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Pederson nodded his head sharply.“It was Saito’s idea.We discussed it last night, and I said she should follow it up ASAP as you weren’t around this morning when we got in.”Nico held back a frown.Of course it was Pederson who’d encouraged Saito to follow her idea.Saito was a stickler for the rules, and Nico knew if she was working alone, she would’ve waited to get Nico’s go-ahead first before taking one of his valuable team members off on a tangent.And just because he was a few minutes late into the station didn’t give Pederson the unspoken right to judge him.Nico and Lacey had driven in to work together this morning.Her shift started at eight, and he was more than happy to wait for her.With a baby on the way, things were going to have to change, including his overzealous, workaholic tendencies, and so this was his first step in hauling it all back a notch or two.
“Right.”Nico gave another noncommittal answer, again wondering where this was going.
“But this got me to thinking about our potential serial killer.About his pattern.The way he kills women.And where he kills them.The majority of serial killers have a pattern, right?”
“Agreed.”Most people, both civilians and police, recognized that for a murderer to be called a serial killer there needed to be at least three homicides and those were usually in some form of pattern in the type of victim selected—until now, ours had been sex workers—as well as their methods of killing, in this case it was strangulation.They often also worked within the certain confines of a particular area, in a state or city.
“Looking at patterns, let’s start with the killer’s sense of place.”Pederson tapped his notes with a pen thoughtfully and Nico wondered if the other man had just read his mind.“We can safely say, that to our knowledge, the state of Tasmania is his hunting ground.”
Nico nodded.“He started in Hobart, but he moved quickly to Zeehan on the northwest coast, and now we’ve got one in Burnie.”The only part of Tasmania the killer had yet to appear in was the small pocket of the northeast.They’d been over this in all of their morning meetings so far, and Nico wanted to know why the detective was rehashing it.
“Which means he’s either a traveling killer from somewhere else in Australia, or a local from somewhere in Tasmania who’s moving around the state to commit his crimes.”Nico merely raised an eyebrow.All Pederson was doing was outlining just how little they knew about this guy because they were no closer to answering that one.
But he decided to play the game.“If he’s a local, then he’d be stupid to kill in his hometown,” Nico replied.If Pederson was thinking out loud, Nico could also join in this brainstorming.It was the first time he and Pederson had really sat down and talked one-on-one.Pederson and Saito seemed to be joined at the hip most of the time and they made an almost impenetrable team, so he decided to make the most of it.
“Yup.That would rule out Hobart, Zeehan and Burnie as places where this guy might live.”Pederson stood and made his way over to the whiteboard at the front of the room, tapping the large map of Tasmania they had taped to the wall next to it.“But killers often return to the scene of a crime,” Pederson added thoughtfully.
“Yes, they do.But we have no evidence this killer has done that, so far,” Nico reminded him.
“No, but we should keep it in the back of our minds,” Pederson continued.Nico had already considered this possibility, but if the killer had come back to gloat over his kills or relive his crimes, he’d been very careful about not revealing himself.Pederson’s reminder tickled a thought at the back of Nico’s mind, however, and he tried to catch that elusive idea.
But Pederson was on a roll now and Nico’s thought trail was interrupted when he said, “Most killers have atype.And we thought our serial killer had a definite one when he murdered three sex workers in a row.”
Nico nodded.When a murderer targeted prostitutes, it could often have something to do with either religious beliefs, or the social stigma of their profession that then became a killer’s justification.
“But this killer also never raped or sexually assaulted these women,” Pederson continued.This was an anomaly when it came to prostitute killers, as it was usually about sex, or the control of sex for these men.“So, our profilers were looking at a male perp, with a pathological dislike of sex and or women, perhaps from the military because of his pedantic need to clean a scene.But we need to review this profile now, because he seems to be happy to change histype.And his preference for inflicting pain.And that could also mean he’s changed his motivation.”
“Okay,” Nico drawled, also standing now, so he could pace in front of the whiteboard.Was Pederson onto something here?They’d discussed the possible motivations for this killer earlier on in the investigation, but not since Danika’s body had been found.And then Taylor had been found alive.Danika and Taylor changed everything they thought they knew about this perp.Especially Taylor.The killer had never left a mark on a victim before her.So why had he tortured her in particular?Perhaps Saito was right to think about reviewing cold cases.When the Hobart cops had done it, they’d been looking for cases involving sex workers.But maybe this killer had started off with a different victim and evolved over time to prostitutes.And now the pendulum was swinging back again.Which might explain why they hadn’t found any matches.
Nico reviewed what he understood about the pathology of serial killers.They were often broken into four loose categories when it came to motivation.Some killers were on a mission, those were the ones who were trying to eliminate a certain group of people and were often radicalized and killed because of racial or religious reasons.Then there was the hedonistic killer, who sought thrills or pleasure from taking another life.This type of murder often involved rape, however, so it probably ruled out their serial killer.Visionary killers usually said that voices in their head told them to commit the crime, which didn’t seem to fit this killer either, as he was too efficient and controlled.Which led to the last category.Someone who killed for power.These types usually didn’t kill for sexual reasons, but rather because of their ability to exert power—or control—over their victim.The pleasure in the kill for these types probably came from forcing the victim to beg for mercy, the most extreme form of power over another person.And their killer had exhibited this drive when he’d forced Taylor to watch him murder her best friend.But was it also a power trip to inflict suffering on his victim as well?Torture belonged more in the sadistic group, than in the power and control group.And while the small cuts all over Taylor’s body would have been painful, they weren’t life-threatening, and on the scale of torturous injury, fairly mild in comparison to some killers’ tactics he could name.
“This guy kills for the power it gives him,” Nico said, turning to stare at Pederson.
“Yes, that’s the conclusion I also came to,” Pederson confirmed.
Nico took a marker pen and wrote the wordsPower/Controlon the whiteboard in the box that represented their perp.There were other words in the list of things they knew about him.Organized.Military style.Ritualistic—which referred to the way he set out the body postmortem—Careful.Male.Nico had added this one when Taylor had given them the description of the man driving the car who’d picked them up in Strahan.They’d been pretty sure their killer was male, but this almost set it in concrete.
Pederson pointed at the wordOrganized.“He could be stalking his victims.I don’t think this was a crime of opportunity.That would be too disorganized for this killer.”
“I agree.The way he leaves his crime scenes clean and sterile.But he’s also bold—or stupid—not bothering to bury any of the bodies, instead leaving them in remote places, but out in the open, where they will eventually be found.Why is he doing that?”
Why indeed?Nico felt his frustration mounting.He was glad to be bouncing ideas off Pederson, but they seemed to be going around and around in circles.
That niggling thought at the back of his mind came back, stronger this time.What had Pederson said that’d first set off that itch in his gut.Something about how they should remember that a killer often revisited the scene of his crimes.And if he had been stalking those two girls, then where had he picked up their trail?They’d started their trek in Launceston and traveled most of the way around the island in the past three weeks.Surely, he couldn’t have tracked them all the way from Launceston?Or maybe he’d picked them up in Hobart.He clearly knew Hobart well, as that was the location of at least two of his murders.Or had he noticed them somewhere closer to Strahan?By Taylor’s admission, they’d spent three nights in the tiny town, because they loved the little backpackers accommodation down there: a suite of old wooden A-frame huts that’d been turned into shared dorms or couples accommodation, set along one of the back roads of the small town.
“I think we need to concentrate more of our energy on Strahan,” Nico said, staring thoughtfully at the whiteboard.
“We’ve already canvassed the locals and swept the area where the girls were abducted.”Pederson directed his dark stare at Nico, his deep frown indicating this wasn’t the direction he’d been anticipating their conversation would take them.“And haven’t you requested the local units to step up their patrols?”
“Yes, I have.”A larger police presence in the area would hopefully make the killer think twice before he struck again.Either that, or it might just drive him to do his hunting elsewhere.But for some reason, Nico didn’t think so.And for some other reason, he had a growing confidence that what he was contemplating was a good idea.“But I think we need an undercover presence as well.Do a bit of investigation under the radar.Talk to the locals as a worried citizen.They might tell me things they’d never tell a cop in uniform.”While Nico had directed his team down in Strahan, he’d never actually visited there during this investigation, so he was a good choice to go undercover, as he wouldn’t be recognized.
“That’s true,” Pederson agreed hesitantly.
“I’m going to spend a night or two in Strahan.Stay at the same hostel where the two girls spent their time.If this guy was stalking them, he must’ve been in the town, and he might’ve left a clue.”Nico’s thoughts were racing now with hundreds of possibilities, the idea cementing itself in his mind.
“I want you to talk to Taylor and see if you can pinpoint the girls’ exact movements while they were in Hobart.Then liaise with Hobart police to track down CCTV and local witnesses to corroborate all that.”Of course, they’d confirmed Taylor’s statement regarding dates of travel, times and places while they’d been in Hobart, but that was it so far.Now, he wanted a deep dive into everything the girls had got up to in the past two weeks.“You’re right,” Nico conceded.“I believe this guy stalked them, and if that’s the case, we need to find out exactly where and when he targeted them.We need an exact timeline of how and where this guy first came into contact with his targets.”
This was good.At last Nico had an angle from which to attack this investigation.And it was all thanks to Pederson.
