I heard Ralph’s voice. “Animation company?”
“We needed someone who actually knew what they were doing to help us with the graphics. They were happy to get a juicy government contract, and we were happy to get the best computer graphics minds in the world. Anyway, using this software, we can pinpoint any place on the earth’s surface down to half a centimeter or so. The team is still working on ways to see through cloud cover-don’t have that quite nailed down yet, but it’s coming. This is just the beta version. We’re hoping to have the prototype available to law enforcement agencies worldwide within the next two years.”
One of the officers I didn’t know spoke up. “Is that a live satellite feed?”
“Not quite,” I said. “Four-minute delay.”
I tapped the remote control, and a three-dimensional map appeared on the projection screen behind me. As I clicked on the screen, new layers overlaid on top of the previous ones, each layer with another array of circles, diamonds, or triangles. “This first map shows where we found each of the bodies,” I explained. “The next one, here”-I clicked the screen again and the diamonds appeared-“ has the residencies of the victims. If we know the abduction sites, I’ve made those appear as ovals.” Once again I clicked, and another layer appeared. “And when the murder site has been identified, you’ll see those in yellow diamonds.”
By now the screen looked a little overwhelming.
“Now, look when I overlay the roads, emphasizing the routes that provide the quickest and most convenient getaway and then compare that to the distribution of homes in the residential areas we’re looking at
…” A series of glowing lines threaded together, connecting the clutter of symbols and figures, making sense of them, bringing order. “Then, if we impose what we know about the victims’ life patterns and travel routes at the time they were abducted-”
“How do we know those?” Margaret asked.
“Cell phone companies can track the location of each call placed and received through global positioning technology,” I said. “Most new cars also have GPS systems, including Mindy’s Corolla. I downloaded the routes Mindy traveled in her car as well as the time, duration, and location of her phone calls over the last couple of days before her murder. I found something interesting.”
“What’s that?” Agent Tucker asked.
“Based on what we know about the travel patterns of the other victims, you can see that they intersect in four distinct areas: out near the Stratford Hotel, the park next to Mission Memorial Hospital, the downtown district, and over near the university. It’s very possible our killer is trolling those locations looking for his prey.”
I clicked the screen again, and this time the screen had several pulsing, red, wedge-shaped regions. “We can see that the most likely locations of the initial encounter or abductions are here, here, and here.” I used a laser pointer to draw attention to the pulsating areas of the map. “By taking into consideration everything we know about the crime-the observable offender patterns, urban zoning, population distribution, topographic features, traffic flow, weather conditions at the time of the crime-we can extrapolate the anchor point-”
Oh, great word, Pat. That’ll really impress them.
“The what?” It was Sheriff Wallace.
“Extrapolate. It means to-”
“No, the ‘anchor point’ part.”
“Oh,” I said. “Anchor point, right. That’s the offender’s home base. Might be his house or maybe a girlfriend’s or a relative’s place. Maybe where he works. As long as his base is stable, we can use the principles of geographic profiling to pinpoint its most likely location.”
I took a drink of water.
Ten minutes and you’re out of here.
“Offenders tend not to commit crimes too close to their home base, or too far away from it. Once we’ve defined his hunting area and drawn a line connecting the two farthest crime scenes, we create the radius of a circle.” I did this on the screen with the laser pointer. “Within this circle here”-I clicked on the screen, and a blue-tinged circle appeared near the center of the larger circle-“there’s about a 50 percent chance our offender has his anchor point.”
“Just like pins on a bulletin board.” The officer who said it made sure he spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.
I’d heard all this before, but still I felt my temperature rising. “Yes, the principle is the same. But we’re not just looking at crime distribution here; instead we’re taking into account sequence, distribution, origination, and timing. The order of the crimes is significant. The first crime in a series often occurs closest to the killer’s anchor point. Then he moves out as his hunting grounds get overrun with investigators. However, the body dump sites tend to move closer toward his anchor point as he gets more confident with each crime that he’s able to commit without getting caught. So timing and location are significant. Also, places carry meanings for people. We all view the world, our surroundings, through the lens of our personal experiences and perceptions. If I can figure out what the locations of this series of crimes mean to the offender, it’ll help me figure out what type of person we’re looking for. Instead of asking ‘Why did he do it?’ I ask ‘Why did he do it here?’ For example…”
I pulled up a photo of Jamie McNaab. “Jamie was found beside a parking lot. Now look back behind her, just to the right, there”-I pointed with the laser pointer-“See? There’s a sign that reads ‘No Loitering.’ It’s subtle but symbolic.” I flipped to a picture of the crime scene of Reinita Lawson. “Reinita was found on a trail leading to Tombstone Caverns-also symbolic. He’s taunting us.”
“How come no one noticed that before?” Sheriff Wallace asked. Before I could answer Agent Tucker said, “No one was looking.”
I wished he’d stop doing that.
“So, what about the motive?” asked Lien-hua, who had stopped doodling and was looking at me with keen interest and perhaps a hint of antagonism.
“I leave motives to the profilers.” I smiled.
She didn’t.
“And that means…?” She let her voice trail off and then added, “What, exactly?”
I figured someone would ask these questions, but why did it have to be her?
“Well, instead of probing into his mind to try and guess what the guy is thinking, I’m trying to study his life to find where he’s living. I think too many investigations get sidetracked by trying to uncover the motive-”
“Excuse me, Dr. Bowers.” She set down her pen. “Did you just say sidetracked by looking for motive?”
I slid the remote control into my pocket. “Yes, Agent Jiang, I did. Jurors love motives. So do people who read mystery novels and thrillers. Without a motive we feel cheated. The plot needs to make sense. We’re addicted to explanations. But in the real world, some things don’t have an easy explanation. Motives are never clear, never distinct, never exact.”
“What are you talking about?” It was Sheriff Wallace this time. “Without motive, why would we do anything?”
OK. I wasn’t exactly sure where my briefing had started to get away from me, but this wasn’t in my outline.
“I’m not saying people aren’t motivated to do things,” I said, “just that ‘motive’ isn’t the silver bullet it’s so often made out to be in criminal investigations.” I looked around. I got the feeling that with every word I said I was only digging myself in deeper. But I plowed forward anyway, trying not to sound like I was picking a fight. “Why do you get up and go to work each day, Agent Jiang? To make a living? Maybe obligation? Ambition? Passion? To prove yourself?”
“To pick up men?” Tucker interjected. A few people laughed. He said it good-naturedly, and I got the feeling he was trying to help me save face, but Lien-hua just glared at him. I wished he’d just shut up.