A Need To Kill (DI Matt Barnes) Read Online Free PDF Page B

ring might be that of a wolf.  It was graphic evidence; a hard clue that could tie the killer to at least striking Marsha, if not being her murderer.  Though Matt had no doubt whatsoever that the two acts were carried out by one and the same person.  He felt tension in his gut.  Knew that the killer had made a mistake that might lead to his downfall.  If they were lucky, then they would turn up a former client or associate of Marsha’s who wore a wolf head ring, and it would be the case-breaker.  Another facet of Matt’s mind simultaneously acknowledged that in many instances it didn’t pan out that way.  He believed that the killer would be a stranger to his victims.  He pulled a spiral-bound notepad from the briefcase, spent a couple more minutes searching for a pencil, found a blunt one in a bureau drawer and sharpened it with an old Swiss army knife that had belonged to his father.  With his coffee mug refilled, he began to write down what came to mind as being pertinent to him, as he studied the autopsy report on Kelly Lindon:
    VIC TIM 1.  KELLY LINDON. AGE 16.  PROSTITUTE.
    5 FT TALL.  REDHEAD.
    BEATEN AND SUBJECTED TO TORTURE.
    IN ALL, 106 CIGARETTE BURNS TO EARLOBES/
    BREASTS/ STOMACH/ BUTTOCKS AND LABIA.
    STRANGLED WITH TIGHTS.  NOT HERS.
    CONDOM LUBRICANT RETRIEVED.
    WAS KELLY RAPED?
    HAD INTERCOURSE TAKEN PLACE WITH
    OFFENDER /PUNTER?
    BODY NOT POSED.  NO PHYSICAL TROPHY TAKEN.
    UNKNOWN SUBJECT ORGANISED AND LEAVES NO TRACE
    EVIDENCE.  MOTIVATION IS ANGER.  THE VIC TIM
    IS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE WOMAN WHO HE
    HATES AND CANNOT PUNISH.
    Matt dropped the pencil on the pad and picked up the print showing the facial bruising to Kelly’s face.  Looked for any sign of the wolf’s head, but could not pick it out on the mottled skin.  Needed an enlargement, or did he?  He once more went across to the bureau, opened the draw below the hinged drop-leaf and found what he wanted under a jumble of old paid bills and car and house insurance policies.  He would have a clear out, or buy a home file, sometime.  The magnifying glass was large and heavy and covered by years of dust that had begrimed it like a dirty window.  He lifted the bottom of his robe to wipe it with before sitting on the edge of the chair and hunching over the photograph. Knowing what he was looking for made it relatively easy to pick out the shape.  It was indistinct, only a partial impression of the emblematic clue that proved beyond all doubt that both victims had been struck in the face by the same clenched fist.  The killer was unknowingly leaving his individual mark; stamping his prey with a symbol that was uncommon and could be used in evidence against him.
    PARTIAL ANIMAL/WOLF HEAD IMPRESSION ON LEFT CHEEKBONE ,  he wrote and then underlined before flipping to the next page and heading it:
    VIC TIM 2.  MARSHA FREEMAN AKA TRUDI JAMESON
    AGE 28.  REDHEAD,  5’ 9”
    PROSTITUTE.
    SAME MO USED AS ON VIC TIM 1.
    AUTOPSY REPORT TO FOLLOW.
    VICTIM 2 ABDUCTED AND TAKEN TO
    LOCATION WHERE SHE WAS
    TORTURED AT LENGTH, THEN
    MURDERED.
    Matt paused and let the facts to date settle out.  He believed that the unknown subject they sought was not known to either victim.  He allowed the shadowy form of an individual take shape in his mind, and decided that the man’s crimes had been triggered by personal abuse that he had suffered.  He had the overwhelming need to kill prostitutes with red hair.  That was the bottom line.  The compulsion that drove him would escalate.  It always did with homicidal psychos who’d started up.  Matt had learned a lot from Beth.  Profiling was not magical or beyond his capability to employ.  He had attended courses on it and had a wealth of experience in locking horns with wackos that were driven to kill, and worse.  They were predictable, in that they could not stop, fixated on a certain category of intended prey, and followed set and almost ritual rules of engagement.  This killer fit the