Inside the Mind of BTK

176 INSIDE THE MIND OF BTK
the house, and crept up next to the door. He reached his hand out and
tried to quietly open it, but the door was locked. Pulling a pair of wire
cutters from his pocket, he snipped a nearby telephone line, then
pulled a black nylon ski mask over his face. From another pocket, he
retrieved his knife and pistol. A few minutes later, at 8:40, the back
door opened and a young boy appeared, clutching a bag of garbage.
Rader bolted toward the door before the boy spotted him; he grabbed
the child.
The next moment, Rader wrote in his journal, he was standing
inside the kitchen, sizing up the scene. The boy whose shoulder he
clutched, along with his sister who sat at a nearby table, had been making
their lunches just moments before he burst inside the house. Their
coats were piled beside their lunch boxes. They were just about to leave
for school. Standing beside the stove was his worst nightmare—the
father.
Where the hell did he come from? he wondered. Why didn’t I know
about him? The man stood there watching Rader with a grin on his
face.
In his account of the murder penned a few days later, Rader
recalled Otero saying, “Did my brother-in-law put you up to this?
Come on, tell me.”
Rader held up his pistol and took aim at his head. His wife
shrieked.
“Don’t hurt us,” she stammered. “We ...we don’t have any money.
Take anything you want. Anything. Just don’t hurt us.”
The little boy stood beside his parents, his mouth hanging open,
looking as though he’d just seen the devil. Tears were beginning to streak
down his sister’s cheeks. Rader ordered them to walk into the front
room, then told them the story he’d cooked up to keep them calm.
“I just broke out of the penitentiary,” he said, as the children
started crying. “The cops are after me. I need a car, money, and food.”
His gun hand was shaking. He was nervous, and the father knew
it. So Otero tried to quiet his family down, telling them that everything
would be okay if they’d settle down. Rader ordered the father
to place his wallet on the washing machine, then motioned for them to
go into the family room. From out of nowhere, a mean-looking
Heinz-57 mutt came running into the room, barking.
“Get the dog out of here,” he told the father. “But don’t even think
about trying any funny tricks. This is an automatic, filled with hollow-points.
You ever seen what they can do to someone?”