Two Graves

22

D’AGOSTA HAD SEEN A LOT OF REALLY SICK SHIT IN HIS life—he’d never forget those two dismembered corpses up in Waldo Falls, Maine—but this took the cake. This was the goriest scene yet in a string of exceptionally gruesome murders. The young woman’s body had been stripped and splayed out on its back, dismembered limbs forming something like the face of a human clock, a corona of blood spread out like a sunburst beneath it all, various organs arrayed around the edges like a goddamn still life. Then there was the little toe—the extra little toe—that had been lovingly placed on the victim’s forehead.

All this was capped by the message finger-painted onto her torso—TAG, YOU’RE IT!

The M.E., forensic units, crime-scene units, latents, and the photographer had all done their work, collected their evidence, and gone. That had taken hours. Now it was his turn—his and Gibbs. D’Agosta had to admit, Gibbs had been pretty good about the wait. He hadn’t flashed his shield and elbowed his way in, the way other feds of his experience had done. Over the years, the homicide division had tried to lay down guidelines about the brass intruding into crime scenes, interrupting the work of the specialists, and D’Agosta took those rules very seriously. He didn’t know how many times he’d seen a crime scene messed up by some honcho wanting a photo shoot, or showing his political friends around, or just pulling rank for the sake of it.

The room was hot from the bright lights and there was a bad smell in the air, the stench of blood, fecal matter, and death. D’Agosta took a turn around the corpse, his eye roving over every little detail, burning it into his memory, deconstructing and reconstructing the scene while keeping it free flowing. It was another meticulous killing, planned and executed with the precision of a military campaign. The scene exuded a feeling of self-confidence, even arrogance, on the part of the killer.

Indeed, as D’Agosta took it all in, he had a sense of déjà vu; there was something about this crime scene that reminded him of something else, and as he rolled that thought around in his mind he realized what it was. It had the look and feel of a museum diorama—everything highly crafted and set in its place, designed to create an impression, an illusion, a visual impact.

But of what? And why?

He glanced over at Gibbs, who was crouching on his heels, examining the writing on the torso. The arrayed lights cast his multiple shadows across the crime scene. “This time,” he said, “the perp used a glove.”

D’Agosta nodded. An interesting observation. His opinion of Gibbs went up another notch.

He was frankly more than a little dubious that Pendergast’s brother was behind this. He saw no connection whatsoever between the M.O. of this killer and what Diogenes had done in the past. As for motive, unlike Diogenes’s previous killing spree, this time he had no discernible motive to kill these randomly selected victims. The figure he had seen on the security tapes, while he was approximately the right height, weight, and build, did not move in that smooth fashion he recalled of Diogenes. The eyes were different. Diogenes did not strike him at all as the kind of psycho to start dismembering himself and leaving the parts at the crime scenes. Finally, there was the little matter of his alleged fall into a Sicilian volcano. The only witness to it was absolutely convinced he was dead. And she was a damn good witness—even if more than a little crazy herself.

Pendergast had refused to tell him why he believed the killer was his brother. All in all, D’Agosta felt this strange idea of Pendergast’s was a product of his deep depression over his wife’s murder, combined with an overdose of drugs. In retrospect, he was sorry he had tried to bring Pendergast into the case—and he felt damned relieved the special agent had not shown up at this crime scene.

Gibbs rose from his long assessment of the corpse. “Lieutenant, I’m beginning to think we might be dealing with two killers. Perhaps a Leopold and Loeb sort of partnership.”

“Really? We only have one person on videotape, one set of bloody footprints, one knife.”

“Quite right. But think about it. The three hotels all have extremely high security. They’re crawling with employees. In each case our killer has gotten himself in and out without being surprised, stopped, interrupted, or challenged. One way to explain that is if he had an accomplice—a spotter.”

D’Agosta nodded slowly.

“Our killer does the wet work. He’s the magnet of our scrutiny. He’s the guy waving at the camera saying, Hi, Ma, look at me! But there’s a partner out there, somewhere—who’s just the opposite. Who’s invisible, who fades into the woodwork, who sees and hears all. They have no contact during the commission of the crime, except that they are secretly and continuously in communication.”

“Via an earpiece or some similar device.”

“Exactly.”

D’Agosta liked the idea at once. “So we look for this guy. Because he’s got to be on our security tapes.”

“Probably. But of course he’ll be very, very carefully disguised.”

Suddenly a long shadow, emerging from the bedroom, fell across the corpse, startling D’Agosta. A moment later a tall figure in black emerged, backlit, his blond-white hair a bright halo around his shadowed face, making him look not like an angel but like some ghastly revenant, a specter of the night.

“Two killers, you say?” came the honeyed drawl.

“Pendergast!” said D’Agosta. “What the hell? How’d you get in here?”

“The same way you did, Vincent. I’ve just been examining the bedroom.”

His voice was not exactly friendly, but at least, thought D’Agosta, it had a steeliness behind it that had been lacking during their last encounter.

D’Agosta glanced at Gibbs, who was staring at Pendergast, failing to control the disapproval on his face.

Another step forward and the bright light fell athwart Pendergast’s face, raking it from the side, chiseling his features into marble-like perfection. The face turned. “Greetings, Agent Gibbs.”

“The same to you,” said Gibbs.

“I trust we have liaised to your satisfaction?”

A silence. “Since you mentioned it, no, I haven’t yet had confirmation of your role in the case.”

A tsk-tsk sound from Pendergast. “Ah, that FBI bureaucracy, so very dependable.”

“But of course,” said Gibbs, hardly able to disguise his ill will, “I always welcome the assistance of a fellow agent.”

“Assistance,” Pendergast repeated. He suddenly was in motion, moving around the corpse, bending quickly, examining articles with a loupe, picking up something with tweezers that went into a test tube, more rapid, almost manic movement—and then he had completed the circuit and was face-to-face with Gibbs again.

“Two, you say?”

Gibbs nodded. “A working hypothesis only,” he said. “We’re obviously not at the point where we can draw conclusions.”

“I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m terribly interested.”

D’Agosta felt a certain uneasiness at Pendergast’s choice of words, but he kept silent.

“Well,” said Gibbs. “I don’t know if the lieutenant has shared with you our provisional report, but we see this as the work of an organized killer—or killers—who operate in a ritual fashion. I’ll get you the report, if you don’t have it.”

“Oh, I have it. But there’s nothing like hearing it—how does the quaint saying go? Straight from the horse’s mouth. And the motive?”

“These types of killers,” Gibbs continued evenly, “generally kill for reasons of libidinous gratification, which can be satisfied only by the exercise of extreme control and power over others.”

“And the extra body parts?”

“That is unique in our experience. The hypothesis our profilers are developing is that the aggressor is overwhelmed with feelings of self-loathing and worthlessness—perhaps due to childhood abuse—and is acting out a sort of slow-motion suicide. Our experts are working from that conjecture.”

“How fortunate for us. And the message, Tag, you’re it?”

“This type of killer often taunts law enforcement.”

“Your database has an answer for everything.”

Gibbs didn’t seem to know how to take this, and neither did D’Agosta. “It is a very good database, I’ll admit,” Gibbs went on. “As I’m sure you know, Agent Pendergast, the joint NCAVC/BSU profiling system includes tens of thousands of entries. It’s based on statistics, aggregates, and correlates. It doesn’t mean our killer necessarily fits the pattern, but it does give us something to follow.”

“Yes, indeed. It gives you a trail to follow deep into the wilderness, at least.”

This rather strange metaphor dangled, D’Agosta trying to figure out exactly what it was Pendergast meant. A tense silence enveloped them as Pendergast continued gazing at Gibbs, his head slightly tilted, as if examining a specimen. Then he turned to D’Agosta and seized him by the hand. “Well, Vincent,” he said. “Here we are again, partners on a case. I want to thank you for—how should I put it?—helping save my life.”

And with that, he turned and strode out the door at a swift pace, black suit coat flapping crazily behind him.