“This is everything that I held on to regarding the En Passant Killer,” Wyatt Sr. said, climbing down the ladder and clearing some space on his work bench. He opened the box and started taking out several pictures of crime scenes, reports, and maps of where the killings took place.
“These are pretty graphic,” Wyatt Sr. pointed at the pictures beneath the reports.
Ness pulled a face when she started looking at them. “What can you tell me about him, Gramps?”
“There are two types of serial killers in the world, Ness. The first is the serial killer that identifies with certain methods of killing and targets specific sorts of victims. Many of those types of killing are normally sexually driven. Those types of serial killers kill certain types of victims normally because the victim reminds them of a particular person. Ted Bundy liked attractive women in their late teens and early twenties. Jeffrey Dahmer targeted younger boys, and John Wayne Gacy targeted young men. They had specific victims that they found attractive.”
Ness grimaced. “What about the second type of serial killer?”
“The second type is actually far worse,” Wyatt Sr. grabbed a stool and sat down, and Ness did the same. “The second type of serial killer is attracted to the act and the violence of killing. It doesn’t matter who or what they kill, as long as they let their deranged and violent personas set loose. En Passant is one of those killers,” Wyatt Sr. said as he picked up a few pictures and handed them to Ness. “He was known as a family annihilator.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Ness said.
“It’s pretty horrific. Family annihilators target entire families and kill them regardless of their age, race, gender, religious affiliations, or income. Because of his changing victimology and killing styles, it would have been practically impossible to know if he was responsible for certain crimes, if it wasn't for his calling card.”
“Which was?”
“He would leave a chess pawn at each of his victims . . . well, all except one.” Ness frowned as she wondered about that statement.
“En Passant would leave a more powerful piece like a knight or a bishop at one of the other victims. These victims would always be in their late teens or leaning toward early adulthood, but no one could ever figure out why he would leave pawns at all of the other victims and then one powerful piece. The symbolism of it never made sense.”
“But you’ve thought of something, haven’t you, Gramps?” Ness looked at him carefully.
“It’s not something I could ever prove or substantiate, but I believe that En Passant would befriend the person that he left the more powerful piece at. Perhaps he would train them in killing or just develop them into beings that would be more challenging to kill.”
“Why would he do something like that?”Ness asked.
“Well, if he is a good chess player, then it might explain a lot. Experienced chess players get bored if they play against opponents that aren’t challenging. If En Passant is as good as I think he is, then that same mentality may have overflowed into the way that he kills. Maybe he just likes a challenging opponent. The only reason I started this theory was because the more ‘powerful’ victims would always be the last to die of the family members. It’s like En Passant would taunt them by killing the people that they care about.”
Ness gulped drily. Oh shit . . . “Why did they call him En Passant?” Ness finally asked.
“Do you know the rule in chess?” Wyatt Sr. asked.
“I've heard of it, but I’m not exactly sure how it works. I know a few basic openings, but there are still some rules that are foreign to me,” Ness admitted.
“Well, you know how pawns can take pieces that are diagonally in front of them. Well if a pawn is pushed up to a line where an opponent can push double past the pawn, it may seem like the pawn is moving past the square that it can be taken on; however, the En Passant rule allows a player to still move their pawn diagonally and take the pawn that has moved two squares.”
Ness nodded.
“En Passant is a French term which directly translated means ‘in passing’ and because this killer managed to escape the police after so many close encounters, he was branded the ‘in passing’ or En Passant Killer. He would even go so far to call the police when one of his victims was still alive and would escape right before the police arrived on the scene—talk about a sick and twisted bastard, right?”
Ness remained quiet as she processed all of this new information: “Gramps, I have one more question that I need you to answer honestly . . .”
“Alright.”
“How did Gran die?”
“What’s going on, Ness?” Wyatt Sr. suddenly looked concerned.
“Just answer me, please. Did she die from heart failure?” Ness asked.
Wyatt Sr. stood up from his stool and started pacing in the small cabin. He rubbed his forehead and wiped his face several times, “No, Ness. She didn’t die from heart failure. That’s just something I told everyone.”
“What happened?”
“Your gran was very ill, and she was in hospital for several days. I was working late one of the evenings, and I got a phone call on my cell. When I answered it, the person on the other side told me that he would kill her if I didn’t drop the En Passant case.”
“And then?” Ness pressed.
