make a number of generalizations about him.'

Clay put down the pen and started counting on his fingers again. He listed things Frank had already considered, such as low income and average intelligence. Probably no higher education. If he worked, Clay suspected, it would be at menial jobs, and probably alone or with few others around him. Clay didn't think he'd have good social skills, and partly because of this, he'd be single, though he might have a girlfriend. He suspected that any mutual sexual encounters would probably not be satisfactory for either partner, more discouraging than fulfilling.

Neatly aligning the victims photographs, Clay scanned them through the lower half of his bifocals. Frank was taping their conversation, but she glanced up from the notes she was scribbling as he asked, 'Has anything I've said meshed with your calculations?'

'A lot. It's hard to slip him into a specific category—organized/ disorganized, nonsocial/asocial—because his characteristics overlap. But I agree with your assessment of his personality. It fits well with his basic MO.'

'Did you submit a report to the FBI?'

'It's not back yet. I know an agent there who's going to work it up their list, but it'll still take a couple of weeks.'

'Do we have that long?'

'Hey, you're the doctor.'

Clay smiled, then looked perplexed as he picked up Nichols' picture.

'I wouldn't think she fit in here.'

Frank explained why she thought Nichols had been done by the same suspect and asked Clay what he made of the preference for clothed victims.

'That's an interesting aspect.' Clay swiveled his profile to Frank, furiously working the pen in his hand. 'Why would you keep clothes on an assault victim?'

'Maybe he's embarrassed,' Frank offered. 'Doesn't like women. Maybe he's afraid of them, maybe they're dirty. A clothes fetish?'

A smile tweaked Clay's lips. He was in his element and loving it.

'First of all, they're not women, only girls. And to me, why he's assaulting the girls isn't as telling as how he's doing it. Do you ever have dreams that you're naked?'

Caught off-guard, Frank chuckled self-consciously.

'Sometimes,' she admitted.

'And how do you feel?'

Frank had to think for a moment. 'Like I need to get some clothes on.'

'Why?'

She'd worked with Clay enough to know he was going somewhere with this, so she humored him.

'I don't want anybody to see me.'

'What would happen if somebody saw you?'

'It'd be embarrassing.'

'So if someone took your clothes off how would you feel?'

'Pretty pissed,' she responded quickly, but knew from Clay's penetrating gaze that he wanted more. She felt sympathy for his patients.

'I'd be...' Frank ran a list of adjectives through her head and settled for '...vulnerable.'

The doctor nodded happily.

'It would be very demoralizing, and it would place your attacker in a position of power. He'd have the advantage and be superior to you.'

'Which I would think this guy would like to do to his victims.'

'But he's not, is he? Think about it. Taking someone's clothes off is a highly personal act. Whether it's consensual or not, it's a very profound intimacy.'

Clay sat back, waiting for Frank to make the leap.

'So he doesn't want that.'

He nodded, encouraging her on to the next step. He could see she was struggling.

'Okay, this...detachment from his victims is more important to him than making them feel vulnerable.'

'Right.'

'Why? I don't get that. I would think he'd want to impress them with his power.'

'How big did you say our suspect is?'

'Probably around six feet, maybe over, weighs maybe around two hundred pounds.'

'Alright. And how much did his heaviest victim weigh?'

Frank shrugged. Agoura was around one hundred twenty pounds.

'And how tall?'

'About 5'4'.'

'So he's already got a considerable size advantage over these girls. If we assume he's taken them all by surprise, he has that advantage as well, and he maintains that advantage by choking them, rendering them even more helpless. These victims are very nonthreatening. He has them completely at his mercy and he knows it.'

'So why doesn't he take it a step further?'

Clay leaned across the desk at Frank. In his enthusiasm his voice became louder and he gestured with open palms. Frank sat back, intrigued.

'He doesn't need to. What's critical to him is to assault these girls. He's very physical. He's not looking at them, he's not talking to them except to keep them from giving him away, he's not touching them. What does that tell you?'

Frank pushed her lips together and draped an arm around her chair, aware of Clay's scrutiny.

'Well,' she finally answered, 'I'd guess our boy doesn't want to make any emotional connection with his victims. He just wants to physically dominate them. What I wonder, though, is what that lack of connection means—I mean homicide is a very emotional business.'

Clay nodded, adding, 'For your average murderer. This guy you are dealing with has bounced far out of the norm. Serial offenders, the good ones, can only do this because they are so unable to relate to people. They don't have what we call normal emotional connections. What your offender is doing to his victims is highly satisfying for him. Through his physical actions he's achieving some kind of an emotional release. Because he's not engaging his victims at all, I'd be inclined to say he's reliving something that's happened to him, something intensely personal and private. Only now he's on the giving instead of the receiving end, and that's where his satisfaction comes from. Now he is indisputably in control.'

Clay held up pictures of Agoura and Peterson, going on to explain the rage evident in the assaults. He suggested that pent-up rage might have come from the suspect's own abuse.

Frank puzzled, 'Then why not assault boys if he's trying to relive it, or choose victims more closely resembling his attacker?'

'Okay,' Clay said patiently. 'One of the things we know about this man is that he prefers teenage girls. For some reason, at some point in time he became fixated on them. Yet this fixation is not personal. Look at the variety of victims he's selected. White, black, Hispanic, blonde, brunette, thin, plump. He's all over the place. I think his lack of focus indicates more concern for an abstract image than a real one. Girls this age represent some thing to him rather than some one. What I suspect drives him is visions of himself with so much power. The fantasy of him abusing these girls is far