CHAPTER NINE
A second killing meant another life lost and a killer probably getting better and bolder at his deadly game.
A second killing meant that they had to scale up the investigation on all fronts, without scaled-up funding.
A second killing meant they were hunting a serial killer, who might be sizing up a third victim whilst they struggled to make progress on murders one and two.
In the movies, the serial killer always got too ambitious; the more they killed, the greater the likelihood of them slipping up and getting captured.
But actually, it worked the other way. The bigger the body count, the less able anyone was to bring them to justice.
If it was possible to say there was a plus-side, then it was all down to the boss, Assistant Director Winters.
She had argued their case with the notoriously grudging Resourcing Unit and they'd been given a proper base from which to run their operation.
It was a relatively low-status office, down in the basement of the NYC field office, in between Broadway and the Brooklyn Bridge, with a single window looking out on trash cans, and a persistent smell of hot rubber.
It was still light-years better than working out of a cramped and stuffy hotel room, though, or begging space in a chaotic police precinct.
The desks were big, the lights bright, the coffee bearable, and that was really all they needed.
‘How soon before we get the lab results?’ Marcus asked.
Kate sighed. ‘I guess I’m going to have to chase. I hate speaking to that team.’
‘There’s a kind of comfort in knowing that forensic techs are exactly the same, all over the world,’ Marcus said, with a dry smile. ‘It’s like dentists. They all say, “You might feel a bit of pressure now” just before they do something that sends you right up the wall.’
Chen appeared with coffees and a box of donuts. That was the other upside. The NYPD officer had joined the team for the duration of the investigation. Although it had to be said, she didn’t look too happy about that right now.
'I had to argue for like ten minutes with the guy on the desk,' she fumed. 'Tell me, why is it that wherever you are in the world, the person on the reception desk is a total…' She frowned. 'What's so funny?'
‘We were just saying the same thing,’ Kate explained. ‘What news?’
‘Well, now we’ve got two victims, we can look for intersections.
Galleries, exhibitions, acquaintances, events.
Want to double up on that?’ She pointed to Marcus.
He grinned back. It was a tiny interaction that Kate didn’t miss.
Her partner could be quite a flirt. She wondered if that habit of his could have played a role in his recent quarrel with Cheryl. There were two sides to every break-up…
‘Good,’ Kate said. ‘And I’m going to call Forensics.’
‘Good luck with that.’
She rang the forensic team, hoping and praying she’d get Bethany, the administrative assistant. Bethany was friendly; she remembered your name, she enquired after your health, said upbeat, helpful things like “sure will” and “let’s do that” and “good morning”.
Bethany wasn’t there. It was Moira who answered, one of the overworked techs. Kate introduced herself and explained the reason for her call, all to a chilly silence from the other end.
‘I just wanted an idea of when we might be expecting the results on Exhibits KV9110 and KV 9111…’
Silence.
‘Hello?’
‘You didn’t complete Form 109E,’ growled the voice on the other end. It sounded breathless, as if its owner had just been interrupted in the midst of strangling a rabbit.
‘I’m certain that we did, because I-’
‘It wasn’t included,’ Moira interrupted.
‘Okay, well something seems to have gone awry…’
‘Not at our end it didn’t.’
Jeez. What is wrong with this woman?
‘Can I fill another one in now?’ Kate asked, trying to match her rudeness to Moira’s.
Moira cleared her throat noisily; it sounded like a sealion. ‘It’s not optional. You’ll have to. Online. And you’ll also need to file Form ZF67B to certify that incorrect paperwork was previously submitted.’
‘But it wasn’t-’
Kate’s words were interrupted by a sharp click. Moira had hung up on her.
Heart banging, her cheeks flushed with anger, Kate managed to find the relevant form on the intranet, and started to fill it out.
How dare that woman talk to her like that?
She was rude, so darned rude, it was almost funny.
Well, it would have been funny, if this wasn’t a double murder investigation.
As it was, two people had lost their lives in the most terrifying, ugly way possible.
They were survived by people who had loved them and cared for them.
Who deserved answers about their loved ones’ deaths, and had the right to see justice done.
Where did Moira get off, treating a colleague like that?
Could she honestly not see the bigger picture?
Kate kept thinking she should break off filling in Form 109E and file a lengthy complaint against Moira. It would give her great, deep joy.
‘What did your keyboard do to you?’ Marcus called across, the question interrupting her private rant. Kate realised she’d been typing a bit too heavily. Each finger-stroke had been a jab to Moira’s over-large, perpetually scowling head. She gave an apologetic wave and then continued, more gently.
It took her around half an hour and two glazed donuts to complete the dumb-ass forms and send them to Winters for countersignature.
At least she could be sure of one thing.
Even though Winters moved at the speed of light, the boss was exceedingly thorough and reliable.
She'd see the paperwork, sign off on it, and send it back; Kate was fully confident of that.
With the email sent, she took a look at the whiteboard, which her colleagues had filled with a considerable amount of writing.
‘You guys have been busy,’ she said, trying not to sound jealous. All she’d managed was to get one single bit of bureaucratic driftwood off of her desk. She scooted over to them in her chair.
‘We found a few intersections,’ Marcus said. ‘Going back several years. Like in 2020, both Ashworth and Vasquez were runners-up for the Plessy Prize.’
‘That’s the art prize that gets sillier and sillier every year, right?’
'Yep,' Chen confirmed. 'Last year, the winning artwork was a can of tuna.'
‘In 2020, it was a three-piece gentleman’s suit made from dollar bills,’ Marcus added. ‘But both of our pair came in for some heavy criticism from another contestant, Robyn Cope.’
‘Even getting onto the Plessy shortlist is a coup for up-and-coming artists. And Cope didn’t make it onto the shortlist,’ said Chen.
‘He got lit at the awards ceremony, said certain works belonged on a bonfire, along with their creators. Mentioned Ashworth specifically, alluded to Vasquez, talking about ‘porno icons’. Police initially charged him with making threats, but the case was dropped. I’m trying to find out what happened to him after that. ’
‘Doesn’t that sound a bit excessive, charging the guy?’ Kate wondered. ‘I mean, it’s not a great thing to say but… freedom of speech and all that.’
‘The devil’s in the detail. He said that in the past, the proper treatment for heretics was burning at the stake. He also said that, in certain parts of the world, people like the winner and the shortlisters would be summarily executed, and it was a pity America had gotten so soft.’
‘Ok. That ain’t nice.’
‘Both Ashworth and Vasquez featured in a major Time magazine piece in 2022, entitled “All Hail The Iconoclasts”. It showcased the work and ideas of six controversial artists.’ Marcus consulted his notes.
‘The Catholic Morality Foundation and the Christian Values League joined forces to sue the publication and the individual artists. They lost the case and a lot of money… which could be an angle. Both organisations are known to have wealthy backers, the sort of people who don’t like losing. ’
‘We need to talk to the other four artists,’ Kate said. ‘It’s possible the killer’s going to target them.’
'It's on the To-Do list,' Chen confirmed.
'Last up… last year, both artists appeared in a feature-length documentary called 'The Shock of the New'.
The film picked up tons of awards.' Chen shook her head.
'Beats me why – it's almost 200 minutes long, and a whole chunk of it seems to be them and a couple of other artists arguing with Helen Morrison. '
‘Who is she?’
'Controversial art historian at Columbia.
A very vocal critic of the sort of work Ashworth and Vasquez are best known for.
She published a paper citing their work, amongst others, as the systemic undermining of Western Christian values.
And she's another one who mounted an unsuccessful lawsuit – this time against the film-makers, arguing that they'd edited key sections to make her seem like a religious nut. '
‘Sounds like… I don’t know, guys, does she sound particularly dangerous to you?’
Marcus started typing on his laptop. ‘The most controversial scene from the documentary has been shared eleven thousand times. Have a look.’
They were on a popular video-sharing site.
The footage was shaky and dark, filmed at close quarters, the camera operator creeping up on someone who plainly wasn’t aware of it.
That someone was a woman with waist-length, dark hair, kneeling at prayer.
She was muttering to herself, the audio so indistinct that the film-maker had seen fit to add captions.
I hate them. Destroy them. Smash their mocking faces in. Grind them into dust.
Kate stood up, started to put on her coat. ‘It’s time we went back to school.’
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