The River Runs Dry by L. A. Shorter

of Burgess', that's what the press are calling him. Have you seen this Darc. There's a public service message warning people to stay in groups at night and not get drunk or go out too late. Says that girls need to be extra careful, particularly brunettes with blue eyes.”
    “No, you're just scaring me,” said Darcia, grabbing the paper off of her. “That's not very tasteful Jess, you know, with...”
    She read down the page, her eyes scanning fast, and her face grew in fear.
    “Jesus, I'm definitely coming to LA then. Screw this place.”
    Jessie looked at her, her own face grave. “With this latest murder I doubt my place is going to sell any time soon. If it doesn't I'm gonna miss the start of college and then there's another fucking year of my life wasted.”
    Her expression changed slightly as she saw Darcia's face. “Sorry honey, you know what I mean.”
    “No, you're right. You're worth more than this place honey, you need to use your brain to do some good. Will you study crime again....what was it you did before?”
    “Criminal psychology.”
    “Shit. So you, like, know what's going through this killer's mind and stuff?”
    “Not quite, but I understand how they think. Well, as much as you can, anyway.”
    “So how does he think? Why did he kill Taylor? Why the other girls?” Her voice, as it did when Taylor came back into her mind, threatened to break with emotion.
    “It's hard to say exactly babe, but it usually comes down to some sort of trauma they suffered, often as a child. They're generally insecure and scared of rejection, that's why so many of them have sex with their victims to give them power, sometimes when they've already killed them.”
    Darcia's face screwed up and she shook her head. “OK, I don't wanna hear any more about that. That's sick. So daddy hits you as a kid and you go and start raping and murdering people, is that it?”
    “It's more complicated than that, but abuse is often a primarily cause, often sexual abuse when they're younger.”
    “And is all that meant to make people feel sorry for them or something? Like it's not their fault. That's just a way of putting the blame elsewhere. This guy is mentally sick and deserves the fucking needle. I'd give it to him myself if I could.”
    “Oh, me too,” said Jess quickly. “I hate this 'butcher' as much as anyone. I wasn't trying to make excuses for him, babe, I was just explaining the psychology behind their actions.”
    Darcia looked appalled as she grabbed her cup of coffee from her kitchen table and took a long swig. “I just don't understand how anyone like that can live. What does he do, just hang around looking for drunk girls at night? How does he, I don't know, make money?”
    “Well that's the weirdest bit, in a way. He probably has a completely normal life most of the time. He's probably a charming guy, someone most people would get along with. Most are, and live for years, only killing when they get an insatiable urge to do so. Sometimes there can be breaks of months, even years, between their murders.”
    “So you're saying we might have walked past him in town? You're saying he could be the bank manager or the guy who serves you in a restaurant?”
    Jess nodded, slowly. “Exactly.”
    Darcia exhaled loudly. “Well that's nice to know. That makes me feel better. So he's out there today, in his job, and the police, no one, has any idea who he is. He's probably reading the paper and laughing. It could be anyone.”
    “Well, I guess so, but you can narrow it down a bit,” said Jess, as if she was talking in a classroom full of students. “I will be a man, you can almost guarantee that...”
    “Yeah, obviously! What else?”
    Jess had a think for a while. Frankly, she could only speculate without any real details. “OK, so he's attacking young women with medium length brown hair and blue eyes. So he needs to be close enough to see their eyes before he'll attack. So, he's probably going to bars and waiting for