Free Never Somewhere Else by Alex Gray Page B

disbelieved the psychologist. He had encountered some violent criminals in his career, but never anyone capable of such cold-blooded intent.
    ‘You mean DonnaHenderson was deliberately stalked and killed, then the others were used to make it look like a spate of serial killings?’
    ‘Yes. Perhaps. He puts a deliberate signature on these deaths; the chain, the scalping, the removal of the bodies to the park. He wants us to think that there is a serial killer on the loose. But it’s all too deliberate. Too neat.’ Solly’s voice drifted off in thought.
    ‘You really don’t think this is a serial killer, despite the attempt on Alison Girdley’s life?’
    ‘No. He’s clever. He’s well read.’ Solly’s grin returned. ‘He may even have been a student of psychology.’
    Lorimer returned the smile.
    ‘God help us.’
    The two men looked at each other for a long moment. Solly continued to smile and then nodded, acknowledging the new sense of co-operation between them.
    ‘Well,’ Lorimer’s tone became brisk again, ‘We’ll have to go back over the Donna Henderson case with a fine-tooth comb. If what you believe is true, there are going to be some disgruntled police officers raking over the same facts and figures.’ Lorimer took a deep breath. ‘How would you profile him?’
    ‘The tape helps, of course, but I would say he is white, single, in his early thirties. He may suffer from some sort of personality disorder.’
    ‘Schizophrenia?’
    ‘Possibly. He may well be as outraged as the next man when he reads about the murders, if he does have such an illness. But it’s early days to speculate on his mental health. He’s probably a professional who works and lives on his own. He’s not taking the scalps home to mother. Usually multiple killers have backgrounds of deprivation in their childhood: a lack of moral guidance. So he may have been orphaned or illegitimate.’
    ‘I’m stillconcerned about that ambulance. How does it figure in your profile?’
    ‘Yes. That’s interesting. I wonder if he uses it for transporting equipment of some kind. A pity the Girdley girl didn’t see inside.’
    ‘She won’t think so!’
    ‘There is one thing that bothers me.’ Solly looked up, the smile nervous now. ‘You won’t like this, Chief Inspector, in view of what I’ve said, but … This man may not have started out as a compulsive killer. His intention might simply have been to cover his tracks.’ Solly’s pause was loaded with significance and he spoke softly, ‘But he may have become a compulsive killer.’
    Lorimer could hardly believe his ears.
    ‘You’re right. I don’t like this. First you say that he’s not then you say that he might be. Dr Brightman, you seem to have a habit of contradicting yourself.’
    Solly shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands, palms upward, in an exaggerated gesture.
    ‘I said once that he was a hunter. It’s as if he has acquired a taste for blood.’
    ‘You think he’ll kill again, then?’
    ‘Oh, yes. I don’t think that voice on the tape realises just what he has said. He intended it to mock us, and to make us continue to believe that he would go on killing. What he may not realise is that he has begun to enjoy it.’
    Despite the stuffiness of his office, Lorimer shuddered.For a few minutes he had felt a sense of relief with Solomon Brightman’s theory. If the killer was a cold-blooded murderer with one of the more recognisable ‘ordinary’ motives, then the killing might have stopped. But now? There was a chilling truth in what the psychologist said. Lorimer had never experienced a case like this, but he had read about killers who had killed for profit, jealousy, revenge or whatever, then found a perverse delight in blood-letting. Often it was paranoia that set in. But sometimes killing just became easier, the killer drawing a sense of power with each death.
    ‘Chief Inspector.’ Solly stood up, putting his papers back into the briefcase. ‘May I