Chapter 8: The Therapist
We arrived at Dr. Kendall Knapp's office the following morning just before 8 am. His office was located not far from the two deceased families' residences. It was located on the second floor of an office building and set up very quaintly with a only a few chairs in the waiting area and a small receptionist desk. A female receptionist looked up at us as we walked in and gave us a timid smile, "Hello, you must be the 8:00 am appointment, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson." I smiled to myself knowing what she assumed, since this was not the first occasion El and I were accused of being a couple. Elliot held up his badge and said, "No, we are here to see Dr. Knapp though. We need to talk to him right away." The receptionist looked worried upon seeing the police badge and called into his office to let him know who was here.
Within a couple minutes, a gentleman about 5 foot 9 inches tall, glasses, clean cut short brown hair, a dress shirt and khakis walked out of the office. I looked at him and said, "I'm Captain Benson and this is Detective Stabler. Are you Dr. Knapp? We have a few questions for you."
I noticed our presence caused no reaction in his face and he just said, "Ok, step into my office."
Dr. K: "What can I do for you detectives?"
O: "I need to know if John and Katrina Sutton are patients of yours as well as Jennifer and Jeremy Miller?"
Dr. K: "You know I can't answer that without a warrant."
O: "Well, they're all dead, so I don't need a warrant."
Dr. K: "Oh, I am sorry to hear that. Yes, both couples were patients of mine."
I stared at him trying to gauge a reaction of any kind since right now he was the only link and suspect we had. His eyes were blue in color but there was a coldness and a darkness to them. I suddenly had chills along my spine and knew this was our guy. The lack of feeling and the robotic response he gave me when I told him they were all dead were all red flags. I glanced over at Elliot and could read his face that he was thinking the same thing.
O: "So, I need to know where you were on September 5th and September 9th in the evening?"
Dr. K: "Let me look at my calendar. It looks like I had late appointments with a married couple, Evelyn and Brian Robinson. They were here until around 9:00 pm on both dates and then I went home."
O: "So, you were home alone all night after 9:00 pm on both of those nights? Can anyone attest to that?"
Dr. K: "I'm sorry, no. Is that all detectives? I have an appointment coming in and need to get back to work."
At this point we had no evidence that he was the killer and needed more than just the couples using the same therapist to obtain a warrant for Dr. Knapp's home. We had semen at both crime scenes but no DNA match in the database. Elliot and I would need to stake out his home, monitor his whereabouts and see if we could get a DNA sample somehow from him. We said goodbye and left with both of us anxious to get out of there. The last time I felt this on edge about a suspect was when I interviewed William Lewis. The darkness in Lewis' eyes which still haunt my dreams to this day were identical to Dr. Knapp's eyes. El and I went back to the precinct to do more research on Kendall Knapp and figure out who we were dealing with.
We found out that he grew up in Manhattan with a younger sister and his father. His father was a wealthy defense attorney that had died about 6 months ago from cancer. His sister had moved out of state to Oregon. We found out his mother and father divorced when Kendall was nine years old. Dr. Knapp had no criminal history at all and appeared to be completely normal on paper. I knew from all these years of experience though that who someone is on paper doesn't always match who they really are. I knew in my gut that this guy had killed those families. I am not sure why yet, but I was going to find out.
Elliot and I followed Dr. Knapp home from his office later that evening and had planned on watching his every move. We didn't know when he would strike again and both of us were sure this was the guy. We watched him go into his townhome around 7:30 pm and we parked down the street where we had a good view if he decided to leave. We didn't have enough evidence for a warrant, but Rollins was going to work on getting a list of his clients to see if we could narrow down who he might go after next. Hours went by with no activity at all. I felt completely at ease sitting next to Elliot just like we had done so many times on stakeouts before. I was trying to focus on the case and not have wandering thoughts about El and I. We hadn't really talked about that steamy make out session last week in my apartment due to the case and figured we would address it when all of this was over. We had joked about going out after this case was over, but I wasn't sure if he was serious. We were both sitting there in silence waiting for the other one to say something. Suddenly, he reached over and grabbed my hand in his. I had goosebumps from his touch and was afraid to look over at him knowing that I could not be strong enough to resist.
E: "Liv, look at me."
I slowly looked over and found me staring into those icy blues looking so intense. He was the only person besides Noah that melted my heart, and I would agree to anything either one of them asked me to do.
E: "I want you to know that I want more than just a friendship. I want to give "us" a try. I feel like our timing is never right and there will always be an excuse on why we should wait. After this case, I want to take you out. Even if it doesn't work between us, we will always be friends. I want you in my life always. I know you may not believe that because I left you for ten years but it's the truth. I never should have left but I can't change the past. I want you to know though that I will never do that again no matter what."
All these emotions were building up inside me listening to his promise and wanting to forgive him and believe him. He never broke eye contact with me, and I could see the sincerity in his eyes.
O: "Ok, El. I think I am ready to try. I do want to move past my anger of you leaving and I am getting there. It is hard for me to trust anyone, but I am working on trusting you again. Obviously, I trust you with Noah and I do want to believe you will never hurt me like that again."
E: "I promise I will spend the rest of my life proving that to you."
He then leaned over and gave me a gentle kiss which I closed my eyes trying to savor. The next couple of hours were more relaxed and we casually talked about our families and things happening in our lives that were unrelated to work. El said he was going to walk down to the corner bodega and grab some coffee for us. A few minutes later, I saw Dr. Knapp coming out of his home. My whole body tensed, and I was ready to jump out of the car to not lose sight of him. My stomach dropped when I watched him turn towards the car and he started heading straight towards me. I tried to duck down and look away so he wouldn't recognize me and then there was a knock on my window. I slowly turned towards the window and opened it. He smiled at me, and I had chills all over.
Dr. K "Hello, captain. I am assuming you and Detective Stabler are here watching me. I read about those poor families and how they were brutally murdered. I sure hope you find who killed them."
I wasn't going to let this psychopath intimidate me. I stared directly back at him even though my heart was racing, and I was hoping El was on his way back to the car.
O: "Don't worry, we are very close to arresting the son of bitch that did it." I smiled back at him. He continued to stand there, and my anxiety increased.
Dr. K: "I see you are very dedicated to your job. I don't see a wedding ring, no husband to go home to? Do you have kids?"
O: "My personal life is none of your business."
Dr. K: "I was just trying to make small talk. I am going to pursue harassment charges if you continue to follow me."
O: "We aren't harassing you. This is a public street, and you are the one that contacted me."
Dr. K: "Yes, well, don't say I didn't warn you. Have a nice evening, Captain Benson."
Elliot was walking back with the coffees as Dr. Knapp was walking away from the car. Elliot ran over and jumped in the car.
E: "Was that Dr. Knapp? What the hell did he want? How did he know we were watching him?"
O: "Yes, he has known we were here the whole time. This guy is so creepy. He basically confessed to me he committed those murders without actually confessing. He also asked me questions about my family."
E: "What? This scumbag needs to be taken down. He better not even look twice at you."
We stayed watching his place until morning and we saw him leave. He even waived at us as he walked across the street to get into his car. He went straight to his office. We were going to have to come up with a different game plan to nail this bastard.