Tortured Dreams

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter 22

More tossing and turning. The source of the maidens had been figured out. It didn't seem to mean we were any closer to catching the killer though.

The source of the Scavenger's Daughter was still a mystery. It turned out the marks were similar, not the same. It was hard to tell until Michael blew up the pictures to examine them. I was hoping that Michael and Alejandro would return in the morning and give us the name of the guy who ordered the maidens. That would make things much easier.

However, there was still something nagging at me. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Something that told me while we were close, we weren't close enough.

"Get up," someone yelled through the door of the hotel room. I could hear banging and shuffling outside. Xavier suddenly burst into the room.

"What?" I jumped from bed.

"He struck again."

"He couldn't have. It hasn't been three months."

"Lucas thinks that since he didn't get to sign his work last time, he hit early. In the last two hours, ten women have gone missing."

"Oh, yeah, that sounds like our guy."

"No, that sounds like a tragedy. The fact that each was kidnapped from their bedrooms while they slept sounds like our guy. And we think we know how he is taking them. The last one put up a struggle. We found LSD in the apartment."

"The hallucinogen?"

"Yep."

"That would be one very bad trip."

"Yep. We are on our way to look at a place with no dead bodies. We are hoping you can help."

"Probably not." I answered, but I was already pulling on my clothes.

The apartment was flooded with lights. The blinds were all down. The bedroom door was damaged. I frowned at it all.

Things were knocked over. There had obviously been a struggle, actually a hell of a fight. There were drops of drying liquid on the floor that had proved to be the hallucinogen.

Nothing jumped out at me, but I wasn't a real investigator. I was just sort of here to round out the numbers.

"What's this?" Xavier brought something over to me.

"It's a dagger."

"Like the one you keep?"

I looked at it very closely. It wasn't like the one I kept. It was military grade.

"No, mine is a replica of a ceremonial knife. This looks like military."

"How old?"

"The past century or so. The style looks vaguely familiar."

"Why do you know so much about daggers?"

"I have a degree in History; I didn't always set out to be a medievalist. That just sort of happened. I started out wanting to be an Egyptologist. When that failed, I tried my hand at military history. I got wrapped up in the Children's Crusades and became a medievalist."

"So medieval Europe was your third choice?"

"Something like that."

"Which is why you know about daggers?" Xavier frowned.

"Some of it." I frowned back. "What are you getting at?"

"Did you touch this?"

"No, until now, I hadn't seen it. Why?"