Crime Zero (2 page)

"Please state your name, occupation, and qualifications please," requested Tice's attorney, Ricardo Latona.

The witness unconsciously raised a hand and attempted to run it through her dark, glossy hair before remembering it was tied back into a French braid. A flash of memory intruded on Decker's thoughts. No doubt she had tried to restrain the long cascade of unruly curls in order to look more authoritative. Decker guessed that many people still underestimated the formidable intellect behind the packaging of open smile and Celtic coloring of fair skin, freckles, and pale blue eyes.

"My name is Dr. Kathryn Kerr, and I am a research fellow in behavioral genetics at Stanford University. I have a degree in microbiology from Cambridge University in England and a Ph.D. in behavioral genetics from Harvard."

Her voice had lost none of its soft Edinburgh burr. In many ways Kathy Kerr had hardly changed, and Decker wondered whether she would think his appearance had altered so little. The woman he had known all those years ago still seemed vulnerable and wild at the same time, both of which were only half true. He couldn't help wondering whether she used her maiden name professionally or was she still unmarried.

"Could you briefly outline the nature of your work?" requested the attorney.

"I specialize in the genetic science of criminal and antisocial behavior. Apart from teaching, most of my research work at Stanford is funded by the biotech company ViroVector Solutions and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Decker raised an eyebrow. He didn't know she'd returned from England, let alone that she was working with his people at the bureau. He wondered how long she'd been at Stanford.

"I realize that many aspects of your work with the FBI will be confidential," said Latona. "But isn't it true that one aspect of your research involves identifying the genetic risk factors for criminal behavior?"

"Yes."

Her blue eyes met Luke's for the first time. He tried to read her gaze, but for once his famed powers of perception failed him. Although he had had no idea she was part of the bureau project to explore the genetic roots of crime, he had heard of it; everyone had. After all, nature, not nurture, was now the new religion at the FBI. Criminals were born, not made, so the senior hierarchy believed, particularly Madeline Naylor, the first female director in the bureau's long and illustrious history.

Decker had always disagreed with this philosophy. In his experience criminals, and their victims, were shaped by their backgrounds. At thirty-five Decker was one of the youngest ever heads of the behavioral sciences division at the FBI's training academy in Quantico, Virginia.

His unit had once been the glamour division of the bureau; Hollywood films had been based on its exploits. It specialized in helping police forces target suspects for serial killings, bombings, or other apparently motiveless crimes by developing psychological profiles of possible offenders based on the methodology of the crime.

But under the new regime the behavioral sciences division had become ghettoized. Physiology, not psychology, was where all the money went now. The criminal brain was far more interesting than the criminal mind. PET brain scans, adrenaline levels, skin conductivity, theta activity, and serotonin neurotransmitters were seen as the future of crime control, crowned, of course, by the promises of genetic science.

The new ideology had prompted Decker to tender his resignation last month and accept the offer of a professorship at Berkeley to teach criminal psychology. He had done his time on the front line and could achieve more now by training and inspiring a new generation of mind hunters. Plus ten years in the minds of the sickest killers had taken its toll. His mother's sudden death eighteen months ago had also made him realize that he hadn't seen enough of her or his grandfather in the last ten years. He had been living out of a tiny apartment in Washington, D.C., traveling the country, and putting no roots down. It was time for him to settle back here on the West Coast, where his grandfather still lived, and sort out his life, rather than try to save everybody else's.

McCloud, the deputy director of the FBI, had refused his resignation, asking him to reconsider. But with every day that Decker stayed, the more he knew he had to go. He had already picked his successor. So after finishing off this case and interviewing Karl Axelman in San Quentin this afternoon, he would return to Quantico and tell McCloud his decision was final.

"Thank you for agreeing to come here today, Dr. Kerr," said the defense lawyer with a smile. Ricardo Latona was a squat man with thinning dark hair. He turned to the judge. "The reason we requested this hearing and asked Dr. Kerr to give evidence today is that we believe a new approach to crime is long overdue.

"It is now apparent from all the research that biology is a central factor in crime, interacting with social, cultural, and economic influences. This knowledge raises key questions. If someone is biologically predisposed to crime, should he be punished or helped? If he is sick, do we dare treat him? Or do we feel that treatment somehow excuses 'criminality' and robs us of the need to punish? Is society civilized enough to equate justice with merciful treatment of a disease, or must it always be linked to punishment?"

Decker watched Latona pause and turn to Tice, a man who had abducted and murdered three girls and would have murdered a fourth if Decker hadn't prevented him. "Wayne Tice has done wrong," said Latona in his soothing, reasonable voice. "No one denies that, and he has been convicted of terrible crimes. But we intend to show that they were the result of genetically inherited biochemical factors beyond his control, for which a just, humane society would seek medical treatment, not the death penalty."

Decker groaned. He was no advocate of the death penalty, so long as dangerous people were kept off the street. But the idea that genes determined violent behavior was abhorrent to him and to his work over the past fifteen years. Criminals already had enough excuses to avoid taking responsibility for their actions, without blaming their choice of parents too.

"Dr. Kerr, could you please outline the key scientific evidence that demonstrates that biology is a central factor in violent behavior and crime?"

Kathy Kerr cleared her throat and paused for a moment. "Let me start with a few facts. Firstly, biology is only one of several interrelated factors, including cultural, social, and economic influences, which lie at the root of violent crime. But the more we have learned over recent years, the more important we now understand it to be. Secondly, the biggest biological factor is gender. The world over, it is men who commit over ninety percent of all violent crimes."

Decker remembered back to their Harvard days nine years ago. His criminal psychology Ph.D. on using patterns of behavior to diagnose an offender's state of mind and determine his likelihood to offend again, rather than rely solely on the patient's own opinion, had been much praised. But Kathy Kerr's Ph.D. paper on behavioral genetics entitled "Why Men Commit 90 Percent of All Violent Crimes" had been so groundbreaking it had been published in Nature, one of the world's two most prestigious science journals. He hadn't agreed with it, but he'd had to concede it was brilliant.

Kathy continued, warming to her subject. "The male brain is different from the female brain, and understanding these differences is pivotal to understanding the small subset of criminally violent males. A chemical mixture of neurotransmitters and hormones drives the brain. Let me deal with neurotransmitters first. They are the chemical messengers controlling the flow of electrical messages in the network of nerve cells that allow the complex neural networks of the brain to communicate with one another. They influence and facilitate the thoughts of our mind and the actions of our bodies.

"There are four key neurotransmitters. Three of them-- dopamine, adrenaline, and epinephrene--are very similar. They fuel the brain, stimulating many of our emotional and physical impulses, such as the fight or flight reflex. The fourth is serotonin; this is the vital brake that inhibits and modifies our waking behavior. Its specific function is to link the impulsive limbic part of the brain with the more civilized cortex. Put simply, without serotonin we would have no conscience or inhibitions.

"While neurotransmitters are responsible for the instigation of specific actions, hormones influence the broad pattern of behavior, although the interaction between them is complex. Again put simply, the higher the level of androgens, particularly testosterone, the higher a man's aggression and the lower his empathy with the pain or feelings of others."

Nodding, Latona stepped in. "So overall the male brain is more specifically wired and fueled for aggression, impulsiveness, and crime than is the female brain. But this doesn't mean that all men are violent criminals."

"Of course not," said Kathy with a wry smile. "Violent criminals are the small minority of men well outside the norm, for whom these natural differences have become amplified, exaggerated. There exists a range of physiological tests on which they can be reliably assessed versus the norm. For example, we can measure in the blood levels of MAO, an enzyme that acts as a marker for the neurotransmitter serotonin. And we can monitor levels of brain activity with PET scans and electroencephalograms--"

"OK," interrupted Latona. "So violent criminals are physiologically different. But how exactly does genetics fit into this picture?"

"The recent invention of the Genescope has enabled scientists to read an organism's entire sequence of genetic instructions. By conducting aggression studies on primates, my team and I have identified seventeen key genes that code for the production of critical hormones and neurotransmitters in male primates, including humans.

"These interdependent genes effectively determine man's aggressive behavior. And depending on how each gene's promoter, or volume control, is set, we can tell how loudly that gene will express its instructions. For example, we can predict dangerously low levels of serotonin or high levels of testosterone by studying the calibration of these genes. What we have discovered is that although everyone's gene settings change in reaction to particular stimuli, almost every individual has different base settings. If you see these seventeen key genes as cards, then every man is dealt a slightly different hand."

"Is it true that although this work was done originally on apes, it is now relevant to humans?" Latona asked.

"Yes, much of my recent work confirms these findings in men."

"So a man's genes determine if he is going to become a criminal or not?"

"To an extent. But I stress what I said earlier. Environmental, social, and cultural factors also have an influence. However, the crucial point is that humans are different from animals because they possess consciousness. This means that they are aware of the consequences of their actions. So regardless of any genetic predisposition, free will still plays a significant part in the choices humans make. But certainly some men, regardless of other influences, will find it more difficult than others to behave as society expects them to. The genes they inherited from their parents give them little choice."

Decker smiled. She sounded convincing. But then she had always been a good teacher with a flair for simplifying the most complex problem. As far as she was concerned, the world was one big puzzle that, if she thought about it hard enough and long enough, could be broken down into its component parts to find the one overarching rule that explained everything. To her the whole was never greater than the sum of its parts. That had been their problem. To him the whole was everything. He could never understand how humanity could be reduced to a line of programming. In the short time Kathy Kerr and Decker had been lovers during that last summer at Harvard they had spent most of their time in heated argument. The only area where they hadn't been incompatible was in bed. He thought of the five or six half-serious relationships he'd had in the last nine years and quickly realized that despite or perhaps because of the friction, none shone as vividly in his memory as those few summer months with her.

"You're aware of Wayne Tice's family history, aren't you, Dr. Kerr?" asked the lawyer, pulling out a large board and placing it on an easel by the judge. The network of names and lines on the board formed a simple family tree.

"Yes. That's why I agreed to be involved in this case."

As the lawyer turned to the chart, Luke knew what was coming. He too had studied Tice's family, and he shook his head as Latona explained that the spidery lines leading to boldly typed names revealed how four generations of Tice men had, with two individual exceptions, been drawn to crime. All were famed for their tempers and aggressive drives. "Think twice before you marry a Tice" was a watchword in their hometown.

The chart infuriated Decker. What did Tice have to complain about? He still had both parents, and he had a brother. Apart from his domineering mother and his successful brother making him feel inadequate, Tice had had it better than most. Decker would have given anything to have a whole family and to have known his father.

Fluent in Russian, Captain Richard Decker had been an interrogator with the U.S. Navy at the height of the Cold War. As a child Decker often fantasized about his father's using his psychological skills to prize a piece of information vital to the safety of the free world from some recalcitrant Red admiral. Decker's mother used to reassure him that his own uncanny and unsettling ability to see into the minds of others must have been inherited from his brilliant father. But of course the Russians hadn't killed Captain Richard Decker; some street punk in San Francisco had. That was one of the reasons Decker had joined the bureau: to fight the war on the streets.