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“I want ten steak thingies.”
Shooting him a firm look, she replied, “You can have two. Each one has a four-ounce steak inside.”
“Make it three.”
“Fine.” Rose quickly built her dark friend a plate.
By that time, most of the guys had already grabbed food and were eating. Barbara anxiously awaited the meeting, wondering why a club of bikers were so formal about how they conducted business.
Ace sat beside her with a plate and rubbed her back, encouraging her to eat something. Now that the cooking was done, the waiting was beginning to shove her anxiety level right back up. When most of the assembled crew had thrown their sturdy paper plates away, everyone settled down.
Before Darkness could open his mouth, Peb opened his mouth. “Where is my brother? He’s not answering his cell phone.”
“He’s with the MC we talked about last night. Apparently, they believe that at least one of the bodies was from their crew. Cork and a couple more of the brothers stayed behind to help them dig for more information.”
Ace immediately asked, “What did you find so far?”
We scheduled a meet with the Outlanders MC. Of course, they were pretty suspicious of us and thought we might be tryin’ to move into their territory. Once we convinced them we weren’t and made a good-faith offering, they were about as helpful as suspicious outlaw bikers could be.”
Ace snorted a laugh, as did some of the other outlaw bikers in the room.
Darkness barely noticed. His sister wove quietly through the throng of people to take the baby for a bit so he could talk. Well, she actually traded the baby for another of the meat pastries and ate it as he spoke.
“We discovered that Seven-six and the Outlanders MC have had a truce in effect for coming up on ten years. When we told their main honcho, he about doubled over with grief. The two fuckers were his grandsons. The Seven-six had it in their mind that the twins had just fucked off back to Argentina when they turned up missing about a month ago. They were known for just doin’ as they pleased that way. The old man was just starting to worry ‘cause he hadn’t got word that they’d arrived at their compound in South America.”
“I’ll bet that was all kinds of awkward,” Ace muttered. He seemed as shocked to her as everyone else.
“It was, and although it put the three of us on the same page in terms of not being enemies, it didn’t get us any intelligent information regarding who might be gunning for you. Anyway, we tried everything we could think of to talk to the natives, but the Outlanders say they never play ball. This situation is unlikely to have anything to do with them, ‘cause the Outlanders say people stupid enough to fuck with them go onto their huge stretch of land, but they don’t come back out again.”
Ryder sighed dejectedly. “That brings us right back to maybe it being a serial killer.”
Ace argued, “Don’t most serial killers target women? From what I saw, they were all men.”
Ryder spoke like a man who knew what he was talking about. “The manner of death is consistent with a serial killer. All were shot or stabbed, and almost seventy-five percent of serial killers shoot, strangle, or stab their victims. Whether the vic is male or female depends on the killer, who kill for a variety of reason. Mostly it’s for enjoyment, financial gain, anger, or gang activity. Since we ruled out the last item, we’re looking for someone who had contact with all the vics and had a beef or something to gain. The person we’re looking for ain’t all that smart, ‘cause killers with high IQs aren’t hands-on evil geniuses.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Strangely enough, Ace was asking the same kinds of questions she was thinking in her mind.
“High IQ killers use bombs, poison, and shit like that. Lower IQ fuckers shoot, strangle, and stab,” Ryder clarified. “I’m just going by the most reliable research on serial killers, so don’t think I’m makin’ this shit up as I go.”
“What else are we looking for, since you seem to have enough information to come up with a profile.”
Ryder thought it over for a minute and replied cautiously. “I’d say the killer is probably gonna be a male between the ages of about eighteen to forty. I’d say they live in or are from that local area and are familiar with the terrain. They probably knew the farm had been abandoned for the last decade and didn’t anticipate anyone trying to develop the place anytime soon. It may be someone with mental health substance abuse issues that cause him to act impulsively. Since the brothers were clearly taken down at the same time, I have considered that it might be a small group or family involved. It seems unlikely a single person could have taken down two hardened criminals.
“I’m planning to check local hospitals for people who came in with injuries when the Seven-six twins went missing. It’s reasonable to believe they fought back and might have done some real damage. Since early indicators are that all the vics were minorities and more than one had the boot print of the Aryan-style gangs on his back, I’m gonna focus on anyone who was belligerent or racist.”
“What does the farmer have to say about all this?”
Darkness looked at Ace and smiled. “He was freaking the fuck out. He’s already put the place up for sale and says he’s moving back to the city where things make sense, as soon as the police close the investigation.”
Ace mused out loud, “That’s actually good news. If it is a serial killer of some sort, he’s not going to risk drawing attention to himself by coming after the people who exposed his dump site. He’ll lay low, never go back to the site, and quit killing until the trail runs cold. He’d be absolutely stupid to do anything to connect himself to that dump site.”
Darkness nodded. “That’s what we thought, too. Only organized criminal enterprises need to send a loud and clear message when someone messes with their business. Serial killers have nothing to gain by drawing attention to themselves. We’re thinkin’ that you won’t be in the clear until we track him down and…” Rolling his eyes, he continued, “Hand him over to the proper authorities. In the meanwhile, the risk is extremely low that you’ll get any blowback for stumbling onto that dumpsite.”
Barbara asked excitedly, “We can really go back to our lives?”
Nodding, Darkness cautioned lightly, “I’d say yes, but use good common sense when it comes to safety. Be sure to set your security system, don’t open your door to strangers, and maintain some awareness of your surroundings in public.”
“That’s just good common sense safety advice for your everyday life. You should be doing that anyway.”
