“The subordinate watches or has a minimal role,” Vail said. “It could be because he’s learning, or he doesn’t have the confidence he needs. Or he’s just naturally a beta and doesn’t have it in him to lead. Or he doesn’t have what it takes to kill but he enjoys interacting with the body afterward.”
“It’s much easier to evaluate if there are two victims,” Rooney said. “The behaviors exhibited with each victim would likely be very different—and more recognizable to us. For example, let’s say both victims are sexually assaulted. Offender A kills his victim first and then has sex with the body, but Offender B first has sex with the victim and then kills her.”
“I’m not sure which is more sick,” Hurdle said.
Vail tucked some hair behind her right ear. “The different cutting pattern on victim nine could indicate that Marcks, the alpha, was letting the beta, Gaines—if we’re buying into his involvement—have his turn after doing the kill.” But then there are the fires. “That said, if we consider the arsons, most of them occurred while Marcks was in custody. But the others were set after he escaped.” She nodded. “If the arsons were done by the same guy, that’d mean we’re definitely dealing with two offenders.”
Hurdle walked over to a window and parted the slats of the miniblind. “What kind of thing would we look for in Gaines’s background to know if he’s a ‘candidate’ for this kind of violence? Assuming Marcks has a partner, how do we know if Gaines is the guy? How do we know it’s not someone else?”
“Without standard forensics,” Vail said, “it’s tough. We have to make reasonable inferences based on the behavioral and physical and forensic evidence, as well as some assumptions. But if the second set of cuts are indeed what I think they are, then they’re both mutilators.”
“You mentioned mutilators earlier,” Curtis said. “What exactly does that mean, other than the obvious—that he mutilates?”
“Robert Ressler was the lead author on an article about murderers and mutilation. They defined mutilation as the deliberate cutting of the sexual areas of the body—breasts, genitals, and abdomen. Almost 70 percent of murderers who were sexually abused as children mutilate their victims after death—and the number rises to almost 80 percent for those who were sexually victimized as adolescents.”
“So if we’re playing the percentages,” Rooney said, “we’d expect to see sexual abuse in Gaines’s childhood and/or adolescence. Obviously, just because someone was sexually abused as a child or youth doesn’t mean they grow up to become sexual sadists who murder on a vast scale and mutilate their victims.”
“We know Marcks was sexually abused as an adolescent,” Hurdle said.
“Don’t know much about Gaines yet,” Vail said, “other than what’s on his sheet.”
“I’ll ask Johnson to look into it.” Curtis took a few steps toward the bedroom. “Yo, Johnson!”
She entered with a contorted face. “You rang, sir?”
Vail stifled a smile as Curtis explained what they needed.
“Can you handle that?”
“I can handle that. Now can I get back to what I was doing?”
As she walked out, Vail said, “Sexually abused offenders are also highly likely to have sexual conflicts, sexual dysfunction of some kind, and sexual incompetence. Those would be harder to determine without actually interviewing Gaines himself, unless he confided in someone at some point.”
“We can try finding that person,” Curtis said, “if he or she exists. But I don’t think we can count on that.”
“Hang on a minute. Just a hunch, but Gaines was picked up on a solicitation charge, right?” Vail pulled out her phone and started dialing. “I’m gonna see if Tarkoff can dig a little deeper, find out who the prostitute was. If we can locate her, she may be able to give us something on their interaction.”
“Find a prostitute?” Hurdle asked. “Bit of a long shot, no?”
“Maybe not. If I’m right, the prostitute will be male—in which case we can put our undercovers on this, the ones who’re working the gay bars. But if it’s a woman, we might be able to get something from her. If Gaines’s conflicted about his sexuality, he might’ve gone to a female prostitute to prove to himself he was heterosexual. Maybe he had a hard time performing.”
Rooney pursed his lips. “Worth looking into.”
Vail elbowed him. “I think you’ve kept me in suspense long enough. What’d you want to tell me? When you called.”
Rooney chuckled. “Sorry. This morning I ran a search in VICAP for offenders who used anesthesia during the commission of their crimes,” he said, referring to the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program database. “And I found something rather surprising. There was a case where the UNSUB used ether.”
Vail shrugged. “That offender isn’t the first, or only, one to use an anesthetic.”
“Ah, but it’s the only one that Thomas Underwood handled. Before he was a profiler. Right before the BSU was started, in fact.”
“That was Underwood’s case?” Where’s he going with this? “There’s more, isn’t there?”