Page 34 of The Murder Between Us
“To catch him, we need to get inside his mind,” Cole said. “To do that, we have to dive deep into his crime scenes. That’s what he’s left us. He thinks he’s left nothing, but he’s actually left behind a great deal. We can unpack his paraphilias and his psychology from everything he’s left. We start there until we can tease him out of the shadows.”
“What do you mean by paraphilias?” asked Jacob. Noah had nearly forgotten Jacob was with them.
“A criminal’s paraphilias are his desires and fantasies. They, by definition, are outside the norm of what we’d consider acceptable or legal. If they weren’t outside the boundaries, he’d be able to lead a normal, successful life. Usually, you can see a paraphilia pretty easily. Does the offender target prepubescent victims? Pedophilia. Does the offender desecrate corpses sexually? Necrophilia. What’s he doing here?”
Jacob frowned. “He’s not sexually assaulting the girls, either before or after death.”
“No, he’s not. But he’s still getting enjoyment out of the killings, or he wouldn’t be killing. The killing itself—the moment of his victim’s death—is our guy’s peak. That’s what he’s constantly searching for. Each of the crime scenes he leaves behind is the climax of his paraphilias. He spends all his efforts to get to that moment: when his victim dies by his hands. As soon as he identifies and targets one of his victims, he’s already imagined how she’ll die. Everything from then forward plays out according to the script he’s created. Every step he takes is how he brings that script to life.”
Jacob’s scowl turned dark. He glanced at Noah, then down to his lap, playing with a pen that looked like a twig in his massive hands.
“He’s meticulous,” Noah said. “That’s not obvious from the crime scenes at first glance, but it’s true.”
Cole nodded. “The scenes appear chaotic, especially the most recent two. But he has complete control over each kill site. He knows their lives inside and out. He knows their routines. He knows when to strike. He knows when they will be alone—or he thought he did. And he’s controlled. He doesn’t leave any forensic evidence behind. That takes incredible discipline and focus.”
“There’s also no sign of struggle with the girls,” Noah said. “Complete domination, like you said.”
“He’s in control until he chooses to attack. He surprises them with overwhelming force and violence. The attack itself is short. He wants their death, not their suffering.”
“He stalks his victims. Maybe for months.”
“And he does it unseen. He blends in. He’s nonthreatening. In fact, he might be representative of something people associate with safety. He’s stayed completely under everyone’s radar for years. Who, or what, could do that?”
Noah’s lips thinned.
“During the first investigation, you thought the killer might have law enforcement exposure.”
Jacob’s head whipped up. He stared at Noah, wide-eyed.
“I kept that close to the vest,” Noah said, eyeballing Cole. “I didn’t put that out there for the whole task force—of law enforcement officers—to know.”
“Smart.” Cole smiled. “But we need to think about it again, especially with how the forensic evidence lines up. The absence of forensic evidence is just as important as if we had buckets of DNA and fingerprints. It tells us something about our killer.”
“You really think he’s a cop?” Jacob asked. His voice had gone thin.
“Hemaybe,” Cole said carefully. “For certain, he’s part of the local community. He’s nonthreatening. He appears to be an upstanding citizen. He is someone people would never expect to be a killer. When he’s not committing crimes, he’s someone’s best friend. He’s someone’s trusted right hand. He gains people’s confidence. He’s very, very good at not getting caught. And all of these killings are late at night. He has a day job, or at least a day life. It would be noticed if he wasn’t somewhere during the workweek.”
“He’s not a loner,” Noah said. “He’s got people who care about him. A girlfriend or a wife—”
“Or a boyfriend,” Cole said pointedly.
Noah swallowed.
Jacob’s eyes ping-ponged between Noah and Cole.
“He will look normal. Completely, utterly normal.”
“What causes this?” Noah asked. “What created this monster?”
“There’s always a nexus. Always a moment when the psyche carves off. Splits. Sometimes it’s physical, like when we see evidence of head trauma in convicted offenders from when they were very young. One serial killer came from a stable, loving, boring family, but when he was two years old, he was knocked in the head by a ball and was unconscious for two minutes. That’s all we ever found in his background. He went on to brutally torture and murder over fifty people. That’snotcausation. Head trauma in children doesn’t create murderers or predators. But there are many murderers we’ve caught and convicted who do have this history of childhood physical trauma. In others, there are signs of emotional trauma. Abuse. But again, you can also find the same signs and same challenges in another individual, and they never become an offender. All we can say is that, retrospectively, there is always an index event.”
“What’s his?”
“Rejection,” Jacob rumbled. He stared at the window, at something far beyond the suburban view. “Somewhere, someone hurt him. Some woman, and now he’s punishingallwomen. Making them hurt, like he was hurt.”
Silence filled the conference room. Noah’s pentap tap tapped on his notepad.
“This is more than that, I think,” Cole said slowly. “It’s not just revenge. He enjoys what he’s doing. He enjoys shredding lives and destroying these women. He’s a sadist. He wants their horror. Their final moments become his, and they are filled with pure terror.”
