The Wire in the Blood (28 page)

Already back in communion with the computer screen, he muttered, ‘Let me see…MISPER.001. That’ll be the report she did for the squad, wouldn’t you think?’

‘Seems likely. And MISPERJV.001 could be her Jacko Vance inquiries.’

‘Let’s take a look.’ Tony opened the file. Shaz’s words spilled down the screen, giving him a strange sense of communing with the dead. It was as if those extraordinary blue eyes were hovering behind his head, fixing him with their inexorable stare. ‘My God,’ he whispered. ‘She wasn’t playing games.’

Leon peered over his shoulder. ‘Fuck,’ he breathed. ‘You fucking witch, Shazza.’ It summed up everyone’s feelings perfectly as they stared at Shaz’s briefing from beyond the grave.

ORGANIZED OFFENDER CHECKLIST

Jacko Vance
Re: MISPER cluster

High birth order

Only child.

Father’s work stable

Civil engineer—often away from home for prolonged periods on long-term contracts.

Absent father

See above.

Parental discipline perceived as inconsistent

See above; also, mother appears to have suffered post-natal depression, rejected JV and later treated v. strictly.

Higher than average IQ

Regarded as bright by teachers but never did as well as expected academically; poor exam performer.

Skilled occupation, work history uneven

First as a champion javelin thrower then as TV presenter; perfectionist, prone to temper tantrums and firing junior members of team; if not for medal-winning prowess/popularity with TV audience, would have lost several contracts over the years because of arrogant and overbearing behaviour.

Socially adept; may be gregarious and good talker, but can’t connect emotionally

See above; relates very well to members of the public on superficial level; however, one of reasons why his marriage is perceived as so successful is that he appears to have no intimate relationships with either gender outside that relationship.

Living with partner

Wife, Micky, been together for twelve years. A very public marriage, the golden couple of UK TV. However, often away from home both on business and on extensive charity work.

Controlled mood during commission of crime

Unknown: but Vance is known in the business for coolness under pressure.

Use of alcohol or drugs during commission of crime

Unknown. No history of drink problem, some hint that there may have been a problem with painkiller addiction following accident in which Vance lost his arm.

Mobile; car in good condition

Vance has a silver Mercedes convertible and a Land Rover. Both are automatics and have been adapted for his disability.

Follows crimes in the media

He’s perfectly placed to do this—he has direct access to all areas of the media. He numbers many journalists among his circle of acquaintance.

Victims share common characteristics

Yes—see appendix A on original cluster of seven victims.

Unsuspicious demeanour

Millions of people would trust him with their lives or their daughters. In a poll four years ago, he was voted the third most trustworthy person in Britain after the Queen and the Bishop of Liverpool.

Looks average

Impossible to comment objectively. The gloss of celebrity, grooming and an expensive wardrobe makes it hard to judge beyond the facade.

Mental illness in immediate family

Nothing known; mother died eight years ago, cancer.

Alcohol or drugs problem in immediate family

Nothing known.

Parents with criminal records

Nothing known.

Emotional abuse

Mother reportedly told him he was ugly and clumsy, ‘just like your father’. Mother appeared to blame him for his father’s absences.

Sexually dysfunctional—incapable of mature, consensual relationship with another adult

Nothing to support this: marriage very public. No indications that MM unhappy with marriage or has lover.??? Check newspaper gossip columns??? Check with uniforms on local patrol—any signs???

Cool, distant mother; very little touching or emotional warmth as child

Implied in both books.

Egocentric world view

All the evidence—even from MM’s adoring account—supports this.

Beaten as child

MM recalls him speaking of his father coming home from trip and thrashing him for failing eleven-plus; otherwise, nothing known.

Witnessed sexually stressful situation as child, e.g. marital rape, mother engaged in prostitution

Nothing known.

Parents separated in childhood or early adolescence

Parents divorced when he was twelve. According to MM book, his obsession with athletics was bid to gain father’s attention.

Autoerotic adolescence

Nothing known.

Rape fantasies

Nothing known.

Obsession with pornography

Nothing known.

Voyeuristic tendencies

Nothing specific known; but cf.
Vance’s Visits
, the ultimate poke-your-nose-in television.

Aware his sexual/emotional relationships are abnormal and resents it

Nothing known.

Obsessive

Attested to by work colleagues and rivals alike.

Irrational phobias

Nothing known.

Chronic liar

Several instances of him ‘remaking’ past incidents; compare two books.

Initiating stressor?

Jacko Vance’s first girlfriend was Jillie Woodrow. He was unsuccessful with girls before her, and by the time they got together, he was almost sixteen and she was just fourteen. Apart from his obsessive sports training, she was his only interest. They had a relationship that was exclusive, compulsive and consuming. He appears to have been a dominating influence upon her. They were engaged as soon as she turned sixteen, opposed by her parents and his mother; he was no longer in touch with his father by this time. After the accident when he lost his arm, MM’s account claims he set Jillie free since he was no longer the man she’d contracted to marry; TB’s version is that she had been looking for a way out of the claustrophobic relationship for some time and fixed on his accident as a way out, claiming she was repelled by his injury and the prospect of living with a man with a prosthesis. MM and Vance got together shortly afterwards. Just before they married, Jillie did a ‘kiss and tell’ with the
News of the World
revealing that Vance had forced her to indulge in sadomasochistic rituals, tying her up to have sex in spite of her protests that it frightened her. Vance tried to prevent the story’s publication, denying it vigorously. He failed to get an injunction, but never sued for libel, claiming that he couldn’t afford the legal process. (Probably true at that stage in career.) Either the end of the relationship with Jillie in such stressful circumstances or her subsequent revelations could have been a powerful enough stressor to trigger off the first in Vance’s series of crimes.

‘Oh, shit,’ Carol said as she reached the end of Shaz’s analysis. ‘You really have to wonder, don’t you?’

‘You think Jacko Vance could be a serial killer?’ Kay asked.

‘Shaz thought so. And I think she might have been right,’ Tony said grimly.

‘There’s something bothering me about this,’ Simon said. Encouraged by a questioning look from Tony he continued. ‘If Vance is a sociopath, how come he saved those kids and tried to rescue that lorry driver in the accident where he lost his arm? Why did he not just leave them to it?’

‘Good point,’ Tony said. ‘You know I hate to theorize ahead of the data, but looking at what we know so far, I’d say Jacko spent most of his formative years desperate for attention and approval. When the accident happened, he automatically went down the road that would make him look good in other people’s eyes. It’s not uncommon for what looks like heroism to be a desperate craving for glory. I think that’s what happened there. If you still think we’re barking up the wrong tree, let me tell you about a conversation I had with Commander Bishop this afternoon.’ He told them about Shaz’s appointment with Vance and the conclusions he’d drawn from that.

‘You’re going to have to let McCormick and Wharton know about this file,’ Carol said.

‘I don’t feel much like it, the way they treated me.’

‘You want them to put Shaz’s killer away, don’t you?’

‘I want Shaz’s killer put away,’ Tony said firmly. ’I just don’t think those two have the imagination to deal with the information. Think about it, Carol. If I tell them what we’ve found here, first off, they won’t want to believe it. They’ll think we’ve tinkered with her files. I can just imagine the interview with Vance. He slipped effortlessly into the broad Yorkshire of his childhood. ‘A’right, Mr Vance, we’re sorry to trouble tha, but we think the lass here last Saturday thought tha were a serial killer. Daft, tha knows, but seeing as ’ow she got herself murdered that night, we thought we’d better come and ’ave a word. ’Appen tha might’ve seen summat, some weirdo following her, like.’

‘They’re not that bad, surely,’ Carol protested, spluttering with laughter in spite of herself.

‘You ask me, he’s being generous,’ Leon muttered.

‘They’re not going to go in and
interrogate
Jacko Vance,’ Simon said. ‘They’re going to be overawed, they’re going to be on his side. All they’ll do is mark his card.’

‘And Jack the Lad is a clever bastard,’ Tony continued. ‘Now he knows they know about Shaz’s visit, he’ll be the biggest Goody Two Shoes on legs. So there’s part of me that thinks, no, don’t tell them.’

There was a long silence. Then Simon said, ‘So what now?’

Tony had taken a notepad from the laptop bag and started scribbling. ‘If we’re going to do this, we’ve got to do it right. Which means I act as controller and coordinator. Carol, is there a local takeaway that delivers?’

She snorted with derision. ‘Out here? Do me a favour. There’s bread, cheese, salami, tuna, salad stuff. Give me a hand, team. We’ll throw some butties together while our leader cogitates.’

When they returned fifteen minutes later with mounds of sandwiches and a mixing bowl filled with crisps, Tony was ready for them. Sprawled round the room with bottles of beer and plates of food, they listened while he explained what he wanted them to do.

‘I think we’re all agreed that on the balance of probabilities, Shaz was killed because of the work she’d done since she came to Leeds. There’s no indication that she had any kind of personally threatening experiences up to that point. So we take as our starting point the assumption that Shaz Bowman correctly identified the existence of an as yet unknown serial killer of teenage girls.’ He raised his eyebrows in a question and noted four nods.

‘The external connector in these cases concerned Jacko Vance. Shaz assumed him to be the killer, though we shouldn’t fail to consider that our target could conceivably be someone in his entourage. Me, I’m inclined to go for Vance.’

‘Good old Occam,’ Simon muttered wryly.

‘Not just on the least complicated principle,’ Tony said. ’My view is coloured by the length of time these killings apparently cover. I don’t know if there’s anyone who has been professionally close to Vance for that long. Even if they had, I’m not convinced that they would have the charisma to lure young women into what looks superficially like a runaway bid.

‘So, we’ve got Shaz’s profile of Vance. It’s inevitably superficial. She only had access to what was in the public domain that she could get her hands on readily. That seems to have consisted mainly of two biographies, one written by his wife, the other by a showbiz hack. We need to dig a lot deeper than that before we can check whether this man is a serious possible for the series of killings we’re postulating. This is an unusual job for us profilers. Usually we’re making deductions from crime to offender. This time, we’re going from putative offender to hypothetical murders. I don’t feel entirely confident about it, if I’m honest. It’s fresh territory for me. So we need to be very careful before we put our heads anywhere near the parapet.’ More nods. Leon stood up and moved across to the doorway so he could smoke without polluting everyone else’s food.

‘We get the message,’ Leon drawled. ‘Our missions, should we choose to accept them, are…?’

‘We need to track down his fiancée, Jillie Woodrow. The person responsible for interviewing Jillie should also carry out a general investigation into his early life—family, neighbours, school friends, teachers, any local bobbies still on the payroll or recently retired. Simon, are you up for that?’

Simon looked apprehensive. ‘What exactly do I do?’

Tony signalled to Carol with his eyes. ‘Find out everything you possibly can about Jacko,’ she said. ‘Deep background. If you want a cover story for everyone except Jillie, say we’re investigating threats against him and we think the reason may lie deep in his past. People love a bit of melodrama. With Jillie, that won’t work. It might be worth hinting that you’re investigating allegations made against Jacko by a prostitute, perhaps imply that you suspect they’re malicious lies?’