Ripley said, ‘Small hands.Comes from behind.Not a big man and not a confident one, but a strong one nonetheless.’
‘This is the other thing.The figurine that was recovered from her hand was adhered with cyanoacrylate.’
‘Superglue?’Ripley asked.
‘Close, but this is especially for bonding skin.Surgeons use it instead of sutures on smaller incisions.You can get it online fairly easily these days, but it’s not the kind of thing most people have lying around in a kitchen drawer.’
Ella fixed the pieces together.Her killer was a male with below-average hands who attacked from the rear.He didn’t confront or engage, and he didn’t give Rose a chance to see his face or scream or run.The psychology suggested he couldn’t hold a woman’s gaze in a bar, let alone overpower one from the front.Whatever drove him to kill had nothing to do with physical dominance.He compensated with surprise, and surprise was a coward’s advantage.
Guidry moved to the second table.‘This one had more going on, and I do have some good news for you.’
‘Oh?’
Guidry pulled the sheet back.The red hair was the first thing Ella registered.The woman’s face was pale and scattered with freckles that stood out more starkly than they would have done in life.Her eyes were closed, and Ella was grateful for that.Open eyes on a slab was something she’d never fully got used to.The girl looked a couple of years younger than the other victim.Twenty-two going on never-going-to-see-twenty-three.
‘The good news is we identified her.This is Amber Holloway.I ran her prints through AFIS while I was working on Rose and got a match.22 years old, and her last known address was in Gentilly.She was in the system from a DUI eighteen months back.’
Amber Holloway.A name to go with the redhead by the river.Ella filed it somewhere it wouldn’t get lost.‘Cause of death?’
‘Same as the first.Manual asphyxiation, same bruise pattern, same hand size, same lack of defensive wounds.He came from behind on this one too.I wish I had more, but your perp has an approach and sticks to it.’
‘Any differences between them at all?’Ella pressed.
‘Well, Amber here was killed before Rose.The hypostasis is more pronounced, and the rigor mortis has progressed further.I’d put her time of death about two hours before Rose, based on the degree of livor mortis and the corneal clouding.’
‘So Amber around 10PM, and Rose at midnight.’
‘Approximately.’
For Ella, the take-home point was that both Amber Holloway and Rose Michaels had been killed within a few hours of each other, and that meant she was dealing with a different breed of monster than usual.
‘He’s not a serial killer,’ she said.
‘He’s a spree killer,’ Ripley finished.
Guidry pulled her mask down.‘Pardon my curiosity, but is there a difference?’
‘Very much so.Serial killers cool off before they strike again, and they usually kill for sexual gratification.But spree killers operate in long bursts and they don’t follow patterns.’
‘And they can stop,’ Ripley added.‘They have self-control, which is a double-edged sword because it means they can easily disappear and never attack again.’
Guidry said, ‘Well, if it’s any consolation, there was no sexual assault here either.Everything was intact.The items recovered from both victims are on the counter behind you.Fields asked me to hold everything until you’d had a look.’
Ella crossed to the counter.Evidence bags were laid out in two groups, labelled and sealed.She found Rose Michaels’ belongings and then the bag she wanted.The ballet dancer figurine.It was hand-painted white, turquoise dress, and its broken foot was visible through the bag.She picked it up and held it to the light.
Then she found Amber Holloway’s.The thin silver chain with the ceramic snowman hanging from it.White body, black dot eyes, and an orange triangle nose.She held that up too.
One in each hand.Six inches apart.
‘Ripley.’
Ripley came over.Ella held the bags at eye level.
‘What am I looking at?’
‘Both of these have blemishes at the bottom.Look at the base of the snowman, and the ballet dancer’s foot.’
Ripley checked them both.Ella waited for it to land.
