“It had to be older cases. Chris said the poison was a while ago. It had to be before everything went electronic—unless he had someone hack in and get the more recent cases.”
Elizabeth stopped him.
“There are safeguards on anything tied to me. Because I’m the deputy director, any case with my name on it is flagged if it’s opened. IfANYONEbut the people I allow access try, it sets off a very quiet alarm, and Gabby hears about it. Gabe had that set up just in case we had a situation because I work the high-profile cases.”
Well, that was good.
“So, older cases it is,” Chris stated. “That gives you a chance,” he added. “You were good back then, but now…you’ve perfected how you do this.”
Had she?
Elizabeth was beginning to believe she had just gotten lucky. Because this case sucked.
She tapped the tablet.
“Let’s start with what we do know. There is no doubt he’s hidden clues in things I haven’t considered. Again, one missed lead, and we’re further behind.”
That worked for them.
She started.
“We have a nun and two prostitutes. For me, he’s making a reference to me. He knows I go to church, and he knows I’m Catholic. He also knows I’ve had a hysterectomy. That’s the likely reason he removed the woman’s uterus. What he wants me to do is make the correlation and know he’s up in my business. Also, he wants me to know that I’m all of those women—a sinner and a saint. One men want, and one men avoid.”
No one spoke as she began working through it.
“He took their eyes and left us none because we took his collection. Plus, at this point, he was already planning the next set of victims. He knew there wouldn’t be eyes there to take or use, so he had to prepare.”
Ethan nodded.
“He’s a collector. I wouldn’t be shocked if somewhere, his father’s collection is being treated like it’s a shrine. Remember, Devon idolizes his father. He hated his mother for the divorce, and he was tainted by the man to think just like him. He has his father on a pedestal. The man and his memories are sacred to him.”
She sat there and considered it.
Oh, she knew what that was like.
Charlie was sacred to her too, but her daddy wasn’t a sick fuck. He was just a menace.
“Is he really gay?” she asked. “Or is he bisexual? Because we have semen all over the goddamn place.”
Ethan helped her out.
“I’m going to say he’s definitely gay. I don’t think he was faking his dates to parties in DC. I think he likes men, but his father might have found it shameful, and that’s why he had to pretend by taking female victims. He might get off on perversion, and that’s how he can fuck a corpse. It’s the perversion that gets him off, not the gender of the victim.”
Gene went there.
“If he gets Elizabeth, is he going to pull that shit?” he asked, tensely.
Ethan nodded.
“Yes, but not because he’s sexually attracted to her. He’ll do it to show his power over her. Like his father had power over his mother, he’d want her to know he is a completely different level of power than she ever had.”
Elizabeth went there.
“Fuck the patriarchy,” she stated. “Literally,” she said, pointing at them. “It has to befuddle him how I have this many men wanting to sleep with me.”
Ethan nodded.
“And that could also tie into the nun and hookers. In a way, he sees it as you liking perversion too.”
