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I walked around to sit next to him, the overwhelming investigation board staring back at me. “There is one thing I noticed with the past two victims, about the wolfsbane.”
“What’s that?” Nolan asked, still staring at the board and taking a sip, fingers mindlessly playing with the chain of his necklace. My heart shook, remembering what hung at the end and all it represented for him. We needed to catch this man, now more than ever.
I shook my head, refocusing on my theories. “This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with people using it to stop our tracking, but it is never as potent on the bodies as it is with Elliot’s victims.”
“How so?”
“In the past, it’s uncomfortable to be near, sure, but it doesn’t burn my nostrils to the point where it’s overwhelming. The amount he uses is more than just a quick wipe down. I wondered if maybe he bathes the bodies in distilled wolfsbane after death.”
“Huh.” Nolan leaned back. “It’s excessive, but it would be on profile for a man like him. Every piece of this is a game he’s determined to win no matter what. If bathing the bodies gives him extra security that we can’t find him, allowing the game to continue, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.”
“That does lead me to ask how he gets his hands on so much of it.” I took a step forward, my eyes scanning over one of the maps. “Distilled wolfsbane can hold its potency for over a year if properly brewed, but it would probably lose efficacy with each person he dipped in it.”
“Xoblar and other Factions have theorized that he must brew it himself with the amount he uses, so as to not leave any witnesses or gain attention for how much he needs.” Nolan pointed to the list of theories ever growing on the board, walking over to stand next to me. “It kind of makes sense with the gaps he takes in between location shifts. He would need time to set up any type of field or greenhouse and grow his crops before they were ready to distill. Although it still seems like a large venture to take on.”
“He’s a narcissistic sociopath. His concern isn’t time, it’s perfection,” I pointed out. “Which leads me to question two things. One: if he’s brewing it, what if he’s also selling it?”
“Interesting.” Nolan rubbed his chin with his free hand. “He does stay in areas for long periods of time, he would need some way to make money.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said. “He probably has another job too, but this would most likely help supplement the high cost of actually having to make the liquid, especially if he needs enough to bathe his victims.”
“What was the second question?”
“What if these aren’t all of his victims?” I looked up at him, my chest tightening.
“These are all known cases where his markings are present. He’s too much of a narcissist not to include it in one of his kills.”
“True, but like we’ve been saying this whole time, this is a game to him, something to win.” I turned toward Nolan, his brows furrowed as he looks down at me. “What do you do before you enter a game? You practice. What if there are other similar victims out there, while he was attempting to figure out his perfect method of killing? He wouldn’t have marked them and risked staining his perfect record now.”
“And maybe it’s in one of those cases where we find a clue that can finally move this case forward.” Nolan clapped his hands together, his body almost buzzing as a smile spread across his lips. “This could actually be a lead.”
I tipped my mug to him, giving him a wink, my stomach flipping at the gesture. “You’re welcome.”
“Ollie was right, you are a master at case puzzling.” He began to move around the room, pulling files and papers from different boxes. “We need to send messages out to all of the Factions and have them do a case review. Any cases from between eleven and fifteen years ago need to be reviewed for certain aspects pertaining to Elliot.”
“The Isle of Kazola is about to despise us,” I laughed, writing down a few notes that sprang into my mind.
I tried to focus on the work that needed to be done and the rushing high that came with a break in a case. I wasn’t thinking about how easy it was to work with Nolan now that I’d decided to trust him, how effortless it felt brainstorming with each other about a case that had racked us for weeks. Thinking about that brought a different kind of pressure to my chest, and I didn’t particularly need that distraction.
Nolan pointed his stilo at me. “Let’s split the country into fours. Each Keturi member and their seconds can oversee contacting a handful of Factions and then going through their files when they arrive by Falcon Mail. That way, hopefully, we can go through the files quicker.”
“Perfect.” I spread my attention down the hall to hear if Emric or Beckett had arrived yet. “Emric’s in his office and Beckett should be here soon. We can get them in on this right away.”
My skin buzzed, my fingers flying to write down the list of steps I’d have to take for the rest of the day. A surge of energy raced through me, my mind and body almost feeling like one again. Not quite, but it was a step in the right direction, giving me hope that my wolfish flare the other day wasn’t as much of a fluke as I originally thought. Maybe, just maybe, I was starting to take the right steps forward.
Maybe solving this case would help get me there.
“We should also follow up on the idea that he’s selling drugs on the side,” Nolan said without looking up from the table, breaking into my excited thoughts. “Although how we’ll ever find someone to help us with those details, I’ll never know.”
“Oh, Goddess above.” My stilo hesitated over my notebook, and I looked up to the ceiling as I chuckled.
“What?”
“I know someone who can help.” The laughter bubbled up from my chest. “But you’re not going to like them.”
“My favorite words,” he challenged. “Can’t wait.”
I rolled my eyes once again, hoping he didn’t regret those words when I introduced him to one of the banes of my existence: Mylo, head of the Bralechi family, notoriously known as Seathra’s biggest drug trafficking pack.
