Page 48 of Night Moves
“Sure.” She sat up straighter, and her hands relaxed. “He’s conceited, but very charming when he wants to be. He has a feeling of self-importance. He has a lot of friends at his workplace and is well respected. He’s smart and creative. And healwayshas to be right. Always. That could be his downfall.”
“Do you get the sense that he loves his kids?” Aiden asked.
She tilted her head. “Yeah. Yeah. As much as he can. But if he’s a serial killer, and let me say I’m no expert on serial killers—he most likely suffers from antisocial personality disorder. In that sense, he probably doesn’t care for others the same way we do. I don’t know if he indeed suffers from this disorder. I’m just throwing this theory out.”
“Do you think he’ll even make an effort to find his kids?” Drake asked.
“Yes, but again not for the same reasons we might have. I doubt he has the kind of emotional connection we all might have with a child. He likely sees them as his possession. He won’t let anyone take what he believes to be his. So that means, in addition to wanting to stop me from testifying, he wants to get his children back. He surely can’t let me best him.”
Erik leaned forward. “Antisocial personality disorder. Is that the same as being a psychopath or sociopath?”
“Sort of. At least, to me they’re the same thing, but some people in my field distinguish between the two using severity of symptoms. Generally, a sociopath is someone who doesn’t cause serious harm or distress. A psychopath on the other hand puts others in danger or is violent. But we evaluate all people with ASPD—antisocial personality disorder—using DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, and all of these symptoms can be found in the ASPD category. Sociopath is just one of the terms to describe someone with ASPD that most people recognize.”
Drake was so impressed with her knowledge that he knew he was beaming like a proud parent. Or more like a boyfriend or significant other. “I should’ve probably mentioned that Natalie has a Ph.D. specializing in children and youth.”
“Uh-oh, maybe we should’ve been calling you doc.” Erik grinned.
She laughed. “Natalie is fine.”
“So our takeaway is that he doesn’t think the same way we do,” Drake said to keep them on track. “Doesn’t care about others.”
Natalie’s smile evaporated, and she nodded. “If I have him pegged right, he’s into sensation seeking and has a lack of remorse or guilt. He’s impulsive, but he needs to control, and if he isindeed The Clipper, we know he engages in predatory behavior.”
Aiden grimaced. “And what does that mean for his actions now?”
“He has no remorse for killing or committing other crimes, and he’ll risk everything to find me and his kids.” Natalie stated the danger in a matter-of-fact tone, but her trembling hands gave away her real emotions.
“Which means he could use the IT skills he learned on the job to try to track you down,” Erik said. “Being an officer would give him access to a great deal of personal information.”
Drake focused on his brother. “Can you get us a—”
“List of the women and their details?” He got up and carried his laptop with him to the end of the table where Drake was standing. “Still working up detailed profiles, but I’ll write their names down for you.”
He listed four names with a date beside each of them. “The day they were murdered.”
“I’ve been thinking about the nail polish,” Clay said. “Specifically the names.Angelic. Chameleon. Bewitching. Vixen.Do they mean anything? Tell us something about the women?”
“I haven’t found anything to suggest that,” Erik said.
“Did they all live in Portland?” Aiden asked.
“No. Cities around Oregon.” He tapped the first and fourth name. “Gina Green and Laura Zimmer were the only women killed in Portland. They died four years apart. Because he murdered the women in different cities, it took a while for the link to be discovered. But his big mistake was killing in Portland again.”
“How’s that?” Brendan asked. He’d been quiet for so long Drake had almost forgotten his brother was on the video call.
“Londyn Steele linked the current murder to the one four years ago, and then she searched for others,” Natalie answered before Drake could.
Erik sat back down. “I’ll try to track him to see if he traveled to the other towns when the women were murdered.”
“Do that,” Drake said. “And get us a full report on the victims as soon as you can.”
“You think the victims are the key to finding him?” Natalie asked.
“Not necessarily,” Drake said. “But Erik will already be looking at things like car rental, video surveillance, banking records, etcetera and this will just be part of the big picture and give us an idea if he has a connection to these locations or a reason to return to them.”
Erik eyed Natalie. “And I need to look into you, Natalie.”
“Me?” She gaped at him. “Why me? I’m just the person who found the polish in the basement. I haven’t done anything.”
