A Killing Mind. Luke Delaney

      ‘Their hands’ – Sean turned to him, seeing it clearly in his mind now. ‘Their hands would have been clawing at their own throats. They were too busy trying to stop the flow of blood to fight back. He wanted to watch them. Watch them in silence.’

      ‘And before the fight instinct took over,’ Canning went on, ‘he cut the carotid artery, giving them only seconds to live.’

      ‘He watched the life drain out of them,’ Sean continued, ‘and then he went to work on their teeth and nails.’

      ‘Interesting,’ Canning admitted. ‘But you realize it’s all guesswork – I’ll never be able to say for sure which wound was inflicted first.’

      ‘No,’ Sean accepted. ‘The crime scene should help though: blood-spray patterns, footprints in the blood, anything else we can find.’

      ‘Build up a picture, eh?’

      ‘Try to, at least,’ Sean told him. ‘If you just give a jury a long list of evidence, you’ll lose them.’

      ‘Not sure that would be the case here,’ Canning argued. ‘The viciousness of these attacks would keep most juries interested, not to mention his distinctive modus operandi.’

      ‘I suppose,’ Sean reluctantly agreed.

      There was a moment’s silence, then Canning spoke again. ‘Does it worry you?’

      ‘Does what worry me?’

      ‘That he wants to leave you in no doubt that the crimes are his.’

      ‘It does,’ Sean admitted. ‘It tells me he wants the world to take notice of him and that’ll he’ll never stop until it does.’

      ‘Why does he want the world to take notice of him?’

      ‘Don’t we all?’ Sean answered with a question. ‘But that’s too general – not specific enough to him. I don’t think killing is the thing that drives him. I think it’s a means to an end. The way he can achieve whatever it is he’s trying to achieve.’

      ‘Are you sure?’ Canning asked doubtfully.

      ‘No,’ Sean shook his head. ‘Not really.’

      ‘Well, one thing we can be sure about,’ Canning told him, ‘is the type of victim he seems drawn to. Young and vulnerable.’

      ‘Victims of society become the victims of killers,’ Sean explained.

      ‘Indeed,’ Canning agreed sadly.

      ‘And there’ll be more of them,’ Sean warned. ‘Unless I can find him and find him quickly.’

      ‘Then you’d better get on.’ Canning turned to his tray of torturous instruments and removed a lethally sharpened scalpel. ‘And so had I.’