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That’s hard not to laugh about.
“Look, Lana is great, Hadley. She’s compassionate, understanding, thoughtful, and she really fuc
king cares. It’s more than I ever thought I’d have with this career choice. She’s also insanely independent and smart. But if she was using me, I’d be aware of it. She has zero interest in the FBI as a career path, even though I think she’d be one hell of a profiler.”
“Right. You’re right. Sorry. I need to go over some more lab stuff. Talk later?”
“Yeah. Let me know if you find anything else weird like a nail in the stomach contents.”
“Nail in the stomach?” Donny asks from beside me.
“Lawrence Martin had one. Why?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “Sounds familiar is all. Just can’t remember where I’ve heard it.”
Donny, like me, was recruited straight out of college. He’s only been in our unit for six years, but he’s been with the FBI for eleven total years.
“I’ll talk to you later,” I tell Hadley.
“Peace out.”
Rolling my eyes, I hang up my phone. At least she’s starting to sound more like herself. Meddling and quirky.
Donny looks lost in thought, and keeps drawing a nail over and over, confusing me. But it’s his thought process when he’s trying to resurrect a memory.
“You think he’s killed before?” I ask him.
“No,” he says immediately. “I think I’ve heard that before though. Nails in the stomach. It’s actually a brutal torture technique. It tears you up as you swallow them, then punctures your stomach lining. Not to mention what happens if you manage to pass them. But just one nail? It means something.”
“Lawrence was the son of a cop in Delaney Grove. But he left that place right around our ten year time frame. Several of them did. They went on to be successful. They never showed any signs of violence in their lives, and all had a healthy conscience, it seems. Never the self-destructive spiral of guilt-wrenched minds.”
“So you think they are being targeted, but didn’t play a part in what happened that night?” he muses.
“I don’t know. I’m just profiling them. It’s what I do.”
He looks down, drawing the nail again, tracing the lines over and over.
We’ll figure him out, and we’ll stop him. It’s what we do.
Eventually, good conquers evil, because evil works alone.
Chapter 7
The devil can cite Scripture for his own purpose.
—William Shakespeare
LANA
In one week, I’ve marked off two names from my list. We’re getting closer. Jake is sweating bullets.
I’ve sped up the timeline and started hiding the bodies. I’ve changed my MO. I’ve also started adding the nails, something I hadn’t planned to do until later in the game.
My wax apple also has a lot more nails to mark the new debts I’ve collected, but we’ve moved my murder room to Jake’s house.
The media are no longer interested in me since Craig delivered the profile of the Scarlet Slayer. Yes, the media named me. Somehow, Jake got me the name he wanted.
It’s ironic the media lost interest in the hero side of me in favor of the dark side of me. Just goes to show how twisted and ugly this world can be.
