The Anniversary (48 page)

thought he was from the island. He said he was worried about me.”

25

Lambert’s expression was grim now. “When was this exactly?”

26

“A couple weeks back. May first, I think. That man in the pic-27

ture, who is he?”

28

Lambert fingered the photograph. “This is Lester Crain.”

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Tuesday, May 16

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a s s u m e you’ve all read the background material.” Mike 2

Jamison scanned the faces at the conference table. All five men 3

nodded.

4

Jamison glanced at Lambert, who was seated to his left. Mer-5

ritt’s chief detective was hosting the task force, along with state 6

police detective Ed Farrell, and together they’d asked Jamison to 7

make his presentation. Farrell, mid-forties, quick gray eyes, sat a 8

bit back from the table. There were two Maine detectives, Jack 9

Pulaski and Stu Farkess, and Wayne Schute, from Manhattan 10

South Homicide. All of them had followed up obvious leads 11

without any success. They’d gathered at this state police barracks 12

outside Merritt to pool their resources.

13

“Okay, then,” Jamison continued. “We’ll briefly review the in-14

cidents, then talk about possible links. Anyone who wants to, 15

feel free to jump in.”

16

Even all these years later, it was a matter of habit to say that, 17

to make clear to the state and local guys that he respected them.

18

He’d always gone out of his way to show that he wasn’t some FBI 19

asshole. Because of that, he’d usually enjoyed good relationships 20

in the field. Of course, on this particular occasion, he didn’t really 21

have to worry. As a retired agent here by invitation, he had no of-22

ficial standing. He couldn’t make anyone do anything, even if 23

he’d wanted to.

24

Jamison briefly ran through the facts of Diane Massey’s murder.

25

“According to the M.E.’s report, the cause of death was blunt 26 S

force trauma to the head and strangulation,” he concluded. “The 27 R

victim’s body had been stripped of clothing and jewelry. A black 2 7 0

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stocking ligature was tightly knotted around her throat, and her 1

eyes showed petechial hemorrhages.” He didn’t have to explain.

2

All of them would know that the pinpoint blood clots were pre-3

sumptive proof of strangulation. “There were straight incisions 4

along the insides of both of the victim’s arms. The incisions were 5

made postmortem.”

6

“Those incisions on the insides of the arms — Gage did that 7

too, didn’t he?” The question came from Schute, the New York 8

detective, who’d been rapidly taking notes. He had bushy eye-9

brows, a weathered face, and dark, piercing eyes.

10

“That’s right,” Jamison said. “Gage also performed the mutila-11

tions postmortem, just like the UNSUB in this case.” UNSUB.

12

Unidentified subject. The old FBI lingo. “Another striking simi-13

larity is the black stocking ligature. Gage was tried and convicted 14

for the murder of Dahlia Schuyler. In that case, the victim was 15

also strangled with a black stocking.”

16

Next on the agenda was Melanie’s attack. Again, Jamison ran 17

through the facts. “In your files, you all have a copy of the artist’s 18

sketch of Ms. White’s assailant. You’ll note the resemblance be-19

tween this sketch and the composite of Anna Thayer’s abductor.”

20

“What about videotape?” Pulaski asked. “Did the apartment 21

building have cameras?”

22

Schute gave a sour smile. “Sure did, but the one that mattered 23

was out of service that day. Anyone who thinks you get what you 24

pay for hasn’t lived in Manhattan. Six grand a month that apart-25

ment goes for, and they can’t keep the cameras running.”

26

“What about noise?” Pulaski asked. “Were any of the neigh-27

bors home?”

28

“You can’t hear a thing through those walls,” said Schute.

29

“The tenants pay for quiet.”

30

As Jamison moved on to Posy Kisch, he could feel the tension 31

building. The men at the table were all fathers. Some had kids 32

around Posy’s age.

33

“The victim was found near the Connecticut River during the 34

search for Anna Thayer. The absence of blood at the scene conS 35

firms that the killing took place elsewhere. There were cuff marks R 36

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on her wrists and ankles. Substantial evidence of sexual assault 2

and torture prior to death. In addition to having her throat slit, 3

she was stabbed eighty-seven times. It appears that the victim 4

was raped with a knife both anally and vaginally. No evidence of 5

semen inside the victim, though traces were detected on her face.

6

DNA analysis is under way. The tests are being expedited.”

7

“Kisch was last seen on Saturday, May 6, at a public dance in 8

Greenfield. She came to the dance with a classmate who’s been 9

on our suspect list. Nathan Lacoste — that’s his name — is also 10

acquainted with Ms. Thayer. Ms. Thayer was at the dance as 11

well, along with her boyfriend — a Merritt cop — and another 12

couple.”

13

“Is that a little strange?” Schute asked. “That all of them were 14

at the same dance?”

15

Farrell shrugged. “This isn’t New York City. There’s only so 16

much going on.”

17

“Anyway,” Jamison continued, “Ms. Thayer recalls that, dur-18

ing a break in the dance, Lacoste asked her if she’d seen the 19

victim.”

20

A little more back and forth, and then they moved on to Anna 21

Thayer. Jamison briefly outlined the facts surrounding her abduc-22

tion and release.

23

“Why do you think he didn’t kill her?” Schute asked, once 24

Jamison was done.

25

“My best guess,” said Jamison, “is that this UNSUB may have 26

kids of his own. Either that or, for some other reason, he strongly 27

identifies with them.”

28

Sitting back in his chair, Jamison surveyed the table.

29

“Let me cut to the chase. I believe we’re looking for two killers.

30

The first — let’s call him UNSUB 1 — killed Diane Massey.

31

He also attacked Melanie White and kidnapped Anna Thayer.

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Someone else — UNSUB 2 — killed Posy Kisch.”

33

Schute said, “I’m having a little trouble with this. How can 34

you know it’s not the same guy? Doesn’t that seem more likely?”

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“I’m not saying there isn’t some connection. Just that I’m fairly 36 R

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confident that we’re looking for two different killers. With Kisch 1

we’re dealing with a sexual sadist. He gets carried away. We’ve 2

got his semen on Kisch’s body. It’s not a clean crime scene.”

3

“UNSUB 1 is highly organized. There’s no evidence of sexual 4

sadism, no sign of sexual assault. Even the slashes on Massey’s 5

arms were all inflicted postmortem. There’s no sign that the 6

UNSUB tried to prolong her suffering.”

7

“But the body was stripped,” Schute said. “That’s not sexual?”

8

“In this case, I suspect not. I think the clothes were taken to 9

keep the crime scene clean, to reduce the likelihood of trace ev-10

idence. As investigators, we’re all familiar with the theory of 11

transfer and exchange — the notion that an UNSUB always 12

leaves something of himself at the crime scene and takes some-13

thing with him. Here, we still don’t have anything, no fibers, no 14

hairs, nothing.”

15

Schute rubbed his chin. “So one guy killed Posy Kisch, some-16

one else did the rest?”

17

“That’s the way it looks to me,” Jamison responded. “Like I 18

said, UNSUB 2 is a sexual sadist. His crime scene resembles 19

Lester Crain’s.”

20

“You really think that Lester Crain killed that girl?” Schute 21

was still skeptical. “So why’s he suddenly making an appearance?

22

Where’s he been all these years?”

23

“I’m not necessarily saying it’s Crain. I’m saying the signatures 24

match. If Crain committed a murder, it would look something 25

like this one.”

26

“Still, though,” Lambert said, “Callie Thayer claims she saw 27

Crain on the island where Massey was killed. The fact that she 28

places him at the scene — you don’t take anything from that? If 29

he didn’t kill Massey, what was he doing there?”

30

Before Jamison could answer, Pulaski jumped in. “We don’t 31

know if she really saw him. She’d had this theory that Crain was 32

the killer way back at the beginning. Then, when she saw his pic-33

ture, she jumped on the connection.”

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“Maybe,” Lambert responded. “But she didn’t identify him by S 35

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name. When she saw the photo, she recognized the face, but she 2

didn’t know who it was. She doesn’t remember seeing pictures of 3

Crain before the one I showed her daughter.”

4

“That’s what she
says,
” Pulaski said. “She probably believes it.

5

But who can say what memories may be lodged in her subcon-6

scious? She sees the picture you showed her kid, and the picture 7

triggers something. She thinks it’s this guy she saw recently, but 8

really it’s from the past. That sort of thing happens, you know. It’s 9

a problem with eyewitnesses.”

10

Before Lambert could answer, Jamison jumped in. “Look, both 11

scenarios are possible, but neither changes my basic point. Whether 12

Crain was on that island or not, I don’t think he killed Massey.”

13

A few doubtful looks from around the table, but no one said 14

anything.

15

“How about the victimology?” Pulaski finally asked.

16

“Another link,” Jamison said. “Most of Crain’s victims were 17

prostitutes, they had a certain look. Tight clothes, elaborate hair, 18

lots of heavy makeup. Now, Kisch wasn’t a prostitute, but she af-19

fected a similar style.”

20

“What about her date that night? What’s the latest on him?”

21

Jamison turned to Lambert, who was heading that investigation.

22

“We’ve talked to Nathan Lacoste several times. At this point, 23

we don’t have evidence against him, though we haven’t ruled 24

him out. He agreed to take a polygraph, but the results were in-25

conclusive.”

26

Farrell, who’d been silent for a while, started to shake his head.

27

“I’m with Wayne. I still have a hard time believing we’ve got two 28

different killers. I mean, I guess it’s possible, but how can you be 29

sure? How do you know it’s not one killer who’s shifted his M.O.?”

30

Jamison said, “It’s not a question of M.O. When we talk about 31

the modus operandi, it’s just the nuts and bolts, the practical 32

steps a killer takes in order to complete the crime. The signature 33

is something else. It’s the killer’s calling card, that extra some-34

thing the killer does because it gets him off. The M.O. changes 35 S

with circumstances. The signature stays the same. It may evolve, 36 R

it may escalate, but the core doesn’t change. With Crain, torture 2 7 4

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and bondage were central to his signature. You see both in Kisch’s 1

murder and neither in Diane Massey’s.”

2

“Okay, I see what you’re saying,” Farrell said thoughtfully.

3

“Now, what about Steven Gage? How would you compare his sig-4

nature to what we have here?”

5

“Also different,” Jamison responded. “Gage didn’t get off on 6

causing pain. What he wanted were the bodies. He couldn’t even 7

have sex with his victims until they were dead. Killing them was 8

incidental, a means of obtaining control. Even the incisions on 9

his victims’ arms were all inflicted postmortem.”

10

“Like with Massey?” Farrell said.

11

“That part of it, yes.”

12

“Okay,” said Schute, stretching back in his chair. “Let’s talk a 13

little about Massey’s killer. The guy you call UNSUB 1. What do 14

we know about him?”

15

“As I said, he’s highly organized. He knows his way around a 16

crime scene. He might be trained in law enforcement or even 17