I looked up and said to them, “Rage. Overkill. Frenzied
overkill: ”
“Sexual?” Talley held my eyes.
“Ain’t everything?” Marino asked.
Each victim was half-naked, her clothing ripped open or torn off from the waist up. All were barefoot.
“Strange,” I said. “It doesn’t appear he had any interest in their buttocks, their genitals.”
“It seems he has a breast fetish,” Mirot blandly commented.
“Certainly a symbol of mother,” I replied. “And if it’s true he was kept at home throughout his childhood, there ,must be some interesting pathology there.”
“What about robbery?” Marino asked.
“Not sure in all cases. But definitely in some. Money, that’s it. Nothing that could be traced, like jewelry he might pawn,” Talley answered.
Marino patted his cigarettes the way he did when he was desperate to smoke.
“Be my guest,” Mirot invited him.
“Possible he’s killed elsewhere? Other places besides Richmond, saying he murdered Kim Luong?” I asked.
“He did her, all right,” Marino said. “Never seen another M.O. like that one.”
“We don’t know how many times he’s killed,” Talley said. “Or where.”
Mirot said, “If there’s a connection to be made, our software can make the match as quickly as in two minutes. But
there will always be cases we may not be aware of. We have one hundred and seventy-seven member countries, Dr. Scarpetta. Some utilize us more than others.”
“It’s just an opinion,” Talley said, “but I suspect this guy isn’t a world traveler. Especially if he’s got some disability that’s made it necessary for him to stay at home, and I’m guessing he was probably still living at home when he started his killings.”
“Are the murders getting closer together? Does he wait as long between them?” Marino asked.
“The last two we know of were in October, then there was the recent attempt, meaning he struck three times within a five-week period,” Talley said. “Just reinforcing our suspicions this guy’s out of control, it’s gotten too hot for him, and he’s fled.”
“Maybe he hoped he could start over and stop killing,” Mirot said.
“Don’t happen like that,” Marino said.
“There’s no mention of any evidence being turned into any labs;” I said as I began to feel the chill of the dark place where this was headed. “I don’t understand. Wasn’t anything tested for in these cases? Swabs for body fluids? Hairs, fibers, a torn fingernail? Anything?”
Mirot glanced at his watch.
“Not even fingerprints?” I said, incredulous.
Mirot got out of his chair.
“Agent Talley, will you please take our guests to our cafeteria for lunch?” he said. “I’m afraid I can’t join you.”
Mirot walked us to the door óf his formidable office.
“I must thank you again for coming,” he said to Marino and me. “I realize your work-is just beginning; but hopefully in a direction that will soon lay this terrible matter to rest. Or at least strike a blow that will bring it to its knees..,
His secretary pushed a button on the phone.
“Undersecretary Arvin, are you there?” she said to whoever was on hold. “I can conference you now?”
Mirot nodded at her. He returned to his office and softly shut the door.
“You didn’t call us all the way over here just to review these cases,” I said to Talley as he led us through a confusion of hallways.
“Let me show you something,” he said.
He directed us around a comer, where we were confronted by a ghastly portrait gallery of dead faces.
“Corpse to Be Identified,” Talley said. “Black notices.”
The posters were in grainy black and white and included fingerprints and other identifying characteristics. All of the information was written in English, French, Spanish and Arabic, and it was obvious that most of the nameless individuals had not died peacefully.
“Recognize yours?” Talley pointed at the most recent addition.
Fortunately, my unidentified case’s grotesque face did not stare out at us, but instead the notice displayed an unexciting dental chart and fingerprints and a narrative.
“Other than the posters, Interpol is a paperless organization,” Talley explained.
He walked us to an elevator. ,
“Paper files are electronically scanned into our mainframe; kept for a limited period of time, then destroyed.”