The Retribution (34 page)

Except that was ridiculously wrong. You didn’t make careful plans to go out and kill, plans that included fake number plates and baseball caps to confound the cameras, then choose a completely arbitrary murder method on the night. There was something structured going on here, even if he couldn’t work out what it was. And the harder he tried to pin it down, the further out of reach it seemed.

Tony drank his tea and stared out of the porthole at the glassy water beyond, letting his thoughts drift. Whatever had been niggling at the back of his mind since the previous murder was squirming harder now, but he still couldn’t nail it. Maybe the crime-scene photographs would help.

He went back to the computer and opened the file. And was reminded that sometimes the world worked the way you wanted it to. When Tony looked at the photographs in sequence, first murder to latest, the images fell into place like a jigsaw. All at once, he understood what he was looking at. It made sense and it made no sense at one and the same time.

‘
Maze Man
,’ he said softly. It had been an American import back in the nineties. Late-night Channel 5, watched by Tony Hill and three other people, if the ratings were anything to go by. It was a low-budget TV series about a psychological profiler who constantly referred to ‘the maze of the mind’ and wittered on about criminals being lost in the maze, taking wrong turnings, giving in to the soul of the Minotaur. Tony had only watched it because if he’d had a Facebook page, insomnia would be one of the hobbies he listed. That, and because the consequent rise in his blood pressure from watching something so ludicrous reminded him he was alive.

Excited now, Tony googled
Maze Man
and clicked on its IMDB entry. Twenty-four episodes made in 1996, starring Larry Geitling and Joanna Duvell. Tony barely remembered her, a cookie-cutter California blonde, but Geitling’s face remained fresh in his memory, all chin and cheekbones and crinkles round the sapphire blue eyes when he went thoughtful. Which happened mostly just before the commercial breaks, as Tony recalled. Geitling’s name rang a vague bell, but he couldn’t put his finger on it and Google didn’t help.

But he knew the name was in his head for a reason. Working on the principle that anything is worth a try, he summoned up Stacey’s patent case-indexing system. It trawled every document scanned or imported into a case and created a master index. He typed in ‘Larry Geitling’ and nearly tipped his chair over when he got a hit immediately. Larry Geitling had been the name used by the man who had checked into room five in the Sunset Strip motel, the room whose carpet and towels had been saturated with water the night Suze Black had gone missing. This was a real connection, not just the mad profiler’s hunch.

He’d been absolutely right when he’d said these killings were not about lust or sex. He didn’t even think they were about power. They were about something completely different. At the heart of these murders was a man who needed to kill, but not for any of the usual reasons. He wasn’t killing because he wanted to watch women die, or because he hated them. The paraphernalia of the murders didn’t matter to him; he hadn’t been able to come up with a coherent way of killing. It was as if he was trying on different methods to see if he could find one that worked for him. He was using the TV series as a source of templates for serial murder. Tony had never encountered anything quite like this, but it made a twisted sort of sense.

So if it wasn’t about the killing itself, what was the motivation for these murders? The answer had to lie with the victims, somehow. But what could it be?

In the meantime, he had something to share. He picked up his phone and called Paula. As soon as she answered, he said, ‘This is going to sound really weird.’

‘I was just about to call you,’ Paula said.

‘Have you had a break in the case?’

‘No, Tony. I was going to call you because I just heard about your house and I wanted to commiserate,’ she said patiently.

Sometimes Tony ran out of road when he was passing for human. He didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing.

‘It’s what friends do,’ Paula said. ‘I’m really sorry about your house.’

‘So am I,’ he said. ‘And about Carol’s brother and his partner. And about Chris. How is she, by the way? Any news?’

‘No change. Which they say is a good thing.’

‘I sent it, actually. Stacey’s on her way to Worcester. Play your cards right, she might buy you a coffee.’

Tony was taken aback. How had he fallen this far out of the loop? ‘Stacey’s coming here? Why? What’s happened?’

‘The DCI’s ordered her down to Worcester to drill into the hard drives of a couple of crappy old computers from some geezer called Terry Gates. Apparently he—’

‘I know who Terry Gates is and what we’re all hoping to find on the computers. I just didn’t know Stacey was involved. I thought West Mercia had their own specialist.’

‘Ambrose couldn’t get hold of him. Anyway, the chief decided—’

‘You said that before. How is Carol involved? I thought she was at her parents’ place?’

‘According to Stacey, she’s at West Mercia HQ, calling the shots. Sort of picking up the reins a bit early, you could say.’

The knowledge was like a weight in his chest. He knew Carol would believe she was capable of running an investigation, but he didn’t think she was. She needed time and space to process what had happened and its implications. If she didn’t do that, when the inevitable crash came, she would fall hard and she would fall far. He’d seen that happen to her before and he didn’t know if he could bear it a second time, not when he bore a large share of the responsibility. ‘Great,’ he said heavily. ‘I don’t suppose anybody’s had the bottle to tell her to back off?’

Paula snorted. ‘Like that’s going to happen.’

‘She shouldn’t be doing this.’

There was a long pause. Then Paula said, ‘So, was there a reason why you were calling me?’

‘Are you old enough to remember a TV series called
Maze Man
?’

‘It was on Channel 5.’

‘I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly watched Channel 5.’

Tony chuckled. ‘You’re such a snob. Anyway, they only made one series. It was about a profiler and a cop—’

‘Sounds familiar. Was she blonde?’

‘You’re not funny, Paula. Anyway, it was pretty crap. But I watched most of it because it was so bad it made me feel like a profiling genius. But here’s the thing. These four murders you’ve got – they’re identical to the murder methods in the first four episodes of
Maze Man.
’

‘Are you sure?’

‘I’m sure. Strangulation. Drowning in a bath and dumping the body in a canal. Inverted crucifixion and throat cutting. And dismemberment and delivery in a cardboard box. And the clincher is this: He’s using the name of the actor who played the hero, the psychologist. Larry Geitling. That’s who he checked into the motel as, right?’

‘Jesus. That’s sick.’

‘I’m sending you a link to a website. Some guy in Bumfuck, Nowhere USA is a
Maze Man
nut and he’s catalogued every episode. Actually, now I think about it … maybe you should talk to him, see if he’s in contact with any other
Maze Man
anoraks. Because our killer has to be another
Maze Man
nut. The series has never been released on DVD or video, as far as I can make out. Our guy must have taped it back in 1997. He must still have it.’

‘Or maybe his video recorder just chewed up the tapes and he’s decided to recreate it for himself.’

‘What? You mean, he wants to be a serial killer, but he doesn’t know what to do to enjoy it?’

‘Kind of, yes. Either that or each time he’s been so disgusted he’s had to find another way to do it next time.’ Now he was pacing. Three steps one way, wheel, three steps the other way. ‘There’s a reason why he’s killing. But it’s not the killing itself. He’s sending a message with the tattoo, he’s saying, “Look at me, these are MY achievements.” Paula, if he could find another way to achieve his goal, a way that didn’t involve killing, he would.’

‘That’s a hell of a strange profile, Tony.’

‘I know. And worst of all, I don’t see how it takes you any further forward in terms of nailing this guy.’

‘Back in the old days, you’d be right,’ Paula said. ‘But your suggestion that he might be in touch with the
Maze Man
geek – that’s a cracking idea. Chances are, they’ll have a forum or a weblist or some such nonsense. Or even a set-up that captures all the visitors to the site. Stacey’s going to love this – something to get her teeth into at last, instead of just being a clearing house for Northern’s data. Soon as we get her back, she can get stuck in. Tony, I knew I was right to drag you into this.’

‘The way I feel this morning, it’s me who should be thanking you. It’s good to have a distraction to stop me from throwing myself in the canal.’

‘You don’t mean that,’ she said awkwardly, not entirely comfortable at being in such personal territory with Tony. It wasn’t the sort of area where their friendship normally went.

‘So if you’re right about
Maze Man
, what’s the next murder in the sequence?’

Tony cleared his throat. ‘She’ll be flayed. Her face will be untouched, but her body will be flayed.’

Paula felt faintly sick. ‘What I love about this job,’ she said. ‘Always something to look forward to.’

She thought he was just trying to keep her out of his way, but she didn’t care. She was just grateful for something to do. Carol couldn’t cope with inactivity. It was that quality, rather than her inability to deal with her parents’ grief and blame, that had brought her to Worcester in the first place. Now, left with time on her hands, she wouldn’t be able to avoid thinking about Michael. And that would lead straight to the bottle. This time, she really didn’t want to go down that route. She didn’t want to become the disaster in her own life. She didn’t know whether she’d be able to find her way back a second time.