Tooth & Nail

Rebus shook his head. It was time to own up. `You've lost me.'

She seemed surprised. `Simply, he's taking out revenge and to him the victims represent the individual against whom he's taking his revenge. If he confronted them face to face, he'd realise they're not the person he bears the grudge against in the first place.'

Rebus still felt a little bit lost. `Then these women are stand-ins?'

`Substitutes, yes.'

He nodded. This was getting interesting, interesting enough for him to turn his gaze from Lisa Frazer, the better to concentrate on her words. She was still only halfway through her cards.

`So much for the Wolfman,' she said, flipping to the next card. `But the chosen location can also say a lot about the inner life of the attacker, as can age, sex, race and class of the victims. You'll have noticed that they are all women, that they are mostly older women, women approaching middle age, and that three out of four have been white. I'll admit that I can't make much out of these facts as they stand. In fact, it was just the failure of pattern that made me think a little harder about location. You see, just when a pattern looks to be emerging, an element arises that destroys the precision: the killer attacks a much younger woman, or strikes earlier in the evening, or chooses a black victim.'

Or, Rebus was thinking, kills outside the pattern of the full moon.

Lisa continued, `I started to give some consideration to the spatial pattern of the attacks. These can determine where the killer may strike next, or even where he lives.' Rebus raised his eyebrows. `It's true, John, it's been proved in several cases.'

`I don't doubt it. I was raising my eyebrows at that phrase “spatial pattern”.' A phrase he'd heard before, on the loathed management course.

She smiled. `Jargon, yes. There's, a lot of it about. What I mean is the pattern of the murder sites. A canal path, a railway, line, the vicinity of a tube station. Three out of four take place near travel systems, but again the fourth case defeats the pattern. All four take place north of the river. At least there's some evidence of a pattern there. But—and this is my point—the non-emergence of a pattern seems to me in itself a conscious act. The Wolfman is making sure you have as little as possible to go on. This would indicate a high level of psychological maturity.'

`Yes, he's as mature as a hatter all right'

She laughed. `I'm being serious.'

`I know you are.'

`There is one other possibility!

'What's that?'

`The Wolfman knows how not to leave a trail because he is familiar with police work.'

`Familiar with it?'

She nodded. `Especially the way you go about investigating a series of murders.'

`You're saying he's a copper?'

She laughed again, shaking her head. `I'm saying he may, have prior convictions.'

`Yes, well,' he, thought of the file George Flight, had shown him a few hours earlier, `we've checked on over a' hundred ex-offenders already. No luck there.'

`But you can't possibly have talked to every man who has ever been convicted of rape, violent assault or the like.'

`Agreed. But there's something you seem to have overlooked the teeth marks. Those are very palpable clues. If the Wolfman is being so clever, why does he leave us a neat set of bite marks every time?'

She blew on her tea, cooling it. `Maybe,' she said, `the teeth are a—what do you call it—a red herring?'

Rebus thought about this. `It's' possible,' he conceded, `but there's something else.' I visited a dental pathologist today. From the marks made by the teeth, he said he couldn't rule out the possibility that the Wolfman is a woman.'

`Really?' Her eyes opened wide. `That's very interesting. I'd never even considered it.'

`Neither had we." He scooped more rice into his bowl. `So tell me why does he, or she, bite the victims?'

`I've given that a lot of thought.' She flipped to her final card. `The bite is always on the stomach, the female stomach, carrier of life. Maybe the Wolfman has lost a child, or maybe he was abandoned and consequently adopted and resents the fact. I don't know. A lot of serial killers have fragmented upbringings.!

'Mmm. I read all about it in those books you gave me.'

`Really? You read them?'

`Last night.'

`And what did you think?'

`I thought they were clever, sometimes ingenious.'

`But do you think the theories are valid?'

Rebus shrugged. `I'll tell you if and when we catch the Wolfman.'

She toyed with her food. again, but ate nothing. The meat in her bowl had a cold, gelatinous look. `What about the anal attacks, John. Do you have any theories there?'

Rebus considered this. `No,' he said finally, `but I know what a psychiatrist might say.'

`Yes, but you're not with a psychiatrist, remember. I'm a psychologist.'

`How can I forget? You said in your essay that there are thirty known serial killers active in the USA. Is that true?'

'I wrote that essay over a year ago. By now, there are probably more. Frightening, isn't it?''

He shrugged, the shrug disguising a shiver. `How's the food?' he asked.