“Why?What have you heard? Is Rapp putting the team back together?”
“I have no idea. I was curious if you knew anything.”
“No one tells me anything, Jane. That’s why I have to snoop. I mean, why Iused tosnoop. I’m clean now. Totally on the level. Everything’s legit. Gotta go.” He hung up.
Jane opened the files he’d sent, stunned to see pictures of a family that looked eerily similar to the murdered ones she’d already visited in Seattle. She wished she could find the family in Kirkland right now, but she was already too late to save them.
As Diego had said, the family had been butchered and positioned around their dining room table.
And she knew the dog, though alive, would be missing.
Chapter 30
“Really now.All that crying can’t be good for your sinuses. You sound stuffed up.” Victor shook his head.
Louis Miller stared at what remained of his biological family. Casimir had pulled up information on Louis’s sister, brother-in-law, and bonus, two young children and a three-year-old dog.
Since Victor had been so good about not killing Stephen Harte or any of his brood—Sabrina didn’t count—Casimir had given him Louis Miller’s family.
And what a relief it had been to send the children to a better place. Though Victor had wanted to make the punishments last, he’d killed the children quickly, painlessly. They hadn’t been bad, after all. Just in an unfortunate situation.
The husband and wife had gone soon after, though he had toyed with Louis’s sister just a little. Nothing untoward, though. Defiling her would serve no purpose. The death of her entire family had broken Louis easily enough.
He’d told Victor everything Casimir had wanted to know. And now, with Louis on the chopping block, Victor once more felt at ease.
Back to normal.
His work with that maid, chopping her into evenly formed pieces,had taken a while but been supremely satisfying. But he had no need for an art piece now.
He simply dismembered Louis’s limbs, deciding to keep the head with the torso for ease of identification.
Best to let the Scotts know where their man had turned up.
The dog whined next to him.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Lassie. Are you hungry?”
She licked his hand.
He loved that the family had named their dog after a beloved television show, one where a dog and her boy saved the day, time and time again.
Victor treasured happy memories of childhood. Always someone else’s, but still.
After he finished with Louis, he sat him at his sister’s table to partake with the rest of the family. Then he put all four of Louis’s limbs on the four plates set out. Legs for Mom and Dad, arms for the boys.
He poured some kibble for Lassie, pleased she ate with only a few whines at the family, whom she could sense had died.
Most people didn’t give animals the respect they deserved. A dog would always be a faithful companion. It was people who messed them up, turning them into killers with their abuse and bullying.
Victor sat on the floor and stroked the dog, lost in thoughts about the past.
Growing up hadn’t been easy. His father had been a mechanic, his mother a homemaker who detested her only son. She’d constantly criticized him for everything.
His first memory consisted of her slapping him for some infraction he couldn’t recall. She’d been incensed when he wouldn’t cry.
Most of his days had been spent with her abusing him. Until they sat down to dinner. When the family would share a meal and Mother pretended she didn’t hate him so much. The dog would lick him under the table, nibbling at table scraps. Father would smile and feign interest before he left again right after the meal to get back to work.
Poor yet humble, the family did their best to make ends meet. Mother’s abuse and Father’s neglect should have bothered him. If he were normal, he might have cried about it or tried to run away.
