The Death Sculptor

Forty-Four

‘The killer paralyzed the victim by rupturing his cervical cord with a knife through the back of the neck?’ Captain Blake’s voice almost faltered as she read from a copy of the autopsy report Garcia had just handed her.

Hunter nodded.

District Attorney Dwayne Bradley was sitting in one of the two leather armchairs in front of Captain Blake’s desk. He also had a copy of the report in his hands.

‘Wait a second,’ he said, shaking his head at the report. ‘According to this, a severed cervical cord would also affect the nervous system, leaving the victim numb and insensitive to pain.’

‘That’s right,’ Garcia said.

‘So why the hell do it? If the killer wanted the victim to suffer, why take away his sense of feeling? Why numb the pain before cutting him up? It makes no goddamn sense.’ His cheeks were already going slightly pink.

‘Because for some reason, the killer wanted the victim to go through a different kind of pain,’ Hunter said, resting his elbow against the bookcase on the west wall. ‘Psychological pain.’

Bradley hesitated for a moment.

‘Imagine having to watch your own body being disfigured and mutilated, your own blood being splattered around the room without feeling a thing, without you being able to react. Imagine having to watch your own death as if it were a film on a screen. You know you’re dying, but you can’t feel it.’

DA Bradley kept his eyes on Hunter as he measured his words. ‘Well, you sure know how to paint a gruesome picture.’

‘How long did this go on for?’ the Captain asked. ‘I mean, the mutilation, the psychological torture?’

‘Hard to say. But taking into consideration the time it would take to severe the body parts and restrict the bleeding in the way that was done; over an hour, maybe more.’

‘Goddammit,’ DA Bradley let out a whispering breath and flipped a page on the report. ‘It says here that the time of death is estimated to have been somewhere between four and seven p.m.’

‘That’s right,’ Garcia agreed.

‘And the body was discovered around eight o’clock by a girl from a neighboring boat, right?’

‘That’s right,’ Garcia said.

‘Did we get anything from the CCTV system at the marina?’ Captain Blake asked. ‘People walking in and out?’

Garcia chuckled. ‘That’s what we expected, but they still use an old system. It records onto VHS tapes, if you can believe it. And it’s been busted for over two months now.’

‘Typical,’ the DA commented. ‘How about door-to-door, or in this case, boat-to-boat? No one noticed anyone who looked like he didn’t belong, leaving that specific dock around the time the loud music started to blast out of the victim’s boat?’

‘I don’t think the killer is that stupid,’ Hunter said.

‘Stupid? What do you mean?’

‘There’s no way we can confirm it, but the stereo in Nashorn’s boat has a “wake-up” programing facility. My guess is that the killer set the timer to turn the stereo on at least half an hour after he left. If you add to that the fact that people would only really start getting annoyed with the loud music after it been going on for some time, by the time people started to take notice, the killer was long gone.’

The captain closed the report in front of her and pushed it to the edge of her desk. ‘How about the victim’s apartment? Did we get anything? Computer, cellphone?’

‘Forensics found a laptop computer,’ Hunter replied. ‘They are working on it as we speak, looking into files, photos, emails, anything they can get. No cellphone, though.’

‘Nashorn was ready to go on his yearly two-week vacation,’ Garcia added. ‘So it’s safe to assume that he had his phone with him. We think the killer either took it with him or got rid of it by throwing it into the water or destroying it.’

‘We can get his number, contact his provider and go from there,’ DA Bradley said.

‘We’ve done it already,’ Hunter told him. ‘The phone is switched off, so if it hasn’t been destroyed, it can’t be traced until it’s switched back on. But we might be able to get a cell-site analysis of his calls.’

‘Might isn’t an option,’ the DA countered. ‘Alice will get you the cell-site analysis.’ He quickly checked his watch.

‘OK,’ Hunter said. ‘I’m also revisiting Amy Dawson later today.’

DA Bradley and Captain Blake’s eyes narrowed and they both responded with a slight headshake.

‘Derek Nicholson’s weekdays nurse,’ Hunter reminded them. ‘I want to show her a picture of Andrew Nashorn and check if he was the man who she said had visited Nicholson in his home, other than DA Bradley. We still haven’t identified who that second visitor was. I asked DA Bradley and he has enquired around all branches of the District Attorney’s office in Los Angeles County. No one has come forward, so we have to assume that that second visitor wasn’t a colleague from the DA’s office.’

The DA nodded.

Captain Blake started tapping a pencil against her desk while her thought process shifted into a new gear. ‘Tell me something,’ she addressed Hunter. ‘I know the MO on both murders was the same, but what Dwayne said got me wondering. Why make the first victim suffer physically and the second one psychologically? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.’

‘It never does, Captain,’ Hunter replied.

‘OK, but just humor me here. Do you think there’s a chance there could be more than one perpetrator? Two people acting together, maybe. One who hated Nicholson and the other Nashorn? Maybe they met in prison. Sent to the same institution, but for completely unrelated crimes. They became friends inside. That could’ve given them years to come up with a morbid revenge.’

‘She’s got a point,’ DA Bradley agreed.

‘That’s more than unlikely, given what was actually done to the victims.’

‘How so?’

Hunter walked over to the center of the room. ‘If you consider the severity of the psychosis manifested in both crimes, and the craziness of the act itself, it would be virtually impossible to have two separate attackers. The crime scenes suggest a compulsion acted out by the killer, down to the tiniest of details. Just look at the sculptures. At a psychological level, that’s impossible to share. Killing his victims, dismembering their bodies, and constructing the human-body-part sculptures gives him pleasure. It fulfills something inside him that only he understands. No one else would’ve had the same level of satisfaction. That kind of psychological disturbance can’t be shared. It’s the same killer, Captain. Trust me.’

A knock on the door interrupted them.

‘Yes,’ Captain Blake called out.

The door was pushed open halfway and Alice Beaumont popped her head through. She’d gone back to the District Attorney’s office to check on some files she couldn’t access over the Internet. Her eyes widened in surprise and she stood perfectly still. She didn’t know Hunter and Garcia were back from the morgue, and she’d had no idea DA Bradley would be in the room.

Everyone turned and faced Alice.

Three silent seconds.

‘Sorry to interrupt.’ Her eyes circled the room, making sure she had everyone’s attention. ‘But I think I finally got something.’