“Those plastic things he used to tie her to the bed. That and the knife. People don’t usually carry things like that around. He brought them to the apartment, intending to use them.”
Wohl grunted agreement.
“Let me put it this way,” Amy said. “Psychologically, this guy is the opposite of Isaac ‘Fort’ Festung.”
Who the hell is that?
“Fort Festung?” Coughlin asked, visibly surprised. “What’s his connection with this?”
“Bear with me, Uncle Denny,” Amy said.
“Your show, sweetheart,” Coughlin said. “Handle it any way you want.”
“When I was at Martha Pekach’s party, she told me that David was upset because he’d gotten another postcard from Festung. I guess he’s been in my mind since then. He’s another interesting character, psychologically speaking.”
“Harry,” D’Amata said, chuckling, “ ‘interesting character, psychologically speaking’ is doctor talk for miserable slimeball. ”
Wohl chuckled. Amy smiled at D’Amata.
Why do I know that if Inspector Wohl had said that, Amy would have snapped his head off?
“How, Joe, and why did Festung kill that girl?” Amy asked.
“Mary Elizabeth Shattack,” Coughlin furnished.
“He beat her to death,” D’Amata said. “With his fists.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t like her?” Wohl asked, mock serious.
“Screw you, Peter,” Amy said.
“She left him,” D’Amata said. “He couldn’t take that.”
“She was his possession,” Amy said. “And when she misbehaved-announcing she had found someone else- that was unacceptable behavior, and he punished her. Like you whack a dog with a newspaper when he poops on the carpet.”
“Sweetheart,” Coughlin said, “you’re losing me.”
“And then he stuffed her body in a trunk and just left it there,” Wohl said. “Where are you going with this, Amy?”
“I believe the phrase you policemen use is modus operandi,” Amy said. “They’re different here.”
“Explain that to me. I’m a little dense this time of night,” Wohl said.
“Let me have a shot, if I may, Amy,” Washington said. “You are saying that Festung regarded Miss Shattack as something worthless that he could deal with-in this case, discard-in any way that pleased him at the moment. An empty cigarette package, so to speak.”
“Right,” Amy said.
“And the Williamson girl?” Matt asked.
Amy ignored him.
“Which suggests to me that Festung has an enormous ego,” she said.
“Which would also explain the postcards,” Wohl said. “Festung is making the point with his postcards that he can do whatever he wants to do, and there’s nothing we can do about it. ‘We’ being the police, representing society.”
She ignored him too.
“Are you suggesting, Amy,” Washington asked, “that the Williamson girl was in some way important to her killer?”
“I think that as Festung had this pathologically enormous ego, the man who killed the Williamson girl has a pathologically inadequate ego, which he has to buttress. I don’t think he intended to kill her or, possibly, even rape her. What he wanted, what he was driven to do, was humiliate her. He had to prove to himself that she was in his power.”
No one responded.
“Rape, generally speaking,” Amy went on, “is rarely to attain sexual gratification. The satisfaction comes from having the victim in your power, terrifying them, forcing them to do something they really don’t want to do, something that will humiliate them.”
“The sperm on the victim’s face and breasts… ” Wohl said.
“Precisely, Peter,” Amy said. “Breasts he exposed by cutting away her clothing with that enormous knife…”
“… suggesting he masturbated, ejaculating on her face…”
'… for the purpose of humiliation,” Amy finished for him. “I can think of nothing more humiliating for a young woman…”
“Who was not a bimbo,” Olivia said.
“… he believed to be a, quote, nice girl, unquote,” Amy said.
Olivia had a quick mental image of herself tied naked to a bed while some sicko… did that… in her face. She felt a chill.
She picked up her Doctor’s Irish Special and took a deep swallow without knowing she had done so until the whiskey began to warm her body.
She sensed Matt’s eyes on her and glanced at him. This time she thought she saw understanding-maybe even a little sympathy-in his eyes.
“You’re saying this guy is a real sicko,” D’Amata said. “I mean, we know he’s sick to start with, but…”
“This man is driven, Joe,” Amy said. “And from the- what do I say? — practiced manner in which he did this- the plastic ties, the knife, the camera to capture the victim in her humiliation-I would be very surprised if this was his first victim.”
“And you feel certain there will be others?” Washington asked.
“That opens another unpleasant avenue of thought,” Amy said. “His reaction to her death. I don’t think he intended to kill her. But he did. The question then becomes whether the knowledge that he has taken a life is going to frighten him, possibly to the point where he will at least try not to let something like that happen again, or whether killing the Williamson girl gave him greater satisfaction than the previous incidents of humiliation ever gave him. And thus make him want to do it again?”
“Jesus Christ!” Slayberg said.
“So who do we look for, Concerned Citizen?” Wohl asked. “How do we find this guy?”
“I don’t think he knew her,” Amy said. “I mean, I don’t think you’re going to find him by finding a rejected suitor. He may have known about her… as Detective Lassiter said…” She paused and looked and smiled at Olivia. “Sorry, I’ve forgotten your first name.”
“Olivia.”
“As Olivia said, the Williamson girl was not a ‘bimbo.’ Maybe that’s why this man selected her as his next victim. He may be a customer at some bar she went to…”
“Halligan’s Pub,” Matt furnished.
“… or someone at work, at church. I was about to say car wash, grocery store, but I don’t think so. I think this man is intelligent, which would tend to eliminate minimum-wage people. For that matter, he may be from Podunk, South Dakota, just passing through… So, I have no idea where to look for him.”
“Has anyone thought to ask Special Victims if they have jobs like this?” Coughlin asked.
“I did,” Olivia said. “When Sergeant Payne and I were there printing the photographs. No, sir. They have had nothing like this.”
“Accepting for the moment,” Washington said, “the doctor’s premise that this is not the first time this fellow has done something like this, and I think she’s right, and Sex Crimes-”
“Special Victims, Jason,” Wohl interrupted.
“To be sure. Special Victims,” Washington said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Thank you, Inspector, for the correction. The proper terminology is now burned indelibly in my memory. May I proceed?”
“As long as you get the terminology right,” Wohl said, smiling, unabashed. “Correct terminology, as you have so often pointed out to me in the past, is very nearly as important as turning over the stone under the stone.”
Coughlin chuckled. Hollaran, D’Amata, Slayberg, and Matt smiled.
“A serpent’s tooth causes no greater pain than an ungrateful child,” Washington said, solemnly. “Or a once
