Charity Kills (A David Storm Mystery) (20 page)

“No, she took vacation time that time of year, or would have started it, next week. She said she wanted to be free to be out there all of the time, as she loved meeting new people and attending all the social events, and when her vacation was over, she came back and really didn’t talk much about it, just exclaimed she’d had fun,” Maxine said.

“Well, I think that’s all I need for the moment, Mrs. Davenport, but this is my card. If you think of anything else that might help, please call. Thank you for your time and assistance. By the way, you’re right, she was a beautiful girl. I’m sure her loss will affect everyone who knew her,” said Storm.

Parker’s and Storm’s next stop was to see Shirley Young, who had been Elaine Gage’s boss at the time Elaine was killed. If Storm thought the purchasing division was austere, the accounting department was downright Spartan, with computer terminals everywhere, lots of silence, and no personal touches at all. Shirley Young was probably fifty, with severe butchy looks and a mechanical quality about her. She didn’t offer to show them around or explain what they did and she acted annoyed that she had to take time out of her day to talk to them, especially about something that had happened six or seven years ago.

There would be no tears on this visit; it was all business and Storm knew to get on with it if he wanted to get any information she might have. Without preliminaries, he asked, “Do you remember an employee named Elaine Gage?”

“Yes, she worked for me about seven years ago. I think she was found dead somewhere out by the Dome,” Ms. Young said matter-of-factly.

“What can you tell me about her?” Asked Storm.

“She was good with paperwork and kept up with her job, although she never volunteered to do more than was asked of her.”

“Did you ever wonder about her murder?” Storm asked.

“No, it was of no concern to me; it was only a matter of filling her job as soon as possible.”

“Did the police contact you when she was killed?”

“No.” Ms. Young was starting to sound not just rushed but annoyed.

“Do you know if she was dating anyone?” Storm inquired.

“No, I do not make it a practice to get involved in my employees’ lives.” Her tone was curt as she stood up and glanced at the large watch on her wrist.

“Did she have any friends that worked here?”

“As I remember it, she had one friend, a girl named Peggy Wise. She worked in this department, also. I always saw them eating lunch together in the cafeteria,” Ms. Young said, sounding a little calmer.

“Does this Peggy Wise still work here?”

“No, I think she went to work for the Livestock Show out at the center a few years ago.”

“Is there anything else you can tell me about Elaine?” Storm pressed.

“No, Detective, as I said, I don’t get involved in the lives of my employees. Now I’m very busy and I need to cut this off. If there is anything else I can do for you, please call me and make an appointment. If I think of anything else, I’ll call you,” Ms. Young’s tone made it clear the interview was over. With that Storm handed her a card, thanked her for her time, and he and Parker left. When they reached the lobby they exchanged cards, shook hands, and Storm went on with his day.

Storm now had a new track to follow. Who was this Peggy Wise and what could she tell him? Storm made a mental note to see her on his next trip to the Show.

The Mind of a Serial Killer

Assembling his team of unlikely investigators for another session of comparing facts, brainstorming and planning their next move was not as easy one might think. Russell and Grady had to finish the early nightly news and would not be free to leave the station until a few minutes after 6:30 PM. Pancho and Alisha found it necessary to leave work casually, as if they had put in a full day and were merely clocking out to go to their homes. With all these considerations in mind, Storm called Russell and arranged to meet him and the rest of the team back at the condo no later than 7:00 PM.

Storm found Russell, Grady, Hernandez, and Alisha all waiting for him when he arrived carrying boxes of pizza, which was the only reward he could offer them. The dining room table was covered in files and video disks. Hernandez had brought his laptop and since Russell had wireless service in his building it was easy to find Internet access. All participants stood ready to go to work.

“Hey, big dog, where you been and what you got there, dinner?” Russell inquired as he answered the door.

“Long day. What’s going on here?” Storm handed the pizza boxes to Russell and waved his hand, indicating the mass confusion that already was strewn across the table.

“We’re ready to go and we started without you. Hope you don’t mind, Baretta.”

After a round of “hellos,” the five dove into what they had found so far. They had seven dead girls, and according to Alisha, all had been killed in the same manner. To add to the curiosity, all the girls had similar looks, all were brunettes, all were around 25, all were from small towns, and all had very little family to miss them. They had discovered the killer definitely had a type. But what else could the team conjecture?

“If we now believe, and I think we do, that we know the killer’s type, there are some other important questions. Like, how does he find them?”

Answering his own question, Storm said, “He finds them somehow at the Show. How does he know so much about them, to know they are from small towns and are basically alone in life?” Again he answered his own question: “The killer has had to spend time with them get to know them.”

“There are no defensive wounds on the girls, or we think we know that in the cases of the other girls, but in Leslie’s case we are sure because we saw the body. Why not? If I was about to be attacked by a stranger it’s probable every one of these girls would surely have fought back. So the only conclusion we can draw is they knew their killer. But again, how?” The group around the table sat silent each pondering the questions Storm had just laid out.

Grady finally spoke up. “We also have seven murders with very little publicity on any of them. The newspapers dropped them, television dropped them. There was nothing more reported after the initial reports of them being found.”

“We got Joe Dresden on video,” said Hernandez.

“You think he is the one?” asked Alisha, looking to Storm for an answer

“No, I don’t,” said Storm.

“Who then, if not Joe?” asked Russell.

“Not sure yet, but that’s what we are going to find out,” added Storm, knowing he sounded a little more positive than he felt.

“By the way, I told Joe he had to come see you and get a DNA swab to test against the semen you got from Leslie,” Storm told Alisha.

“Do you really think he will come in voluntarily?” asked Alisha.

“Probably not. I’m sure I scared the shit out of him, but if he doesn’t show up don’t worry about it, I will get a warrant and make him do it.” With that said he moved on.

“What else we got?” Storm asked his fellow conspirators. “Pancho, what did you get from the FBI?” He explained to the others that he had asked Hernandez to do some research into the modus operandi of serial killers like Bundy and Gacy to see if the research would give them any insights into their killer.

Sergeant Hernandez took out a notebook containing all the facts and theories he had been able to find on serial murders and killers. “First, we need to look at these murders as if they are connected and ask whether they are the result of a
mass murderer
or a
serial murderer.
In the both scenarios the victims die as
a result of the murderer gaining control of his or her victims’ lives. The mass murderer kills multiple victims at the same time, usually in a big display for public attention, fear, and media blitz.

“The serial murderer, on the other hand, kills methodically over time—weeks, months, even years—and usually not for public attention. Wanting attention, the mass murderer usually operates within a designated area like the city or sometimes an area as small as the neighborhood they grew up in. The outcome for a mass murderer can come in a variety of forms: they are caught by police and arrested, they spend days in court, and their photo is featured on the front page of every newspaper in the country and on every television news report. Sometimes they are killed by someone else who takes the execution of the mass murderer into his own hands, but with the same results, lots of coverage on newspapers and TV. Less often, they commit suicide, and even more rarely they turn themselves in. But the outcome is always the same—they become notorious, and that was all they were looking for in the first place. They believe they have spread their message even in death.

“In complete contrast, the serial killer usually wants to stay under the radar and to elude detection so they can go on killing. They are organized. They kill over time, one victim at a time. They may even stop for periods of time or change their modus operandi. Although there is a difference of opinion as to the numbers, in theory, there may be as few as thirty-five to fifty serial murderers, or as many as five hundred, operating in United States at any one time.”

“Shit! You got to be kidding! Five hundred of them?” asked Storm, aghast.

“Yep. And I think we all feel it is obvious we have a serial murderer, since our victims have appeared to be one a year for the past seven years,” added Russell.

“Go on, Pancho,” Storm said, pushing Hernandez to continue on with his tutorial.

“Both types scare the hell out of the community, but the rampage of a mass killer usually ends with a “final statement” that often ends their life at the same time. The serial killer goes on and on believing that the many murders they have committed won’t be or haven’t been discovered yet and certainly not all of them can be linked to the single killer. They strongly believe that they are smarter than anyone in the police departments. You would think that the community would recognize that a person is acting unusually strange, but the serial killer knows how to manipulate people’s perceptions and will even go through a cooling off period that may last for months or years before he kills again. These killers suffer from antisocial personality disorder and not psychosis. They appear normal, many times charming; a guy named Cleckley—he studied the personalities of some psychopaths and wrote a book about them—called that the ‘mask of sanity.’

“Serial killers are motivated by power and sexual compulsion. They may have been abused in childhood or are compensating for their self-perceived inadequacies because they grew up poor or came from low socioeconomic background. Killing gives them power to take revenge for perceived slights and bad things that happened to them when they had no control. Killing gives them back power and they bask in the afterglow for a period of time until they need another power fix and kill again. The time between killings varies depending on how disassociated the killer becomes. Most find they need to kill more often as time goes on because the ‘glow’ wears off more quickly. Some only kill when they are set off by some perceived outside slight. For most, the knowledge they have terrified a community and baffled authorities adds to their sense of power.

“There are two types of serial killers,” Hernandez continued. “The
organized
types are deliberate and highly intelligent, many with IQs of over 110. They plan their crimes, usually abducting their victims, killing them in one place and getting rid of the body in another. Does this sound familiar? They are likeable and charming and they often lure their victims with ploys like appealing to the victim’s sympathies. Ted Bundy would put his arm in a cast and ask women to help him carry things to his car, where he would beat them senseless and haul them away.

Some serial killers choose victims who will go with them voluntarily, like prostitutes looking for a trick. They maintain a high degree of control over the crime scene and usually have a working knowledge of forensic science, enabling them to cover their tracks. They follow their crimes in the media; part of the afterglow thing I talked about earlier. They feel pride in what they have done. They are the guy or girl next door; the person the neighbors are always surprised about because ‘he or she was such a nice quiet person.’ They may even have spouses and children.

Many times they try to inject themselves into the investigation. They want to appear helpful and even become a hero if they can. They sometimes even leave clues leading the investigation to someone else in the community viewed as not as nice as them. They hunt their victims like prey.”

Hernandez stopped momentarily looking around the table “Again sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”

“Conversely, the
unorganized
serial killer kills impulsively and the kill is messy. They usually have a low IQ, around 80. They don’t clean up the crime scene. They strike randomly without warning and have no plan. Often in retrospect, they are described as having been creepy or very strange by the people who knew them.”

He paused. “I think we have an organized serial killer,” Hernandez said, and as he looked around the room everyone shook their heads in concurrence.

Hernandez went on. “It looks like we all agree we have an organized serial killer, but the next part of the description is trickier, as there are more types or profiles under this heading. The first type is the
visionary
,
who may claim he was forced to kill by voices or direction from afar. Rarely are serial killers insane, nor do they hear voices telling them to kill. They often make that claim after they are caught, but it’s usually to stay off death row. For instance, the Son of Sam killer claimed his neighbor’s dog told him to kill all his victims and that the dog was possessed by a demon.

“The next type is the
missionary.
They kill because they believe they are doing society a service. They choose types of victims that they feel don’t belong in society, like prostitutes, particular ethnic or religious groups, or the rich, you name it. Aileen Wournos stalked and killed men who used prostitutes. She was the one Charlize Theron portrayed in the movie
Monster
. They believe they are helping the community.