Spider - Michael Morley [69]
‘Mass and I have talked quite a bit about this, and we can’t rule out that possibility,’ said Jack. ‘Though to be honest, I’m not sure it matters. Either way, we have a deadly psycho on our hands.’
Massimo raised a hand, ‘Or two deadly psychopaths.’
‘You’re right,’ said Jack, fixing his eyes on Howie on the screen. ‘There are certainly similarities between the BRK’s files and the new Italian case, but we can’t lose track of the fact that there are big differences too.’ Jack turned to Massimo. ‘Okay if I give some bullet points on this?’
Mass nodded his consent, so Jack continued. ‘Victimology looks right for BRK. Cristina was a slim woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. As we know, he likes long, dark hair. He never goes for short-haired victims, so he has an image fixation here, meaning the victim represents a real person in his life. We’re thinking usual suspects – ex-girlfriend, former wife, first love, mother, grandmother; some woman out there is the model for the victims he selects.’
‘It’s the old love – hate see-saw again, eh?’ said Howie.
‘Exactly,’ confirmed Jack. ‘Some offenders pick certain victims to kill because they represent people they hate but for some reason, usually psychological, they are powerless to harm that actual person. It’s Kemper-like.’ Everyone nodded, remembering the classic case of American serial killer Ed Kemper who was mentally bullied by his oppressive mother. Instead of killing his parent, he murdered his grandmother and grandfather, then a long list of co-eds at the school where his mother worked, even burying some of their heads in land beneath his mom’s bedroom window and then making private fun of her, by telling her how all the girls at school really looked up to her.
‘The big difference for me,’ continued Jack, ‘is the head thing. We’re pretty certain BRK took trophies from his victims and we’re fairly sure these amounted only to the left hand of the women he murdered.’
Fernandez looked down and wriggled the fingers of her left hand, grateful to see all the joints working and intact, including the one where her wedding ring had almost refused to come off despite her yanking at it like a cowboy on the back of a bronco.
Jack held up his own hand, as he finished his point. ‘We can’t prove the significance of this, but maybe it’s because the left hand is somehow more representative of female fidelity; after all, it’s the wedding-ring hand.’ He fingered the gold band that encircled his own finger and for a fleeting second thought of Nancy, falling confetti and the day they had married almost eleven years earlier. ‘Then again, it may be something not so romantic. The left hand may play a part in his life because he or a woman he once loved had a disfigured left hand. We just don’t know, so we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. That said, heads are something entirely new. He’s removed heads from victims before, but never kept them for any reason, not even as trophies.’
‘But these are not really trophies,’ said Massimo, thoughtfully. ‘He had no intention of keeping these body parts. Surely it was more an egotistical action, in keeping with the note he sent? It seems more like a show of strength to me, like he was looking to make sure he got our attention.’
Jack wasn’t so sure. ‘There’s a lot of psychological debate about what a trophy actually is. Some experts say that just taking anything away from the crime scene, even a button or tiny piece of jewellery, makes it a trophy. It’s a prize, something the killer has won in their own emotional and sexual battle to take a life and they keep it as a reminder of the elation they felt. There’s now widespread evidence of serial killers taking stuff from their victims and not keeping it for very long. Often, they “gift” it elsewhere; they pass stuff on to charity shops or give it to a family friend or neighbour. It’s a repulsive thought, but they clearly get a kick out of putting part of a brutal crime scene into the hands of innocents.’
‘Also, they grow bored with