“The commonality between the two subcategories is the rape and the postmortem dismemberment.”
“Torture is odd man out in this group.”
“Yes.”
“How did they die?”
“This is where it becomes problematic—the causes of death are different.” She flipped through her notes. “A fair number of those from blood loss. Though with those who died of internal bleeding, it was most likely not intentional, as it was with those who had arteries severed.”
“Severed during amputation?” Jakob asked.
“Amputation means they survive the removal.”
Jakob grunted. “Learned something new.”
Annalise’s lips twitched. “If we want to be very precise, I could have titled these categories defensive dismemberment—which is what we have with our organized-crime-related kills, in which the dismemberment was functional to aid in disposal and/or eliminating evidence. But the ones we’re discussing, that this investigation should focus on, are offensive dismemberment.” Whatever amusement they briefly shared melted away as she refocused. “In offensive dismemberment, the focus of the dismemberer is the act of separating and sectioning the body.”
That was going to be a major part of the profile, but for now she put it aside.
“Back to the causes of death. Given the state of many of the bodies, some CODs are listed as unknown or pending. Others have only a probable COD, not definitive.”
“Offensive dismemberment, if done while still alive…” Jakob grimaced. It was a small twitch of an expression, but she saw it.
“Death most likely would be from blood loss, or from the trauma of the action causing cardiac arrest.” She tapped her fingers on her notes. “Cardiac and respiratory arrest are the most common CODs in those files where one is listed.”
Jakob stiffened, glancing at his hands before looking up at her. “If you break a man’s neck correctly, sever the spinal column, the diaphragm is paralyzed.”
Annalise held her breath, shocked by his words…but not surprised. She knew he was formidable, but he was also so chivalrous that she’d forgotten, or maybe never realized, that to become a Ritter, he was probably a dangerous man.
“Respiratory arrest is the technical cause of death,” he finished.
Annalise gave herself a moment to see if fear would grip her. It didn’t. This was Jakob.
Her Jakob.
No. Thinking like that was just as bad as imagining his hands on her.
Maybe worse.
Nothing about what the fleet admiral had asked her to do was easy or straightforward. If it had been, crime filters on ECRIS—European Criminal Records Information System—would have already flagged files with enough similarities to indicate a serial killer.
Annalise took a breath, flipping through her messy pages of notes. So many victims, so many ways to look at and assess the figurative reams of information.
“I’m sorry, I know this is a little confusing.”
“Don’t apologize.” Jakob nodded for her to continue. “I understand.”
She smiled softly. “Thank you, Jakob.” She had so many things she needed to thank him for. “How about I skip to the actionable intelligence?”
Jakob stiffened, sitting forward, as if he were going to jump up and go get the bad guys as soon as she pointed him in the right direction.
“I narrowed it down further by gender—only women, though they were the majority of the victims anyway. Eliminated any who were dismembered but not decapitated, since we know Josephine’s head was removed. I also filtered for some important similarities in relation to how the dismemberment was achieved. Then I made some judgment calls based on the other circumstances around the cases.” It was those decisions made on interpretation of details that she was most worried about because she wasn’t good at this anymore.
Except, right now…she felt sure of her choices. Confident in her analysis.
Brilliant.
“After all that, I have two names,” she concluded.
“You took the list from hundreds to two.”
Annalise looked down, self-doubt rearing its familiar head. Had she made the right calls? Focused on the right things? There were so many unknowns.
“Good job,” Jakob said quietly.
“There are probably more, maybe I should check again, and without the rest of Josephine’s body—”
“Trust yourself. I do.”
Dammit. Annalise’s emotions were already too close to the surface, and his words had just set her heart racing. She swallowed deeply. “Thank you,” she said, her voice sounding thick even to her own ears.
“Where are the victims from?” Jakob asked, his question helping her switch her focus from how badly she wanted to kiss him to the case once more.
“Besides Josephine, one was killed in Brussels, the other in Krakow.”
“Belgium, Poland, Ireland. But all large cities,” Jakob said.
“Yes, and it means he is most likely a fluent English speaker.”
Jakob folded his arms. “Convince me.”
Annalise raised a brow. “Convince you?”
“Convince me this is actionable.”
Annalise felt her brows climb higher up her forehead.
Jakob shrugged. “That’s what we said at the BND.”
“The BND?” Bundesnachrichtendienst was German foreign intelligence.
“I was a BND agent. Right after university. The Masters’ Admiralty recruited me from there.”
“I didn’t know that about you,” she said softly, though she didn’t know why she should be surprised to learn he’d worked in intelligence. He’d proven himself highly intelligent, so much more than a bodyguard or hired gun, or even many of the police she’d worked with. And now his comment about neck breaking…
“It was years ago. Before I became a Ritter,” Jakob replied.
“Very well then, I’ll convince you.” She set aside her notebook and laptop and adopted the tone she used when she was teaching. “The last known location of each of these people was walking down a city sidewalk. It’s one of the things Eric noted. It might not seem that important, but it is. Why?”
Jakob’s brows drew together, his arms still folded.
She waited a moment to see if he would say anything. When he didn’t, she continued. “They lived in the cities where they were taken. These people were going through their daily routines.”
“They were complacent.”
“There might be an element of that, but for the most part, people are more secure when they are somewhere familiar. Habits and routine are a kind of protection…at least when it comes to this sort of situation. When you’ve seen something a thousand times, your brain will take note when there is change. People may be less consciously aware, but they are also more prone to pay attention to oddities. You notice things like when a business you’ve walked by many times changes their window display. Or they repaint the pedestrian crossing.”
Window-shopping and walking around the city were things she’d had to abandon because of the stalker.
As if he’d realized what she was thinking, Jakob stood. She waited for a moment, holding her breath. Wondering if this time he’d come to her. If he’d hold her tight. He’d done it before, the night she’d opened the box of flying roaches, and then in the hospital hallway outside her sister’s room after the rape.