“Thanks,” Curtis said, then gave her the finger. “Can you see this?”
She suppressed a laugh. “Point is, he could dispatch someone to take her out. Depends on whether or not there’s anger behind his desire to kill her. If there is, he needs to do it because it’s personal. If shutting her up is a means to an end, and his real goal is to escape imprisonment, he’s probably looking to leave the country. I mentioned this to Rambo on our drive to Potter. Homeland Security and Border Patrol, that’s his playpen. He alerted his people. But right now, until Marcks can secure a way across the border, he’s hanging around Virginia. Which could mean he’s out to do Jasmine. Or not.”
“So are we thinking this is Marcks?” Hurdle asked.
“What about the vic’s genitals,” Johnson said. “Intact?”
“Yeah. And no knife marks on the abdomen.”
“But he was interrupted by that dog.” Vail rubbed her arms to get the blood moving. “I’m gonna go take a look at the body. Leslie, want to take a hike?”
They walked about fifty yards to the area that was lit up by Klieg lights powered by a portable generator that was making a considerable amount of noise. At the center of all the commotion was the medical examiner.
Vail and Johnson exchanged pleasantries with him, then Vail knelt over the body, taking a long look at the face and torso. She snapped a few photos.
What are we looking at here? Why this victim? He doesn’t fit the males who were killed during Marcks’s active killing period.
“What are you thinking?”
Johnson’s question pulled her out of her reverie. “Let’s head back, give me a few minutes to mull this over, then I can share it with everyone all at once.”
The task force members had retreated to the warmth of their vehicles. Upon Vail’s and Johnson’s return, they emerged and complained about the cold. Tarkoff and Morrison had arrived in the interim.
“What do you think?” Hurdle said. “This our guy?”
“If this is Marcks, the victimology doesn’t fit the men he targeted in the past. They were younger, blonds. Not educated, not successful. Easily controlled. I doubt a guy like this, with his expensive attire, is easily controlled. He’s probably someone accustomed to giving orders, not taking them.”
“Marcks has been in prison for what, seven years?” Tarkoff said. “Things change. Preferences change.”
Vail cocked her head. “There are always exceptions, but generally speaking, that’s not how it goes. These preferences are hardwired. They’re innate, it’s part of who we are—just like homosexuality, or heterosexuality, is not a choice we make. But how you decide to commit your crimes, and what you do with the victims, what you do to—and with—their bodies, how you treat them, that’s personal; that type of development occurs in adolescence, in that abnormal fusion of sex, violence, and arousal. It’s different for everybody.”
“I always thought what these assholes do to their victims is a conscious decision,” Curtis said.
“Offenders don’t understand why they’re doing it; they just know that it’s what they like. So yes, they’re aware of what they’re doing. They’re doing it because they like it; they fantasize about these things and start by acting out their fantasies with inanimate objects, pets, compliant partners like prostitutes. The ones that go on to become killers, they take it to the next level because playacting is not enough. It doesn’t satisfy the need. They cross that line because they need a victim that resists, one that forces them to exert control.
“So while what they do with the bodies varies, victim preference is fairly consistent. Some offenders prefer elderly women; some want children; some want young men, like Gacy. Some want young men in their late teens or early twenties, like Dahmer.
“Now, what these offenders do with that victim is up to them in terms of what excites them; Dahmer wasn’t interested in a living victim but a dead one. All of his interaction with the victim, everything that he did to the body—which was very important to him—he did after the victim was dead. For other offenders, it’s all about what he can do while the victim is alive. The torture is the key. Gacy was aroused by the torture aspect. But once the victim was dead, he had zero interest. At that point, he got rid of the body. So while Dahmer and Gacy both had a preference for young males, they were completely different in how they went about their business. Their psychopathology was different.”
“So why does Marcks cut off the genitalia?” Tarkoff asked. “Part of his fantasy?”