Page 42 of Insidious Heart
With cautious steps I make my way over, then carefully—reverently—pick up the thick chain and immediately feel my face split into a smile.
On the beautiful silver links in white gold with silver trim, is a charm. A little ghost with black diamond eyes and mouth.
I guess that answers several of my questions.
It is beautiful though. Beautiful and simple, thoughtful even. And just when I’m about to put on the only piece of jewelry I’ve ever been given, a light scratching sound comes from my left and makes me jump sky high.
Scratch. Tap. Tap. Tap. Scratch.
CHAPTERNINE
VICTOR
Handson my hips and a cigarette between my teeth, I look over the photos spread out on my table.
The alley behind the grocery store was dark but the lights from the parking lot were enough to illuminate the scene, and I’m grateful for it because using the flash on my camera would have been even more obvious than what I already was.
A dude my size dressed in an all-black hazmat suit with a mask and ski goggles could have been quite the spectacle at five in the morning. Especially considering what I was photographing.
Thankfully, the store doesn’t open until eight and, like most places in Rolling Meadows between three and seven in the morning, the area was a dead zone.
No drug dealers or sex workers, and no bums camped out or searching through the dumpsters. All was perfectly quiet and it allowed for me to work without interruption or concern for getting caught.
After I handled Joker and did what I could for Stevie’s bedroom, I watched her for a few minutes before I let myself out of her house. My little dove is a beautiful sleeper and since I couldn’t stay for multiple reasons, I settled for watching her for a few beats before I started dropping trash bags out her window, then praying that fucking trellis didn’t break when I climbed back down it. And as soon as my feet hit the ground, my phone went off.
Little John called me just before five to let me know there was another body.
Pope, the only other member of the Wulven Kings MC that has mostly fully embraced me, and a few of his brothers do nightly sweeps for El Paso County as a part of their efforts to protect their territory after the shit Spider and I handled, and Friday night he happened to be in Rolling Meadows. And while I know my friend and mentor didn’t necessarily explainwhy, he did contact their president to ask that if any more bodies turned up, they let him know right away. And since John scares pretty much everyone shitless, even if they’re considered friends, Snipe agreed.
Honestly, I’m sure the WKMC have doubled their patrol efforts for multiple reasons—a few of them are married with kids and they’ve had multiple close calls in the last few years—the restructuring of their club is a main one.
Do they still dabble in the illegal side of things? Yes, absolutely. Playing middleman for various transactions can be very lucrative even when you’ve gone mostly straight, and I know they won’t think twice to snuff out any threat that’s presented to their families, the club, or the county that has been Wulven Kings’ territory since it was founded. And with the Cobra Cons appointing a new president and getting all cozy with the Demon Seeds, the new serial killer that is specifically targeting women and pinning that on the vigilante ghost—me—when I know for a fact that club supports what I do, I’m sure Snipe and company are on high alert.
Which is why Little John asking them to keep their eyes peeled for any bodies that turn up, ones that fit either killer’s MO—just in case my competition decides to start copy catting—might have made them curious, but they didn’t bat an eye and agreed. And it’s why Pope called John himself when he found the girl.
The police hadn’t been alerted yet, and according to my mentor, no one else had found her either, but our methods are working thanks to his connections and it proved my theory in terms of a pattern as well.
Another brunette, mid-twenties from what I could tell, and she had been killed sometime Friday night while I was occupied elsewhere. The girl was left out in the open again, completely naked and mutilated, save for the socks on her feet and her beaten but not unrecognizable face. She’d definitely been killed in the alley and I’d put money on her possibly being homeless or transient based on the condition of her socks, and the one hand I could clearly see had the leftovers of a french manicure, the tips grown out quite a bit and chipped in places. I’d also bet my entire savings on that girl having zero criminal record despite the hard times she may have fallen on—she was dumpster diving when she could have tried robbing the closed store or some shit—and there’s a good chance she was from somewhere other than Colorado originally because of what I thought was possibly a tattoo of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I light my smoke then scrub a hand through my hair as my eyes bounce around the photos.
I walked the scene a couple of times, started as close to the body as I could without stepping in anything, then circled out toward the brick walls on either side.
The Ripper took the murder weapon with him and did a pretty decent job of cleaning up any evidence he was here, but I saw a few things that might red flag for police, or would anyway if they weren’t so fucking convinced this was me.
For starters, there were small signs of a struggle.
The dumpster had clearly been shoved from its original position because it was cockeyed and about a foot away judging by the marks left when it slid. There were two fresh blood stains on the front of it along with a couple of stab marks where The Ripper either missed his target or accidentally caught the dumpster when the girl struggled. There was also a clump of bloody hair on the corner of the dumpster, hair that matches the victim, and the obvious drag marks from there to where the girl was butchered support that as well.
From there, I was able to piece things together as I photographed, and since printing the pictures, my guess at what took place is pretty spot on I think.
Based on what I saw, the girl was probably already in the alley when The Ripper showed up, which not only supports my claim that she was possibly transient because the dumpster was open and there were a few newly expired packs of deli meat on the ground, but it puts time of death somewhere between when the store closed at nine and three in the morning, when most of Rolling Meadows shuts down for a few hours. The Ripper probably snuck into the alley and startled her, which is when she dropped her next meal, and I’m assuming they had a conversation for a few minutes prior to the attack because these kills are absolutely sexually driven and full of rage that requires a trigger. My competition probably propositioned the girl, offered the money I found by the trash in exchange for some kind of favor, the girl declined, and that’s when The Ripper attacked.
He most likely lunged at her, pinning her body to the dumpster so hard it slid, and tried to incapacitate her then but wasn’t successful on his first attempt. The struggle continued until The Ripper slammed the girl’s head against the edge of the dumpster, probably knocking her out immediately, then she was dragged into the center of the most well-lit part of the alley and hacked to pieces, but not until after she was stripped and assaulted first.
Her clothes were missing, all but her socks, and the murder weapon—some sort of serrated blade based on the crude and jagged marks—was nowhere in sight, and The Ripper didn’t leave any physical evidence behind. Which ultimately isn’t my problem because I couldn’t run it if I found any, but I’ve got a better idea of what mynew friendmight be built like based on my theory of how events played out, too.
I’d bet he’s on the shorter side, probably somewhere between five-foot-six and five-foot-ten, athletic but not super built or strong, and both of those things play into everything else I’m no doubt spot on about. Like the fact The Ripper is most likely insecure about their physical appearance or sexuality, possibly both in some way, which is why he either uses the element of surprise or finds an easy way of getting his victim alone.
