The Lady Killer (2 page)

“Well, it’s going to make even less sense after you see this.”

She could tell by the anguished look on his face that it was pretty bad. “Why, what have we got? The Captain said that there was a second body.”

“Yeah, there’s a dead security guard.”

“Show me what you have so far.”

As they walked through the entrance of the building, she could see a dead body lying at the foot of the stairs in a pool of blood. He looked young and appeared to be unarmed. One, bare, light bulb shined dimly in the center of a huge, empty, warehouse floor.

“I didn’t see a security vehicle outside, Murphy, was he on foot?”

“Apparently this group of buildings is owned by the same company. The car is parked in the street on the other side of the complex. It looks like he was doing rounds on foot, when he must have surprised the killer. I’ve contacted the security company he worked for, but no one will be in the office until nine. Right now they only have a dispatch person working the phones, and she doesn’t know who the owners are.”

“Great, we finally have a witness who might have actually seen this guy, and he’s not alive to tell us anything. The good news is that psycho boy might be getting careless. Maybe he didn’t know the building was patrolled. Everything so far has been abandoned and deserted. He has to make a mistake eventually.”

“For everyone’s sake, let’s hope so. CSU is still working on the scene upstairs. So far, nothing is different about the body condition. There is the usual pile of cigarette butts, but this time there’s a pentagram drawn on the floor.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Last time there was a bride’s veil, the time before that a broom, and the time before that a mirror.”

“Yeah, and the first time it was a baby doll with its eyes poked out, followed by a bible. These have to be things left to confuse us. Just like the fact that there are no prints or DNA on anything, other than the butts, and they all belong to different guys.”

“Do we have an ID on the guard and the victim?”

“Yes to both. The security guard still had his wallet. The woman is Sheila Lawson. I have a unit on its way over to her apartment, to see if anyone is home or knows anything about where she was last night. My guess is that we’ll find she lived alone, just like all the rest of them. Same MO. Her purse was left, but all of her clothes are missing.”

“Good work, Murphy. For a new guy you’re amazingly thorough. I really didn’t want a newbie on our team, but Detective Burns said you were okay.”

“I may be new to being a homicide detective, but I’ve been a cop for seven years. I always put myself in the shoes of their families. I think about what I would want to have done, if it was my loved one who was the victim. With this guy’s MO, I wouldn’t wish him on my worst enemy.”

“Has anyone been sent to the guard’s family? He was just a kid.”

“Yes, I took care of that also.”

They walked toward the stairs and looked at the guard’s lifeless body. Laura noticed that his flashlight was still lit. It had rolled slightly away from his hand when he fell; leaving an eerie reflection on the boy’s face, from the side door it was illuminating. They were just bringing in the body bag to take him away. He had been shot once in the chest with a large caliber bullet, which had probably destroyed the heart instantly.

His life was just starting, and it had ended so soon. She wondered if he had a girlfriend or a mother who was crying at that very moment. Again, she thought about her own relationship barren life and considered herself lucky. If she had been the one to walk into this guy’s path, no one would feel the pain of her passing, and it would eliminate her worries about the nursing home. Somehow she took comfort in that thought, and it made doing her job easier.

“How was he found, Murphy? Was someone else on duty with him?”

“No, a homeless guy found him, ran out to the street and flagged down help.”

“Do we have the homeless guy here?”

“No, the black and white team didn’t bother to hold him, once they saw the scene upstairs. The guy was scared to death, and he hadn’t even seen the really bad part, just the guard.”

Her eyes rolled back, and she got an exasperated look on her face. “Please tell me that they at least questioned him as to whether he saw anyone else.”

“Yes, he didn’t see a thing. They said he was drunk, clueless and pretty shaken up. He was just looking for a safe place to sleep, so they got him a ride to the nearest shelter.”

“I guess we’ve put it off long enough. It’s time to look at the second body.”

Dan cringed at the thought of going up those stairs. “You take the lead. I just can’t get used to the condition we find these women in.”

She gave him a sideways glance. “And you think I can?”

“For all the years that I worked drugs and robbery, I saw my share of dead bodies from overdoses and burglaries gone wrong, but I never saw anything as terrible as this. I thought maybe you were more used to it than me. How many years have you worked Homicide?”

“Twenty. And I’ve never seen anything as horrific as this!”

At the top of the stairs, she gazed across the floor and spotted a familiar face. Dr. Ralph Foote was the ME on duty that morning. He was a peculiar, little man with wiry, blonde hair and a dry sense of humor. She was very fond of him. Somehow he managed to make these scenes seem less gruesome with his direct, no-nonsense approach and professionalism.

“Good morning, Ralph. We have to stop meeting like this. People will start to talk.”

“Detective Peterson, I presume. I wish you would catch this sick bastard! These scenes are starting to give me nightmares, and that isn’t easy. I’m pretty weird, you know.”

“I think you like to perpetrate weird rumors, but deep down I know you’re a softy at heart.”

“You aren’t trying to spoil my reputation, are you?”

“No, just calling it like I see it.”

They laughed, each knowing that the playful banter they exchanged was just a sign of respect and a way of trying to ease a difficult situation. Ralph had been doing his job successfully for thirty years. She knew that there was no better person to have on this case. He had been the ME for the other five bodies, and now they were on their sixth. He was aware of the pressure she was under. “Captain Rutledge must really be on your tail about this one!”

“You know he is! But with as much understanding as possible, considering who’s on his tail. This is a difficult time for all of us, Ralph. Everyone is on edge and anxious for it to be over. What do we have so far, anything different?”

“No, the body’s in the same brutal condition as the others. Tied wrists to ankles behind the back and suspended naked from a rafter. The only variation is the type of rope, this time yellow nylon line was used. The mouth and nose have been glued shut with duct tape over the mouth. A large dildo was inserted in the rectum and nipples clamped with clothespins. He waits until they are dead from asphyxiation, presumably to watch them suffer, and then slits their throats and wrists, just to make sure he leaves no witnesses. The same predictable pile of cigarette butts was left by the body. They will probably yield a different DNA than all of the other crime scenes, which will lead us to a man who has nothing to do with these deaths. He seems to like to waste our time and effort, not to mention throw suspicion on some innocent guy.”

“They might not be guilty of these crimes, but they’re not exactly innocent. Every one of them has a record of abuse toward women, just like the real killer. Makes me wonder what connection he has to these men. There’s a large amount of blood under the body this time. That’s something new. Usually there’s hardly any.”

“Yes, I’m assuming that the guard interrupted the ritual, so the slitting of the throat had to happen sooner than planned. Therefore, the asphyxiation wasn’t complete, and the heart was still pumping some blood. Unfortunately, this probably angered our friend, and I suspect that he will strike again sooner because he wasn’t completely fulfilled this time.”

“God, I hope not! No sign of sexual assault?”

“There never is with this guy, but I won’t be sure until I get the body back to the morgue. He is either paranoid about his DNA or impotent. If he used condoms, then there would be some latex residue in the vagina and probably some tearing of the tissue.”

Laura was so over this guy! “Maybe he stands there with a condom on and jerks off. If this crime isn’t sexual in nature, then why the dildo? It seems like classic S and M, bondage and torture to me, with very sexual overtones. Yet we never find signs of him releasing any semen. If it’s just punishment he’s after, there are less sexual ways to torture someone. I would be willing to bet that this guy owns a bunch of those sadistic, extreme-bondage videos that you find in porn stores!”

“That’s very enlightening! I always wondered how you spent your days off.”

“Funny man! My ex used to drag me into them, always in the guise of finding a gift for one of his friends. Some of the stuff I saw in those stores should definitely be outlawed!”

“There is a theory that if men are sitting at home watching, they aren’t out on the street doing.”

“Maybe, but if I see someone eating something good in a movie, I have to stop the video and go make some for myself. Personally, I think pornography just magnifies urges.”

“So you think this guy gave up watching and started doing?”

“Something like that. And what’s with the pentagram? There’s been something left behind at all of the scenes, although this is the first one that can’t be carried away. It’s drawn permanently on the floor.”

“Do you think that’s significant in some way, Laura?”

“Who knows? This guy is a total mystery, but every item in the past has been something we can carry away with us to the lab. Have CSU take a sample of the paint.”

Ralph gave her a slight nod. “Will do, you never know what will make a difference down the road. Sometimes it’s the smallest clues that crack the biggest cases.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to make that sound like an order. I’m just so on edge with this case.”

“We all are. It doesn’t look like he has any intentions of stopping any time soon, huh?”

“No, and that’s why I have nightmares. I go for lunch and look at the women around me. I think to myself that any one of them could be the next victim. How do I stop him? How do I keep them safe? When I drive down the street after dark and see a woman walking by herself, I wonder what she can be thinking.”

Ralph shrugged. “She probably doesn’t think it will happen to her.”

“It would be my guess that none of these women thought it would happen to them either.”

“Hmmmmm, you’re probably right. After I do the workup, I’ll let you know time of death, and if I find anything new or different.”

“Thanks, Ralph. I can’t think of anyone I would rather have working on this with me.”

She left Dr. Foote to his work and walked over to Detective Murphy. He was standing in the middle of the floor with a look of anguish on his face, which she could totally understand. She put her hand gently on his shoulder. “Hey, I’m heading out. I’ll meet you back at the precinct.”

He turned and looked her in the eyes. “Have you really seen porn videos like this?”

“I’ve never seen the actual videos, just the covers. But if they put scenes that ugly on the front, the videos inside must be much worse! If there is enough call for this sort of thing to make videos about it, there must be a great number of sick guys out there. Right now, I just want to get this one sicko off of the streets!”

“Do you think I will ever get used to this?”

“I certainly hope not! What this guy does isn’t something anyone should have to get used to.”

CHAPTER 3

N
ow came the hard part, putting all the evidence together and doing the research. Sheila Lawson was a paralegal for a downtown law firm. As was suspected, she lived alone. None of her fellow workers could think of anyone who might have meant her harm.

After getting a search warrant for Sheila’s apartment, Detectives Peterson and Murphy headed over there to look for clues. The first thing they did was talk to the superintendant of the building. He identified three of the keys on her ring as one for the front door, one for her apartment and one for her car, which was still in the garage downstairs. He said that he hadn’t noticed anything suspicious over the last couple of weeks, but Sheila didn’t spend much time at home. She left around eight in the morning, and he didn’t know what time she got home, but it was after he was in for the night.