Page 36 of Jagged

"How can it be a female perp with all of this? Have you known a female serial to behave this way?" asked the gentle, seemingly unmoved tone of Bryant who presented her map data prior to Ainsley.

"Yeah," answered Sali. "But the motives and means are different than men."

"How so?" I asked, when calmness seemed to wrap around Sali as she shared the information. She suddenly embodied the spirit of a teacher or a lecturer, and her off-the-wall nature appeared to tame itself.

"Males tend to kill for sexual pleasure and control. It's rare for women to feel the same compulsion. Females tend to be more money-focused. Most common motives are financial gain, revenge, or sometimes hedonistic pursuits such as thrills or sex. Very few kill out of lust or sexual deviance. Women tend to target people who are close to them. Spouses, children." She counted off on her fingers while she spoke. "Poisoning is a common means like asphyxiation or something quieter. Rarely are they sexually deviant or this level of violence."

"But this kind of fits in though. If the perp is female, it might not be sexual deviance per say, but the motives could be revenge or thrill-seeking. Or something more. Even Eileen Wuornos, who shot her victims point-blank, had a motive underscored by trauma," I said, leaning forward in my chair when the conversation grew more intriguing. "What if that's similar here?"

"A basis in trauma…" Sali repeated, thoughtfully. "We don't yet know why we have such a binary division between male and female perps, but one day we might."

"There was an old book that divided female serials into supposed seven archetypes." Maggie joined Sali's lecture, and together they commanded the attention of the room. "The first and most known is the Black Widow, who kills people close to her, and the Angel of Death that often kills hospital or nursing home victims. The Sexual Predator is the rarest of all for females."

"The Revenge Seekers, the Profit or Crime Killers, the Team Killers, and the Questionable Sanity Killers are the rest. There's also the division of works alone vs. works with others," added Sali.

Maggie continued as they worked in tandem, "Act alone are the Black Widows, Angels of Death, Sexual Predators, Revenge Seekers, and Profit or Crime Killers. Act with others are obviously the Team Killers and the Question of Sanity Killers. A lot of history's unsolved murders tend to belong to females, too, but it's hard to prove."

"Wuornos was the only known sexual predator studied in our times," Sali ended the lecture by stating.

"You said that's rare for a sexual deviant or sexual predator type serial to surface…" I began, glancing around the faces in the room as they watched me. "What if that's why this case was profiled wrong? Not only did they miss the female angle but the rare type, too?"

"Sexual predator or deviance rooted in trauma. Is that your assertion, Roth?" Sali's narrowed gaze bore into me as if daring me to disagree.

"Um…yeah." I glanced from her to Maggie whose mouth twitched with a threatened smile.

Sali clapped her hands once. "Cool. Let's play it like that. Bryant, do me a solid and rerun your parameters for victims of sex crimes or violent crimes of this nature. Just the victims. Go back maybe forty years if you can, assuming our perp would be somewhere in her mid-twenties to mid-forties at this point. Search for victims. Let's play the trauma angle. Living and dead."

Rosie saluted Sali then looked to Walsh.

"Don't look at me. I've lost all control of this situation," he said through a grumble. "Go for it."

Rosie's sweet face turned skeptical, but she stood anyway and picked up her tablet. "On it."

"Car," Sali called and turned to Donovan. "Can you get Bryant access to Interpol and CODIS?"

"We gave Wright and Monson access to CODIS. Interpol I can work on," she said, her stone-cold face never changing. "Let's get Wright to look at those genealogical connections a little closer. Same angle, broader scale victims this time. We can cross reference Bryant's work and hers from the different angle."

Sali and Maggie both looked at me and I started.

"You want me to do that?" I tripped over my words and they both nodded.

"Yup," they said.

"Okay."

"Guerra," summoned Sali, making Zay jump. "You're with us."

"Where we going?" He rose with them when Sali waved for him to follow.

"To see a lady about some dogs."

"Dogs?" He followed her at a hurried pace as the group of us disbanded for tasks.

I lingered behind, leaving only the shared space with Donovan.

"You look shocked," she said, swaying side to side in her chair.

"Slightly. Things feel like they go from stagnant to warp speed."

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