He called Larner and asked.
“All that was a strange process,” Larner answered on the phone. “It took a lot of bribes and string pulling and veiled threats. After running into every wall imaginable, I worked my way to an anonymous official who, for several thousand dollars, copied the entire top-secret file on Commando Cool for me. Everything ought to have been there, but the only thing it contained was a list of the group members. The military just didn’t have the rest of it.”
“Was that when you started thinking CIA?”
Larner chuckled. “I guess I had been thinking that the whole time,” he said, and hung up.
Kerstin pulled up the list of victims and printed it out. The macabre inventory contained the sparsest amount of information imaginable: name, race, age, job, place of residence, site of discovery, and approximate time of death.
1) Michael Spender, white, 46, civil engineer at Macintosh, resident of Louisville, found in NW Kentucky, died around September 5, 1978.
2) Unidentified white male, 45-50 years of age, found in S Kentucky, died in early November 1978.
3) Unidentified white male, approximately 60, found in E Kentucky, died around March 14, 1979.
4) Yin Li-Tang, Taiwanese citizen, 28, resident of Lexington, biologist at University of Kentucky in Lexington, found on campus, died on May 9, 1979.
5) Robin Marsh-Eliot, white, 44, resident of Washington, D.C., foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, found in Cincinnati, Ohio, died in June or July 1979.
6) Unidentified white female, about 35, found in S Kentucky, died around September 3, 1979.
7) Unidentified white male, about 55 years of age, found in S Illinois, died between January and March 1980.
8) Unidentified Indian male, about 30, found in SW Tennessee, died between March 13 and 15, 1980.
9) Andrew Schultz, white, 36, resident of New York, pilot for Lufthansa, found in E Kentucky, died October 1980.
10) Unidentified white male, about 65, found in Kansas City, died December 1980.
11) Atle Gundersen, white, Norwegian citizen, 48, resident of Los Angeles, nuclear physicist at UCLA, found in SW West Virginia, died May 28, 1981.
12) Unidentified white male, 50-55, found in Frankfort, Kentucky, died August 1981.
13) Tony Barrett, white, 27, resident of Chicago, chemical engineer at Brabham Chemicals, Chicago, found in SW Kentucky, died between August 24 and 27, 1981.
14) Unidentified white male, 30-35, found in N Kentucky, died in October or November 1981.
15) Unidentified white male, 55-60, found in S Indiana, died January 1982.
16) Lawrence B. R. Carp, white, 64, resident of Atlanta, vice president of RampTech Computer Parts, found in his home in Atlanta, Georgia, died March 14, 1982. [Death of primary suspect Wayne Jennings, July 3, 1982]
17) Unidentified black male, 44, found in SW Kentucky, died October 1982.
18) Richard G. deClarke, white, South African citizen, 51, resident of Las Vegas, owner of a Las Vegas porn club, found in E Missouri, died between November 2 and 5, 1982.
[Nearly fifteen-year break]
19) Sally Browne, white, 24, resident of New York, prostitute, found in the East Village, Manhattan, died July 27, 1997.
20) Nick Phelps, white, 47, resident of New York, unemployed carpenter, found in SoHo, Manhattan, died November 1997.
21) Daniel “Dan the Man” Jones, black, 21, resident of New York, rapper, found in Brooklyn, died between March and April 1998.
22) Alice Coley, white, 65, resident of Atlantic City, New Jersey, on disability, found in her home, died between May 12 and 14, 1998.
23) Pierre Fontaine, white, French citizen, 23, resident of Paris, tourist, university student, found in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, died July 23-24, 1998.
24) Lars-Erik Hassel, white, Swedish citizen, 58, resident of Stockholm, literary critic, found at Newark International Airport, died September 2, 1998.
25) Andreas Gallano, white, Swedish citizen, resident of Alby, drug dealer, found in Riala, died between September 3 and 6, 1998.
26) Eric Lindberger, white, Swedish citizen, 33, resident of Stockholm, civil servant with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, found on Lidingö, died September 12, 1998.
27) Unidentified white male, 25-30 years of age, found in Stockholm, died September 12, 1998.
Kerstin Holm broke off. Could no other conclusions really be drawn from this list, other than those that Larner had drawn? She was struck by a short, brutal suspicion that Larner hadn’t put all his cards on the table.
She turned to the psychological profile. A group of experts had made an attempt to explain the fifteen-year gap. Apparently it hadn’t been simple; she perceived that they had had differences in opinion that they tried to bring into line with one another, and the result was fascinating. She wondered why the profile hadn’t been part of what Larner had delivered to Sweden.
The first murders, according to the group of experts, suggested a rather young man’s hatred of authority, personified in an older, well-educated man. His inferiority complex turns into delusions of grandeur when he is able to silence the voices that have kept him down and possibly denied him admittance to the university. It makes the inaccessible accessible, and it makes them feel the same pain he felt. He can even control how much of the pain they express; all he has to do is turn a wheel. Because wasn’t that how they had behaved toward him, denying him the opportunity to speak, keeping him, with one fell swoop, from the higher education that would have made it possible for him to understand and express his suffering? His behavior is a distorted variation on “an eye for an eye”; his retaliation imitates what he feels he has been subjected to. He wins back the power. The great number of victims indicates not that he is becoming increasingly bloodthirsty-there is no real acceleration-but rather hints at the degree of oppression he has experienced. It takes eighteen deaths for him to get his nose above the water so that he can take his place in human society. For perhaps his bloodthirstiness gradually diminishes, and he reaches equilibrium; the murders have a truly therapeutic effect. He reaches the point where he feels he has attained a balance in status between himself and authority, and then he can stop and work his way to a position of authority himself. That is what he does during these fifteen years.
He gets the upper hand. Perhaps he has managed to get an education and become a leader or boss. But naturally his past has not left him unscathed. Now he has become the oppressor himself; that is what he trained to be. And then he cracks down on those who are weaker. His hatred of authority is revealed as envy-he was envious of their power. And now he is the one who strikes first; he pokes out the first eye, instead of just getting revenge. He plays a decisive role. His actions no longer only reflect those of the more powerful, he is more powerful. And this can go on forever.
Thus the Kentucky Killer is likely a white man in a position of power who has had to fight his way up against all odds. This was the gist of the expert group’s report.
Kerstin Holm once again neglected to be diplomatic and called Larner.
“Ray, Kerstin here. Halm, yes, Halm, dammit.” This last word was in Swedish. “I’m wondering why we didn’t have the opportunity to read the expert group’s psychological profile earlier.”