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Fiona pushed her plate away. This was the kind of conversation that chased away appetites or any hope in humanity. “We think he’s using physical torture to keep them under control or to submit to his wishes—not the inking. He overdosed Amy-Rose—and probably Lily Hayes—with Xanax, so he’s likely using it to put them under for periods of time to do the ink work.”
“The nice meals,” Asa continued, “could be rewards if they obey or submit. You act right, you are taken care of. You do not, you incur pain. After a lengthy period of time, he’d get them to submit and obey his every whim, which is exactly what he wants. Control. Power. Ownership of them. But what does he do with them when he’s not tattooing them? Where do they stay, and what do they do if it’s not of a sexual nature? He’s perfected his tattooing method too much for these to be his first victims. Has anything similar popped in ViCAP?”
“Three sex workers in Raleigh went missing and were found dead and tattooed with flowers about three years ago, but it’s noted they can’t be sure if the tats had been inked in captivity or not. Two more were discovered in Charlotte eighteen months ago. One definitely did not have the tattoos before, according to an undercover cop who knew her.”
“He’s been practicing,” Violet added. “Did the prostitutes have flower names or go by flower names?”
“No,” Selah said.
“We can’t be sure if it’s the same guy, but it could be, which means he may have been practicing for the real flowers. The women didn’t matter to him. He’d consider them to be throwaways.”
Ty pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. The kidnapping and killing of all these girls wasn’t Ty’s fault. This guy wanted them and had already been abducting and murdering women prior to this new insane plan. Taking Ahnah and planting the two most recent victims—that was on Ty. “The Fire & Ice Killer also tortured his victims. He knows how I insulted his intelligence. Violet is right. He could have evolved, and while doing so, created this scheme to get revenge. It took a while, but it’s no different than a long con. We need to dig back into those old cases and search for something new, something we didn’t notice before but would now due to the newest case.”
“I’m already on that,” Selah said.
Violet nibbled on her thumbnail. “We know the Fire & Ice Killer abducted the women and kept them for a week before killing them. He strangled them, though. Wasn’t a sexual deviant either—which makes me lean toward him evolving. Sexual predators are always sexual predators even if targets or locations change, and if this UNSUB is holding them even longer than a week—months—there would be evidence indicating rape. Torture seems consistent in both cases.”
Asa blew out a heavy breath, then sipped his sweet tea. “Lily Hayes had no broken bones or burn marks, which indicates not all the women were tortured. They found sand and bits of American beach grass on her, but that doesn’t really give us anything detailed. You can find that all over the Outer Banks.”
Ty picked up the photos they’d returned with from the ME’s office. The roses were perfect and expertly placed on Amy-Rose Rydell.
Bloom where you are planted.
Not all the roses inked along her body had been blooming roses, though. Several on her upper neck and back were rosebuds. “How many broken fingers did Amy-Rose have?”
“Uh...” Asa studied the autopsy report. “Seven.”
Ty carefully counted the number of rosebuds.
Seven. Interesting. When she bloomed where she was planted—obeyed or acquiesced to whatever he requested—she received blooming roses. When she did not submit, she didn’t bloom and was punished. “Which wrist had been broken?” he asked Asa.
“Left.”
Ty found a photo of her left arm and studied it. A nice long sleeve of roses in multiple colors. Each one blooming, except for the circle of red rosebuds around her wrist. He quickly began laying out the photos in a horizontal line and watched in horror as his theory materialized into reality.
“What do you see?” Violet sidled up beside him.
“Look at her left wrist.”
Violet hummed low, seeing the looming picture. She pointed to the victim’s neck. “Closed buds...they start opening around the middle of her back.”
Exactly. “Give me Lily’s photos.”
Asa passed them over, and he laid them out. “Closed buds beginning at her neck and opening further down on her back.” She wasn’t as tattooed as Amy-Rose Rydell. She’d gone missing one month later. “He starts at the neck with closed-up flowers because they’re fighting him—being disobedient—but as he brings the pain, they begin to cooperate with him—whatever that entails.” What was this man making them do?
“Y’all, I can’t see.” Selah popped up on-screen, and Asa shifted the laptop to face the photos.
“Lily Hayes’s blooms open and stay open. But Amy-Rose is littered with rosebuds,” Ty said. “I think she fought harder and longer than Lily.”
Way to go, Amy-Rose.
“That means he’s not picking a type—a passive personality—but is choosing women solely based on flower names,” Asa said.
Except Ty didn’t believe Ahnah was chosen just for her flower middle name.
Violet leaned her hip on the table. “Amy-Rose’s family said she was outgoing, star of the show wherever she went, which was a lot of places. Her mom even mentioned she’d been headstrong. She knew she’d have fought to the bitter end, and that gave her some comfort. Lily’s family said she was home early most nights, was always a good girl and—”
“A rule-follower,” Ty said. “She’d have far fewer closed blooms.” He tapped his index finger on the open blooms located on her back. “Bloom where you are planted. When it’s not in a place you’d choose to be or want to be, you bloom despite the hardship and turmoil. The phrase is derived from a verse in the Bible. Well, several verses about being planted by streams of water and yielding fruit in season. There’s also a verse in the New Testament—I can’t remember where, but I’ll google it—about flowers withering and fading.”
