Substitute

Detective Nash turned to me and laughed. 

"You're not in a class, Evie. You can ask me without raising your hand." I chuckled myself, not feeling abashed in the least. 

"Can we watch the CCTV footage from when the alarm rang?" Detective Nash nodded. "I also wanted to understand if we can get any videos that the audience took."

"Good points. We have asked all the audience members to hand over any photos and videos that they have taken during the show." He pointed at the laptop. "I have the footage here. It might not be of any help right now, but we can look through it."

The plan of action was distributed and everybody got to work. As the video played, I looked closely at everyone that the CCTV spotted. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Everyone left through the same gate and together.

No. I hadn't seen him get off the stage but he couldn't have left through the front gate. But then they showed footage from all the other exits.

None of the people wore the same clothing. Because of the mask, it wasn't possible to profile the face, not that it was evident either. That's when I realized how easy it was to evade a camera. You change clothes and if there are no distinct signs to identify a person, they could get away with it. 

The sense of security I felt with having cameras around me slowly dissipated. It was a feeling of slow dread creeping into my bones and taking roots. What was it that protected me, really? I had to think about that.

I clenched my fist and looked at the people surrounding me. All calm expressions, each one of them took notes and had intuitive expressions on their faces. What was I doing in this room? A fickle girl who couldn't even decide what she wanted to do with her life? Am I qualified to sit here, even if I am in the process of learning?

"Sebastian, what do you think his personality is like?" I snapped out of my reverie. I looked at Sebastian with desperation, trying to outrun my errant thoughts for a little while.

"Male, between the age of 25 to 30. Good looking and confident of himself. Believes that he deserves more than what he has achieved in life and wants others to know who he is." He paused as he got up from his seat near the back of the room and traveled to the front. 

"While his motivation is unknown as of now, examining the method he has used, he has a lot of pent up anger against the victims. Our first job would be to figure that out. Subsequently, we will be able to paint a clearer image of who he is."

I saw a young male police officer raise his hand. "Dr. Butler, you said victims as in plural. Is there a reason why?" Sebastian smiled and pushed his hand inside his pocket.

"As you might have noticed there have been some grizzly murders occurring across the country. The identity of the murderer is unknown, but he is using some torture methods to dispose his victims and in a very public setting. I have been keeping a close eye on the chain of events and am positive that we have a serial killer on our hands. These murders have been done by the same person." There was absolute silence for a minute and then vigorous scribbling on notepads.

"What is the source?" Another one asked. 

"Newspaper articles that I have come across. My assistant has the documents, you can get the information on her and then get the forensic files. We will have an illustration of how the crimes are progressing and such."

"I have also looked at these incidents and while the motivation remains unclear as Dr. Butler said, there are a few things we can be sure of. One, he is an organized killer and he prepares months in advance, scouting the victims, abducting them, building the devices that will kill the victim and then chooses a location where the exposure will be the highest. Secondly, he enjoys the process of killing and the showmanship of it. It is possible that he is more interested in torturing the victims to death than simply taking their lives, showing that it is vindictive in nature." 

Detective Nash was explaining it further and with the two hypotheses working together, it formed a clearer image in my mind. 

"Substitutes," I said and some people turned to look at me. 

"You're right, Evie. He is looking for substitutes. Something in these victims triggers him to kill. He is replicating his fantasy of torturing and killing a specific person but he is unable to carry it out so he is replicating the fantasy by killing others." Sebastian's voice was strong. Seeing two people doing the same thing was somewhat different. I could see how their methods were widely apart. 

Detective Nash took the more bookish approach, analyzing the crime, whereas Sebastian was more person-centric. It was fascinating to see, knowing that their jobs were exactly the opposite. One was involved in catching the criminal while the other was a researcher who was trying to understand the mind of the criminal. Detective Nash was more inclined to give in to his passion than Sebastian, who was clinical about the whole thing. Such a dichotomy. 

"Get to work. We need information on the crimes. Thereafter, we can figure out who our suspect is." The meeting was dismissed and I found myself walking out of the police station behind Sebastian. As we entered his car, he slid into the driver's seat and waited for me. 

"Evie, I want you to know that this case is going to be difficult. It's not going to be short like before. The facets and possibilities are great and we have no evidence on who it can be."

"So, you mean it is going to be a long haul?" I asked. He nodded. 

"This killer is organized. Seeing that he evaded the cameras in the building, it will be difficult to find his traces even if he stalked his victims. Therefore, we will have to make sure to find alternate routes to get to him."