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"Hey, Ava." She greeted me cheerfully.
"I am going to head in and see what is going on. You stay out here with Sarah, and I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Wait, what is going on, James? Why are you meeting Chief Brash here? What aren't you telling me?"
He didn't say a word, but his message was painfully clear. There had been another murder, and the FBI was here because of the killer--who was hunting for me.
"Just stay here, Ava. Let me figure out what is going on, and I'll be back."
His words were strained, and I knew there was another murder, but he wouldn’t tell me. He didn’t want me to take the blame because he knew I would. His face revealed his regret for not telling me what he had been up to all this time--all those times he had vanished without explanation.
Anger boiled just below my skin because he told me not to worry, but now another girl was dead inside that mill because I was still alive.
THIRTY-ONE
JAMES
Iwalked away from the car, and I knew by looking at Ava's face that she was unhappy with my decision not to give her any information. I didn't want to keep any secrets from her, but I didn't want her to take the blame for what was happening, and I knew she would. She would blame herself for this girl's death.
Whatever happened, I would protect her. Even if that meant she was angry at me.
She had lived through enough and didn't need to bear the burden of another death onto herself.
The officer standing at the mill doorway nodded and lifted the crime scene tape to let me inside. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the scene before me. The mill was dilapidated and smelled of mildew and decay. I could not distinguish whether the smell was animal, human, or a combination of both.
The air was thick and humid. It was difficult to breathe. I coughed, the copper smell of blood overtaking my nose. I stepped closer to where a naked woman's body was suspended from a chain above her head. Her toes barely touched the dirty ground, and the ground was littered with broken glass and coagulated blood. Her fingernails were broken and dirty, and the edges were ragged like she had tried to claw her way out of a tomb. Her skin was pale and waxy and had a greenish tint to it. The skin on the left side of her face was filleted off in inch-by-inch strips, then meticulously peeled away. She was almost unrecognizable from the torture she had endured.
The further my eyes traveled down, the deeper her skin had been peeled, exposing muscle and bone. The evidence at the crime scene suggested that whoever killed her had become increasingly violent and intended to cause her immense suffering before her death. Her eyes were swollen and red, and a trail of tears ran down her dirt-stained cheek. Her body was covered in cuts and bruises, dried blood covering the flesh he hadn't taken from her.
On her thigh, I noticed the familiar red angry "S." She had been bound and gagged, and marks on her wrists and ankles indicated she had been tied up before being moved to the mill.
The medical examiner determined that the cause of death had been severe blood loss due to multiple stab wounds and injuries. There were a couple of footprints that did not match the victim, as she was barefoot, and there were no signs that she had been wearing shoes.
The decomposition of her body and the presence of flies revealed that she had been killed recently. There was an air of urgency, with the familiar taste of lack of remorse for his violence.
This sadistic son-of-a-bitch was getting reckless.
Why else would he kill her in a place anyone could stumble across?
There was no way he had not left DNA evidence, not with this much violence. Every other victim was killed in whatever house of horrors he felt safe in and transported to different areas to be found. Most of the areas were high drug traffic areas, places where he probably felt confident that no one would remember him being there. Places with immense crime scene contamination, so even if they did find DNA, it would be so trampled on and corrupted that they could never get a solid match.
Chief Brash recoiled in disgust, his handkerchief providing little protection against the reeking odor of decomposition. His eyes widened in horror as I went over my assessment of the body, confirming what I already knew deep in my gut - that this was the young woman who had been missing for days.
"We will have to positively ID her through dental records. However, comparing the right side of her face to her picture, I believe this is the missing college girl, Lacey Michaels. Forensics has already completed evidence collection around the body. But we won't stop here, and we'll comb through every inch of this wasteland until we find something that'll help us catch this son-of-a-bitch."
"He chose this place for that reason. He knew there would be mounds of contaminated evidence to sift through. However, I hope he was careless enough to leave a strand of hair or that his skin is under her nails." I continued.
Everett entered and observed the whole scene before speaking. "Sorry, Boss. I had a
phone call."
"Everything ok?”
"Yeah. It's just my mom. She's freaking out because her dog slipped out the door and hasn't returned yet. But a neighbor brought him home while we were on the phone."
I was about to respond when I heard the loud popping of gunshots outside. My heart raced as we all instinctively ducked for cover. We quickly realized that the bullets were not directed at us.
"Stay here, and contact dispatch and tell them we need backup now!” I yelled at Chief Brash.
