“Shy? Excuse me? What reason do I have to be shy around you?”
I watch the annoying man and question where I’ve gone wrong that I can’t bully him into being like the rest of the people who interact with me. “Just looking at you makes me want to call you Jerard again,” I say.
“So did you really know my name all that time and just pretended you didn’t? I mean… the more I get to know you, the more I realize that you are semi-intelligent. I’m now convinced you knew my name but refused to use it.”
“Semi-intelligent? I probably know more about you than you know about yourself. I know that you’ve been fretting over your indecent thoughts of Matthew by chewing on your fingernails. I would also rather chew my nails off than be with Matthew.”
Jesse quickly hides his fingernails. “Just… it’s… no.”
“No? There’s a whole new world out there for you to explore, and as long as you don’t whip that spider of yours out, I think Matthew is more than prepared to explore it with you.”
“I do not… need relationship advice from a man who buys someone a house for their one-month anniversary.”
“Don’t be jealous.”
“I’m not… but… I…” He sighs. “Let’s focus on work. I have two things for you. A new John Doe that was brought in earlier and some information on that tattoo.”
“Oh?”
“Which do you want to see first?”
“John Doe.”
He leads me over to a body of a man lying out on a table. Jesse’s clearly already performed the autopsy, but there’s alwaysthe chance for more to find. I pull on some gloves and walk around the body as I try to see if anything stands out.
“He matches both Jane Doe and Liz Marsh,” I say.
“Does he?” Jesse asks as he examines him. “Different race, different gender, different eye color than Jane Doe.”
I stare at the body. “Not like that.”
“I know… I get what you’re saying. The clothes he was wearing were expensive, and he also looks like he takes great care with his appearance like they did. The connections aren’t as close as one would suspect, but there’s something similar about him.”
“How long has he been dead? Not long, right?”
“Four hours before we got him.”
I tap my finger on the edge of the table while I think. “The killer’s not too worried about hiding the bodies. Almost like they want us to find them. Or maybe not us, exactly… they want others to see their work. They’re like pieces of art to them.”
“Why do you say that?” Jesse asks.
“I stated it at Cameron’s farm, but since you weren’t there and don’t seem to be skilled enough to decipher it yourself, I’ll repeat it. I believe Cameron was supplying someone with these people.”
“I’m going to pretend like you weren’t chastising me for not having the ability to read minds and ask what makes you think that?”
“I have a theory that some of the people didn’t fit the bill, so he was trying to dispose of them, like Jane Doe. But I believe that whatever is happening is being documented in some way, seeing as there was something on Cameron’s computer that his wife was trying to dispose of.”
“So she knew?”
“Seems like it.”
“That’s unusual.”
“Unusual, but not unheard of,” I say. Hell, Gabriel knows about my ways. “So… we have an injection site, looks like into a vein… they’re not hiding this one… are they killing people in different ways? No track marks… an injection of a drug to kill him? Seems… off course.” I move around and examine the back of his head. “The impact looks like it’s from a fall. Without flipping him over to see if he has any other bruising, do you feel like it was a fall?”
“Seemed to be.”
“His hands are red… but the sides of his hands… beating on something? Possibly a door?”
