The Shadow Maker Read Online Free PDF

of a profile. The crime was horrendous, but it presented her with the kind of challenge she liked to deal with. She had to look at the act of blinding and traumatising the victim as an expression of personality. The sexualised nature of the violence pointed to a deviant whose sadistic fantasies were extremely rare.
    Unless his DNA was on file, the unknown suspect would not be easy to trace, and she’d have to call on all her expertise to focus the investigation and help track him down.
    She turned to her laptop and began drafting the crime sequence.
    TIMELINE (Summary - timings approx.)
    21.00: Emma Schultz leaves her flat, takes a train into the city and walks the streets without picking up any clients.
    22.30: She scores some crack cocaine in Chinatown and inhales it in a back alley.
    23.00: She walks to a regular pick-up haunt in the Greek precinct
    - Plato’s Cave nightclub.
    Rita paused. It was barely three months since the club’s owner, Tony Kavella, had eluded a guilty verdict on a series of sex crimes.
    No matter what Strickland said, if there was a second chance to get him she wasn’t going to miss it.
    She took a deep breath and resumed.
    00.20: Emma leaves the club after drinks with two men, and walks the streets again.
    01.00: She crosses the river and is standing near the casino when a client pulls up in a car.
    01.30: Emma and her customer arrive at the Duke of York hotel.
    01.40: In the hotel room, the client produces bondage equipment, lights a fire and puts on a mask. When Emma resists he hits her with a glass ashtray.
    Rita glanced at her copy of the medical report before continuing.
    01.45: The offender manacles his unconscious victim to the frame-work of the bed and shackles her neck. He rapes her violently, as indicated by bruising to the inner thighs and vulva. He also achieves full penetrative sex, as indicated by the vaginal swab. His final act, according to the initial lab report, is to put out her eyes with a hot poker.
    03.00: The offender leaves, making no attempt to conceal or tidy the crime scene.
    Rita scrolled back and read through what she’d just written.
    Deciding it was sufficient as a guideline, she opened a fresh file on her laptop. From her perspective the crime was an expression of the offender’s social background and personal psychology. Her job as a profiler was to pin down what he was revealing about himself - his mind trace. Only then could she evaluate what type of sex attacker he was - whether he was deliberate or spontaneous, whether he was calculating or mentally ill.
    She resumed.
    OFFENDER PROFILE (Preliminary)
    White male. Mid 20s to early 30s. Articulate. Intelligent. Affluent
    - smartly dressed & drives a sports car. Single, or committed to an unrewarding relationship/marriage. Socially and sexually competent, but needs to dominate. In his work role, this man is in a position of authority. He issues orders and expects to be obeyed. As well as exerting power over others, he imposes a high level of self-control on himself. The resulting pressure is relieved by the use of prostitutes.
    If he is defied, it can also be released as physical and sexual violence.
    His family background was oppressive, with an overbearing father and a passive mother. In a social context, he has overcome the negative influence of his upbringing to establish his success, although he still carries an enduring sense of resentment. It is possible that he has vented aggression on prostitutes before, but he has now moved to a more intense phase by inflicting an injury unnecessary to the sexual act (burning out eyes). This would seem to fulfil a revenge or punishment or empowerment fantasy. This offender has crossed a psychological line and will strike again.
    Rita was reading through what she’d formulated when the head of the Sexual Crimes Squad, Detective Inspector Jack Loftus, knocked on the door and walked in.
    ‘Strickland says he’s got you working on a profile,’ he said. ‘How’s it