Her Final Confession

Chapter Forty-Nine

The Cold Serial Case Forum was relatively easy to navigate, and within moments, Josie found a discussion board with several threads on the topic of the Seattle Soul Mate Strangler. There were maybe two dozen users who had contributed to the various conversations, and as she clicked through the more recent threads, there appeared to be about five or six people who regularly pitched in. The titles of the threads included everything from Will SSMS’s Brain Be Donated to Science When Caught? to SSMS—Dead or in Prison?

She clicked on Household Items Taken/Left at Scenes and found that someone had done a very simple outline:

Victims 1 and 2, Alexandra and Martin Wrede, March 1993, taken: son’s drawing.

Victims 3 and 4, Luisa and Josh Munroe, May 1993, found: Wrede drawing; taken: hot-air-balloon wind chime.

Victims 4 and 5, Mary and Tim Donegal, July 1993, found: hot-air-balloon wind chime; taken: a pair of men’s glasses.

Victims 5 and 6, Travis Green and Janine Ives, September 1993, found: a pair of men’s glasses; taken: Travis Green’s wallet.

Victims 7 and 8, Kristen and Darryl Spokes, January 1994, found: Travis Green’s wallet; taken: a mug.

Victims 9 and 10, Gretchen and Billy Lowther, March 1994, found: mug; taken: a knife.

Victims 11 and 12, Justin and Amy Neal, March 2004, found: Billy Lowther’s knife; taken: nothing is said to have been taken from this scene. This is the last-known SSMS crime.

It was a strict pattern. Even after ten years, the killer had brought Billy Lowther’s knife with him and left it at the scene. It was almost a compulsion. In a corner of her mind, a voice asked if she was going to be able to add James Omar and the Wilkinses to the victim list. But they didn’t quite fit, did they? Not exactly.

She clicked back to the list of threads and searched again. She clicked on a thread called Why Are There No Composites?, which was a half dozen people complaining about why no sketches of the Soul Mate Strangler had ever been circulated by the press. Two other people replied, reminding their forum counterparts that no one except Gretchen Lowther had ever seen the killer, and when she saw him, it was dark, and she didn’t get a good look at his face.

Josie moved on, clicking on a different thread called FBI Profile. It appeared to be the actual profile prepared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation based upon a review of materials submitted by the Seattle Police Department. A cursory glance at the lengthy report was enough to assure her that someone on the super-secret forum had indeed secured the actual FBI profile of the Seattle Soul Mate Strangler. It had been prepared over ten years earlier, after the final murders in 2004. Josie knew that sometimes when cases became old enough and cold enough, law enforcement became more inclined to release certain details about the case in the hopes that it would jumpstart the investigation. Of course, the profile, while detailed and thorough, hadn’t led to an arrest.

She skimmed over the descriptions of the victims, their residences, and the analysis of the crime scenes. There was nothing that stood out to her as particularly helpful. Helpful to what end, she wasn’t sure. She still wasn’t sure what she was hoping to accomplish by researching the Seattle Soul Mate Strangler. Her theory that he had been at Gretchen’s home, shot Omar, and kidnapped Gretchen wasn’t supported by any physical evidence or even by Gretchen herself. It also didn’t explain why Gretchen would take the fall for Omar’s murder rather than trying to catch the man who had killed her husband. For a moment, Josie felt doubt creep in. What if Noah was right? What if the most obvious thing was the correct thing? What if Gretchen had simply shot Omar and was now paying for it? Was she making too much of the situation? Was she trying to force something into the scenario that wasn’t there because she wanted to save her friend? No, she thought. There were too many inconsistencies and unexplained coincidences. The Soul Mate Strangler was a viable lead, and if he was back on a killing spree twenty-five years after his initial crimes, and he had killed the Wilkins couple, then the DNA would prove it.

With a sigh, she moved on to the offender characteristics. Given his ability to plan and execute the crimes and control the scenes, he was believed to be intelligent. They knew from Gretchen’s account that he was a tall white male between the ages of thirty-five and forty. Since no one ever saw anything suspicious, he obviously blended well in the middle-class communities from which he chose his victims. He likely drove a reliable vehicle that also would not stand out in those same neighborhoods. The report also noted that he had to have some means, since he never stole any valuables from the residences. Because of the sophistication shown from the very first crime, it was likely he had a criminal record for burglary and also probably some run-ins with law enforcement for domestic violence.

Friends, family members, and coworkers would describe him as neat and organized but also domineering, arrogant, prone to anger, and extremely manipulative. He likely had some experience either in law enforcement and/or the military and was probably a hunter. It was unlikely that he would just stop, said the analysis. He may be in jail, or was dead, or had moved to another part of the world where his crimes could not be linked to the ones in Seattle. The report went on for several pages about the probable nature of his relationships with women. The bottom line was not a surprise: the killer harbored an extreme hatred toward women.

“No shit,” Josie muttered to the computer screen.

“What was that?” Trinity said as she breezed past in a silky pair of pajamas. She went to the refrigerator and took out several items that looked suspiciously like the makings of a turkey sandwich. As if in response, Josie’s stomach growled.

Josie stood and stretched her arms over her head. “I was just talking to myself. Can I ask you a question?”

“About serial killers?” Trinity asked as she took two plates from her kitchen cabinet.

“No, about outlaw motorcycle gangs.”

Trinity looked up from the two sandwiches she was cutting into slices, and Josie was struck by how much it was like looking into a mirror—especially at moments like these when Trinity’s face was clean of all the television makeup. “We’re back on biker gangs? I thought your big lead was the Soul Mate Strangler.”

Josie took the sandwich offered but didn’t eat it right away. “I’m pretty sure it is, but I need a break for a few minutes. Besides, there’s something bothering me.”

Trinity plopped into a chair at the kitchen table and bit into her sandwich, eyes on Josie as Josie mulled over the questions that had been nagging at her since she talked with Starkey. Josie said, “If a gang like the Devil’s Blade kidnapped the wife of an undercover cop in retaliation for said cop having tried to infiltrate their organization, what would they do with her?”

Trinity set her sandwich down on her plate and stared at Josie, her expression serious. “Josie,” she said. “You’ve been in law enforcement long enough to know the answer to that. What do men like that always do to women?”

Josie knew they were both thinking of the case that had forged a tenuous friendship between them. The missing girls case. A shiver ran through Josie’s body.

“Would they let her go? After holding her for a long time—a year even? Would they just dump her back off into the hands of law enforcement?”

“No,” Trinity said. “They might keep her long enough to use her for whatever they wanted, but they’d kill her. Maybe there wouldn’t be a body, but no one would ever see her again.”

“Thought so,” Josie said, biting into her own sandwich.