Mad Green Eyes

Chapter 4 - The Employer

4)    – The Employer

Everyone in the room held their breath as they watched Ada examine the reports and photos taken from the crime scenes. The blonde girl reached up and itched the left side of her face as she studied the last photograph. Finally she put it down on the table and leaned back in her chair.

‘Normally I would conclude that the killer was a male,’ Ada said as she sipped at her cup of tea, ‘but in this instance I can say with about 75% certainty that the killer is a female.’

Pilkington and Koslovski exchanged a confused glance.

‘How did you get to that so quickly?’

‘Well,’ Ada began, ‘all five of these victims are female, with the exception of Kael Reade – one of the first victims – on August the 24th. Most serial killers who target women are male sex killers, or males who have reason to want to avenge themselves on the opposite gender. However, as we all know, all of the women killed by this murderer were mutilated in a very specific way – even Reade’s body was tampered with, although obviously not in the same way as the female victims. Clarke, have your team figured out whether the mutilations were performed before or after the murders yet?’

Vincent Clarke, head of the forensics team, sat opposite her in a white lab coat. A pair of spectacles balanced precariously on the bridge of his nose and he cleared his throat before addressing the group.

‘We c-c-concluded that the time of m-mutilation differs between the v-v-victims,’ Clarke stammered, playing nervously with a loose strand of his curly brown hair, ‘Reade’s ... m-mutilation was quite obviously p-p-performed at least two hours before he d-died. His wife, Queenie Reade w-was killed about half an hour to f-f-forty m-minutes before her husband, and her u-uterus was removed not long a-after she d-died.’

‘Her... uterus?’ Koslovski echoed, obviously not understanding the English word, ‘what is a uterus?’

‘A womb,’ Xenos interjected before anyone else could, ‘the organ where a foetus develops inside a woman’s body.’

Comprehension dawned in Koslovski’s eyes and he pulled a face of disgust.

‘The killer ripped out their wombs?’ He spluttered, ‘what about Kael Reade? I doubt he even had a womb.’

Xenos raised an eyebrow at him.

‘Reade’s genitals were removed,’ Ada said matter-of-factly, plopping a sugar cube into her cup of tea as though she were discussing the weather, ‘that and he was stabbed multiple times in the face, am I correct, Clarke?’

Clarke nodded. Ada sighed and leaned back in her chair again.

‘If you don’t mind me asking, Ada, how can you be so sure that the killer is a woman just by the fact that the corpses were mutilated in this way?’ Pilkington asked.

‘It has happened before in the past, when a woman who has either experienced a stillbirth or is infertile will steal either unborn babies or wombs from another woman,’ Ada explained.

‘But couldn’t it also be a man who is frustrated that he isn’t able to give birth?’

‘Highly unlikely,’ Ada said, ‘if it were a man it would virtually cross out the possibility that he killed because he was depressed about a stillbirth – and before you ask I know for fact that women tend to be effected a lot more deeply by stillbirths than men are.’

‘Oh,’ Pilkington still couldn’t understand why a man couldn’t have done it anyway, but he didn’t want to argue with his future roommate. He had also heard that she was generally right about 99% of the time.