be signs of schizophrenia here, the Wolfman's dark side operating only at certain times.'
She was about to rush on but already Rebus needed time to catch up. He interrupted. `You're saying most of the time the Wolfman may seem as normal as you or me?'
She nodded briskly. `Yes, exactly. In fact, I'm saying that between times the Wolfman doesn't just seem as normal as anyone else, he is as normal, which is why he's been hard to catch. He doesn't wander around the streets with the word “Wolfman” tattooed across his forehead.'
Rebus nodded slowly. He realised that by seeming to concentrate on her words, he had an excuse for staring at her, face, consuming it with eyes more proficient than any cutlery. `Go on,' he said.
She flipped one card over and moved to the next, taking a deep breath. `That the victim is abused after death indicates that the Wolfman feels no need to control his victim. In some serial killers, this element of control is important Killing is the only time when these people feel in any kind of control of their lives. This isn't the case with the Wolfman. The murder itself is relatively quick, occasioning little pain or suffering. Sadism, therefore, is not a feature. Rather, the Wolfman is playing out a scenario upon the corpse.'
Again the rush of words, her energy, her eagerness to share her findings, all swept past Rebus. How could he concentrate when she was so close to him, so close and so beautiful? `What do you mean?'
`It'll become clearer.' She stopped to take a sip of tea. Her food was barely touched, the mound of rice in the bowl beside her hardly dented. In her own way, Rebus realised, she was every bit as nervous as he was, but not for the same reasons. The restaurant, though hectic, might have been empty. This booth was their territory. Rebus took a gulp of the still-scalding tea. Tea! He could kill for a glass of cold white wine.
`I thought it interesting,' she was saying now, `that the pathologist, Dr Cousins, feels the initial attack comes from behind. This makes the attacks non-confrontational and the Wolfman is likely to be like this in his social and working life. There's also the possibility that he cannot look his victims in the eye, out of fear that their fear would destroy his scenario.'
Rebus shook his head. It was time to own up. `You've lost me.'
She seemed surprised. `Simply, he's taking out revenge and to him the victims represent the individual against whom he's taking his revenge. If he confronted them face to face, he'd realise they're not the person he bears the grudge against in the first place.'
Rebus still felt a little bit lost. `Then these women are stand-ins?'
`Substitutes, yes.'
He nodded. This was getting interesting, interesting enough for him to turn his gaze from Lisa Frazer, the better to concentrate on her words. She was still only halfway through her cards.
`So much for the Wolfman,' she said, flipping to the next card. `But the chosen location can also say a lot about the inner life of the attacker, as can age, sex, race and class of the victims. You'll have noticed that they are all women, that they are mostly older women, women approaching middle age, and that three out of four have been white. I'll admit that I can't make much out of these facts as they stand. In fact, it was just the failure of pattern that made me think a little harder about location. You see, just when a pattern looks to be emerging, an element arises that destroys the precision: the killer attacks a much younger woman, or strikes earlier in the evening, or chooses a black victim.'
Or, Rebus was thinking, kills outside the pattern of the full moon.
Lisa continued, `I started to give some consideration to the spatial pattern of the attacks. These can determine where the killer may strike next, or even where he lives.' Rebus raised his eyebrows. `It's true, John, it's been proved in several cases.'
`I don't doubt it. I was raising my eyebrows at that phrase “spatial pattern”.' A phrase he'd heard before, on the loathed management course.
She smiled. `Jargon, yes. There's, a lot of it about. What I mean is the pattern of the murder sites. A canal path, a railway, line, the vicinity of a tube station. Three out of four take place near travel systems, but again the fourth case defeats the pattern. All four take place north of the river. At least there's some evidence of a pattern there. But—and this is my point—the non-emergence of a pattern seems to me in itself a conscious act. The Wolfman is making sure you have as little as possible to go on. This would indicate a high level of psychological maturity.'
`Yes, he's as mature as a hatter all right'
She laughed. `I'm being serious.'
`I know you are.'
`There is one other possibility!
'What's that?'
`The Wolfman knows how not to leave a trail because he is familiar with police work.'
`Familiar with it?'
She nodded. `Especially the way you go about investigating a series of murders.'
`You're saying he's a copper?'
She laughed again, shaking her head. `I'm saying he may, have prior convictions.'
`Yes, well,' he, thought of the file George Flight, had shown him a few hours earlier, `we've checked on over a' hundred ex-offenders already. No luck there.'
`But you can't possibly have talked to every man who has ever been convicted of rape, violent assault or the like.'
`Agreed. But there's something you seem to have overlooked the teeth marks. Those are very palpable clues. If the Wolfman is being so clever, why does he leave us a neat set of bite marks every time?'
She blew on her tea, cooling it. `Maybe,' she said, `the teeth are a—what do you call it—a red herring?'
