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It was very clear from the old diner that the guy was killed. Hell, he was gift-wrapped for us by someone with a passion for murder. It was not the usual modus operandi of Snow White, but a serrated knife was found by the mangled corpse. Plus, DNA had linked that weapon to at least five of the last victims, including the chopped-up boy in the dumpster.
The profile for this unsub was all over the place. Sometimes, the evidence led to this individual being male. Sometimes female. Bloody bootprints were found, leaving every scene, and they were a size ten or ten and a half.
I couldn’t imagine a female having feet that large, but it was possible. Other times, the height of the unsub was suggested to be around five feet, four inches tall, which again could be a male. But, the blood splatter from certain knife wounds on the victims looked more strained, like the unsub had to put a massive amount of effort and weight into their slicing motions.
Despite what movies and TV shows presented, the human body wasn’t this thin paper material. It was difficult to cut through it, especially to the bone, which Snow White liked to do.
The whole case was as confusing as ever. For years, we’d chased down Snow White, and I kept looking more and more incompetent at my job with how many twists had been thrown at me.
There was never a specific reason for a kill other than some affiliation with drugs, and not just one specific drug had been singled out—the killer focused on all of them.
The last victim overdosed on meth, but there were too many other possibilities: heroin, cocaine, high doses of prescription-style narcotics, and pain stabilizers. Every victim also had trace amounts of the same heavy sedative in their system.
That part at least made sense. Now, whether or not the Snow White killer was male or female….
This unsub liked to pick fights with the most giant meatheads of men. If this killer was a female, I couldn't imagine she would fare well in a hand-to-hand combat situation. Plus, at least so far, Snow White was too calculated to be caught off guard.
“What is waiting for us when we head back in?” I said.
“I’m not sure. Maybe it has to do with that uh…crime of passion from earlier,” Quinn said.
I could hear Quinn trying not to cringe through the phone. The scene today was disgusting. A local hardware store owner was mutilated. I didn’t particularly like the guy. He had trophies of dead carcasses hung everywhere, and I still was enraged about the hundreds of animals he had caged in the back of his shop. Poor things had looked terrified. We rescued about twenty cats, one hundred rabbits, ferrets, rats, and four dozen reptiles.
My stomach still crawled from the rescue team’s words about just how mistreated those poor souls were. Not every life made it out, but a lot did. If I were honest with myself, I was glad that disgusting fuck died because someone chopped off his dick. We never found the appendage, but I had a feeling we may be lucky.
“Okay, Quinn. I’m on my way,” I said, hitting the end call button on my phone.
* * *
The station was like a second home to me. I didn’t know why I felt such a sense of dread walking in now. Maggie, at the front desk, smiled at me. “Hey, Ella. You look beautiful. Did you curl your hair today?”
The answer was no. I just hadn’t straightened it. My hair was a pale yellow, springy mess that looked like a lion’s mane. Put that hair next to my super pale skin, and I looked like a pale oddball. I used to get called Banana Head or Casper all the time in grade school.
At least those qualities made dressing up like a zombie on All Hallow’s Eve easier. My dad used to love dressing up with me and my sister. Most of the time, he drove us around, not feeling up to participating in Trick or Treat adventures. But a few times, he went all out. He was even the king to my princess one year.
I missed my dad.
He was the one person in my life I’d loved so much. I was such an awkward person. Cassie was really all I had as far as friends went, and she was my sister who was blood-bound to love me, so I doubt that counted.
“Chief Doger asked that you try to get something out of this guy.” Detective Emily sneered at me.
Emily liked me as much as a mean girl from high school liked a new student. I was someone to pick on at every opportunity she was given. Emily got a ‘golden star’ for knowing how to torment me, which included ratting me out for being late a few times.
“Uh, okay,” I said, wanting to scream at her.
Turning away from her, I peered through the glass at the banged-up male in the interrogation room. He was shivering so much I could hear the faint sound of the chair clicking off the hard ground.
He looked like hell.
His eyes were blackened, leaving big purple bags on his tanned skin. He had cuts and scrapes lining his arms with bandages that already had a red tint to them, and his fingers were twisted at odd angles under a cast. There wasn’t a single time Snow White had allowed someone to escape, but this guy definitely fit the profile of one of Snow’s victims.
Maybe the notorious killer finally slipped up?
His brown eyes darted around the room, looking crazed. It made me wonder if he was detoxing cold turkey from some hard drug.
Frowning and smoothing my green blazer, I looked at Quinn to tell him I was ready. We entered the room, and the man at the desk ignored us, his eyes still bouncing around frantically, the chair vibrating with his shaking.
Quinn stood by the chair, and I sat down, trying to put myself on his level. He was already acting like a startled deer, so I was afraid to push him because I knew he was likely to lose it.
