The Case of the Magic Man
The location of this sequence of events is Central University, located in a small town in the central part of a large state in our fair land. The story is true and the composite drawings are the actual ones done for the case; only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. This narrative contains graphic adult material and situations so parental discretion is strongly advised.
Vanessa is a very plain 18 year old girl, slightly overweight, who has been a coed at Central U. for just under 2 months. Vanessa is not a happy camper. She comes from a very small town Southwest of Central U. where she enjoyed a very satisfying relationship with "Bubba" her high school sweetheart and Champion High School Rodeo calf roper. After graduation Vanessa's parents insisted she attend Central U. even though Bubba was going to North Central U, 350 miles to the North. Vanessa's sister also attended Central U. and was a junior this year, studying Elementary Curriculum. Vanessa's sister lived in an apartment off-campus near a freeway, where the year before she had been grabbed, forced into her own apartment and sexually assaulted for several hours. This case was handled by Central City P.D. and no suspect was ever developed.
Early in November, Vanessa dialed 911 and reported that an intruder had come into her room in Burger Hall and turned over furniture, knocked books out of the shelf and generally trashed the room. Vanessa reported to officer Steiger that her roommate was out of town and she had left the room locked and there were no signs of forced entry. Officer Steiger wrote a Burglary of a Habitation report which was sent to Central University Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division where it was assigned to and received by Inspector Baldero who read it, pronounced it "dead in the water" and filed it.
A week later the crime was repeated almost to the detail, except this time the ceiling tile were knocked out of place directly above the bookcase, indicating that entry had been made through the crawl space above the suspended ceiling. Steiger generated yet another BurgHab report which was duly sighed over and filed by Baldero. And then The Mother came to visit Central University Police Department.
The Mother had many questions and suggestions, which were not always flattering to Central U. P.D. What was being done? Had there been fingerprinting? Had the building been searched? Was there an armed guard on duty around the clock? What was being done to protect The Daughter and what was being done to provide counseling for Vanessa. All challenges were met with instant compliance and Inspector Baldero made sure that from that moment on, copies of both reports were always open and on his desk.
The Mother left town after confiding to Central U.P.E. That Vanessa thought the guy who raped her sister might just be the one vandalizing her room.
By the end of November, Inspector Baldero knew he would have to have a larger desk if he were going to keep all of Vanessa's cases open and on the desk because the perpetrator (hereafter to be known as the PERP) started to write notes to Vanessa and began to phone her at all hours of the day and night. The notes were always typed on clean paper and mostly said, "you won't be as lucky as your sister; she is still alive"..."I am going to make you suffer"..."I can see you all the time". The phone calls were whispered echoes of the notes. A series a Terroristic Threat and Telephone Harassment reports were generated and A PLAN was put into operation. All of this happened in between visits from The Mother
Now that there was probable cause to believe that the PERP was the same person who had sexually assaulted Vanessa's sister, a review of that Central City P.D. case was made and the first step in THE PLAN called for a composite of the Central City P.D. PERP. The sister said that the apartment was dark and that she could not recall a face, but she had dreams in which a face appeared and she believed there was enough light from the freeway to permit some visibility. The sister was given some mild hypnotic suggestions and after several relaxation inducing count-downs, she made selections from the FBI Facial Identification Catalog which after three meetings led to Composite No. 1. Vanessa was shown the composite and told to watch out for someone who resembled this person and that if she ever saw the PERP, Central U.P.D. would do another composite the likeness of which would identify the PERP in our cases as the PERP in the Central City P.D. case. Copies of this composite were not publicized.
The Mother, on one of her many visits, informed Central U.P.D. officers that this PERP was so clever that he was writing some of the notes on Vanessa's typewriter. Like baby kittens slowly opening their eyes, the staff at Central U.P.D. ever so slowly began to see the emerging pattern and were then able to understand how the PERP was able to slip through attics, leap tall buildings at a etc., etc. etc. Meanwhile, back at Central U. life was going on despite Vanessa, The Mother, the PERP and Central U.P.D. In late November, there was an attempted sexual assault in the hallway of Darwick Hall.
In the almost deserted hallway of the second floor of Daarwich Hall, a coed was attacked by a young man who fondled her breast while laughing at her. He ran away when other people appeared in the hallway. The coed cooperated in the development of a composite of the suspect and this time the composite and the crime information were publicized extensively by the Central U. News Service. This was Composite No. 2. Meanwhile back to the ongoing saga of the star of our show----VANESSA.
By the second week in December Vanessa is ready to play her trump card; The Mother is ready for electroshock; The Central U.P.D. staff is at a Vanessa-induced standstill and the Christmas Holidays seem like eons away from sweet relief. The quandary is how to reveal that Vanessa is creating the PERP without triggering a civil suit from The Mother. And then she played her trump card!
The morning is quiet, the air is clean, the anticipation of Christmas Vacation is intense; Officer Vacera is in his unit at the Southwest corner of Vanessa's Dorm. Inspector Baldero is looking out his office window at the Northeast corner of Vanessa's Dorm. God arranged this. It was not planned. Breaking the tranquillity of the morning, a 911 call comes from Vanessa who is screaming, "Someone is pounding on my door! They're trying to break in!". Then there is a scream and a loud noise as if a door had been slammed. Dispatch announces the emergency and Vanessa reports the PERP is gone but he is wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans. Officer Vacera reports he is in place covering the South and West faces of the building and Investigator Baldero reports the North and East faces of the building under surveillance. Within seconds four officers are in the building searching for the PERP. No PERP leaves the building. No PERP is found in the building, but a note dropped by the PERP as he fled confirms all the dirty rotten things he is going to do to Vanessa (unless of course The Mother will permit Vanessa to transfer to North Central U.). Vanessa says she was in her room all morning. She got a good look at the PERP and he looked just like the composite of the guy who raped her sister. Vanessa agreed to a search of her room while she came to Central U.P.D. to develop a composite of the PERP.
At the Office of Inspector Baldero, Vanessa insists on seeing again the composite developed by her sister, but of course she is told that she cannot look at any pictures or composites until she has provided the identifying features for a composite. Three sessions later the composite is complete indicating the appearance of the person who attacked Vanessa in her room that day. But it looks like the hallway attacker, not the rapist in the Central City P.D. case. Vanessa has remembered the wrong composite, but she has done a fantastic job of remembering it. And so composite No. 3 was born. When the search team returned from Vanessa's room, they had in custody the ribbon from her typewriter and miracle of miracles, the last threatening note was typed on VANESSA'S OWN TYPEWRITER.
The Mother came and took Vanessa to a motel for her safety. The next day The Mother met with Inspector Baldero who gave her all the facts of the case. Upon hearing that the PERP typed the note on Vanessa's own typewriter while she was in the room, the mother exclaimed, "ISN'T HE UNBELIEVABLE?", to which Inspector Baldero replied, "I believe you have found the perfect adjective".
No charges were filed against Vanessa. Central U.P.D. declined to offer 24 hour armed guards for the remaining days of the semester and the Spring Semester made a full completion without Vanessa's name appearing on a single Central U.P.D. offense report.
Somewhere in the North Central part of the State, a boy and a girl sit on a bench waiting for the bus that will take them from the North Central U. campus to downtown North Central City where they will see yet another movie and eat yet another meal at Taco Bell. The girl is thinking how loyal and loving her family is, especially her mother. The boy is thinking, "HOW IN HELL CAN I GET OUT OF NORTH CENTRAL U?"