‘No to the first and in a way to the second,’ Garcia replied, scratching his chin.
‘And what the fuck does that mean?’
‘She wasn’t at the church,’ Hunter said calmly. ‘All she told us is that she had a vision.’
The captain’s posture tensed. ‘Hold on,’ she said firmly, lifting her right hand. ‘She came in claiming she was psychic?’
‘Not as far as we know,’ Hunter replied.
The captain stared around the room and came to rest on Garcia. ‘Somebody better tell me something.’
‘According to the officer who first talked to her, she didn’t say anything about being a psychic or having any visions. She claimed she had some information, but she’d only talk to the detectives in charge.’
The captain took a packet of mints out of her dark blazer’s breast pocket and popped one in her mouth. ‘I’m sorry.’ She turned to Hunter. ‘But if she is a crackpot claiming she’s psychic, why are we after her?’
‘She’s not a psychic, captain,’ Hunter said cautiously. ‘She seems to feel things deeper than most people.’
‘She what?’ The captain almost choked on her mint.
‘Extrasensory perception.’ Hunter didn’t hesitate.
‘Please tell me you’re joking,’ she shot back. Her hands on her hips. Her voice half an octave higher.
‘I’m as skeptical about this as you are, captain,’ Hunter replied, ‘but the fact is, whether we believe it or not, people with ESP do exist.’
‘It doesn’t matter, Robert.’ The captain crushed her mint with a loud crunch. ‘We’re not the supernatural freaking police. The press is already out in force to get us, and so is the mayor. We are under severe pressure. Now imagine what would happen if they found out we enlisted the help of a psychic. How incompetent would we look?’
‘I’m not enlisting anyone’s help, captain. I just wanna talk to her. Find out what she has to say. If it all turns out to be bullshit, we’ll disregard it like we’ve done with one hundred percent of the tips that have come in so far.’
She popped a new mint in her mouth and rolled it from one cheek to the other. ‘What makes you think she’s the real deal?’
Hunter stood behind his chair and leaned his elbows against it. ‘As I was rushing out of the interrogation room yesterday, she stopped me to tell me something.’ He looked at Garcia. ‘You’d already left.’
‘And what was that?’
Hunter paused for a moment. ‘She said, “He knew about the fire. He knew what scared her.”’
Fifty-One
The room went silent and all eyes fell on Hunter.
‘It couldn’t have been a guess.’ He shook his head and moved from behind his desk. ‘But at that moment I had no idea what she was talking about.’
‘Maybe she’s using this hyper-sensitivity thing as a smokescreen,’ the captain said. ‘Maybe she’s more involved than she’d like us to believe.’
‘Whatever the reason is, I think we should talk to her.’
‘Unfortunately,’ Hopkins interrupted, ‘as I’ve said, no one got her details. She left no last name, address or phone number at the front desk.’
‘Yes, but we have CCTV in the interrogation room.’ Hunter nodded at Hopkins. ‘Ask the tech guys to get a snapshot of her from the tape and run it against the MUPU database.’
‘The Missing Persons database?’ Hopkins asked, looking puzzled.
‘I have a hunch she’s a runaway. Start the search with Pennsylvania.’
‘Why Pennsylvania?’ the captain asked.
‘She had a slight Pennsylvania Dutch accent. I think that’ll be the best place to start.’
‘I’ll get right on it.’
The captain waited for Hopkins to leave before turning to face both detectives. ‘If you find her, you bring her here, do you understand?’ she said firmly. ‘This has to run by the book, Robert. If she has information about any of our investigations, psychic crap or not, she has to be interviewed under caution and I wanna be in the observation room. Am I clear?’
Hunter nodded.
‘Am I clear, detective?’ She pressed him for a vocal answer.
‘Yes, captain.’ Hunter didn’t break eye contact.
‘OK.’ She furtively checked her watch. ‘Brief me on what we have so far on this Amanda Reilly.’
Hunter quickly explained what the autopsy had revealed.
‘The killer took a bite out of her body?’ the captain asked, feeling a wave of nausea starting to surge.
‘The doctor found indentations just under her right breast.’ Hunter retrieved a photograph from a paper envelope and handed it to Captain Blake. ‘A small chunk of flesh is clearly missing.’ He indicated what he meant on the picture. ‘Due to the state the body is in, it’ll be impossible to confirm the teeth marks, but the doctor is as certain as he can be.’
‘This is insane,’ the captain responded, rubbing her face.
‘It’s one of the very few things that’s consistent with the Seven Saints church murder,’ Hunter replied. ‘The killer drank some of the priest’s blood and now it looks like he ate some of Amanda Reilly’s flesh.’
‘Why?’ Captain Blake asked with a disgusted look. ‘Why would the killer do that?’
Hunter massaged his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. ‘History and textbooks will tell you that the most common reason why a killer would consume his victims’ flesh or blood is because he feels that by doing so the victims become a permanent part of him. Sometimes it gives the killer a sick sense of sexual pleasure.’
A disturbing silence followed.
‘But we know this killer is not after sexual pleasure.’ The captain handed the picture back to Hunter. ‘Why would he want to make the victims a permanent part of him?’
‘Only the killer can really answer that, captain.’
‘Humor me with the psychology stuff,’ the captain said in a commanding voice. ‘Who might we be facing here?’
Hunter pinned the photograph to the board, took a deep breath and faced Barbara Blake. ‘A killer who knew the victims very well. Whose hate for them is so complete that having absolute control over their life and death wasn’t enough for him. He needed more.’
The captain exhaled. ‘And by more you mean drinking their blood and consuming their flesh?’
Hunter nodded, approached the window and looked out into a sunny, cold day.
‘But why the change?’ The captain wasn’t giving up. She wanted to understand the possible reasons behind all this. ‘If the killer drank the priest’s blood, why not do the same with Amanda Reilly? Why go for a bite?’
‘Again, only the killer can answer that, but he might be evolving. Moving up the ladder.’
‘Come again?’
Hunter stretched his body and his muscles tensed. ‘Many serial killers usually escalate in one way or another. It could be the violence, the time interval between kills… This one could be escalating from drinking blood to true cannibalism.’
‘Oh, that’s just great,’ Captain Blake said, raising a hand to her forehead as if fighting a headache. She checked her watch. ‘Shit. I have to be in a press conference in ten minutes. For now, I’ll play dumb and say I can’t confirm both murders are linked, but I won’t be able to hold that position for long. If need be, I’ll lie my ass off and say we have very reliable leads we’re pursuing, but you two better come up with something – and quick. And find this Monica girl. I wanna know why she said what she said.’
‘Me too,’ Hunter said as the captain let the door slam behind her.
Fifty-Two
The press conference room at Parker Center was large enough to comfortably accommodate the herd of hungry reporters that had turned up.
Barbara Blake had to admit that when she took the RHD captain’s job only a week ago she never expected to be facing the LA press on a serial killer case so soon. She also never expected to have to see eye to eye with the Los Angeles mayor on her first day at the job. But if this was what the job demanded, this was what she was prepared to give.