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“He’s intelligent. He would’ve used forensic countermeasures to remove any evidence. But he’s not perfect, Quinn. This abduction was hasty. If he was here, right under the department’s nose, even someone with a god complex is cautious enough to be quick about it.”
“For Avery’s sake, I hope you’re right.” Quinn resumes his search.
“We know the UNSUB deviated greatly from his MO in order to abduct Avery,” I say, flipping through each file on the victims. “We know the vic—” I break off, irritated with myself for referring to Avery as a victim. “We know the target personally this time. So he couldn’t perform his ritual at her home. That changes everything. We have to come at this from a completely different angle. It has to have greater meaning for him in order for him to pull a switch at this point. And that means he still could’ve left us something either at her house, or here, or wherever he abducted her from. Something to mark his territory.” I release a strenuous breath as I locate Avery’s current notes on the third vic. “He’s too vain to pass up an opportunity to show us how clever he is. He needs to brag.”
“But if it was a spur of the moment attack rather than planned out, that could mean we’re wasting our time looking for a clue,” Quinn says. “Besides, there are no signs of a struggle here.” Quinn turns around and focuses the light on the ceiling-mounted body hangers near the autopsy tables. “Wait.”
I look up. Quinn tilts his head as he examines the white straps of one of the hangers with a gloved hands. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure.” He motions me over. “Stand in front here.”
I glance at the screen again before I meet him in the middle of the lab, where he positions me in front of the hanger.
“You’re smaller than Avery, but it should still line up fairly the same.” He raises my arms and mimics wrapping the strap around one of my wrists. “There’s no need to restrain a body here…since they’re all pretty compliant, considering they’re dead.”
“Not funny, Quinn.”
“I’m not trying to be.” His eyes meet mine. “The straps are twisted and look here—” he brings one forward and points to a tear. “I’m no lab tech, but I highly doubt anyone would need to secure a dead body this tightly in a hanger.”
I glance around, frantic. “There.” I point to a scalpel on the worktable. He grabs the tool and moves me in front of the second hanger. Before he even begins to reenact the scene, my heart is pounding in my ears.
“We’ll try this out here so we don’t add trace to the other hanger,” he says as he secures my wrist with the strap.
A few weeks ago, this scenario would’ve decimated me. The feel of the strap tightening around my wrist floods me with panic, but it’s not my fear. It’s the realization that Avery experienced this—it’s her terror leveling me, the dread of what she must’ve suffered.
Even still, the situation causes my arms to tremble. Quinn isn’t Colton—the only man I’ve ever trusted to restrain me. As the straps begin to constrict my movement, I flinch away, knocking Quinn’s chin with my elbow.
He groans and backs away, cupping his jaw.
“Oh shit—sorry.”
He curses and works out his jaw. “Nice elbow, Bonds. Right in my tooth.”
“Jesus, Quinn. You still haven’t seen a dentist?”
He shakes off the pain and rights himself. “With what time?” A determined glint lights his eyes as he steps closer. “Try not to punch me, okay?” He finishes tying off the straps, then looks over the restraints. “This isn’t right.”
He drops his hands with a huff. “Avery’s a fighter. She would’ve screamed. She would’ve struggled, not stood here like this, just letting him tie her up.”
“She was drugged,” I say, envisioning the scene. “Like I said, he had to veer from his MO. If she was sedated, he could easily subdue her.”
Quinn must agree, because he moves behind me and wraps his arm around my waist. “He’d have to hold her in place.” I let my body go lax, trying and failing not to picture Avery in my place. I shut my eyes. Breathe through the horror of it.
As he gets my other wrist bound, he grunts as he reaches for one of the scalpels on the table. He pushes the tool through the strap, securing it closely against my wrist. He does the same thing to my other arm. His hard chest holds me up as I lean against him. He turns one of my wrists towa
rd him. “The size of the hole in the strap matches. The UNSUB restrained her right in her own lab, the motherfucker. How did CSU miss this?”
“That’s a good question,” I say, wriggling my wrist free. “But there’s an even more obvious one we need to be asking.” I free my other wrist and start toward the computer. “The UNSUB is meticulous. Everything planned, every detail covered. But instead of using his own tools, restraining her with his own rope, he used what was handy to him at the time.”
Quinn’s face contorts in a stern frown. “As if he was already close. Already in the building. And abducting Avery was a spur of the moment choice. Dammit.”
“Exactly.” I tap the mouse pad and open Avery’s most recent file. “And, instead of abducting her quickly, he restrained her here. There was something here he wanted.”
He removes his glasses. “You were right, Bonds. Avery was on to something. She was in his way.” Quinn paces the length of the room as he takes out his phone and calls in the update. “We need to block off the M.E. lab. Get this place yellow taped and order in a full sweep. This time, focusing on a captive situation.”
As he ends the call, I look up and say, “Quinn, I don’t trust anyone to go through the evidence here. We need to figure out what’s missing—if anything—before the team comes in for another sweep.”
“Hell. That could take damn near all day, if not longer.” He moves to stand beside me and points to the screen. “What were her last notes?”
