R. E. Bradshaw - Rainey Nights Read online

  Detective Martin moved in to get a look at the contents of the bag. “I don’t remember seeing anything in the reports about a note in the previous victims’ hands.”

  Danny spoke up. “We kept that out of the reports. We need one piece of evidence that only the killer knows. We would very much like to keep it that way.”

  Rainey was glad Danny didn’t give Martin all the information about the notes. The fewer people that knew certain details the better.

  “Sure, sure,” Martin replied. “So you don’t think this is a copy cat? This is the real deal?”

  Rainey looked down at the body, trying to see the smiling face of Crystal Lynn Granger from the missing persons report. She said quietly, “Yeah, this is the real deal.”

  #

  Later in the evening, Rainey and Danny were shown into an empty conference room at the county sheriff’s office. They spread a stack of files across the long table in the center of the room. They just arrived from the morgue where Dr. Patrick confirmed that Crystal Lynn Granger suffered almost identical wounds as the first eight victims. The doctor had the unfortunate experience of recovering, now, his third victim in the case and had reviewed the other victims’ autopsy reports. He concluded that all of the women were victims of the same killer the media had nicknamed, “The Praying Hands Killer,” in reference to the victims’ final pose.

  Crystal most likely died within hours of when she was last seen on the previous Saturday. Like the others, the retraction of her neck muscles indicated decapitation was the cause of death. Crystal’s body was in advanced decomposition when she was found, but there was still enough evidence to link the cases. All of the young women were bound, choked, beaten severely, savagely raped, and sodomized. The instrument used to behead the victims appeared to be consistent with a long, thin blade, possibly a sword or machete. The same weapon also made the cut to the abdomen. No semen was found and Dr. Patrick seemed to think all the rapes had been carried out with a large phallus or similar instrument. There was no sign of the head. It was assumed to be in the James River. Several of the other victims’ heads showed up weeks after the bodies were found, downstream from the scene of their murders and always in a river.

  Rainey set about taping pictures of the known fatalities on a white board placed in the room for that purpose. Nine times she reached into a file folder and pulled out a picture of a teenage girl, full of life. Nine more times she taped a picture of each girl’s mutilated body beneath their corresponding smiling faces.

  “Damn,” she said, under her breath.

  Danny looked up from the corner where he was concentrating on pouring a cup of coffee. “What?”

  “Nothing,” Rainey responded, then added quickly, “They were all so young with their whole lives ahead of them. Look at their faces. These are confident, athletic, beautiful girls. How does he get a girl like that to go with him willingly?”

  “The news media all up and down 220 warned about this killer, but he has no trouble getting control of them,” Danny said.

  Just that quickly the two analysts began the process of working the Granger murder case without an official pronouncement. They brainstormed, shared ideas, and formed hypotheses based on the evidence at hand and the knowledge they gained studying similar murderers. Back at Quantico, Rainey, along with the rest of the analysts, already generated a profile of this serial killer. Rainey and Danny were sent to evaluate the latest murder to see if the profile still applied. An hour later, they emerged from the room ready to give the local detectives their opinions on the case.

  Often asked to work together, they made a good team. Rainey was always happy to go into the field with Danny. They were Academy classmates and joined the BAU at almost the same time. She never let him forget she was a full member of the team first. At thirty-nine, Danny was just two years older than Rainey. They had an almost sibling relationship on and off the job. He sometimes made her crazy, but she loved him anyway. He could always make her smile when his cherubic, freckled cheeks dimpled up in a grin. Rainey’s work didn’t allow her to smile often. Danny took her mind off the human misery they witnessed. She appreciated it more than he would ever know.

  Rainey followed Danny into the squad room where the detectives and other officers had gathered. She was used to the way local law enforcement stared at them. It was as if she and Danny were magicians about to reveal the secrets behind a trick. Most people did not understand what the BAU did. Behavioral analysts were not psychics, but rather a group of people who were trained to recognize the undercurrents that link various criminal personality types. Rainey couldn’t tell them exactly who the perpetrator was, but she could tell them what kind of person to look for. It wasn’t magic. It was hard, life consuming work.

  Rainey’s most recent and longest standing relationship, with Bobby, a cop in Arlington, had fallen victim to the job. He wanted to marry her, but he also wanted a wife he would find at home, not one he had to wonder when or if she was coming home. Rainey chose the job and they parted amicably, but she missed him. She missed his companionship most of all. He was her best friend. She didn’t have time for many friends. In a sad way, Rainey was glad to have this case to occupy her mind while her personal life fell apart. She needed a vacation, but she was determined to find this killer before taking time off. For now, she buried her needs and focused on the young girls whose pictures she had taped to the board.

  With all eyes in the room on her, she began to speak. “The UNSUB in this case has now taken the lives of nine young women that we are aware of. You are looking for a white male between the ages of twenty and thirty. He will be above average to very good looking, with no outward physical deformities. He will be well liked and appear non-threatening. The young women this UNSUB takes are pretty, self-confident, in good physical condition, and live very low risk lifestyles. We think these women go with him willingly, with no resistance. They are comfortable and feel safe with him. If they felt threatened, these girls would have fought back. There is no evidence of a struggle at the scenes where we think he coaxed them into his vehicle.”

  Danny jumped in. “The victims were all good girls, smart, popular, with strong ties to their churches. This type of girl does not go with a stranger willingly. She must have known the UNSUB, if only casually. You are looking for a man that travels Highway 220 for some reason. He gets off the highway and comes into these little towns, picks a victim, and then leaves again without anyone suspecting him. We know he travels this route frequently, going both north and south. He has a totally innocent reason to be here, to meet these girls, and then returns to take them at his pleasure.”

  Rainey added, “We’re encouraging all the other law enforcement agencies involved to re-examine the victims’ history for any possible connection to traveling salesmen, businessmen, service technicians, etc. You should also check out local hotels for men fitting the profile, who stayed in hotels near the crime scenes, around the time of the murders or when the bodies were found. This guy would probably hang around a few days to watch the cops.”

  Danny rejoined the conversation. “Due to the remoteness of his kill sites, he could have committed crimes we are unaware of. With that said, we think the first murders happened up here in Virginia, then he traveled south to North Carolina, and now he’s back up north. Highway 220 is significant to him for some reason. We have no evidence that he’s committed a crime like this anywhere else, but don’t be surprised if more bodies turn up near here. This is his territory.”

  “We think he lives on this highway, maybe even close by,” Rainey said, pointing at a map of the area on the wall behind her. Nine red pushpins marked the places where the victims were found. “He is familiar with local trails into the woods and secluded areas where he takes his victims. He needs time to do what he does and he must know he will not be discovered there. He has studied each of these communities. He knows the habits of people in these rural areas, what the locals do for fun, and where to catch these young women alone. He most l
ikely stalks them for some time to establish their routines and takes them when he knows they are most vulnerable. He probably watches more than one victim at a time. People have seen him with these young women, but like Agent McNally said, he had a legitimate reason for being there.”

  Detective Martin asked, “That could be anybody. How do we know what to look for?”

  Rainey answered, “The guy you are looking for would be appealing to these girls. Remember he is probably good-looking and charming. I believe he is in his early twenties or appears younger than he is. That’s young for this type of killer, but he has to be attractive to these teenage girls. He is also probably in good physical condition. These were not tiny girls and he would have to be large enough to gain control over them. There will be no reason to suspect him and that will be your first clue. This is not an outwardly disturbed person. He will fit in socially. He will not be awkward in any way. He possesses above average intelligence. He is organized and planned his crimes for years. When you question him, he will show the appropriate emotional concern for the victims. He may even offer to help with the investigation.”

  A uniformed cop in the back said, “This guy has to be insane to do what he does to these girls. How can he hide that?”

  It was Danny’s turn to answer. “He’s not insane in the legal sense of the word. You are not looking for a mental patient. This guy is a true psychopath. Outwardly, he has learned to mimic normal human emotions. These guys learn the words but not the music, so to speak. The music of emotion has no power to move him. He has learned to mask his true personality and desires, in order to get what he wants. Above all, he sees nothing wrong with his behavior. He has no remorse, no guilt.”

  Rainey continued, “He may have exhibited psychopathic behaviors at a younger age, but often these behaviors are misinterpreted as common ‘boys will be boys’ situations. He may have been caught peeping in a window, or accused of going too far with a girl, but through charm and maneuvering, he escaped punishment. Some psychopathic behavior is thought of as simple alpha male assertiveness and applauded in athletes or successful businessmen and women. Not all psychopaths are murderers. What you need to look for is a guy who can talk his way out of or in to anything. This type of UNSUB is a master manipulator.”

  Another officer spoke up. “What about the crosses and the praying position? What does that tell you?”

  “Because it took three to five days to find his victims, the distance he travelled with them, and the fact that he doesn’t want them found right away suggests a controlled killer,” Danny answered and continued, “He brought ropes, a weapon, and instruments to torture the victim. The planning, stalking, and his obvious social skills all point to an organized offender. This also backs up the theory that he may appear younger than he really is, because his maturity as a killer is fairly advanced.”

  Rainey completed Danny’s answer, as they often did for each other. One could pick up the other’s thoughts in mid-sentence and never miss a beat.

  “This type of serial murderer gets off on controlling his victim, instilling as much fear as possible. He is sadistic in that his reward is his victim’s terror. He may be impotent, substituting her fear for his sexual gratification. The posing of the victim and the religious connotations we believe are this killer’s attempts to make us look for a disorganized, mentally ill person, a smoke screen as it were. The beating these girls took might indicate a disorganized killer caught up in a rage, but it may just as well indicate how hard he had to fight these girls to control them. He must dominate them and get them to submit. He picks victims he knows will fight. He gets off on that. He takes the cross from one victim as a trophy and places it on his next victim. This act has strong meaning to the UNSUB. It is his signature. He wants us to know it’s him, but beyond that, he is no ‘hand of God’ killer, not a mental patient who hears messages from God. He does all of this to fulfill his narcissistic fantasies. He may belong to a church, but his real deity is himself.”

  A young female deputy, Rainey guessed not more than five years older than the victims, read from the notes she had taken. “So, I’m looking for a good-looking, well built, charming young man with a narcissistic personality. Sounds like my boyfriend.”

  The room erupted in laughter.

  Without cracking a smile Rainey said, “It could be. Where was he on the night Crystal went missing?”

  The laughing ceased.

  Danny reiterated Rainey’s point. “That’s what we’re telling you. This guy is slick. He moves among you without notice. Do not discount anyone. You’ve probably already talked to him or someone that knows him.”

  Detective Martin stood up and began giving assignments to the officers. Rainey went back to the conference room to pack up the files, while Danny stayed behind to give Martin their written suggestions for how to proceed with the investigation. Rainey was looking forward to getting back on the helicopter for home. She already made up her mind that this was the last case she would work until she took a much-needed rest. She was drained of energy. It had been a long day and a longer year. Re-charging her batteries was in order.

  The young deputy stuck her head in the open door. “Hey, I’m sorry about the boyfriend comment,” she said.

  Rainey looked up and smiled. “Sorry to be so hard on you. It’s just that’s the point really, this guy is the last person you would suspect and that makes him exceedingly dangerous.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The ma’am made Rainey feel old. She knew it was simply a sign of respect. She heard it at the academy often, but it stung just the same. She deserved the “ma’am” because of the tone she was using, her instructor voice reserved for the wayward trainees. In a much friendlier manner she asked, “How long have you been in uniform?”

  “It’ll be a year in July. I went to UVA, got my Bachelors in Criminal Justice, and then I signed up here. I grew up just a few miles out of town. I knew Crystal’s family. I go to the same church, when I go that is.”

  Rainey pulled out a chair and sat down. She motioned for the officer to join her. “Well, it’s nice to meet a fellow Cavalier,” she paused, peering at the nametag on the other woman’s shirt, “Deputy Knox.”

  Knox pulled out a chair, saying as she lowered herself to the seat, “Please, call me Gillian. You went to UVA?”

  “Class of ’93. I went straight into the Academy after graduation.”

  Gillian brightened. “That’s my goal, to do what you do. I know I have to get some experience under my belt, but I’ve applied already. I’m just going to keep trying until I get in.”

  Rainey had this conversation often. In almost every place she visited, someone wanted to be a Behavioral Analyst. She had the spiel down to a few sentences. “Once you’re in the Bureau, you’ll need at least five years of field service. Your time here could count towards that, depending on what types of investigations you experience. Then it’s back to the Academy for sixteen weeks and up to two more years of mentored training before you can work in the unit. Be aware that there are few positions exactly like mine, but working within the NCAVC is a challenging and rewarding assignment in itself.”

  “You sound like you’ve said that a few times,” Gillian said, grinning at Rainey.

  Rainey couldn’t help but return the grin. “Yeah, it’s a pretty frequent topic when we hit the road.”

  “You can’t blame us for wanting in the BAU. You guys are rock stars.”

  Rainey’s smile slipped. “Just remember, there is a price to pay for being a rock star. This job is not for everyone. You will make sacrifices. People who love you will make sacrifices. Make sure the person you become romantically involved with in the future, and I’m assuming you’ll be dumping the narcissist, knows what your career goals are. It takes the right kind of relationship to make it work with this job.”

  Rainey felt the pain of losing Bobby once again. She heard it in her voice. She didn’t usually open up to people as she was with the young deputy. Rainey kept
her life in mental boxes, only opening the ones she needed to function at the time. It was the only way to survive a job like hers. Something about Gillian made Rainey want to warn her about the losses she might suffer. Rainey was tired, emotionally raw at the moment, and her boxes were opening without her consent.

  Rainey gathered her emotions in, pushed the box lids back down and stowed them away, as she usually did. There was no room for self-pity or regrets in Rainey’s life. In the young deputy’s enthusiasm, Rainey recognized the fledgling cop she had once been. Silently, she wished Deputy Knox a happy life far away from Quantico and the losses a career in the BAU would bring her. Instead of saying what she was thinking, Rainey pulled the picture of Crystal Lynn from a folder and slid it across the table to Gillian.

  “What can you tell me about this girl? You said you knew the family. Did you know Crystal personally?”

  Gilliam looked down at the picture, studying it, and then looked up at Rainey. “I’m five years older than she is… was, so I was out of high school before she got there. I remember seeing her and I knew who she was, but we didn’t travel in the same circles. I know that she was very active in the church youth group.”

  Rainey prodded Gillian. “What was your impression of her? Just tell me what comes to mind, anything you can think of.”

  “Well, like I said, she was heavily into the youth group. I was at church the Sunday before she went missing. She stood up during the service and told everyone about the youth revival scheduled for… I think it would have been tomorrow. I don’t know if they’re still having it. Anyway, she was very sweet and enthusiastic. I remember thinking she looked like a kid going places, you know. Self-confident and very pretty, she just seemed to have it all together.”