CHAPTER ELEVEN
Alison drove straight to the crime scene on the edge of the city.
The professional clinic was a standalone building neighbored by some two-story buildings on both sides.
Two police cars and one forensic van sat outside, along with an unmarked vehicle with Special Agent Martinez leaning against it. Her face looked like thunder.
Alison parked on the street and got out.
"I don't like this," Claire called. "And before you say, I told you so, I was reamed out for a good five minutes before my boss let me come out here."
"I’m not here to gloat," Alison said. "I was right, but it was based on a hunch, and you were right not to trust me on that. All we know is he has killed again, and we need to figure out who he is before he can do this again. It is the same guy, right?"
"Yeah, it is," Claire grumbled. "The same M.O.
as the first two murders. Dr. Patricia Gates, a former state psychologist who consulted on numerous cases for the state before she opened her own private practice.
She was discovered early this morning when the second staff member arrived.
Dr. Gates was supposed to be the first person who arrived this morning, but she obviously didn't leave after working late last night. "
"What was her case?" Alison looked up. The sky had darkened considerably since yesterday, the clouds ready to burst.
"She consulted on a case involving assault. William Harking assaulted his ex-girlfriend. She had broken up with him a month previously, and he invited her over to his house. She went over, and from her statement, he tried to convince her to get back together with him, and when she wouldn’t, he beat her black and blue.
She blacked out, and when she came around, he was washing his hands in the sink.
He must have thought she would be out longer, and she made a run for it, managing to get out of the house and to a couple talking to the dogs a couple of blocks from the house.
William was arrested and sentenced to five years. "
"But he got early release?" Alison asked.
"That’s the thing. He didn't. Dr. Gates was adamant that he should be considered for early release, but she was never able to get it for him. Some people around that time suggested that there was more than just a professional relationship between the two of them."
"Wait, so he wasn’t released early, and he didn't commit another crime?"
"Correct," Claire said.
"But our killer still killed her. He wanted to punish her for wanting early release?"
"He wanted to punish the mistake," Claire said.
"There was more. Around eighteen months before William was due to be released, the police received an anonymous tip that something was buried in his backyard.
The house had changed hands by then, but the tip was taken seriously, and they gained the permission of the current owners and excavated the yard.
They found six bodies down there, all young women they believed William was involved with at one time or another.
It then stands to reason that he planned to kill the ex he assaulted and bury her, and it was pure luck that she was able to escape and alert someone. "
"Okay, so he is punishing the same mistake the others made, but because of the retroactive crimes. If he had been released early, he might have escaped punishment for the six dead."
"Exactly," Claire said. "Shall we take a look?"
"Lead the way."
Claire was about to walk toward the clinic, but hesitated.
"Hey, I wanted to thank you for sticking around. You had a hunch and no one believed you, and if it weren’t for this"—she waved her hand toward the clinic—"we would never have known we had the wrong guy. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had jumped on a plane first thing this morning. "
"I’m not one to run away from things, right or wrong. I’m here until we have the killer behind bars."
Claire nodded, took a second, then led Alison into the building.
"Wait," Alison said as they entered. "Six women were buried in his backyard, and one ex-girlfriend was assaulted. How did he kill this one?"
"He…It might be better for you just to come and take a look," Claire said.
Alison was intrigued but not in a good way. She tried to imagine how the body was presented. He couldn’t have buried the body as they were inside, and he wouldn’t have wanted to if he wanted to get his message across. That left a possible assault that ended in death.
"How were the six women killed?" Alison asked.
"They were all beaten first, then buried alive."
Alison shuddered at the thought. They walked down a short hallway before taking a left, walking a little to an open office door with a couple of people in the doorway.
"Hey, give us some room," Claire said.
The officer and forensic tech backed out of the room.
There was a smell coming from the room that Alison couldn’t initially place. It wasn’t until she looked into the room and saw what he had done.
She froze at the door, as did Claire, even though the special agent had already been in the room. It wasn’t initially horrifying, but disconcerting. An unease filled Alison’s stomach as she looked at the excavated woman, and the only thing she could wonder was how far the killer was willing to go.
Dr. Patricia Gates had been killed and then covered in dirt.
The killer had transported dirt into the office to completely cover her body, as evidenced by the dirt still on her.
Most of the dirt atop the woman had been pushed aside to uncover her.
The only silver lining in the entire thing was that Dr. Gates didn't look like she had been beaten before she had been killed.
It was hard to determine the cause of death by looking at her.
"Do we know the cause of death?" Alison asked as she stepped into the room.
One forensic tech was crouched next to the body and currently looked more like an archeologist. She continued her work as she spoke.
"Asphyxiation, we think," she said. "We will know more when we get her back to the lab, but I’m pretty sure. Looks like sometime in the last six to ten hours."
Alison turned to Claire. "He wanted to mimic how the other women died. They were all buried alive and would have suffocated in their graves. He couldn’t do that to Dr.Gates, so he suffocated her first and then buried her in her office."
"How did he get all the dirt in here?" Claire asked.
"Time," Alison replied. "Maybe he had it all bagged and carried it in here, or loaded it up on a wheelbarrow. He knew he would have time out here with no one around. Still, it shows confidence in his work. To do something like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if he believes it’s all a part of a higher purpose. If he were seen carrying bags of dirt or wheeling a wheelbarrow into a building, it would have been suspicious. It was an additional risk he added to his message. If he truly thinks he’s being guided by a higher power or the hands of fate, then he becomes more dangerous.
When we finally catch up with him, I don't think he will come easily.
This is not about him as much as it is about his mission and message.
He will still enjoy the work in some way, but it will be work to him.
Something he needs to do and is driven to do. "
"And we know now that the killer is not Webb," Claire said. "He was in custody when this happened."
"Don't be eager to release him," Alison warned. "He might not be the killer, but he was planning something. He was a threat before he was arrested, and he could still be a threat after being released. If we’ve learned anything from this killer, it’s that every decision will now be scrutinized.
If we release Webb and he goes on to do something, the press will have a field day, and we don't need the public siding with the killer. He needs to be feared, not revered."
"I’ll assign him to someone."
"Okay," Alison said. "We have a killer who used a 3D printer to print the evidence markers at home and he was also able to get a lot of soil when most of the ground is still frozen. He must have gotten the soil from somewhere. I want to know about any 3D printers bought in the last year and any soil purchases. The 3D printer might have been bought a long time ago, but I think the soil will be more recent. It needs to be stored and transported. Maybe that’s the hit we get that leads us to this guy. "
"I’ll make the call now," Claire said. "I’ll have someone speak with Webb again and go through all the information from his cabin with a fine-tooth comb. And I’ll get some officers to call around and see if we can locate the printer and the soil."
Alison nodded.
The tech still faced away as she spoke. "There are crime scene photos on the desk."
Alison looked toward the desk, then walked over to it.
The photos spread on the desk hadn’t yet been touched.
They were arranged impeccably, just like when the photos had been hung on the wall at the other crime scenes.
They showed the original crime scene, the one the current tableau was modeled after.
There were wide and close-up shots of the yard, with six holes dug up after surveillance gear was used.
The photos of the dead women were a lot harder to look at. Alison was thankful that Dr. Gates looked nothing like them. She was dead, but she hadn’t suffered before death like the women had.
You need to kill them to prove your point, but you still have some self-control.
You could have beaten her before you killed her, but you chose not to.
You find it easy to kill, but you still have a code.
It’s more about the message than the death itself; you don't need to push it any further than needed.
Alison turned from the desk and looked down at the body with dirt all around it. It was a lot of trouble to go to, but the press would love it when the details were revealed. It was the sort of visceral story that captured the attention of the masses.
How long can we keep this one out of the press? With how quickly the details of the other two crime scenes were released, I don't think we can hold this for very long.
Claire appeared back in the doorway, and she had a face that looked like it had just been slapped. She glared at Alison.
"Outside. Now. We have a big problem!"