The Crucifix Killer

Forty-Two

‘We’ve got some news from Doctor Winston,’ Garcia said as Hunter walked back into the office.

‘Go ahead,’ Hunter said after refilling his coffee cup.

‘As we expected, Catherine has identified the body of our second victim as her husband’s, George Slater.’ Hunter showed no reaction. Garcia continued. ‘It will be about five days before we get a result on the DNA test done on the hair found inside George’s car, but they’ve confirmed it isn’t his.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Hunter said. ‘We don’t have a suspect yet for a DNA comparison.’

‘That’s true.’

Hunter noticed that Garcia looked overly tired. Even his desk seemed a little messier. ‘Are you OK, rookie? You look hammered.’

It took Garcia a few seconds to register Hunter’s question. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Haven’t had much sleep in the past few days, that’s all.’ He paused to rub his eyes. ‘I’ve been studying the files on all the past victims, trying to find some sort of connection between them or with one of our two new ones.’

‘And have you found anything?’

‘Not yet,’ Garcia replied in a half-defeated tone. ‘Maybe it’s not in the files. Maybe it’s something that was missed during the initial investigation.’

‘Missed? What was missed?’

‘Some link… something that would connect all the victims. There’s gotta be something, there always is. The killer can’t just be picking them at random.’ Garcia sounded annoyed.

‘Why, because the books say so?’ Hunter pointed to the forensic psychology books on his desk. ‘Let me explain something to you about this link, this connection between the victims that you so blindly keep looking for. I searched for it just like you’re doing now, like an eagle searching for food, and it ate me inside just like it’s doing to you. What you have to understand is that this link may only exist in the killer’s head. It doesn’t have to make sense to us or to anyone else for that matter. To us it could be the most superfluous of things like… all the victims’ last names contain three out of the five vowels, or they all sat at the same park bench on a particular day of the week. It doesn’t matter what it is. To the killer it’s something that enrages him. Something that makes him wanna kill. Finding the link is just a small part of what we have to do. OK, I admit it, it can help us, but I don’t want you to burn out on it… like I did.’

Garcia detected a paternal tone in Hunter’s voice.

‘There’s only so much we can do, rookie, and you know we’re doing everything we can. Don’t ever forget, we’re dealing with a social psychopath who takes immense pleasure in kidnapping, torturing and killing people. The human values that to us come as second nature are completely distorted in the killer’s mind.’

Garcia pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to fight off an oncoming headache. ‘Every night when I go to bed and close my eyes I see them. I see Jenny Farnborough staring at me with those unhuman eyes. She tries to say something but she’s got no voice. I see George Slater tied to that steering wheel, his skin popping open like bubble wrap, coughing blood onto me. His last breath, his last cry for help and there’s nothing I can do,’ Garcia said, looking away from Hunter for an instant. ‘I can smell the death smell from the wooden house, the putrid odor from George’s car.’

Hunter knew what Garcia was going through.

‘I’m starting to scare Anna. I keep her up at night with my tossing and turning. Apparently I’ve started talking in my sleep… on the rare occasions that I manage to fall asleep that is.’

‘Have you told her about the case?’

‘No, I know better than that, but she’s scared. She’s very intelligent and she knows me too well. I can’t get anything past her.’ He gave Hunter a pale smile. ‘You gotta meet her sometime, you’d like her.’

‘I’m sure I would.’

‘We met in high school. She broke my nose.’

‘What? You’re joking?’

Garcia gave Hunter a sincere smile while shaking his head. ‘My gang in school… we were jerks, no doubt about it. Always making rude comments to all the nice girls. I even made her best friend cry once. One day, I was down at the library studying for a final exam. Anna was at the table just in front of mine. We kept swapping looks and smiles until she got up and walked to where I was. Without saying a word, she swung the heavy 500-page hardcover she had in her hands. It hit me squared in the face. Blood everywhere. After that, I was hooked. Wouldn’t leave her alone until she agreed to go out with me.’

‘I like her already,’ Hunter laughed.

‘I’ll arrange dinner at my place sometime.’

Hunter could sense his partner’s anguish. ‘When I got to the sight of the first-ever Crucifix killing, it took me just thirty seconds to be sick,’ Hunter said in a low voice. ‘After so many years as a detective I thought I could handle anything this city could throw at me… I was wrong. The nightmares started almost immediately, and they’ve never stopped.’

‘Not even when you thought you had the killer?’

Hunter shook his head. ‘Catching the killer will soothe the pain, but it won’t erase what you’ve seen.’

An uncomfortable silence came between them.

‘On that first killing, one of the first officers to arrive at the scene was a rookie, brand new into the police force, no more than two months,’ Hunter recalled. ‘He didn’t handle it. After months with the police psychologist he ended up quitting the force.’

‘How do you handle it?’ Garcia asked.

‘Day by day, nightmare by nightmare. I fight a day at a time,’ he replied with sad eyes.