Avenge Thy Brother

Chapter 7: Mind Games

            Dr. Neil Nathan had helped Detective Saunders stop a serial rapist and killer the prior year, so I had high hopes that he'd be able to help Karen and I that day. When we arrived at his office, I was surprised by how modern it looked. All of the criminal psychologists I'd worked with before were older white men with old-style offices. Dr. Nathan was the complete opposite, a black man in his early-forties. There was a large portrait hanging on the wall above where he was sitting of him with his wife and their son and daughter, who both looked to be in their early-teen years in the portrait.

"Special Agents Jeffries and Rowell," he said while standing from his desk. "Welcome. How can I be of assistance?"

Karen handed him a file we'd quickly put together of crime scene photos for him and asked, "Can you give us a profile on what kind of person or kinds of people would do that?"

He looked over each photo for a considerable amount of time before clearing his throat and beginning, "Judging by the amount of effort it would take to display the victim in the first six photos, I'd say you're looking for somewhere between six and ten people; however, they were just carrying out a vision."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Can't you see it?"

I looked at some of the photos and asked, "See, what?"

"The victim's intestines are roped to those trees in such a way that they resemble ropes when they're being used for Double Dutch. He's been attached to the tree by railroad spikes, which is an unusual choice. And the second victim is being held up by multiple javelins that have been pushed through his body. What do these displays tell you?"

Karen shrugged her shoulders and suggested, "Those are outside activities."

"You're looking for someone who not only enjoys the outdoors but also has participated in events that take place outdoors throughout their life, from Double Dutch as a child to track and field activities by high school and maybe even college. This person coordinated these displays and they were very detailed in what they wanted. The second victim's tongue has been cut out and his head has been propped up with his eyes pried open. This is the mastermind telling you to see with the eyes and not question with the tongue."

"You don't understand," I said to him. "The second victim is a singer so maybe..."

"Both victims are nude, yet there has been no mutilation of their genitals. That means you can rule out anyone who was sexually molested as a child or assaulted as an adult by a man." He stared at the photos of Michael Travers for a while before declaring, "I cannot give you any clues about the group of people who pulled off these displays, but I can tell you about the mastermind behind it all."

Karen and I looked at one another and then I said to him, "Go on."

He stared at me and theorized, "You're looking for a woman who most likely had a happy childhood but grew into an overbearing adult. She suffered multiple failed relationships and then one day, she snapped. Since both men were homosexuals, I'd say she singled them out solely because of that. This woman has an intense hatred for homosexual men and she is getting revenge with these killings and taking joy in her revenge with the displaying of their bodies. The joy she gets from either killing or ordering others to kill reminds her of previous joys in her life, such as participating in Double Dutch as a girl and in track and field events as a young woman; thus, why she combines those joys. This woman would be far into a career that keeps her busy, so I'd place her between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five; closer to the latter because she's most likely near or past menopause. I hope some, if not all, of this helps you."