Fairstein, Linda - Final Jeopardy by Final Jeopardy (v1.1) [html] Read Free Book Online

talked softly to her.
    “You’re doing fine, Katherine. I’m going to interrupt you from time to time to ask for some details. The questions may sound stupid and trivial, but I need to ask them. You may know some of the answers, and you may not remember others. Just tell me what you can, okay?”
    She nodded.
    “Did he undress himself, Katherine, or did he just expose his penis?”
    “He didn’t undress completely. But he did take off his jeans and the heavy belt. He kept his shirt on. And he wasn’t wearing any underpants.”
    “When you say ”oral sex,“ you mean he made you put your mouth on his penis?”
    “Yes, yes, he did. He kept saying he’d kill me if I didn’t.
    Then he told me to stop. He picked me up, he lifted me up, and he put me on my bed. He pushed me down on the bed face up and he put a pillow over my face.“
    “Was he talking during any of this, Katherine, or was he not saying anything at all?”
    “Yes, he talked. He talked a lot of the time. But, but… I really can’t remember too much of what he said. It was disgusting.”
    I leaned in to try to get her to look me in the eye. There aren’t many honest people who can lie when they look you right in the eye just the pathological types. I knew Katherine Fryer could tell me exactly what her assailant said to her if I forced her through it.
    “Katherine, you can remember the things he said to you you may not want to, but I know you haven’t forgotten them. And as unpleasant as it is, and as much as it may make you mad at me, I want you to say every one of them to me. They’re part of his signature, Katherine; they’re part of what will help Mercer find him, because he’s probably said them to someone else and he’ll say them again the next time. And there will be a next time unless we stop him. It’s what helps him get off on this stuff, so it’s one of the ways you can get back at him. Please help us with this, trust us.”
    “Do you want me to leave the room, Katherine?” Mercer asked, hoping it might make her more comfortable.
    “No, no it’s not you. It’s just, well, it makes me nauseous to think about. I’m not a prude or anything, but…”
    Again, Katherine Fryer braced herself and went on with her story.
    “It was odd,” she continued, ‘because he kept going back and forth between the sexual stuff and asking me where my money was. When I undressed, he told me I had big breasts he told me he liked that. Then he went right on saying he wanted my money and my credit cards. I pointed to my pocketbook. Once he had me on the bed with the pillow on my face, that’s when he really talked a lot.
“He wanted to know if his prick excuse me, that’s his words I’m using now if his prick was bigger than my boyfriend’s… Was it better for me?… Why did I have such big breasts and a little pussy?…
Then, in the middle of that, how much money was in my wallet? Then, right back to how good my boyfriend was in bed. And then he kept saying that he would kill me if I didn’t make him come.”
    Mercer caught my eye as Katherine rested her forehead in her hand. We had more than enough to know it was the same guy as in the earlier cases. He was trying to tell me to wrap it up so he could take her on to headquarters.
Even the ending was identical. After the rape and robbery, he bound Katherine to the bed with an extension cord, stuffed a dishcloth in her mouth, and replaced the pillow over her head. He ripped the telephone cord out of the wall, and she heard him rummage around in her dresser drawers before the final sound of the front door as it shut behind him.
It took more than one hour for the determined young woman to free herself from the cord he had wrapped around her wrists and summon help from a neighbor.
    I was glad Mercer had signaled me to cut the interview short. Katherine Fryer was running on empty, and I had found an outlet for my own predicament in trying to lose myself in her case.
    “Okay, Katherine, we’ve