The Doll's House

‘But our guy isn’t some young kid, we know that. He’s been around the block, and possibly living a somewhat normal life up until now.’


‘Many people carrying pent-up anger or aggression do so under the radar. When they surface, it’s not unusual for others to say things like they would never have thought them capable of such an act. But someone capable of this level of violence will have displayed certain traits – egocentrism, impulsivity, paranoia, aggressiveness. The aggression may have raised its head already, through domestic violence or in other forms, and many cases of domestic violence are never reported and therefore go unnoticed.’

‘We’ve eradicated Johnny Keegan from our enquiries, but we can drag him back in again.’

‘It’s not him, O’Connor. He doesn’t fit. Our killer has much more than aggressive outbursts on his mind. He has an agenda.’

‘Great. Butler will love to hear that.’

‘I’m sorry I can’t be more specific. I need time. There are no shortcuts, O’Connor. In a way, it’s a bit like Morrison working out the cause of death, first establishing what didn’t cause it. Our man hasn’t arrived here overnight. There will have been tell-tale signs, but perhaps those signs are only apparent to those closest to him. On what we have so far, his modus operandi, the drowning, looks likely to be linked to the motivation. It’s giving him something, a form of payback, possibly feeding into his need to feel superior, in control of people and events, or it could be a form of compensation.’

‘Compensation for what?’

‘Loss, rejection, betrayal. Within a sense of failure, the list is endless. But he does have a plan. To him all this makes complete sense. He is utterly focused, determined, his mind contracted, and he won’t be deterred, unless, of course, he has already achieved what he wants.’

‘And if he hasn’t?’

‘He’ll keep going, doing whatever it takes. My guess is there’s more than one motivation at play here, O’Connor, and if our man was looking for information from Jimmy Gahan and didn’t get it, his sudden heart attack interfering with things, he’ll keep on looking.’

‘So what next, Kate?’

‘I don’t know, and neither can we be sure that other crimes aren’t going on.’

‘I don’t get you.’

‘The hotel receipt.’

‘What about it?’

‘It’s all too convenient. It links Jenkins to Gloria Sweetman. The killer could have wanted us to find it.’

‘I was thinking that too. I’m always suspicious of anything that comes easy.’

‘If Gahan was blackmailing Jenkins and it was connected to the model’s death, then Jenkins wouldn’t have been carrying the hotel receipt around in his pocket. He would have got rid of it a long time back.’

‘You’re thinking our guy is up to more than murder?’

‘There might even be more than one player involved. Someone else could be in the driving seat. The crime scenes are only part of the picture.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It’s a bit like how I break down my analysis of a crime scene for profiling purposes. Many think of the concept of a crime scene as a single location, but that’s not the case. There can be a variety of other locations, unknown or otherwise. There’s the first encounter, or subsequent encounter, with the victim, the assault, which in Jenkins’s case was the initial knife attack, and the location where the murder took place, and sometimes where the body is finally found. All four can be in separate locations. If we move our thinking out beyond simply murder, and as you know, we’ve already suspected blackmail, plus alleged financial wrongdoings, and who knows what else, we’re looking at any number of potential crime scenes and interconnecting events. Have you found out any more on Hamilton Holdings?’

O’Connor, let out an exhausted sigh. ‘Not so far, but the criminal-assets boys are on board. We should have something soon.’

‘All I’m saying, O’Connor, is that this case is stacking up to be more about what we don’t see than what we do.’

‘For a moment, let’s keep this simple. How is our killer operating?’

‘I told you, O’Connor, I have to go. I’ll put all of this in my report.’

‘I don’t have time to wait for it. You mentioned spree killings. How’s he seeking out his victims?’

‘There are four basic hunting typologies – hunter, poacher, troller and trapper.’

‘For less educated souls like me, Kate, what’s the difference?’

‘I’m not sure it’s going to help.’

‘Let me be the judge of that.’

‘A troller is someone involved in a non-predatory activity, who opportunistically encounters his victim, while a hunter will specifically set out to meet them. A trapper assumes a position facilitating his encounter with the victim, but a poacher will travel to find them.’

‘Our man has transport, so he could be a poacher?’

‘Maybe, but wherever he’s operating from, he’s not choosing on type. Nor is he accidentally encountering his victims.’

‘Meaning he’s displaying hunter and trapper type qualities.’