Dead by Midnight - Beverly Barton [93]
“May I ask if Powell’s will be doing an independent investigation?” Michelle Allen asked.
“Yes, we will,” Griff replied. “Mitch Trahern will be heading that investigation.” Griff waited for more questions and when no one else spoke, he continued. “Now, to the business at hand. The Midnight Killer case.” He reached to his right and removed the top folder from a stack of thin binders piled in a neat bundle on the table. “Pass these around and once everyone has a copy, take a few minutes to look over the information.”
“These folders contain reports from the six agents working in the field on this case,” Nic explained. “Shelley Gilbert is not here because she is on bodyguard duty for a potential victim, Lorie Hammonds. But she filed her report this morning. Derek has put together a rough preliminary profile of the killer, and Maleah has condensed the interviews they’ve had with possible suspects.”
Derek explained, “Once I’ve gone over your reports, I will reassess the profile if there is any information that I believe changes my opinion.”
“The report I submitted includes information about our interviews with four men we thought could possibly be involved in the murders,” Maleah told them. “We have three other names on our list and hope to finish up with those interviews this week.”
The agents passed around the binders of info and each took the allotted time to skim the reports.
“As you see, there is another report included, one put together by Powell’s research team using certain information y’all submitted along with computer and legwork research,” Griff said.
Maleah hurried through the report from Holt Keinan on the Hilary Chambless murder and Michelle and Ben’s report on Dean Wilson’s murder, but she took time to thoroughly go over Derek’s profile. Even though they were partnered on this case, he hadn’t discussed his profile with her and despite being curious, she had not asked him about it.
Midnight Killer’s MO: Victims have all been former actors who starred in porno movies. Each victim had a part in the movie Midnight Masquerade. Three of the four victims received two or more threatening letters that warned them they were going to die. (It is assumed that the first victim also received similar letters, but there is no proof that he did.) Each murder occurred sometime around midnight. Each victim was shot several times, with one final fatal shot to the head.
Midnight Killer Signature: This killer’s “calling card”—he places a fancy mask (possibly the one from the porno movie in which the victim starred) on the victim postmortem.
The Midnight Killer shows traits of the organized serial killer, which means he is probably highly intelligent, socially and sexually competent, can be charming, is geographically and/or occupationally mobile, follows media coverage of his crimes, and was probably harshly disciplined or abused as a child.
Of the four distinct serial killer types, the Midnight Killer would fall under the Missionary-Oriented Motive type. He displays no psychosis to the outside world, but on the inside, he has an overwhelming need to rid the world of what he considers immoral or unworthy people.
To our knowledge, our unidentified suspect began killing in January and to date has killed four people. His need to kill has probably been fueled by certain fantasies that he’s had and that have been escalating up for quite a while.
Maleah paused to consider the implications of what she had just read. She agreed completely with Derek’s professional assessment of their UNSUB.
Hurriedly, she raced through the remainder of his report, which listed each of the four men they had recently interviewed.
Travis Dillard: Remains on our suspects list. Fits the organized killer profile to some degree. Has the intelligence to plot the murders and the financial ability to hire a professional killer.
Duane Hines: Removed from suspects list. Does not