Silhouette

XIX

"And you think you can create a profile from the crime scenes?" Dave asks. He is seated on a long stool in Jonjo's makeshift office. Rose is standing behind him. He feels her eyes boring into his back.

Jonjo is at his desk, scrolling through crime scene photos on his computer. "Yep," he says. "Firstly, most crime scenes reflect personality. And our killer here has a hell of a signature."

"I can't believe we are talking about a serial killer right now," says Rose. She heaves a sigh and draws a chair. "I thought those only happened in movies."

Jonjo chuckles. "Welcome to the new world."

"What do we know so far?" says Dave.

"We know he has a good personal hygiene judging from the way the crime scene is so neat and organized, he doesn't even bother cleaning anything because he leaves nothing behind," says Jonjo as he ticks off his fingers. "He works at a skilled labour and has a high intelligence."

"Skilled labour?" says Rose.

Jonjo enlarges a picture on his computer screen. It is the hands of the two victims. "Look at the way they were tied. Those are quite complex knots."

Dave nods. "Very elaborate. A variation of a Turk's head knot. Those can only be made by skilled hands."

"Correct. And the crimes were very carefully planned so the killer was either reasonably well educated or perhaps had a skilled or semi skilled occupation. Plus, the blood work of both victims came back positive for Benzodiazepines."

"Benzodiazepines," says Rose. Isn't that the stuff in date rape drugs?"

"Also present In most general anaesthesia," says Dave.

"Yes," says Jonjo. "A friend of mine, Emma, works at the criminology department of the university of Lagos and I called in a favour. We kind of dated a long time ago, you know? We-"

"Get to the point, Jonjo," says Rose.

"Okay. She ran it through a spectrometer and she was able to identify the brand. It was Veltivan. I phoned the company, they stopped producing ten years ago because the effects were much longer and intense than expected."

"And this brand was identified in both victims?" says Dave. He chews on his lower lip, thinking. The killer had to have been planning the murders for over a while. He tries to imagine planning something like this for over a long time, letting the idea stew in his head, waking up and going to sleep with the thought of killing in his head. He finds the feeling sickeningly familiar. "He is on a mission."

"The Executioner is also on a mission," says Rose.

Dave nods and folds his arms across his chest. He stares at the movie poster on the wall.

"Yeah, they both are," says Jonjo. "But our killer here is most likely killing for revenge. Every arrow points that The Executioner's is a justified killing."

Dave clears his throat. "If its revenge, then something is linking both victims."

"Apart from being stinking rich I don't think anything else connects them. Tomiwa lived in the UK while Remi lived here in Nigeria and partied in Ibiza." Rose frowns. "They were both 30."

"There you go," says Jonjo. "The connection. I don't think it is a coincidence."

Dave nods and closes his eyes. He feels he is grasping on to something, like a realizing a jumble of colours on a canvas is actually a shape. "What triggers the need to kill in a serial killer?"

Jonjo swivels on his chair and rubs his hands together. "There are many triggers, like a feeling of resentment towards society, bipolar disorder, sexual or physical abuse and isolation. It varies with the individual."