The Quiet Tenant

Even in the 21st century, when GPS tracking, ubiquitous security footage, and advanced DNA technology aid significantly in detection techniques, serial killers often manage to evade capture because they choose victims with whom they have no connection, tangential or otherwise. Much of today’s common vernacular articulating the behavior of serial killers originated with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. In his memoir, Mindhunter, Co-Founder Supervisory Special Agent and Unit Chief John E. Douglas states the following:

Modus operandi—MO—is learned behavior. It’s what the perpetrator does to commit the crime. It is dynamic—that is, it can change. Signature, a term I coined to distinguish it from MO, is what the perpetrator has to do to fulfill himself. It is static; it does not change (Douglas, John E., and Mark Olshaker. Mindhunter. Gallery Books, 2017).

Because Michallon herself is well-versed in these concepts and uses them to construct her characters, Douglas’s conceptual framework is especially useful in illuminating the nuances of Aidan’s behavior over time. Part of Aidan’s signature requires that he stalk his victims before he kills them; additionally, he is compelled to take belongings from his victims so that he can reminisce about his kills as time goes on. For serial killers, as Douglas emphasizes, such compulsions are essential to achieving fulfillment in the act of murder, so they cannot be omitted from the process, no matter how objectively risky they may be. And therein lies Aidan’s downfall. For if Emily were to go missing, her public connection to Aidan would make it far more likely that the police would consider him a suspect, and an eventual search of his home would soon reveal the belongings of all the other murdered women. Thus, Aidan finds himself in a bind. To allow Emily to live is to risk her discovering his secret, but killing her outright is just as risky. His increasingly erratic behavior amidst this conundrum causes his entire scheme to fall apart as “Rachel” escapes to freedom. Michallon does not reveal the details of Emily’s realizations after the crisis has passed, so it is never clear whether Emily realizes just how narrowly she escaped being murdered. However, her decision to visit May/“Rachel” after the fact is designed to imply her deep distress over the entire incident, while still emphasizing her essentially selfish nature. By seeking May/“Rachel” out, she ultimately wishes to gain some measure of reassurance for herself; she stresses her ignorance of Aidan’s true nature in order to assuage her guilt over her failure to help the captive woman, and she then seeks emotional reassurance from someone who has far greater need of comfort and support. Despite this dynamic, May/“Rachel” does choose to receive Emily’s sentiments, understanding the other woman’s need to heal and demonstrating the Shared Empathy Between Women when faced with diabolically difficult situations.

It is also important to note that even when there is no chance of evading justice, Aidan still maintains an illusion of respectability and aggrieved innocence, repeatedly shouting “She took my kid!” (288). The audacity of this stance illustrates the true depths of his arrogance, his hypocrisy, and his inability to empathize with others, for he spent two decades hunting, torturing, raping, and murdered numerous women—who, from a different perspective, were also the grown “kids” of their devastated parents. He terrorized them for the purposes of his own personal gratification, disposing of them like objects when he was finished. Despite these heinous acts, he is indignant when “Rachel” takes Cecilia and expects an immediate police response; yet, his anger ultimately stems from his captive’s decision to disobey him, not from any concern for his daughter’s safety. Thus, Aidan’s inability to understand the irony of his complaint to the police speaks to the extreme degree that he is able to compartmentalize his darker behaviors and continue Hiding Key Personality Traits. Fortunately for “Rachel,” his vocal tantrum works in her favor, serving to demonstrate Aidan’s true volatility.