That much was true. But Ava believed they were out there. Wax was stepping up his game. Making his clues more challenging.
She thought about the chilling poem Wax had left for her.
You were the spared, Ava...
And Wax had never forgotten. The only question was why? She couldn’t understand the connection a killer had with her. Why all of a sudden was Wax reaching back into the past with clues that didn’t relate to the current victims at all? None of it made sense.
Shadow pulled more aggressively, picking up a distinct scent that appeared different from before.
Ava glanced around their surroundings uneasily. Was Wax watching them now? Enjoying the game or waiting for their reaction to his latest victim?
The wind shifted and Shadow stopped abruptly, halting the entire team. He inhaled several times before veering to the right.
“Show me, boy. Show me.” Her heart kicked out a frantic beat. From the exertion, sure. But more from the prospect of what lay at the end of Shadow’s hunt.
The dog tugged her harder toward a break in the brush and laurels. Several old fir trees appeared to be interlopers among the laurels, their branches spread out over the trail and needles littering the ground.
Suddenly, Shadow halted and held his position signaling a find. This was it.
Caleb knelt and brushed aside needles revealing a set of heavy boot prints. “Seems as if someone’s been here recently.” He studied the prints. “They’re deep, almost labored. As if he’s carrying a substantial load.”
“Like a body.” Ava’s gaze flickered to the prints. “Tag it. Let’s keep moving.” She and Shadow started forward while Larabee snapped into action. He planted an orange reflector while Shackleford photographed and cast a quick impression.
If Wax were going to display his latest victim out here, why would he pick such a distant location that would make it difficult for him to reach?
He was deliberately making the puzzles harder, testing her.
Shadow continued pulling Ava along while her brain went into overdrive. She no longer knew what to believe. Caleb was right about the changing MO. Before it was all about the victims and taunting her. Now, in addition, he wanted to give her a history lesson. Maybe he was trying to tell her how he’d become a monster.
She went over the details in her head. An old swath of flannel. An antique key and a locket with a photo that had her wondering if the woman in the locket was the one in the lake and somehow related to Ava. Now, he’d added a music box that played a song that was hauntingly too familiar to Ava.
“He has something,” Caleb said, grabbing Ava's attention right away. The dog sat with a bark, indicating he’d found another clue.
As Ava neared, she realized it was a candle. She breathed in the scent of vanilla and something else burning. With the odor still so strong, it indicated Wax had been here recently, proving they were on the right path.
“You smell that?” she asked Caleb.
He nodded. The paraffin scent seemed to bleed into the cold air.
But it was what was threaded beneath it that teased at the back of Ava’s throat. Smoke.
“Something’s burning.” Ava jerked around searching for a possible fire.
“There.” Caleb pointed to a small piece of wood that had been charred recently. “That’s not from any lightning strike.”
Shadow stopped at the edge of a small clearing ringed with fir trees. Ava raised her hand to halt the team.
The sight before her was every bit as gruesome as the ones from the past.
Chapter Twelve
A Prayer for the Dead
Ava swallowed hard. The victim lay where Wax Saint wanted them to find her, a candle close by. Wax glazed her skin. It covered her throat and arms, pooled at her collarbones, and crusted on her hair. For his finishing touch, Wax dripped the candle paraffin around the area like sparkling ice chips.
No! Ava couldn’t get words to come out but a disjointed prayer slipped through her mind for their victim. She realized tears clogged her throat. She hadn’t prayed for a long time. Even though she occasionally attended her dad’s church outside of Woodland Park, she hadn’t found it in her heart to pray. The bitterness that had encased her heart after escaping Wax wouldn’t let her. Now, the words and tears for a victim she didn’t know flooded her mind.
Lord, why? Please, help me understand why. Please let us catch this man before he hurts another innocent woman.
