“Forget about the technology for a minute,” Vail said. “What can we tell about the guy?” She took her seat again. “He’s what, over six feet? Can’t say much about his gait, because he’s bent over a bit pushing the cart and we’re only seeing a couple of strides before he moves off screen. Age?”
“Hard to figure,” Friedberg said. “Definitely not a teenager. Other than that, he could be thirty to eighty. It’s impossible to say because he’s pushing that cart. And if he’s already gotten rid of Mr. Anderson, that cart is empty and on wheels. It can’t weigh that much. With that bulky sweatshirt on, we can’t even really tell much about his build.”
Vail looked at the frozen image of their mysterious suspect. “You think this guy’s really an ice cream vendor?”
Friedberg set down the remote and pulled out his pad. “I’ll find out who these guys are-if they’re employees or if they’re franchisees, if they’re licensed…the whole deal. Then I’ll get a list of names and addresses. We can track ’em all down and eliminate the ones that don’t look like the guy on the tape-the fat ones, the short ones, the ones that limp. The rest we put in a room and sweat, see what we get.”
“When you’ve got your list of suspects, I might be able to help narrow it down further.”
“Good,” Burden said. “But I don’t want to wait. Let’s nail some things down right now. What can you tell us about the type of guy we’re looking for, based on Safarik’s research on the sexual homicide of elderly females? Maybe that’ll give us a foundation to build on.”
“Normally, it would.” Vail pushed her chair back. She was not looking forward to this discussion.
“I’m not sure I like the way you’re starting your answer.”
“That’s only because you’re not going to like what I have to say.”
“Karen,” Burden said, inching closer in his chair. “I need some valid direction for this case. When word gets out we’ve got an elderly couple murdered in the city-one savagely violated, and the other left in the Palace of Fine Arts…SFPD’s gonna come under intense pressure to solve this, and solve it quickly.”
“And that’s something you’re going to have to manage,” Vail said.
“We brought you in here to help us.”
“I get that. But with one rare exception, this case is unlike any of the cases Safarik studied and profiled involving elderly females.”
“How so?”
“There are distinct characteristics of the typical offender who sexually murders elderly women. And this UNSUB just doesn’t exhibit them.”
Even in the muted lighting of the video room, Vail could see Burden’s face shade red.
“Since this is my case, why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
“It’s not that easy,” Vail said.
“Karen, I think I’m getting close to being comfortable enough with our relationship to call you what your friends do.”
The reference seemed to confuse Friedberg, but he apparently sensed it was not a flattering remark. “Hang on a sec,” he said, pulling the cigarette from his mouth. “Let’s take it down a notch. We’ve got two very upsetting murders. Let’s keep our heads clear and work together.”
“There are going to be others,” Vail said.
“How the hell do you know that?” Burden asked.
“Yeah, I don’t think that notch was quite as low as your partner suggested. But to answer your question, this UNSUB is skilled at what he’s done. He appears to do lots of planning. He’s thoughtful, cool under pressure, and engages in high-risk behavior without the anxiety one would expect to see. He shows preplanning and a certain level of comfort that doesn’t come the first time out of the box. He’s brought his torture weapon with him, meaning he’s either done this before to others, or he’s thought a lot about what he wants to do and how he’s going to do it.
“Based on what I’ve seen at the crime scenes-the way he gained access to the vic’s house is one example-I think he’s intelligent, and if I had to guess, I’d say he’s got formal education. He’s physically agile to some extent. He’s aware of police presence-the hooded sweatshirt might be one indication, though I’m not entirely sure of that yet. We’ll see if tracking down the ice cream vendors pays off. I’m betting it won’t. From what I’ve seen so far, this guy is smarter than that. He wouldn’t expose himself that way. And there’s definite purpose in how he posed Mr. Anderson’s body. Why, what it means, we don’t know yet. But when we figure it out, I guarantee you it won’t have been random.”
Shit. I just gave them a profile…well, a bit of a profile. I should’ve kept my mouth shut. But I’m not very good at that, am I?
They sat in silence for a moment, absorbing that information. Finally, Burden spoke. “So it seems like you’ve already got a decent feel for this guy.”
“I’m in for a dime, so might as well make it a million bucks. Here’s more to consider. Leaving William Anderson in the middle of San Francisco…he’s flipping off the police, the FBI, and the victim. In the unit, we call it a ‘360 degree Fuck You.’ It’s extremely arrogant, risky, and shows a complete lack of empathy. The point is that all of these factors are indicative of psychopathy. This type of psychopathic individual would likely be more of the interpersonal type versus a white-collar psychopath.”
“Interpersonal type?” Friedberg asked.
“The lack of defensive injuries implies he was able to use his verbal skills to get close enough to the victim to take control. We call that type of psychopath interpersonal for obvious reasons. Contrast that with the bully type, which would hit the victims over the head with a club-no talking, just bam! and he’s in.”
“So you’re saying he’s a social guy,” Burden said.
“Not exactly. He has advanced verbal skills that allow him to appear less threatening to his victims.”
Burden looked over at the frozen image on the screen. “So we’ve got a glib serial killer who’d just as soon as ram an umbrella up your ass and tear up your internal organs as chat you up in engaging socially stimulating conversation. This just keeps getting better.”
Now you’re starting to see what we’re up against. “Our offender has physical violence in his repertoire of behaviors-behaviors that I believe he’s used in the past, maybe even more than his verbal skills. His anger is intense and he sustains it. But here’s the thing-even though he can experience anger, it’s not like the anger you and I feel. His comes and goes-it’s very intense, then suddenly it’s gone. Jekyll and Hyde.”
“But the crime scene,” Friedberg said. “The blood, all the torture, all the physical damage to the victim-he obviously lost it. No?”
“No. A guy like this, their scenes can be at the extreme end of the injury scale, but they can be very composed on the inside. So he can appear to be in control because he doesn’t experience emotions the way we do.” She scooted her chair forward. “Not only that, but he likely ejaculated. That suggests what I just described-that he’s capable of losing his anger enough to experience sexual arousal and then go back to acting out aggressively.”
“Are you sure we’re dealing with a psychopath?” Burden asked.
“There was a study done by Safarik, O’Toole, and Meyers on simultaneous states of arousal. An offender can’t be in a state of rage and sexual arousal at the same time. So at a scene where I see a lot of physical injury to the victim, and she was sexually assaulted and semen deposited rectally or vaginally, it strongly indicates a psychopath. They’re the only ones who can go into a heightened ‘emotional’ state like anger, then lose it quickly and then get sexually aroused. That’s just not normal.