He doesn't leave any inscriptions or other 'hallmarks.' He always takes away with him the victim's clothing and other things."
"It all matches, doesn't it?" Douglas nodded to the police chief.
"Exactly," the latter confirmed. "Probably this bastard is also a fetishist."
"Modern psychiatry reckons a considerable share of sadists among fetishists," noticed Rockston. "For those guys, not just suffering in general, but concrete attributes are important. Snow or the victim's blood may be examples of this. But I'm not sure that he carries the victim's things away for that reason. Probably, he's just afraid that we'll find trace evidence on them. He's very careful. We still don't know his blood and sperm types."
"Do you mean he uses a condom?" the police chief asked.
"Exactly, or, maybe a foreign object, even a dildo. Is it possible to buy such a thing in your town?"
"Most likely, he carries everything he needs with him, avoiding being seen in local shops," Douglas interjected.
"By the way, why necessarily 'he?'" the police chief narrowed his eyes. "Couldn't that freaking dildo have been used by a woman?"
Federal agents looked at him respectfully, despite his tone.
"We considered such a possibility," the senior agent confirmed. "In favor of it being a woman is how easily our criminal manages to entice children. Serial molesters sometimes fail with clever kids who, remembering the admonitions of adults, not only refuse to go with the molester, but also immediately run home or to the nearest policeman and describe the bad guy. But the Snowman hasn't had a single screwup like that. And, also, many adults still warn children only about men, forgetting about women. But, still, it's not likely to be a woman. You saw the footprints, chief. The shoe size is definitely not female. Certainly, it is possible to wear oversized boots in order to fool us, but a woman in such giant boots risks drawing attention, and to run in such clodhoppers if something goes wrong would be difficult as well. Besides, our criminal's weight is about 220 pounds, and the force of his knife strikes demonstrate a lot of physical strength. All this is, of course, not proof, but still essential arguments against a female perpetrator."
The police chief shrugged his shoulders with irritation, probably, going to say something like "if you're so smart, why is the freaking asshole still out there?" But at this moment the chief of criminalists approached.
"We've almost finished," he informed. "I ordered the body to be loaded into the van."
"Anything interesting yet?" Douglas inquired.
"We'll see in the lab," the expert shrugged. "Till now, everything as usual. No torn off buttons, scraps of clothes, and so on. The girl didn't cut her nails for a long time, so it may be possible to find something under them, but there's not much hope. It's the standard scenario: at first the victim is too frightened and obediently follows the guy's orders, hoping to buy her life this way. And when she finally understands that she has nothing to lose, she is already tied and is helpless. He, of course, has taken the rope with him again, as well as the tape he used on the victim's mouth."
"Too bad... Well, John," Douglas turned back to the trainee, "let's go back to the car."
"Cold weather with frequent snow, most likely, will sweep across New England until the weekend. Delays of flights and trains, and also snow drifts on the roads, are possible. So we would recommend to you to refrain from travel within the next few days if, of course, you don't want to meet the New Year in mid-course..."
Nicolas swore and switched off the radio. Nobody and nothing can be trusted, absolutely nothing. All will finally deceive and betray you. Even the snow, which always was his friend and gave him so much pleasure, now turned against him. His usual method was to choose a new town without any system, just far enough away from the previous one. But this time he has had to drive from one snow drift to another for two days already, and has covered practically no ground. If he continues in the same manner, even his off-road vehicle will probably get stuck right in the middle of a deserted highway. Besides, he has lost too much time already. In a new town, after all, it is necessary to reconnoiter, to find a suitable place and to think over the emergency variants... Damn, he can't lose the next day! It's almost New Year's Day, and who ever saw Santa