Wolves of Haven: Lone (13 page)

They nodded their understanding and
started taking even more notes; that wasn’t something they had
considered.

“We know nothing, not even the
identities of the third and fourth victims, so I’ll skip them for
now since the psychology of the kills will tie into them later. The
fifth victim was the game changer, as they would say in the states.
She was taken on the mainland, hence why only a missing person’s
report was on the wire in Haven, and that means we have to look
beyond just the island since his hunting grounds go much farther
than initially thought. In the case of the fifth, the perp erred
greatly. He was, for all intents and purposes, hunting for his next
victim, and came across the very last person he could afford to
find. Miss Winterfeld wasn’t local, was a tourist from high society
that went for a walk, according to her personal security detail,
while they got gas prior to returning to their hotel in the city.
In the span of only five to seven minutes, the victim was subdued
and taken, with military trained security not more than fifty yards
away. That tells us a few things; one: he getting much more
confident; two: he has the ability to slip undetected, even when
trained soldiers are within reaching distance; and three: we should
expect another victim, and soon.”

Pierre huffed under his breath,
stealing Akia’s attention.

“Did you have something to add?”
she asked.

He shook his head, biting his
tongue.

Paquette ran interference for
him with the American as usual. “Because a rich American was killed
it’s suddenly worthy of American cops, and favors being called in
which could cause the evidence to be inadmissible in court due to
family ties to the facility and specialists that are altering the
existing profile in a means that fit
you.
Is this nothing but a means for
you, another Silent Ripper case to whore yourself and career in
front of the cameras for?” he sneered.

Akia gave him a look. “Your
dedication to your Inspector is admirable, though I feel as if I
should warn you that it will only lead towards career suicide.” She
turned to those gathered and ignored the seething Officer. “I do
not work for the Haven Police Department. I do not work for the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I do not work for the FBI, nor am I
on loan from them. At this moment I do not even work for the Boston
PD. I do not work for the Winterfelds, their attorneys, their
money, or their reputations and status in society. I solely work
for the victims, and I will not stop until they have found their
closure by us apprehending the person doing this. They are who I
work for,” she said, motioning towards the board with pictures of
the five victims, “and I strongly advise that you don’t forget
it.”

Those gathered looked at her in
stunned silence; never had they heard anyone speak with such
conviction before. The outsider to the force wasn’t simply there
for another closed case in her impressive resume, or to add another
captured serial killer to the ever growing list that she apparently
had. Her sole reason for being in Haven was for the victims. As
much as they wanted to be irritated at the Boston Officer for being
made the Lead in the case, for pushing their Inspector out, for the
most part, for completely rewriting the profile that they were
working with—which wasn’t much—and the apparent means she was able
to go through and utilize in order to stop the killing and give a
voice and closure to the victims, they couldn’t. She was doing what
none of them had ever been shown how to do, and weren’t expected to
do.

Leclair raised his hand, and she
motioned for him to speak. “Shouldn’t we give a statement to the
papers?” he asked. “That would bring awareness to the public,
something to help keep them protected, no?”

Akia shook her head; this was the
part of the profile and plan that she knew she would get the most
pushback from. “I will be the first to admit that this case is
worthy of media attention, especially after the first body, however
thankfully the Inspector didn’t notify the media, and the only
release given to the local paper was of a drowning victim that
washed up on shore, which then fed the local wolf population,” she
reminded everyone. “That was smart thinking by your Inspector,” she
said.

“It was?” Pierre asked,
dumbfounded.

She nodded. “Yes. When
dealing with a serial killer, especially one that is as remorseless
as the one using Haven as a dumping ground, the media attention,
more often than not, only fuels their killing spree instead of
helping to apprehend him. The more attention, the shorter the high,
but it’s temporarily replaced by the high of attention, of being
noted in the history books of law enforcement with a media derived
pet name that will follow him as if it’s a legacy. That’s why we
will only refer to him as the
perp
and not the Wolf Beach Killer as you originally
were.”

Instead of groans, the Officers
that had coined the term sulked down in their chairs.

“There are reasons why we
have purposely kept the killings from getting national attention,”
she continued, “and I agree with the Inspector about keeping this
tightlipped, however that is no longer an option. Thankfully the
Winterfeld family has agreed to
not
speak with the media, because they don’t want it
to encourage the monster that took their daughter from them, but
that will only last so long before the story breaks and your small
town is flooded with every media outlet in the
world.”

“If anyone speaks of the case to
anyone not on the case, or even with a family member, you will be
fired,” de Rue said, giving the group a warning look.

“Thank you, Sir. Since we have a
lot to do, I’ll quickly go over the psychology of the crimes. What
we know is this,” Akia said, fingering the pendant from Damian—it
made her feel as if he was there with her giving the briefing—and
turned her attention to the board of pictures, “the perp is
evolving. The first was most likely accidental. One cut, clean and
efficient, body dumped in seawater, which was an effective counter
forensic measure. The length of time between the first body and the
second was nearly a month. Think of that as a cooling down period;
the high of the kill finally dissipated and the guilt was replaced
by curiosity.”

de Rue raised his hand this time.
“What do you mean?” he asked, truly in awe and impressed, and that
didn’t happen often to the seasoned officer of the law with more
than thirty years of experience on the force.

Akia licked her lips, trying to
find the easiest way to explain it that wouldn’t be lost in
translation. “It’s an endorphin rush. The endorphins are produced
during exercise, excitement, pain, sexual activity, just to name a
few, and they resemble, and in this case can be comparable to,
opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a high. The
first kill reflected guilt; that’s why the body was hastily dumped
and fully clothed. When days, weeks even, had passed and there was
no one knocking on his door wearing a badge, the realization that
he apparently got away with murder caused an endorphin high. But
then as quick as it came, it was gone again.

“The second was the confirmation
phase, to see if killing truly was that easy, and if the high he
felt the first time would return. It did. But that high didn’t last
as long, that’s why the time between the second and third victim
was only weeks apart. The third was the discovery phase: how long
could he torture the victim before they bled out or succumbed to
their injuries? It was all in an attempt at keeping the high
longer. He learned a lot and refined his art form. Once he knew
exactly how much the body could take, he used a non-homicidal skill
set and surprising knowledge that the first three victims didn’t
hint that the perp possessed, to prolong the fun, and that was when
he introduced synthetic adrenaline into his arsenal for the fourth
victim.”

de Rue opened his mouth to
ask.

“Adrenaline was used to revive his
toy when they lost consciousness,” she explained, answering what he
was about to ask. “In one aspect it gave the perp a God complex; no
longer was he merely Death, now he could give life by reviving
them. The introduction of adrenaline changes the profile
some.”

“Support your argument,” Connell
said, absently flipping through the file his sister put together
when Pierre opened his mouth.

Akia fought the urge to growl at
him, but she understood he was running interference for her.
“Initially it appeared as if the perp was inept, possibly impotent
due to the lack of sexual assaults and the savagery of the crimes.
The second victim, seeking confirmation, only reiterated that the
perp was inept and lacked conviction, guidance even. With the third
he let his balls drop, in a matter of speaking, and took control of
the situation and need for his next fix. He was still infantile in
nature, and his skill lacked any resemblance of finesse. The fourth
he apparently matured greatly in his newly honed craft, and
patience was learned.”

Connell looked up at her. “Is there
more than one?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know,”
she admitted. “No physical evidence, or lack of evidence, points
towards there being two, but we can’t rule that out either. The
evidence we do have suggests that the fourth victim was held
captive for days since there were signs of healing and varying
degrees of bruising, which gives us a timeline of approximately
five to six days of captivity before they succumbed to their
injuries.”

Leclair raised his hand. “The fifth
was reported missing only hours before the body was discovered.
What changed?” he asked.

Akia sighed; this one she wished
would have never been discovered. “The fifth had a heart condition;
before the perp could play with his new toy, the stress of the
situation caused cardiac arrest, and that was what killed her.
Remorse caused him to panic; he tried using the adrenaline to
revive her, even tried to resuscitate her, fracturing her ribs in
the process. Hopefully, there will be DNA left from the mouth to
mouth resuscitation I believe he gave her. We’ll know more when the
samples are back from the lab. The fifth victim has provided
evidence,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “that the others
did not, and that was solely due to the fact that the toy died
before he could play with it. The mutilation to the body was done
postmortem. It was violent, reckless…almost animalistic. He lost
control, for just a moment, but in that moment he left pieces of
himself behind, and now we have to put those pieces
together.

“It is time that we get on
the defensive. The Inspector will issue a statement to the local
media outlets asking for the community to keep an eye out, or
report, someone exhibiting strange behavior or lurking, anything
that might have stood out as unusual, even from those they know.
Remember, the perp is most likely part of this very community.
Also, we need to ask the locals
not
to shoot at any wolves or any other carnivores
that roam the woods. The Island is protected land; anyone found
hunting for anything not in season will be prosecuted. The last
thing we need is a witch hunt.”

Again, those gathered grumbled
their disagreement.

“When the public tries to take
things in their own hands,” Akia reminded them, choosing her words
so they couldn’t read into them more than she’d like, and to
redirect their attention as Beowulf taught her, “innocent people
get hurt, and that will solely be the responsibly of the police
force. Sadly, because his hunting grounds, since you all are so
very fond of using the wolf simile that the perp has wanted you to
correlate to him and his crimes, I will humor you as unprofessional
as it may be, are very broad and encompass more than can be
searched by ground, or air due to the dense vegetation, we will
need to focus our search efforts towards the people of the Island.
Door to door interviews, I will prepare some qualifying questions,
and if you need it, I will be available to answer any questions or
give a beginners course in identifying a homicidal killer. Instead
of focusing on victims three, four and five, we need to start at
the beginning: victim one and two. Leclair will follow the paper
trail for the truck driver, so we can establish a timeline for that
victim. Knowing where he had been and where he was going will help
us know at what point in-between he crossed the perp. Paquette will
go through the second victim’s residence again looking for anything
we might have missed.”

His eyes widened before they
narrowed.

“He will also work with animal
control and the wildlife conservationists; get a listing of all
licensed pets big enough to inflict some type of damage on a human,
follow up on all reports of large animal sightings, dogs on the
loose, and so forth. If that proves useless, track dog food and
large butcher purchases; if there is a wolf or two that have been
trained to kill, they will need to be fed. And since you are
confident that the wolf and animal aspect shouldn’t be ignored, you
have the honor of following up on that line of thinking, and if I’m
wrong, and it was wolves, and you can prove it, I’ll buy you beer.
If there is nothing else,” she said, leaving it hanging.

de Rue nodded then took command of
the room. “We’ll work with the neighboring districts and process
the Island in grid format. I’ll reach out to Chief Superintendent
Bolton on the mainland and coordinate with his Officers to follow
suit. If there is nothing else,” he said, cocking a warning
eyebrow.