“Meaning that he’s unable to stop, and starts to think of himself as invincible, starts to think, in other words, that he can get away with anything. Worse, that to get the same charge, the same satisfaction, he has to get deeper and deeper into his fantasies.”
“Meaning, she doesn’t think we’re going to get the Woodham woman back alive?”
“No, she doesn’t,” Peter said. “And worse, that because he’s starting to think he’s invincible, that he’s not going to get caught, that he’ll go after somebody else, a new conquest, more quickly than he has before.”
“I’m not sure I understand that,” Pekach said.
“What she said is that the first time, after he’d done it, he was maybe ashamed and afraid he would get caught. And then when he didn’t get caught, he stopped being afraid. And he remembered how much fun it was. So he did it again, got into his fantasies a little deeper, and was a little less frightened, and a lot less ashamed.”
“Jesus!”
“What she, Dr. Payne, said was that it “evolves into frenzy.”
“She meant he loses control?”
“Yeah.”
“You think she knows what she’s talking about?”
“I’m afraid she does,” Wohl said.
“What can be done that isn’t being done?” Pekach asked.
“Tony Harris is working minor sexual offenders,” Wohl said. “He thinks this guy may have a misdemeanor arrest or two for exposing himself, soliciting a hooker, you know. Mike has been out recruiting people, and as soon as they start coming in, in the morning, I’m going to put them to work ringing doorbells for Harris.”
“If there was a van, any kind of van, in Northwest Philly tonight that got away with not coming to a complete stop, or whose taillights weren’t working, you know what I mean, I would be very surprised,” Pekach said. “But we just can’t stop every goddamned van in town, looking for a hairy white male, no further description available.”
“I know,” Wohl said.
“I went to the roll call tonight,” Pekach said, “and reminded Highway that if we catch this scumbag, it might get the goddamned newspapers, especially the goddamned Ledger, off our backs. Not that they wouldn’t be trying to catch this scumbag anyway.”
“I know,” Wohl said.
“Czernick on your back, Peter? Coughlin? The mayor?”
“Not yet,” Peter said. “But that’s going to happen.”
“What do they expect?”
“Results,” Wohl said. “I’m wide open to suggestion, David.”
“I don’t have any, sorry,” Pekach said.
“What
did you decide after tonight?” Wohl asked.
“Excuse me?”
“What shape is Highway in? Isn’t that why you were riding around?”
Pekach met Wohl’s eyes for a moment before replying.
“I went in on six calls,” he said. “One on 95, one on the expressway, both traffic violations, and the other four all over town, a robbery in progress, two burglaries, man with a gun, that sort of thing. I didn’t find a damned thing wrong with anything Highway did.”
“Did AID come up with any witnesses in the accident?”
Any accident involving a city-owned vehicle is investigated by the Accident Investigation Division of the Police Department.