Sugar & Spice (18 page)

82

Dunst moved back to a large whiteboard and selected a purple marker, writing up
salient points as he spoke, linking items with coarse arrows.
“What we have so far is the sexual assault and murder of three girls. I stress
girls. Female. The killer is, therefore, a heterosexual male. All three girls
were prepubescent. Again, I stress the point. The oldest was nearly eleven, but
physically undeveloped. The others, obviously, younger and smaller. What does
that tell us? Anyone?”
“That he’s a sick bastard and wants castrating.”
“I was thinking of something a little more subtle.”
“He’s frightened of women?”
“That’s better. Now you’re thinking. Not necessarily frightened, but certainly
uneasy about them. There are two main schools of thought on this. One is that
the suspect is unable to control his sex drive, perhaps due to an organic
problem – an hormonal imbalance, brain damage, or some such. But the murders are
quite methodical, so I incline towards the second, psychological premise. That
the suspect has a problem relating to women, is inexperienced in sexual matters
and may well have had a bad experience at some stage which has turned him
against the opposite sex. Domineering mothers are the classic, of course. We’ve
all seen the film Psycho. So it’s safe to say that somehow he needs to exercise
control over his victims, to exert his own sexuality over theirs. That’s a
traditional rapist scenario. With children it may be also a matter of size.”
“What, you mean he’s got a tiny dick?”
A rumble of laughter ran through the room. Weisman glowered at the comedian in
the second row.
Dunst smiled indulgently. “I was thinking perhaps an overall lack of physical
stature. It may be that the killer simply doesn’t have the physical strength to
tackle adult women, so he preys on children instead. Again the age group
involved would lean towards this hypothesis. The girls are very much helpless
children, but even so there is evidence that they were further restrained before
and during the assault, as indicated by the marks to their wrists. The need for
total control over the victim is a clear and recurrent trait in this case, as in
so many. Sex crimes are rarely about sex. They’re about control. Dominance.
Power.”
“But none of the kids were actually raped.”
“Good point. Now I’m a psychologist, not a forensic scientist. My role is to
collate the available information and try and get some order from it. As I
understand it there was interference of some sort in all three cases, though
almost certainly not by the assailant’s penis. The post-mortem nsertion of the
calling-card rather implies a form of substitute rape. What is not in question
is that the bodies of the victims were thoroughly cleaned, probably post-mortem,
before being disposed of. Any ideas?”
“Washing away the semen, if he masturbated over them?”
“Possibly, yes. But what does that tell us about the assailant?”
There was a collective shrugging of shoulders, the less experienced among the
audience genuinely at a loss, the more worldly-wise unwilling to pander to
Dunst’s school-masterly overtures.
“What about saliva? Skin tissues? Externally there were indications of oral
and tactile manipulation, on the breasts and torso. In each case the child’s
body had been cleaned, using a soap solution. Imperial Leather, I believe, was
identified. The hair had been brushed and plaited, and the genitals thoroughly
cleaned.”
“Like an enema, you mean?”
“Exactly.”
“Maybe he’s a rogue doctor. A paedophile paediatrician.”
A few laughs erupted at the alliterative humour and private conversations began
to spring up. They were getting restless. Dunst let them talk, gesturing to
Weisman to assure him he had things under control. He rapped twice on the table
with his knuckles and the room slowly fell silent.
“Okay, I appreciate you’re impatient. You want to be out there doing
something, not sitting in here listening to my waffle. So let’s get to the
point.”
His smile vanished. His tone became serious.

83

Dunst peered around the room. “What we’re looking for is a mid-thirties white
male, slight in stature, with previous convictions for indecency involving
minors.”
The floor was silent, all eyes pinned on the speaker.
“He may have a marine background, possibly naval, but certainly associated
with boats, and is currently either self-employed as a sole trader of some sort,
or more likely working in a semi-skilled job involving shift work or casual
labour. He may at one time have held a delivery job and certainly still drives.
He owns a van, probably a white Transit. Windowless. Between five and ten years
old, in reasonable repair, current MOT, tax and insurance, but he may have false
number plates. He’s right-handed, of no more than average intelligence,
unmarried, no children, and lives alone, in rented accommodation. A small
apartment or flat. Not a house and not a bedsit. Probably near or, very likely,
overlooking a school or play park.”
Dunst scanned the audience, pleased to see their wary expressions.
“Our suspect comes from a large family, the youngest of probably six children,
and the only boy among five sisters. He’s clean and tidy in appearance, a neat
but not fashionable dresser. Short hair. Clean shaven, but possibly a moustache.
He’s likely to have a small group of male friends who he meets in bars on a
regular basis, but no close friends and no significant female associates. He
probably drinks heavily and may have convictions for drink-driving offences as
well as the history of sexual misdemeanours already referred to.”
Several hands were up but Dunst chose to ignore them. “I suggest the suspect
lives in either the north-east of the country or the south-west. He did not know
his victims and did not plan the abductions in advance in any detail, but may be
a former resident of one or both areas. The victims were assaulted close to the
sites of abduction, in the rear of the van he drives. He only removes them from
the van to dispose of their bodies. I can say categorically that this man will
go on killing until he is caught.”
The hands had come down by now, the audience stunned by the audacity of the
barrage of detail thrown at them. As he stopped a few hands hesitantly rose
again, but came down abruptly as Weisman stood up, beaming, delighted with the
showmanship. His bringing Dunst in on the investigation had been clearly
vindicated. He shot a smug glance Pitman, surprised to see his DI looking
sceptical.
“Colin, that’s a quite stunning statement you’ve just made. You’ve obviously
devoted a lot of time and energy considering the evidence, to produce such a
concise profile scenario. I make no secret of the fact that I’m impressed. Very
impressed. But I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that the reasoning behind much
of your analysis totally escapes me. Perhaps you’d care to explain the reasoning
behind it, for the benefit of us mere mortals?”
“My pleasure.”
Weisman sat down and Dunst took centre stage again, this time with their
undivided attention. He circled the core points on the whiteboard as he
explained each one.
“Male, slight in stature, I’ve already explained. White? Because the victims
were. In my experience blacks and coloureds are not inclined to sexual assaults
across racial divides. As a rule of thumb white men will attack black or white
women, but not vice versa. The main exception, strangely, appears to be assaults
on older women. Sex attacks on elderly white females are very often committed by
young black men. Carlton Gary, the Stocking Strangler in Georgia in the
seventies is probably the best known. Closer to home we have Kenneth Erskine,
our very own Stockwell Strangler, and more recently of course Adrian Babb in
Birmingham.”
“No accounting for coons!”
Weisman glared across the room, making a mental note of the offending officer.
Dunst beamed around the room, enjoying the attention. “The killer’s attention
to detail in cleaning the body may be a hygiene fixation of some sort. Maybe
OCD. Certainly he’s likely to be very clean himself. He uses Imperial Leather,
an up-market brand. Someone unconcerned with personal hygiene will make do with
the first cheap bar of soap they come to on the supermarket shelf. But the
hygiene concern here, especially the cleansing of the bodies, is almost
certainly indicative of familiarity with forensic methods. That suggests someone
who has previously been convicted of an offence in which forensics played a
part. Something like indecent assault, which we can reasonably suppose attracted
a short custodial sentence. So if he was a teenager when first arrested he’d
likely be at least in his twenties by now.”
He scanned his audience. “From experience we know the propensity to sexual
assault declines with middle-age; so, in his mid-twenties to late thirties,
maximum. This being a ritual killing again suggests an older man. Teen crimes,
especially sex murders, are very uncontrolled affairs – impulsive. Sex crimes
tend to manifest themselves in the teen years and then develop thereafter. The
murders here show a man in control of himself. Experienced. At ease with the
gruesome nature of the task. So I opt for late thirties. Which brings us to the
van.”
“The white van? Taxed and insured, with a current MOT? Do us a favour, Guv.
There’s no way on Earth you can know that.”
Dunst beamed a patronising smile. “On the contrary, it’s quite simple.”

84

“Now, you must appreciate these rituals take time. They must be carried out
somewhere he feels secure. Normally we might presume he takes his victims to his
home, but clearly the distance involved between the two rules that out.”
Dunst paused to clean his glasses. Then, “I believe he assaults his victims in
the same vehicle used to abduct them. The forensics’ estimate of the height
the girls were tied indicates a compact space. A cellar was suggested, but I
would suggest a transit van might explain the evidence better. Obviously the
suspect is mobile, to get round the country as he does, and I favour a
windowless vehicle for obvious reasons. It would enable him to grab his target
and drive away quickly without fear of the child drawing attention to herself
until she could be tied more securely.”
“Not an ice-cream van then?”
“Categorically not. He’s nostupid.”
“But a white van? With MOT and insurance?”
“Nothing mysterious about that. The last thing he wants to do is attract
attention to himself, especially if he’s driving around the country with an
abducted child in the back. White vans are so common no-one would give it a
second glance. The tax disc is clearly visible. Not to have one would invite
interest from your uniformed colleagues, and might be picked up by number-plate
recognition cameras. To tax a vehicle you first require an MOT and insurance
certificate. It’s that simple. As for the vehicle’s age, that’s a rough
estimate. Five to ten years old. Given his likely income – serial killers tend
to come from lower income groups, though there have been notable exceptions –
it’s reasonable to suppose he can’t afford a new vehicle. But too old a van and
he runs the risk of breakdown, with all the attendant problems. Not very helpful
when he’s driving around the country, presumably using the motorway network. So
a vehicle in that age group, in reasonable repair, is likely.”
He printed the salient points on the board as he spoke. “A marine background
is indicated by several counts, not least the knots used to secure the girls,
consistent with someone experienced with ropes. Naval? A strong possibility.
Inexperience with women I’ve previously mentioned. Obviously someone spending
time at sea might reasonably have such problems. Also there’s the disposal of
the bodies in water. Collectively they suggest a link of sorts. Right handed,
you know from forensic. Again the knots confirmed.”
“How about his job then?”
“Several pointers. The three abductions occurred in day-time, on a Friday, a
Sunday and a Monday. Dumping the bodies obviously took place by dark, so I
favour shift work with 'long weekends’ or casual labour. That kind of mobility
suggests either self-employment or more likely shift employment, giving a few
clear days to go out, commit the offence, dispose of the evidence, and get back
to his job.”
“But he’s not an ice-cream man?”
“Not now, but there may be a past link somewhere. Obviously he’s employed,
because he can afford to travel over quite a distance. So far there is a
geographical line we can draw roughly from south-east England to north-east
Wales, with body disposal very roughly along the M1-M6 routes. As said, the
victims are spontaneously selected. Ritual killings of this nature are
invariably by strangers, while impulse killings conversely are more likely to be
committed by someone known to the assailant. The bizarre ritual he carries out
suggests a total depersonalisation of the victim, post-mortem, though he may
attempt to relate to them in some way before the final, fatal assault. Again,
ritual killings tend to occur on the suspect’s home ground. Familiar territory.
It’s possible therefore that, in the past, the suspect has been a local
resident. But he doesn’t assault where he lives now. Given the care he’s taken
to avoid leaving forensic anything useful, it’s reasonable to suppose he’s known
to the police in his home area, so probably lives away from the area where he
commits the crime. If his next attack takes place in say the south-west we could
therefore reasonably direct attention to the eastern part of the country.”
“Why should he know the area?”
“Confidence of the abduction, in broad daylight, suggests familiarity; that
he’s identified quiet roads and easy routes out. All of the abductions take
place close to main A-class roads. Drinking and driving? Anyone with an
inferiority complex is likely to take solace in being one of the lads down the
local, drinking heavily. Given that he knows the country quite well, or at least
the belt we’ve identified, he may have had a driving job in the past. Possibly
lost through a drink driving conviction. I don’t believe he works as a driver
now. Any firm employing someone to drive around the country would want to use
the opportunity to advertise. Any trade-marked vehicle is likely to have
registered on the mind of someone near the scene. We have nothing. Therefore it
seems certain the vehicle is privately owned, by the suspect. An anonymous white
van. False plates are of course a possibility, although we shouldn’t over
estimate his intelligence and abilities, but it’s a precaution he may have
thought of. A defunct set could be easily obtained from a car breaker’s yard.”
“Unmarried, without children?”
“Again, in keeping with the broad sex offender profile. If he’s not had many
relationships with a woman then he’s less likely to have fathered a child.”
“He’s a virgin?”
“Not necessarily. But he’s probably obliged to resort to teen prostitutes and,
given the age of his victims, to heavy masturbation fantasies about younger
girls. Return to the scene of the crime for that purpose is well documented.
Given that the third girl was abducted so soon after the second, within a
relatively short distance, it may be that he stayed in North Wales to relive the
second assault, and was then excited to the point where he felt compelled to
strike again.”
“But there was only the one girl killed here.” It was a reference to
Rebecca’s abduction, just a few miles from where they were now sat.
“I would guess he returned here, after killing the first girl, and to Rhyl
after the third, but on those occasions was able to satisfy himself with the
memory. Or maybe the opportunity just never arose. Obviously finding a young
child in a secluded place with no one else about is very much a game of chance
for him. Again, the fact that he hasn’t attacked close to schools or parks
suggests he’s especially wary of being caught, and so almost certainly he has
form.”
“Why leave a calling card?”
“That’s a difficult one. It might be some form of a challenge to the police.
Or there may be some reasoning we cannot yet fathom. The ice-cream logo is
probably symbolic. An ejaculating penis? As he kills again and the evidence
accumulates it may become clearer.”
There was a sobered silence to this observation.
Dunst put on a reassuring smile. “Any more questions?”
“What colour boxer shorts does he wear?”
Over the laughter Dunst replied, “He doesn’t. He wears white Y-fronts,
purchased from M&S. Think about it.”
He looked to his host for support and Weisman stood on cue.
“Alright, men. You know what you’re looking for. Let’s haul this sick
bastard in.”