Without remorse - Tom Clancy [179]
'I didn't think so at first. Tom saw it before I did. It's the craftsmanship.'
'Correct.'
'Are we dealing with a psychopath?'
Farber shook his head. 'No. The true psychopath is a person unable to deal with life. He sees reality in a very individual and eccentric way, generally a way that is very different from the rest of us. In nearly all cases the disorder is manifested in very open and easily recognized ways.'
'But Gooding -'
'Mr Gooding is what we - there's a new term, "organized psychopath."'
'Okay, fine, but he wasn't obvious to his neighbors.'
'That's true, but Mr Gooding's disorder manifested itself in the gruesome way he killed his victims. But with these killings, there's no ritual aspect to them. No mutilation. No sexual drive to them - that's usually indicated by cuts on the neck, as you know. No.' Farber shook his head again. 'This fellow is all business. He's not getting any emotional release at all. He's just killing people and he's doing it for a reason that is probably rational, at least to him.'
'Why, then?'
'Obviously it's not robbery. It's something else. He's a very angry man, but I've met people like this before.'
'Where?' Ryan asked. Farber pointed to the opposite wall. In an oaken frame was a piece of red velvet on which were pinned a combat infantryman's badge, jump wings, and a ranger flash. The detective was surprised enough to let it show.
"Pretty stupid, really,' Farber explained with a deprecating gesture. 'Little Jewish boy wants to show how tough he is. Well' - Farber smiled - 'I guess I did.'
'I didn't like Europe all that much myself, but I didn't see the nice parts.'
'What outfit?'
'East Company, Second of the Five-Oh-Sixth.'
'Airborne. One-Oh-One, right?'
'All the way, doc,' the detective said, confirming that he too had once been young and foolish, and remembering how skinny he'd been, leaping out the cargo doors of C-47s. 'I jumped into Normandy and Eindhoven.'
'And Bastogne?'
Ryan nodded. 'That really wasn't fun, but at least we went in by truck.'
'Well, that's what you're up against, Lieutenant Ryan.'
'Explain?'
'Here's the key to it.' Farber held up the transcribed interview with Mrs Charles. 'The disguise. Has to be a disguise. It takes a strong arm to slam a knife into the back of the skull. That wasn't any alcoholic. They have all sorts of physical problems.'
'But that one doesn't fit the pattern at all,' Ryan objected.
'I think it does, but it's not obvious. Turn the clock back. You're in the Army, you're an elite member of an elite unit. You take the time to recon your objective, right?'
'Always,' the detective confirmed.
'Apply that to a city: How do you do that? You camouflage yourself. So our friend decides to disguise himself as a wino. How many of those people on the street? Dirty, smelly, but pretty harmless except to one another. They're invisible and you just filter them out. Everyone does.'
'You still didn't - '
'But how does he get in and out? You think he takes a bus — a taxi?'
'Car.'
'A disguise is something you put on and take off.' Farber held up the photo of the Charles murder scene. 'He makes his double-kill two blocks away, he clears the area, and comes here - why do you suppose?' And there it was, right on the photo, a gap between two parked cars.
'Holy shit!' The humiliation Ryan felt was noteworthy. 'What else did I miss, Doctor Farber?'
'Call me Sid. Not much else. This individual is very clever, changing his methods, and this is the only case where he displayed his anger. That's it, do you see? This is the only crime with rage in it - except maybe for the one this morning, but we'll set that aside for the moment. Here we see rage. First he cripples the victim, then he kills him in a particularly difficult way. Why?' Farber paused for a few contemplative puffs, 'He was angry, but why was he angry? It had to have been an unplanned act. He wouldn't have planned something with Mrs Charles there. For some reason he had to do something that he hadn't expected to do, and that made him angry. Also, he let her go - knowing