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‘Go on,’ Ripley said.
'Each mask, in horror lore, isn't just an accessory. It's a part of the killer's identity. Think about it. Jason, without his hockey mask, is just another big guy. Leatherface without his skin mask is just a deranged man. The mask is essential for their identity as a killer. It's their transformation. It's how they cope. It’s how they turn their trauma in…’
Ella cut herself off mid-sentence.
Behind her eyelids, Norman Bates unleashed his famous smile, the sinister grin that concealed a head full of secrets.
‘Turn their trauma in what?’ Ripley asked.
With an eyeful of Norman Bates, Ella recalled something she’d forgotten existed. Fifteen months ago, she'd been at a bar in Virginia, hunched over her laptop as she indulged a passion project of hers. She'd been halfway through it before William Edis had called her and offered her a chance at fieldwork, and Ella had left the project unfinished. It had been a psychological profile of Norman Bates.
She resurrected it, conjuring it from the deepest recess of her memory bank.
A primary point to establish is that no analysis of a fictional character could ever reflect similar psychopathology if similar crimes to Bates’s were ever to occur in real life. While the seed of which Bates was born was planted by Plainfield murderer Ed Gein in the 1950s, Bates is the fictional manifestation of Gein pushed to his utmost limits, in addition to the fact that Bates must also abide by the laws of linear storytelling. Bates, like many horror villains, is characterized by what psychologists might call inward trauma association, in that the offender adopts the very traits that initially create the trauma.
‘That’s it, Ripley,’ said Ella. ‘Our unsub was attacked by someone in a mask.’
Ripley bit her lip. ‘What? Why?’
‘It’s how horror villains are born. They turn their trauma inward as a way to cope. Hannibal Lecter saw his sister get eaten, so he became a cannibal. Jigsaw was tested by life, so he tested others. Pinhead chased pleasures of the flesh, and ended up a Cenobite.’
Ripley’s barely seemed to register Ella’s comment, but she shot out of her chair to the other side of the table. ‘So, we need to find an incident that involved a masked attacker,’ she said.
'Yes, but we're looking for the victim, not the attacker.'
Ripley leaned forward, dispersing her newfound energy. ‘Can you keyword search the results?’
Ella navigated to the search section, hammered in the termmaskand searched.
Zero matches.
‘Crap,’ Ella said. She refined the search, instead searchingmasked.
Nothing again.
Disappointment threatened to creep in, but Ella kept it at bay. She felt like she was getting closer to the man behind the horror mask, like she'd finally seen the world through his eyes. He was a victim of life, so he weaponized his victimhood as a coping method.
‘Come on, come on,’ Ella said. ‘There has to be something here. I know it.’
Ripley rested a hand on her shoulder. ‘Dark, police wouldn’t use the term mask in an official report. It’s too vague.’
‘So what would they use?’
‘Costume, concealment, cover, disguise.’
Disguise.
Ella typed it in, smashed enter and waited with baited breath.
Come on, give me something, you son of a bitch.
The results popped up.
One match.
From eleven thousand, one result stood above the rest.
COLD CASE #B71426 – 08-09-2012 – PARKER, M. HOMICIDE, HOME INVASION.
