Isn't it possible he's simply deranged? That he's reacting to something he experienced in the trenches?'
Weiss shook his head. 'We must take that into account, certainly. But the seed of these crimes was planted much earlier in life. In childhood. In infancy, perhaps.'
'Can you be sure of that?' Madden was sceptical.
'Sure?' The doctor lifted his shoulders in an eloquent gesture. 'In my profession one can seldom be sure of anything. There's a saying Freud is fond of quoting: 'The soul of man is a far country, impossible to explore.' But with regard to human sexuality, certain facts are now, surely, beyond dispute. For one, it is established very early in childhood. For another, any damage done then is carried into adult life and magnified. About this there can be no doubt.'
Madden was paying close attention. 'But if he was damaged in childhood, as you suggest, wouldn't he have shown signs of it before now? If we accept he went through the war, he must be in his late twenties, at the very least.'
'This is something that is bothering me,' Dr Weiss admitted wryly. 'Have you checked police records before the war as well as since?'
'Yes, there's nothing of this kind on file.'
'Then we must go deeper into speculation.' The doctor shifted in his chair. He slipped a gold watch out of his fob pocket and began to swing it to and fro like a pendulum in front of him. His brow was knitted in a frown. 'Let us suppose this man conforms to a type familiar to psychiatry. Early in his life he would have shown symptoms of sexual disorientation — the infliction of pain on animals, dogs and cats, is one of the most common. With such children the first full sexual experience, I mean orgasm, is often associated with a blood ritual already developed and establishes a pattern difficult to break. We may imagine he underwent some such experience at the start of adolescence.
But since he left no trace of himself as a young man, either his sexual desires were very small or he possessed an exceptional degree of willpower and was able to suppress them. Given the ferocity of his present actions, I would tend to discount the first.
'So what are we faced with?' Dr Weiss pondered his own question. 'A man of unusual self-control who has suddenly cast off his shackles and revealed his true sexual identity. For this to have occurred he is most likely to have undergone an experience — what we in our profession term a trauma — of a quite shattering kind. And now we see a very definite connection to his time in uniform. When it comes to injuries wrought to the human psyche, there is no need to look further than the experience of the common soldier in the trenches.'
Weiss paused. His sympathetic glance rested on the inspector. 'I speak only as an analyst,' he said gently.
'My knowledge of this is second-hand — it comes from the many patients I treat in Vienna. Yours, I suspect, is more immediate and more personal.'
Madden made no reply at first. Then he responded with a brief nod.
'So! Having established that, we can at least form a theory as to why the man you seek has begun — begun now — to commit these crimes. A theory, mind you!'
Dr Weiss raised a warning finger. 'But if we accept it, we can see a possible line of inquiry emerging. What you have told me about his behaviour suggests that the link with his wartime service is more than merely causal.'
'I'm sorry, I don't…'
'The killing of these two women derives from some experience in childhood — or so I believe.' The doctor's features were screwed into a deep frown. 'But the details overlying it — the dugout, the gas mask, the furious attack and bayoneting of the others — these seem like a refinement of the original action. An addition to it even.'
'An addition?' Madden was alert at the word. 'You're saying he might have committed a murder of this kind during the war?'
'And is now seeking to perfect the act. Yes, that is a possibility.' Dr Weiss nodded vigorously.
'While he was in the trenches?'
'Oh, no!' Weiss shook his head with equal urgency.
'The killing, if it took place, would have been quite separate from the general carnage. The woman is crucial to the act.'
'But while he was a soldier? Behind the lines, perhaps?' Madden felt a spark of excitement. 'We could ask the War Office. It would be in the provost marshal's records.'
'Only if the military authorities investigated it,' Dr Weiss cautioned. 'And only if it actually occurred.
Remember, Inspector, this is all supposition.'
Madden smiled grimly. 'To a policeman it sounds more like a lead.'
Weiss acknowledged the remark with a lift of his head. He swallowed what remained of his drink.
When his eyes met Madden's again his mood had darkened. 'I find myself in an unusual position, Inspector.'
'Why is that?'
'I have to hope that everything I have said to you is wrong. That this man is not as I imagine him to be.'
'But if he is?'
'Then you should be prepared for the worst. I judge him to be a psychopath, an extreme case. One who has lost touch with reality. He does not see his victims as human beings, but as objects of gratification. Be sure, however, he is not killing at random. Those women meant something to him. Those particular women.
Otherwise he would not have taken such pains to prepare himself, particularly in the case of Melling Lodge. One must assume he saw them earlier, either in their homes or in the neighbourhood, and was struck by some aspect of their appearance. Whatever it was, it brought him back.'
Dr Weiss paused. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts.
'I can offer you only general pointers,' he went on.
'By all means consider them, but don't confuse what I say with established fact. It is likely he lives in a fantasy, and this will make it difficult to predict his actions. Take his return to Highfield, for example. A foolish decision, on the face of it. But in his own world the reasons would have seemed compelling.
Perhaps he wanted a memento of Mrs Fletcher — a piece of her jewellery. A trophy, if you will. It's not unknown in this sort of case.' He looked hard at the inspector. 'I don't say that was the reason, mind you. I seek only to indicate the problem you face in trying to understand his behaviour.'
Madden was struck by the doctor's sombre expression.
'Perhaps you recall my remarks the other evening regarding the sexual instinct. Here is a man in whom it has been crushed, almost extinguished, for years.
This is the river of darkness I spoke of. Now that it has broken free, nothing will check it. Shame, disgust, morality — these are the normal barriers to perversions and acts of sexual desperation. But against the kind of force I see acting through this man they are helpless.
He is driven by compulsion.'
'You're saying he won't stop killing?' Madden nodded.
'We've been afraid of that.'
'No, I'm saying something different.' Weiss shook his head sadly. 'I'm saying he can't stop.'
8
'How could you do it, John? Have you taken leave of your senses? Do you know what will happen if this gets out?' The chief inspector's tone was anguished.
He paced up and down in front of Madden's desk. The door to the adjoining office was firmly shut. 'If Sampson gets even a sniff of this he'll go straight to the newspapers. My God — I can see the headline now!
'Yard Calls In Hun!''
'Dr Weiss is an Austrian, sir.'
'I doubt the chief superintendent will appreciate the distinction. I can assure you the newspapers
