“What do you have?” I ask her.
“Well, their mouths were sewed shut, as you know, but when we opened them, we found the missing penises.”
Leonard gags and turns away, and my stomach roils as well.
“That’s…definitely an escalation,” Elise says, her leg in a brace and her arm in a sling as she struggles with the crutches, still refusing a wheelchair.
“That’s not the worst part,” Hadley goes on. “I took blood samples from their mouths, and…Tyler was O positive. Lawrence was AB positive. I found O positive blood in Lawrence’s mouth, and AB positive blood in Tyler’s.”
“Wait, hold up, are you telling me he sewed Tyler’s dick into Lawrence’s mouth, and vice versa?” Donny asks, turning an alarming shade of pale.
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“I can’t tell if he’s evolving or devolving,” Elise gripes.
“He’s definitely suffering a psychotic break if he’s getting more stuck on the torture,” Leonard says with a grimace.
“No,” I say thoughtfully. “These two did something together that pissed the unsub off recently. We couldn’t find any footage of the unsub, but Tyler’s credit card showed a trip to New York recently. Maybe they met to discuss the deaths of the others, even though it hadn’t made the news. If the unsub followed them, maybe heard their conversation, it could have led to this double kill and extra layer of torture.”
“That’s still a psychotic break,” Donny argues.
“No, it’s not. There has yet to be any rage found with the overkill. The torture is punishment. It’s to prolong the deaths. This unsub is targeting the ones who wronged him, and he’s punishing them accordingly, at least in his mind. If they crossed a line, he’d punish them more severely than he’s been punishing the others.”
I pause, letting them soak that in as I get lost in my own thoughts.
“We need more info on that serial killer—Robert Evans,” I tell Donny.
Hadley makes a strangled sound, reminding me she’s still on the phone.
“You okay, Had?”
“Yep. Yep. Fine,” she says quickly.
“See what else you can get from the bodies. Email me the final report, but call me immediately if something else stands out.”
“Will do.”
She hangs up, and Donny frowns. “She’s acting weird.”
“Her stepfather abused her as a child, she was convinced it was all in her head, and other kids died after she ran away. Couple that with the fact she was almost a victim of Plemmons, and she has every right to be weird,” I remind him.
“How’s Lana holding up?” Craig asks me as I start typing a message into my phone.
“Much better than I could have hoped. She’s a hell of a lot tougher than I gave her credit for being.”
“That’s good. I was actually worried. I remember the first time I had to shoot someone. It’s the reason I went into this field—less need for violence.”
I nod, understanding. It was hard on me the first two times, even though I saved many by taking down those two monsters. Didn’t alleviate the nightmares. Fortunately, Lana’s dreams don’t seem to be haunted by those memories. She’s fucking incredibly strong.
And it makes me love her even more.
“Plan a trip to Delaney Grove. This unsub would be remembered if we painted a picture of the two Evans kids who were killed.”
“There was nothing about that ever mentioned in their police reports,” Craig says quietly. “This town is trying to act like the Evans family never even existed. The coroner who wrote that bullshit report on Robert Evans is either dead or playing dead. No phone calls have been returned.”
“All the more reason to pay a visit in person.”
He nods.