American Devil by Oliver Stark

don’t have to face her. She’s not a woman you want to displease. Especially not when it comes to her conjugal rights.’
    ‘It was six a.m. You two were fast asleep.’
    ‘It don’t matter to her. I need to be right there on tap, should she have any such need.’
    ‘Well, she’s a lucky lady.’
    ‘That’s what I tell her. Shit, man, what the hell did you do to your hands?’
    Harper started walking. ‘I got them caught in a door.’
    ‘Both of them? That’s a hell of a door.’
    Harper kept Kasper walking towards the first crime scene - a four-bed apartment in a luxury building. Mary-Jane had been found dead in the hallway of her own home.
    Harper opened the door to the apartment. The family had since moved out. They’d never move back, either. Their lives had been destroyed. Mrs Samuelson had come home, opened the door and seen her daughter, exposed and bloody on the floor. Harper held up a photograph of the scene.
    ‘She was right there, legs facing the door, head propped up on two pillows,’ Eddie said, pointing at the stained carpet.
    ‘He posed her for maximum shock and humiliation.’
    ‘Her mother’s not recovered,’ said Eddie. ‘I interviewed her twice. She’s bad, Harps.’
    ‘I imagine,’ said Harper, moving through the apartment. ‘How did he get in?’
    ‘He had a key or she let him in. No sign of forced entry.’
    ‘You mean you don’t know yet?’
    ‘He gets in and out without being seen. The only witness we got on this one is dead. I don’t think anyone’s come up with anything more yet.’
    Harper walked through the beautifully furnished rooms. The trail of blood ran from the hall into the living room. The windows looked out across Fifth Avenue. ‘What do you think happened?’
    Eddie shrugged. ‘He took her in here. We think he raped her on the couch. They found seminal fluid on the cushions. He wasn’t careful with this one. Left us his DNA, but so far no hits on CODIS and if he’s not on any DNA database then he might not have killed before.’
    ‘What next?’
    ‘He strangled her, went to the kitchen to find a knife, came back and took his trophy. After that, we think he sat staring at her for some time before he moved the body. Medical Examiner thinks she was lying in that spot in the living room for a good half an hour.’
    Harper wandered around the room. ‘Two things are different here. I saw the report. The knife he used was from the rack in the kitchen, right?’ Eddie nodded. ‘He didn’t have a knife with him. The second thing that’s different is that he left his DNA and fibres all over this one. Amy and Grace were cleaned. I think he took their clothes to be sure, but he left Mary-Jane’s on the floor.’ Harper looked closely at the carpet. ‘Any tripod marks?’
    ‘No. But Mr Samuelson’s camcorder was missing.’
    ‘She didn’t struggle at all, did she? There’s not a thing out of place. My guess is that he controls them with fear and promises. He promises that he’ll let her go so she does what he wants. He either has them out cold or he controls them. I guess he felt safe with Mary-Jane because she was younger.’
    ‘Yeah, that’s too true.’
    ‘What I don’t get is why he goes for such high risk targets. It’s strange for a killer to start so confidently. He seems fearless. He takes big risks to kill the most difficult victims. Why? What’s so important about their wealth and privilege?’
    ‘Jealousy?’ said Kasper.
    Harper shook his head. ‘It’s more than that.’ He had read the department reports and autopsy protocols on the first two murders and was convinced that the killer was an organized type of sociopath. He not only had a personal vendetta, he had a thing against society in general. He most likely chose these girls because their deaths caused maximum fear and maximum national heartbreak. Killers usually chose their victims from within their own social strata, but Harper couldn’t see it in this case. There was