“Easy does it, boy.” Caleb climbed a few more rungs before handing Shadow off to Larabee who placed the dog onto the floor above them.
“He’s safe,” Caleb told Ava.
She stepped up on the first rung and followed Caleb up and inside the opening.
When he straightened and looked around what he saw was something straight out of some eighties horror movie. “What on earth is this place...”
Beside him Ava’s horrified expression said it all.
“Yeah, that was my reaction,” Larabee told them.
Novak, who was talking to some of the ERT agents, spotted them and came over. “They’re not real,” he assured them. “Just wax statues he’s created.”
Wax candles burned down low. Iridescent wax had dripped all around the room.
Shadow stuck close to Ava’s side. The dog’s bravery was unquestionable, but Ava shared his military past and the scars it had left both physically and emotionally.
“How did he get them up here?” Ava asked, her gaze fixed on one statue in particular.
Caleb’s attention went to it. He saw the likeness. It was her.
“I’m guessing he created them here.” Novak turned toward the silent witnesses. “This guy is really sick. Look at the expressions on their faces.”
“I want a closer look. Heel, Shadow.” She waited until the dog obeyed before she moved carefully to the statues not wanting to contaminate the crime scene.
Caleb remained near the dog watching her work. There were eleven statues including the one that matched Ava.
“That’s Emily.” Ava moved to the statue that resembled their first new victim. “Beside her is Jennifer.” Ava moved past the two recent victims to the previous victims from three years earlier. “Victoria, Maria, and Samantha.”
“So, the statues were created to depict his victims.” But it wasn’t adding up in Caleb’s mind. “There are thirteen.”
“This is the lady in the lake.” Ava stopped in front of the woman whose face had been stuck in Caleb’s head ever since they pulled her wax-encased body from the lake.
Ava kept going. “We’re missing victims if the statues are correct.” She came back to Caleb. “Where are they?”
Caleb’s brow furrowed as he studied the statues. “In Scripture, thirteen is tied to rebellion.”
In her opinion, every scene was a sermon in Wax’s mind. “He’s not just rebelling,” she whispered. “He’s preaching his own gospel of chaos.”
Ava frowned as she studied the statues. “There’s something different about those two at the end. They don’t have faces.”
Shocked, Caleb looked closer. “You’re right. What’s the significance of that?”
“I don’t know but we’re running out of time.” Ava’s worry over Rachel was clear.
“Agent Blake, we have something here,” Novak told her.
Ava followed him over to what appeared to be another altar set up opposite the statues—an identical blue cloth draped over it.
Caleb went with her.
A cell phone had been placed next to one of the candles that had spilled wax over it.
“That’s Rachel’s,” Ava said. “I recognize it from earlier.”
Novak nodded. “We’ll have ERT bag it and take it down to the lab. We’ll get the statues transported as well.”
“Thank you. He left them here for a reason. He wanted us to find them. We need to be careful but we need to check inside the wax on the statues to see if he’s left clues.”
