He waited patiently until I finished cursing him out and then said, "Is something wrong, Olivia?"
"My damned cat just found Ciara Conway's head. In the house where he was trapped."
"Do you have an address?" he said, less casually now.
I gave it to him. "It's over--"
"I know where it is. I'm less than a mile away."
"I'll be waiting out--"
"Stay on the line, Olivia. Tell me what happened."
I did. His car careered around the corner as I was getting to the part about calling 911. He'd climbed out and was closing the car door when TC zoomed past me.
"Watch out!" I said before he slammed the door on the cat.
TC jumped into the Jag and perched on the front seat.
"You might not want him in there," I said. "He has claws."
Gabriel closed the door. "At least we'll know where he is."
"Just don't bill me for the damage."
He took a flashlight from the trunk, then walked over. "As I was saying, yes, you were correct to call 911. It establishes a timeline, as does my call. I will handle contacting the local police, but I want to take a look inside first. Verify that the head is still there and keep it within sight. You can wait in the car with the cat if you like."
"It's not the head that sent me flying out of that house. It's remembering what happened the last time. I got out before I was knocked out."
"Good. Did you hear anyone inside?"
I said no, then explained about the attic door.
"That is odd," he said as I led him into the yard. "But the basement door did something similar, and I don't believe it 'just stuck.' Let's see what we have."
--
The head was still at the bottom of the attic steps. The head. That's how I thought of it now. Disconnected from any formerly living human being, because otherwise my gut started shouting, "It's her head. Ciara Conway's head. Severed from her body. Carted around. Tossed into a bed. Dragged by a cat. Pushed down the stairs. The poor girl's head." The horror and the indignity of that was too much. So it became "the head."
Gabriel seemed to have no such issues. He crouched and examined it from all angles.
"It appears to have been preserved," he said. "Most likely embalmed. That would explain the lack of rot and of scent, though TC still picked it up. A substandard job, then. Is it in the same condition as the last time you found it?"
I nodded.
He straightened, frowning down at the head as if it perplexed him. "You said you presume TC came in through the open basement window?"
"Yes. He'd been down there a while. Fortunately, he had water and found food."
"Meaning he could have been down there sinc
e he disappeared. Right before you found that head in your bed. Which he then found in the same house where he'd been trapped."
"And that makes no sense, which means the head must have been planted while I was rescuing him. I was trapped in the basement just long enough for that to happen."
"Possible, but that presumes the killer was either following you on your jog and took advantage--having the head conveniently nearby--or he was already in the house. I suspect TC didn't jump through that window. He was brought and left here. That could mean there is no one in this house tonight. TC was being kept here, as was the head."
"Which he smelled through two stories? Despite it being embalmed? And that doesn't explain stuck and unlocking doors."