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Authors: Jonathan Santlofer
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drank another beer and turned the music way up, a raunchy number by some Puerto Rican duo, lots of drums and percussion. I managed to exchange the memory for the case, and worried I might not be up to it, that I hadn’t worked a homicide before.
Then I realized I had worked hundreds of homicides, just differently. I went to the closet and pushed stuff around till I found it, the Smith & Wesson NYPD-issued .38 Special heavy-barrel revolver. I hadn’t touched it since I left active police work, though I had kept up the permit. I got my hand around the stainless-steel grip. It felt good, but I remembered why I’d exchanged it for a pencil.
I went back to my work table and started a new drawing.
I had no idea why or where this was coming from, but stayed with it.
When I looked at it I shuddered. What the hell was this ?
Maybe I was a little drunk.
But the drawing made me feel sober.
I thought about my father again, how he had always encouraged my art. He’d take my best drawings to the station and tape them inside his locker. He was proud of me, of my talent. The night he’d found my drugs, he had not only berated me but reminded me that I was special, that I’d been given a gift, and one day, he prayed, I would stop wasting my life and put it to use.
I wished he were here so I could tell him I had done what he asked. But sometimes you don’t get a second chance.
13
I was back at Midtown North with Terri Russo standing over me. I showed her the sketches.
She came in close and looked at the ones of the eye. “What the hell is this?”
“That’s what I asked myself. I don’t know. I might have been a little drunk.”
“Oh, great.”
“It was just a few beers. But I wasn’t drunk when I drew the others.”
“The guy in the coat?”
“Right. It’s not much, but—”
“You got this from Acosta’s wife?”
I explained about the man on the corner.
“It’s something,” she said. “I’ll make copies. Cops can show it around to the neighbors. Maybe it’ll jog someone’s memory.” She spread copies of all the crime scene sketches across her desk.
“I want to be sure it’s the same guy doing all the drawings. Last time you told me that the guy was right-handed, neat, and compulsive. Now there are three drawings, so I thought you might see something more.”
“You have any aspirin?”
She rummaged through her bag, came up with Excedrin, handed me a bottle of Poland Spring. “You’re not a drunk, are you?”
“This is the result of three beers. I’m half Jewish; what more can I say?”
She laughed.
I washed down the pills and looked at the drawings. “Okay. Yeah, there’s the same mark-making, same angled stroke, same confident drawing style. There’s some talent here too. These are hard poses to draw, particularly the two with all that perspective. There’s a famous painting of Christ laid out in this kind of perspective, by an Italian Renaissance artist, Mantegna.”
“Is this the art history lesson?”
“It came into my mind because there’s something religious about these drawings, like the victims have been crucified.”
“You think it’s got any significance?”
“Maybe he sees his victims as martyrs, or himself as one. Or it could be he’s just showing off, you know, how good he is at drawing—and murder.” I looked from one to another and a thought came to me. “It’s like he imagined their deaths ahead of time.”
“Well, they’re premeditated, of course.”
“Yes. But it’s more than that. It’s like he sees how he’ll kill them by drawing it first, like he’s visualized the murder ahead of time.” I tapped the drawing of the black man from Brooklyn. “Here, a guy taking a bullet to the chest. He’s drawn it, then carried it out. Maybe it’s his process, his ritual.”
Terri nodded. “But it doesn’t tell us why he selected these victims. And it can’t be random.”
“What do we know about the
Then I realized I had worked hundreds of homicides, just differently. I went to the closet and pushed stuff around till I found it, the Smith & Wesson NYPD-issued .38 Special heavy-barrel revolver. I hadn’t touched it since I left active police work, though I had kept up the permit. I got my hand around the stainless-steel grip. It felt good, but I remembered why I’d exchanged it for a pencil.
I went back to my work table and started a new drawing.
I had no idea why or where this was coming from, but stayed with it.
When I looked at it I shuddered. What the hell was this ?
Maybe I was a little drunk.
But the drawing made me feel sober.
I thought about my father again, how he had always encouraged my art. He’d take my best drawings to the station and tape them inside his locker. He was proud of me, of my talent. The night he’d found my drugs, he had not only berated me but reminded me that I was special, that I’d been given a gift, and one day, he prayed, I would stop wasting my life and put it to use.
I wished he were here so I could tell him I had done what he asked. But sometimes you don’t get a second chance.
13
I was back at Midtown North with Terri Russo standing over me. I showed her the sketches.
She came in close and looked at the ones of the eye. “What the hell is this?”
“That’s what I asked myself. I don’t know. I might have been a little drunk.”
“Oh, great.”
“It was just a few beers. But I wasn’t drunk when I drew the others.”
“The guy in the coat?”
“Right. It’s not much, but—”
“You got this from Acosta’s wife?”
I explained about the man on the corner.
“It’s something,” she said. “I’ll make copies. Cops can show it around to the neighbors. Maybe it’ll jog someone’s memory.” She spread copies of all the crime scene sketches across her desk.
“I want to be sure it’s the same guy doing all the drawings. Last time you told me that the guy was right-handed, neat, and compulsive. Now there are three drawings, so I thought you might see something more.”
“You have any aspirin?”
She rummaged through her bag, came up with Excedrin, handed me a bottle of Poland Spring. “You’re not a drunk, are you?”
“This is the result of three beers. I’m half Jewish; what more can I say?”
She laughed.
I washed down the pills and looked at the drawings. “Okay. Yeah, there’s the same mark-making, same angled stroke, same confident drawing style. There’s some talent here too. These are hard poses to draw, particularly the two with all that perspective. There’s a famous painting of Christ laid out in this kind of perspective, by an Italian Renaissance artist, Mantegna.”
“Is this the art history lesson?”
“It came into my mind because there’s something religious about these drawings, like the victims have been crucified.”
“You think it’s got any significance?”
“Maybe he sees his victims as martyrs, or himself as one. Or it could be he’s just showing off, you know, how good he is at drawing—and murder.” I looked from one to another and a thought came to me. “It’s like he imagined their deaths ahead of time.”
“Well, they’re premeditated, of course.”
“Yes. But it’s more than that. It’s like he sees how he’ll kill them by drawing it first, like he’s visualized the murder ahead of time.” I tapped the drawing of the black man from Brooklyn. “Here, a guy taking a bullet to the chest. He’s drawn it, then carried it out. Maybe it’s his process, his ritual.”
Terri nodded. “But it doesn’t tell us why he selected these victims. And it can’t be random.”
“What do we know about the
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