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seemed absent was a blackboard.
    ‘My name is James Killarney,’ he said. His voice was quiet, the voice of a patient and compassionate man. ‘I am here to talk with you about the situation, for I have some experience with such things, but before we begin I wanted to share with you some points of interest.’
    Killarney paused as if waiting for questions, and then he smiled again and continued talking.
    ‘At Berkeley they give seminars on criminal psychology. They deal with every variation of physical abuse from unprovoked and spontaneous attacks on women, through premeditated violence, all the way to kidnapping, torture, sexual abuse and rape and, finally, murder itself. They go into the whole maternal deprivation thing, you know?’ Killarney waved his right hand nonchalantly, tucked his left hand into the pocket of his pants. ‘How the superego is the part of a person’s personality that deals with moral and ethical issues, and if a person is deprived of maternal care at an early age then the superego will be underdeveloped.’ Another smile, the smile of a grandfather. ‘Basically, a stream of nonsense issuing from the mouths of people who have nothing better to do with their time than make up fairytales about how people think.’
    A consensus of murmurs, brief laughter.
    ‘There is one point however, and it has to do with the method and motivation of those who commit acts of violence and murder.’ He paused a moment, looked at his audience. ‘From observation, from experience, there appear to be two types of perpetrator. We call them marauders and commuters. Marauders are those who stay in one location, usually bringing a victim back to a single point to commit the crime. The commuters are the ones who travel out to different locations. The attacks are again divided four different ways. Power-reassurance, power-assertive, anger-retaliatory and anger-excitement. Each of them possess different motivations and therefore manifest themselves in different ways.’
    A shuffle of papers, homicide detectives reaching into jackets for pens.
    Killarney frowned. ‘What are you doing? Taking notes?’ He shook his head. ‘No need to take notes. I am here merely to orient you as to where you should go with your investigation, to keep track of your progress. These are simply categories, and should be viewed as such. The first we call power-reassurance. This is all about the need to reduce doubts about sexuality. A man who’s concerned he might have homosexual tendencies attacks women to prove to himself that he possesses a desire for women. He uses less force than other types of attackers. He plans carefully. He tends to attack in the same location and keep souvenirs.’ Killarney withdrew his hand from his pocket and folded his arms across his chest.
    ‘The power-assertive is what’s known as the “acquaintance-type”. These people come across as friendly and non-threatening. They become threatening later, usually when a sexual advance has been rejected. They become frightened. They feel invalidated, intimidated, weakened. Sexual tension becomes physical tension which swiftly becomes anger, rage, hatred. They switch to expressing their motive through violence. If they can’t have the victim, then no-one else can.’
    Killarney surveyed the faces before him, ensuring that he held their attention.
    ‘Third we have anger-retaliatory. Just as it sounds, this is all about anger and hostility toward women. The victim is symbolic. The anger-retaliatory will humiliate the victim in some way. Their attacks are often unplanned and violent. And the last one, anger-excitement, comes out of a sadistic need to terrify the victim, to cause as much suffering as possible. Attacks are like military operations. Locations, weapons, methods, all of these things are selected carefully and often rehearsed. They use extreme violence, sometimes torturing the victim, often killing them. The victim is ordinarily a stranger, and the perpetrator