Page 21 of Protecting Chaos


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“This guy doesn’t sound very bright,” Morrison said with a raised brow. “And what about Gretchen Wymore? I’m guessing Marcus didn’t like any of her, judging by the state we found her.”

Stella moved down the picture board to where there were several pictures of the same blond woman. “Looks like he circled her lips in the photos. I can see why. They look plump and inviting.”

“This Marcus guy and his weird picture fetish just moved to the top of our suspect list.”

“There is nothing strange about these pictures. Marcus uses them for inspiration. He called us his muses. He takes a million pictures from every angle so he doesn’t miss anything important. In his mind, missing something like a simple freckle would drive him insane.”

Yeah, and he probably sells the rest of the pictures to pervs online. I bet we find evidence on this guy’s computer.Morrison’s thoughts were moving in a direction I hadn’t thought. “A million, huh?”

Morrison moved down the wall to Stella’s image. “How come there’s only one of you?”

“There’s some missing. Two weeks ago, there were about twenty of me up there.”

“Where did you find the one of her in the button-down shirt?” I asked.

“On the kitchen floor near the opened back door. We think he probably dropped it in his attempt to flee the scene,” Detective Morrison answered.

“You said there were more pictures of you. What exactly did your missing pictures contain?” Morrison asked.

“Just your hands?” I hoped.

“Mostly my hands, although some angles included my face. He had me posing like one of those girls on a TV game show that shows off merchandise.”

She certainly has merchandise men would pay to see.

I bit my tongue instead of snapping at the detective. I needed to stay focused.

“And how well do you know Marcus?”

She turned and gestured to Gretchen. “I know him well enough to know that he didn’t do that. Have you checked the rest of the house? He could be lying hurt somewhere.”

Or he could have killed her and run,Morrison thought.

“Detective.” Another officer stepped out of an adjoining room. “Can I see you a minute?”More blood, but thank God there’s not another body. I almost lost my dinner with the last one. Who the hell would cut off a woman’s lips?

My gaze darted to the woman on the floor with the hair covering her face as the medical examiner entered the room.

I flashed him my badge and moved Stella across the room, farther away from the body. She didn’t need to see what I suspected the ME was about to find.

“Do you think they found him in the adjoining room?” Stella whispered with fear in her eyes.

“They found blood but no dead body.” I blocked her view of the woman’s body. “Stella, Gretchen is missing her lips.”

Stella’s eyes widened, and her hand flew to cover her mouth. “How do you know? Are you sure?”

“One of the officers was just thinking about it. Can you think of anyone that would do this? Anyone that held a grudge against Marcus or disagreed with his idea of perfection?”

She shook her head. “No. No one was allowed to see his work in progress. No one would have known what his idea of perfect was. Not until the unveiling.”

“And who knew you were a model for him?”

She frowned. “No one, but maybe the other women who came in here. Marcus had each of us sign a non-disclosure in our contracts. I wasn’t allowed to discuss it at all.”

“Wait here. I’m going to get a look at his masterpiece.”

“Detective,” I called out. Morrison returned to the room and met me near the sheet-covered sculpture. I gestured to it. “I need to take a look at what he was working on.”

“Sure. You got any suspicions you want to share?”