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Her name doesn’t ring any bells.
“And?” Donny prompts.
“Lindy May Wheeler is from Delaney Grove.”
The blood chills in my veins, turning to ice as goosebumps pebble my skin. Slowly, I make my way to the chair, dropping to it as the weight of the revelation settles on to me.
“She left nine and a half years ago, started a new life, even dropped her last name,” he goes on. “She just goes by Lindy May now.”
“What the fuck is going on in that town?” Donny asks in a hushed whisper.
“I was there. It was like the Andy Griffith show. Everyone was smiling and happy, waving at us as we passed. No signs of something wrong. If anything, they live like it’s the nineties, refusing to move forward with the rest of the world.”
“Someone gets tortured and killed, and an innocent child ends up with a Delaney Grove resident. That’s not a coincidence,” Donny says.
“No castration,” Craig says. “That’s his one constant. Why would he deviate if it was him? If anything, this guy deserved castration more than any of the prior victims.”
“As far as we know,” I say under my breath, looking up as all eyes swing to me. “He didn’t want this tied to him. This was an impulsive kill. He wasn’t prepared. The footsteps were dug up, meaning he may not have been wearing his boots. He may even be tricking us with his weight. He poured bleach all over the scene of the crime, washing away evidence. That’s not in his MO, which means he’s normally more prepared. What triggered this?”
“We need to adjust the profile,” Donny says.
“Why?” Craig asks him.
“Because a sadist would never take the time to deviate from his list and go kill a pedophile. This was motivated. There was something that triggered the unsub’s need to kill this man,” I explain. “A sadist wouldn’t take the time to find a child and see them off into the hands of someone they felt would care for the child. He wouldn’t give a damn.”
“There was no rage,” Donny says, knowing where I’m going with this. “The kills were brutal, but each slice of the knife was controlled and calculated. No rage means no revenge.”
“What if this unsub has been preparing for this for a lot longer than we expected? What if he’s numbed himself to his emotions? Rage wouldn’t be found in a kill. This would all be about inflicting as much pain as possible, hence the days and days of torture.” As the words leave my mouth, and audible breath escapes them all.
“We need to dig deeper into that town. Something seriously fucked up has gone on there.”
“What about Plemmons? We’re supposed to be working solely on that case right now,” Leonard reminds me.
“I’m technically just supposed to be the middle man for the media. I can look into this without getting us in trouble,” Craig volunteers. “Maybe Lindy May can shed some light on that town.”
“I’ll go see what I can find out,” Donny says, standing and leaving us behind.
“I’m going to go listen in,” I say to them. “Stay on Plemmons. Keep working that. This changes nothing as far as the priority goes,” I tell Leonard.
“Revenge would have this guy contacting the media,” Leonard says, lost in thought. “He’s killed six. He’d want his story known. He’d want the world to know why he was doing this. It doesn’t make sense.”
“And targeting Hadley’s stepfather? That can’t be a coincidence,” I point out. “He’s watching us. Studying us, possibly. He doesn’t want the media knowing yet, because he doesn’t want the world to know his motives until he’s ready for his endgame. We have no idea how long that list is, which is why we need to know what happened that was so bad that a seemingly normal person who cares enough about a child to deliver them to a safe doorstep, would become a brutal torturer and killer.”
“Definitely not a sadist,” Leonard sighs. “That’s for damn sure.”
He stands, running his hand over his stomach as it growls.
“That town was too shiny for something this dark to be in its recent past. I’ll see how far back I can go. I won’t stop until I find something.”
“Work on Plemmons for now. After we catch that bastard, we’ll dig into Delaney Grove.”
He nods, though it seems like reluctant compliance.
Craig gets up, bringing his iPad with him. “I’ll go see if I can dig anything up. You deal with this.” He pauses, studying me for a moment. “What does it mean if a serial killer goes after someone who hurt a member of our team?”
I purse my lips as Leonard stands. “When he goes after a pedophile, it means he suffered something similarly traumatic…may even feel a kinship with Hadley. I don’t feel like he’s targeting us. I feel like he wants us to understand him.”
“But he didn’t want this linked to him,” I counter. “That was forced because he wanted the little girl safe. He’s cut himself off from all new relationships, forced to return to the ones from his past that aren’t tainted with whatever happened.”
