The Caller

Sixty-Eight

Without knocking, Captain Blake pulled open the door to Hunter and Garcia’s office and stepped inside. They were both sitting at their desks.

‘OK,’ she said in an already irritated tone, her eyes bouncing from one detective to the other. ‘What have you guys got for me on this? And you better tell me you’ve got something good, because with this second victim, Cassandra Jenkinson, those freaks from the media have caught the smell of blood, and when it comes to anything that could possibly turn out to be a serial homicide story, they all become ravenous vampires. And the colony is starving.’

Hunter was amused by the comparison.

‘Word on this killer broadcasting his murders live over a video-call hasn’t got out yet,’ the captain continued. ‘But that’s just a matter of time, we all know that. Since the new murder last night, the phones in our press office have been ringing off the hook. Right now, everyone is looking for some sort of statement from us.’

Both detectives knew that that was coming.

‘Has one been issued yet?’ Garcia asked.

‘What?’ Captain Blake glared at him. ‘Is that a joke, Carlos? How the hell could we issue anything if no one, other than the two of you, knows what’s really going on with this case?’

Garcia sat back and clasped his hands together over his stomach. ‘I thought bullshitting was our press office’s specialty.’

‘Oh, we’ve got jokes now, is that it?’ Captain Blake said, her eyes about to flash fire. ‘Because this seems like the ideal moment to crack one.’

‘What would you like to know, Captain?’ Hunter asked in a serene tone, bringing her attention to him.

‘Everything, Robert,’ she replied, checking her watch. ‘I’ve got a meeting with Chief Bracco in two hours, and he’ll be expecting to be fully briefed. Unless you’d like to go in my place?’

‘No, I’m good. Thanks, Captain.’

‘Yeah, I didn’t think so.’ The captain took a deep breath to steady herself. ‘So, the last time I left this office we had one victim and the speculation seemed to be moving in the direction of a stalker. Is that still the case?’

‘You better make yourself comfortable, Captain,’ Garcia said.

Captain Blake grabbed a fold-up chair that was resting against a metal cabinet by the office door. Once she had a seat, Hunter and Garcia took turns explaining everything that had happened since her last update, including their new Internet discovery just moments ago.

‘Wait a second,’ the captain said, lifting a finger to pause Hunter as he explained the results to Cassandra Jenkinson’s autopsy exam. He’d been detailing the bizarre way in which she’d been murdered. ‘It says here, and I quote.’ She read from the copy of the postmortem report they’d handed her: ‘ “With a forceful traumatic impact, the skull bone depresses in the shape of the striking instrument” — I take it that that means any striking instrument?’

‘That’s right.’

‘So to create a pyramid splinter fracture, the killer didn’t have to use a pointy chisel?’

‘Nope,’ Hunter replied. ‘He didn’t even have to use a chisel at all, Captain. The hammer on its own would’ve been more than capable of doing that.’

‘So why did he?’ she asked, looking unsure.

‘Because the problem with using any sort of blunt instrument on its own,’ Hunter clarified, ‘is that it would’ve been a lot harder to control and measure the impact, and there was no guarantee that the killer would’ve achieved the desired effect.’

‘What desired effect, Robert, death? I’m sure that a hammer to the head would’ve done the job, no problem.’

‘Not death, Captain,’ Hunter said, sitting back on his chair, ‘blood.’

Captain Blake didn’t voice a question. All she did was look back at Hunter and shake her head ever so slightly.

‘There’s something you’re forgetting, Captain.’

‘And what might that be?’

‘This killer is broadcasting his murders live over a video-call, so whichever way you look at this, you can’t deny that what he’s essentially doing is putting on a show. It doesn’t matter if he’s got an audience of one or a million. To him, it’s still a show. And the game he plays requires two main things to happen in order for his show to work the way he wants it to.’ Hunter lifted his right index finger. ‘One: He needs the person on the other end of the line to panic, because that plays directly in his favor and he feeds off it. It empowers him.’ Hunter paused for breath. ‘If he had used a hammer on its own, that would’ve been a lot harder to achieve, if he’d managed to do it at all.’

‘Are you saying that if the killer had decided to hammer Cassandra Jenkinson’s head in, her husband wouldn’t have panicked? Watching it live over a video-call?’

‘Sure he would’ve, but that could’ve easily played against the killer’s second requirement.’

‘And what requirement is that?’

‘For our killer to have his “fun”.’ Hunter used his fingers to draw quotation marks in the air. ‘The killer also needs his victims to stay alive for at least two wrong answers, because that’s how he gets his kicks, Captain. To him, torturing and murdering his victims isn’t enough. He needs more because his sadism goes way beyond killing. He needs the total desperation from the person watching. He needs them to lose their minds. He needs to make them feel guilty.’

The captain paused and mulled over that thought for an instant. Hunter helped.

‘This game he plays, though it may sound like it’s a simple enough question-and-answer game, it’s been very well thought of, Captain, and meticulously designed to unbalance the person answering the questions.’

This time, it was Captain Blake who sat back on her chair. ‘You’re going to have to give me a little bit more than that, Robert, if you want me to at least try to follow this surreal mind of yours. What the hell are you talking about?’

‘OK,’ Hunter accepted, getting up and walking over to the picture board. ‘Hidden in this question game our killer plays are some simple, but very effective psychological elements.’

‘Such as?’ the captain asked, turning to face the board.

‘Well,’ Hunter began. ‘The first thing he does, after taking a victim hostage, is call the person who will become the player in his game. Someone who is very close to that victim. Someone with a strong emotional connection to them — best friend — husband.’ On the board, Hunter indicated Tanya Kaitlin and Mr. J’s photographs, respectively. ‘His first trick is that he uses the victim’s phone to make that call, and that brings in the first psychological element — surprise.’

Captain Blake’s eyes narrowed a fraction as she began considering Hunter’s words.

‘The person answers the phone,’ Hunter continued, ‘thinking that they’ll be speaking to a best friend or a wife, and that is indeed the impression they get, because according to both witnesses, the first image they see is a zoomed-in shot of the eventual victim. Mainly their eyes, but as the shot pans out...’

‘Surprise,’ the captain agreed, seeing what Hunter was driving at.

‘And as the shot continues to pan out,’ Hunter added, ‘that surprise is immediately followed by the next two psychological elements — confusion and shock.’

He gave his captain an extra moment. In her eyes, he saw that she had made the connection. He proceeded.

‘Then comes the explanation about what is happening and the rules to his sick question game. And with that we’ve got two new elements. First, doubt — because that’s when the mind starts going, “Is this for real? Am I dreaming this crap or what?” Second, an introduction to fear — because if this turns out to be real, then your best friend’s life... your wife’s life... is in your hands.’

Captain Blake crossed one leg over the other, the look in her eyes clearly indicating that things were just starting to make sense in her head.

‘So even before the question game starts, Captain,’ Hunter carried on, ‘in the space of two minutes or less, the witnesses’ brains have been bombarded by a shower of unbalancing elements — surprise, confusion, shock, doubt, and just enough fear to make them question everything. In the midst of all that, while the witnesses are still trying to figure out if they’re dreaming or not, if they’ve been caught in the middle of an elaborate prank or not, the killer hits them with his first question. An extremely easy question. Something he knows they’ll get right.’

Hunter indicated both questions on the board: ‘How many Facebook friends do you have?’; ‘Where was Cassandra born?’

‘That first question is a very clever question because it essentially does two things, Captain. One: It brings back a combination of “confusion” and “doubt”, because right then the witnesses can’t believe that this game can be real. Not with such easy questions. So they start believing that whatever this is, it must be a prank. And, two: It gives them a false sense of security, because if these are the types of question they’re going to be asked,’ Hunter made a ‘c’mon’ gesture with both of his hands, ‘then bring on this stupid game.’ This time, Hunter paused for effect. ‘And that false sense of security expands inside the witnesses because after all, they’re now fifty percent there. Remember the rules of the game? Two correct answers and the game is over. Your friend is free. Your wife is free. And here’s where this killer shows how clever he really is.’

Captain Blake pushed a lock of hair away from her face.

‘By now, he’s already unbalanced their thought processes without them realizing it and he’s given them a false sense of security, but his trump card is still to come.’

‘Trump card?’ the captain asked.

‘He’s never told them what the consequence to a wrong answer is,’ Garcia jumped in.

Hunter pointed at his partner as if he’d given the answer to the ultimate question.

‘They have no real idea of what will happen if they get a question wrong, Captain,’ Hunter said. ‘And after that first easy question, the game is now sounding silly. So the killer hits them with his second question. The question.’ Once again, Hunter indicated the questions on the board. ‘Something he researched. Something he’d found out that they should get wrong, but it’s still only a “should”.’

‘What do you mean — only a “should”?’

‘Think about it, Captain. This killer didn’t just decide to go on a killing spree from night to day. He’s been planning his murders for some time. And he’s very, very patient, because his is a lengthy process. He starts by choosing the victim, someone he taunts with messages, and, from what we gathered, he does it for months. Then he chooses the person to play his question game. Someone close to the victim. Finally, he researches what question to ask them, because the trick is — the question needs to sound easy, but be difficult.’

Captain Blake nodded. ‘OK.’

‘If we are right about this killer finding out which question to ask by scrutinizing social media websites —’ Hunter continued, ‘and I think we are — those posts have been up for months. But even if we’re wrong about the social-media websites, how long do you think it’s been between him finding out which question to ask and the murder itself, which is when he actually asks the question?’

The captain scratched the top of her forehead, considering it.

‘Days, weeks, months...?’ Hunter suggested. ‘In that time, both witnesses could’ve very well learned the answer to that easy question.’

Again, Hunter gave the captain a few seconds to think about it.

‘On the morning of the murder,’ he proceeded, ‘Tanya Kaitlin could’ve decided to memorize her best friend’s number for whatever reason. John Jenkinson could’ve decided that this year he would go back to being a romantic husband and surprise his wife by remembering their wedding anniversary, bring her flowers, take her on a holiday... whatever. The killer had no real guarantees that they would actually get it wrong, Captain. The best he could do is go for a question that they should get wrong.’

Captain Blake stayed silent.

‘So he strengthens his chances with yet another clever trick,’ Garcia said, taking over. ‘Both of his second questions carried either a number sequence, or a date. It’s a proven fact that number sequences, formulas and dates are the hardest things for the average human brain to memorize.’

The captain couldn’t argue with that. She always had trouble remembering dates and phone numbers. Formulas? That was a definitely no-no.

‘So,’ Garcia continued, ‘going back to where we were: The killer hits them with his second question immediately after he gave them a false sense of security. Both witnesses have told us that with that second question, the first thing they did wasn’t to search their memory for the answer.’ Garcia shook his head. ‘No. They question the question: “What? What do you mean? Wait a second...” and so on.’

‘Big mistake.’ Hunter again. ‘By the time they actually start searching their memory for an answer, three maybe even four out of the five seconds the killer gives them are gone. And they know this, because he counts them down, which adds to the pressure. Now we have one more element. One that even if the numbers and dates are there...’ Hunter pointed to his own head... it could cause them to mix them up.’

‘Panic,’ Captain Blake said.

‘Almost, but not yet,’ Hunter disagreed. ‘What we’ve got is anxiety, nerves kicking in, maybe even a little fear. So just before the killer counts them down to zero, they blurt out the wrong answer, either because they don’t really know it — Tanya Kaitlin’s case — or their time is up and anxiety causes them to mix up the dates — John Jenkinson’s case.’ Hunter stepped away from the picture board. ‘With that, the killer finally shows them his trump card — the punishment for their wrong answer.’ He nodded at the captain. ‘Now we’ve got panic. And that’s why he used a pointy chisel instead of the hammer on its own.’

‘Too soft an impact,’ Captain Blake said, the puzzle finally solved in her head. ‘And all he would’ve had would’ve been a victim with a bump on the head. No pyramid splinter fracture. Too hard an impact and the victim would’ve either been dead too soon or have been knocked out with a concussion.’

‘Correct,’ Hunter agreed. ‘Neither case would’ve worked for our killer because with the first strike he needed two things to happen. One: He needed Cassandra Jenkinson to be in pain but stay conscious. Two: He needed to drive panic deep into her husband’s heart and consequently his brain. And what better way to do that than to make him watch his wife bleed?’

Captain Blake closed her eyes for an instant while shaking her head.

‘A light hit with a blunt instrument wouldn’t have caused her scalp to rupture,’ Hunter added. ‘For that, he would’ve needed a much more powerful strike, and controlling that would’ve been a problem.’

‘As soon as he’s got blood pouring down his victim’s face,’ Garcia took over again, ‘it’s game over, Captain. Even if the answer was right at the tip of his tongue, he wouldn’t be able to get it out because the final psychological element is the most destructive of all.’

Captain Blake had thought that ‘panic’ would’ve been the last of those elements. She frowned at both detectives.

‘Guilt,’ Hunter explained. ‘John Jenkinson now knows that whatever is happening is not a prank, and the reason why his wife is bleeding, the reason why his wife is in pain, the reason why his wife is dying... is him. It’s because he can’t remember their anniversary date. As the five-second count starts again, his brain is mush. In less than five minutes it’s been through surprise, confusion, shock, doubt, panic, terrifying fear, and now soul-destroying guilt. Add to that the fact that he’s watching his wife being tortured inside his own home and there’s nothing he can physically do to stop it, and any dates or numbers won’t make any sense in his mind anymore. It’s not a fail-proof plan, by any means, but it’s very clever because it tips the odds heavily in the killer’s favor.’

‘And that guilt will sit with him for the rest of his life,’ Captain Blake said.

Her confirmation came in the form of silence from both detectives.