Last Call (7 page)

“Ice?”

She shakes her head. “Neat.”

“You got it.”

She swallows the first drink in one shot.

The evening crowd hasn’t come in yet and Nancy perches on the stool next to her. “Hey,” Frank says, relieved at the distraction. “How you doing?”

“Good. How about you?”

“Peachy-keen,” Frank lies. She finishes the second glass and lifts it for a refill.

Nancy asks, “Are we drinking dinner?”

“Just the appetizer. I’ll get something in a little bit.”

But in a little bit Johnnie comes in. She orders Chivas for them both and when Mac pours his drink, Johnnie gripes, “Damn it, how come bartenders are all always called Mac?”

“Because we’re all Scotch-Irish bastards. MacPeters, MacDougal, MacPhilips. You dumb WASP bastards can’t keep us straight so you call all of us Mac.”

“To dumb WASP bastards,” Johnnie toasts.

Mac pours a shot to join in the toast. “To Scotch-Irish bastards.”

They look at Frank who hasn’t raised her glass.

“Got something against the Scotch-Irish?” Mac grins.

“Nope. Just bastards in general.” She changes the subject. “Mac, if you’re such a good Scotch-Irish lad tell me what Chivas means.”

“Oh.” Mac clutches his chin. “I heard once.”

“Detective Briggs, any guesses?”

“Good times ahead,” Johnnie answers.

Frank shakes her head. “Guess again.” It’s a game she used to play with Noah—three guesses, each sillier than the next, but Johnnie doesn’t know the rules.

“I don’t know.”

Frank peers at the amber liquor in her glass. “It’s Gaelic. Means the narrow place.”

“So?”

“So nothing.” She sighs. “Never mind.”

Every witness pulls Miller out of the six-pack of photos. In the lineup, each one points and says, “That’s him.” He is bound over and pleads not guilty. Frank apologizes to Bobby as she did to Darcy. Nothing is said of it again, for which Frank is grateful. The calculated violence of her attack on Miller scared her and she just wants to forget it, chalk it up to circumstance and move on.

The City of Angels obliges her. After a four-year dip, violent crime stats throughout L.A. are climbing to new highs. It’s only May, yet Figueroa already has 58 homicides on the books. It’s a tough enough load for a full squad, and Frank’s shy a man. Her best man.

Notwithstanding a brutal seventy-hour week, by the end of it Frank sits alone in her office. She has finished combing through the Pryce murder books. She has analyzed crime scene photos, autopsy reports, lab reports completed prior to losing the physical evidence, responding officer and primary detective reports, notes from Noah and canvassing officers, statements from friends, family, neighbors and the woman who found the bodies. Dozens of rap sheets have been read—from Peeping Toms to sadists to child offenders. Everything has been reviewed but the box of interview tapes. They sit in their shoebox, carefully dated and labeled in Noah’s hand. She still can’t bring herself to listen to them, rationalizing that Noah would have documented anything worth hearing. It’s a weak argument but the best she can muster.

Frank’s made her own extensive notes. Heedless of her exhaustion, she uses these to flesh out the chart she started at the beginning of her investigation. She fills in the facts to create a physical profile of the perp. Going on the assumption that the man who raped Ladeenia is the same person who killed her makes the perp a male. And he’s a fit male, able to carry the bodies to the dumpsite with ease, and to snap Trevor’s neck like a twig.

Perpetrators tend to feel more comfortable offending within their own race, so she labels the perp black. For the time being this is supported by the fact that a white or Asian male in a mixed black and Hispanic neighborhood would have been conspicuous and likely noted.

Race and gender are easy, but before she can construct a psychological description of her perp, she has to classify the type of crime it was. Organized or disorganized. It has elements of both, but on the whole it fits the description of an organized offense.

Frank starts with what little she can tell from the abduction. Ladeenia’s visit to Cassie’s was spontaneous. If the perp had known about it he wouldn’t have had much time to plan around it, meaning the abduction itself was relatively spontaneous. Spontaneity is characteristic of disorganized offenders, but the abduction itself seems very well organized, not obviously sloppy or chaotic. The perp was able to plan an abduction and carry it off without calling attention to himself. This tells her the offender’s intelligence is at least average, if not higher.

Snatching two kids from the street in broad daylight is a ballsy move. There are a number of ways he could have done it. One would be to lure them into a vehicle and go off with them. Mrs. Pryce said there’s no way Ladeenia would get into a car with a strange man. Absolutely no way. Frank knew kids were readily swayed, but for a couple reasons she agreed that the perp probably hadn’t used a vehicle.

One, it’s not likely that a guy this organized would impulsively snatch not one but two kids in the middle of the afternoon. The risks were huge. He’d have to physically secure them, transport them to a private location, carry the bodies back to the car when he was done, then dump them. All this without anyone’s noticing. Risky as hell. It didn’t fit with his organizational skills.

Second, if he was just cruising for a likely vie, he wouldn’t be cruising in his own neighborhood. The level of planning indicates he’d be smart enough to troll someplace where he wouldn’t be recognized. Yet the kids were taken and dumped within a one-mile radius. This would indicate the perp had a reason to be in the area. Because both sites were residential, it seemed likely he lived within the vicinity of either site. Maybe he lived outside the area and had been trolling, but then why bring them back here for the dump? It didn’t make sense to return here.

“Unless it’s that remorse thing,” she murmurs to her knuckles.

Frank drums her pencil on the table. This is the part she can’t reconcile. The way he arranged the bodies indicates some degree of concern for the children, maybe even regret, yet is completely inconsistent with the assault and abduction. He raped Ladeenia vaginally and anally but did nothing to depersonalize her. Her face wasn’t touched. She didn’t appear to have been covered. Typical of assaults by strangers. The vie is simply a convenient object. The perp evinced no compassion during either assault. He didn’t notice or care that her thumb was burned. She might have gotten the bruise line on the back of her leg while he raped her vaginally, again showing no compassion, no concern.

None of the evidence suggests Trevor’s eyes or head were covered. He probably saw the entire assault on Ladeenia. It would be too risky to leave him out of sight. Seeing his sister attacked would have been a huge trauma for the boy, and completely thoughtless, even sadistic, on the part of the offender. The assaults on Ladeenia are vicious, but not necessarily sadistic. A sadistic rapist
has
to hurt other people to get off. Without pain, there is no excitement for the sadist. He often enacts convoluted fantasies, and tortures his victims before and/or during the assault. Pain is critical to his arousal. Ladeenia’s perp obviously hurt her, but he didn’t inflict pain incidental to his primary objective of rape. There is no evidence of prolonged or exaggerated cruelty.

Experts recognize four general categories of rapist, the sadistic offender being one type. Frank dismisses this category as well as the power-reassurance rapist. Perps in this category are the “gentleman rapists” who show concern for their victims during the attack. A third typology, the power-assertive rapist, gets off by being in control. These are self-obsessed offenders who feel entitled to pleasure at the cost of another’s pain, deserving to fuck whomever, whenever. Because they are into control they often bind their victims. They tend to pick random rather than known targets and are often violent. Ladeenia’s perp didn’t appear overly aggressive, but how tough would you have to be to intimidate a nine-year-old?

The fourth category, anger-retaliatory, doesn’t fit with the evidence. Anger is the motivation for these rapists, and their victims are usually badly beaten. Other than the rape, there was no excessive trauma or humiliation to Ladeenia. The assault was bloodless literally and figuratively. Frank would expect to see a lot more damage if her perp was a raging, blitz-style personality.

She considers whether he is a genuine pedophile or merely opportunistic. From her experience, child molesters who prey on prepubescent kids usually aren’t gender-specific. Molesters who prey on older kids are. Her perp didn’t seem to have any sexual interest in Trevor, only Ladeenia. She thinks if he were a genuine pedophile, he’d have gotten off with both kids.

“Double your pleasure, double your fun,” she thinks aloud.

Consulting a number of battered texts, she decides her perp falls into various categories, which is typical of most offenders. He exhibits traits of both an organized and disorganized offender, favoring the organizational side. His style appears to be primarily power-assertive though he has attacked outside his own age range and dumped the kids in a style grossly inconsistent with that category of offender.

The lack of witnesses, the apparent speed and skill of the abduction, as well as lack of planning, all suggest Ladeenia and Trevor just happened to have chanced upon a tragic confluence of time and space.

“Seconds and inches,” she mumbles. Frank shuts the binder and tips her chair back. She rocks, eyes closed. Power-assertive rapists tend to act on a cycle, allowing time for the fantasy and planning of their next rape. This perp’s action was spontaneous. He saw an opportunity and literally grabbed it. The spontaneity in an otherwise highly organized crime suggests a stressor. Something may have upset him prior to the abduction, and the assault was his way of releasing that stress.

Thumping her chair down, Frank draws up a list of typical stressors. When she starts canvassing she’ll inquire about neighbors’ fighting, getting arrested or losing jobs, whether anyone had a recent death or divorce in the family.

The positioning of the bodies distracts Frank like a chronic, low-level pain. Their careful, almost tender placement completely contradicts the violence of the assaults. Frank considers maybe the perp was drunk when he took the kids, and the situation escalated. Next thing he knows he’s got two dead kids on his hands. He didn’t mean for that to happen. Just wanted a little fun. After he sobers up he is filled with remorse. He wraps the kids in the blanket. Carries them to the site. He puts them down, maybe resting for a minute, and in that minute realizes what he’s done. He’s emotionally exhausted and physically spent. Regret seeps into him. It’s dark, so he can’t see the trash on the ground, but he opens the blanket and picks the kids up, placing them next to each other. It was cold that night so he covered them with the blanket.

“Oh-h-h,” she draws out. “Tenderly. Like a woman.”

She plays with the idea that maybe a woman was involved. A woman who assisted in getting the kids and dumping them, then felt bad and at least left their little bodies neatly arranged. The perp would have wanted them well hidden but the woman would have wanted them found quickly. She could commiserate with the parents, wanting them to find their children quickly and in decent condition. By concealing them in the lot, they buy time, but not too much.

And Ladeenia appeared to have been raped in a kitchen, or someplace where food was served. During the autopsy the ME had collected dozens of bread crumbs and salt and sugar grains from Ladeenia’s skin and from under her nails. A stain on her wrist skin turned out to be coffee mixed with sugar and creamer. Noah had noted that both parents drank their coffee black.

Frank imagines the couple taking the kids into or through the kitchen, maybe to get the duct tape, and the woman getting nervous or balking. The perp’s excited. He wants to maintain control of the situation so he doesn’t even give the woman a chance to protest. He rapes Ladeenia right there and then. Maybe she reaches out to hang onto something and hits the stove. Burns her thumb.

Two perps explain the crime’s inconsistencies. It makes it easier to see how the kids could disappear off the sidewalk at three in the afternoon. She’s pretty sure the perp is black. He likes a certain degree of regularity, control in his life. She speculates that a guy like that would want to date within his race and stick to what he knows.

“So a black couple.”

The theory elicits the welcome tingle of a good lead, and Frank follows it.

“Maybe they’re involved with the community.”

Church-goers. The type you’d never suspect, otherwise they’d have been the first for people to point fingers at. She still thinks they’re local. They have a house or apartment close to where the kids were taken. Or maybe a restaurant. That would explain the food particles, but she can’t think of any food joints along the abduction route. Somehow, the couple is in the vicinity when the kids are. Their presence wouldn’t be suspicious. They belonged there. No one would notice them. The woman may even have known the kids. If the man did, he didn’t seem to care. And he’s clearly in charge.

“A manly man.”

Frank nods. It jibes with the power-assertive classification. A guy like that would have a very feminine woman. He’d tell her what to do, how to do it and when. She might have wanted children but he wouldn’t allow it. He wouldn’t want to share her. His woman would be petite, attractive and subservient. Well-groomed and well-dressed. Her femininity would make him look even more masculine. He’d have a macho ride, something souped up and tricked out, a late-model muscle car. Image is a big deal to this guy.

“But such a big deal,” she argues with herself, “that he probably wouldn’t bother attacking children.”

It would make him look small. He would probably prey on well-developed older girls or young women. Unless he’s got that stressor going on. Has a fight with the little woman. Sees the kids and is in a good position to take them. Wants to do something to feel good about himself, reassert his power and authority, his manliness. Ladeenia’s little, but what a coup snatching
two
kids would be. That’d show everyone what a stud he was.