The Stranger You Seek - By Amanda Kyle Williams Page 0,70
mysterious hmmm sounds that doctors and mechanics have mastered. He was reading aloud from the preliminary profile and victim assessments I’d finished in the hospital and then printed when I’d gotten home, as if he was grading a paper. I didn’t mind. If your work can’t withstand peer review, it shouldn’t be out there, and however selfish and lazy Dobbs was, he had once been one hell of a criminologist, someone I had admired, even trusted. I wondered when he had stopped needing to find the truth in a case, any case and any truth. When had his fame become the most important consideration in his work? What had changed him?
“You don’t see it as retaliatory at all?” He looked up to ask me.
Rauser leaned forward. “Like, somebody hurt me so I’m taking it out on you ’cause you remind me of them?”
“Exactly,” Dobbs answered.
“We’re seeing a lot of stabbing. We’re seeing attacks that last an extended period,” I said. “That’s not simply retaliatory. It’s about needing to experience the victim’s suffering.”
Dobbs hmmmed again. “Perhaps sadistic behaviors are emerging at the scenes. But the amount of rage evidenced suggests that it’s personal. Given the link established between your victims, it makes sense that the killer came from a family involved in similar lawsuits at some level—plaintiff, defendant, mother or father or siblings somehow impacted by an unfavorable ruling, perhaps. Somehow this tore away at something in the offender’s life, directly or indirectly.” Dobbs looked at Rauser. “This will be one of the things you’ll look at in a suspect’s past. Once you actually have a suspect, of course. Along with the other things Dr. Street has already listed, such as mobility of profession, maturity, only child, donations to children’s orgs, et cetera.”
“First victim and the last two victims triggered some kind of emotional response in the offender,” I pointed out. “Anne Chambers, the first victim we know about, experienced far more brutality than all the others until LaBrecque, the last one. What was the trigger? We know it wasn’t about some civil lawsuit. LaBrecque had none in his past and neither did Anne Chambers. Then there’s David Brooks, who was shown care and respect, killed quickly and apparently silently and tucked into a sheet. I have some theories, but that’s all they are at this point.”
“Oh, come now, Keye, let’s not be so modest.” Dobbs shook his head. “Toss them out. Perhaps they will lead us somewhere.”
“Okay, well, as you said, this kind of rage is usually about some personal connection. Because of the way Anne Chambers was killed, because her nipples were removed, which is all about Mommy, and she was sexually mutilated, I believe she’s representative of the mother figure in the offender’s life, of a very interruptive and intensely competitive relationship with the mother figure. David Brooks might represent a loved and desired father, or even an incestuous relationship with the father. Only Brooks was allowed to die without suffering. With the others, victim suffering was the turn-on. That says something vital about the killer’s pathology. Suffering’s all about anger excitation or sadism. Victim needs and desires aren’t important to him. Killing the victim is just another precautionary act. He’s just tidying up, really, and acting out his fantasies.”
“And what’s the fantasy again?” Rauser asked.
“The fantasy is undoubtedly complicated,” Dobbs answered, then used the index finger on each hand to rub his eyes. They were red when he was done. “The phrase ‘multi-determined’ was used in one of the letters and that’s very accurate. It’s about a lot of things—sex, revenge, eluding law enforcement, needing validation, involving journalists. Seeing his letters in the newspapers, hearing about what he’s done—that must feel almost as good as returning to the scene of his crime. And communicating with you both must really be a thrill. It feeds our man’s delusion that he’s on the inside, in the power structure, keeping you two in his intimate little circle. The circle must widen now that I’m here,” Dobbs added. “Wonder how that’s sitting with our killer.”
“You’re extremely visible,” I reminded Dobbs. “I would expect him to include you now in his communications.”
Dobbs bristled. “I remind you that I am visible because I am paid to be visible.”
Oh sure. No one would ever accuse you of showboating.
“So where does LaBrecque fit?” Rauser wanted to know.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “The selection processes we’ve identified, like the link to civil law, just doesn’t fit with LaBrecque. Whatever the link is to him is too