Tortured Dreams

Chapter Forty-Two

"Now our theory is psychotic girl meets psychotic boy, they marry and when the dust settles and they find out they are actually half-siblings and they go together over the deep end. They begin planning a series of crimes that are bound to get my attention. Once they have it, they also have to get Malachi and Nyleena's attention, because they are as responsible as I am. There is just one problem. They don't have Malachi or Nyleena's attention yet. Instead, they get The Butcher's attention. Since he doesn't like competition, he sends me a couple of clues and now we have a protective detail on Nyleena with Malachi at the helm."

"Hm," Lucas frowned.

"Which is exactly how to get the attention of Malachi and Nyleena," I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, I think they wanted the protective detail on the two of them, I don't think this is how they planned to get it though. I think this next round of bodies was supposed to be the catalyst for it. Actually, I think the last round of bodies was supposed to be the catalyst, but it was interrupted. They deviated from the original killings with the Scavenger's Daughter because it wasn't a plate in the book. I've been thinking about that. I can't see any reason to copy plates from a book when there are hundreds of books on torture. Meaning they copied it because it was in your library and looked well used," Lucas said.

"Speaking of the plates in that book," I shook my head. "There are far worse tortures described in that book, some in great detail. Why pick the plates and not something far worse?"

"Because they don't read German," Xavier answered almost before I had finished the question.

"Then why deviate?" I asked.

"You don't read German, but you know the book is on torture. You also know that one of your targets has used it several times as reference material. You pick out a few plates and copy them. You get one target's attention. You deviate. You grab for something else. In this case, the Scavenger's Daughter. Something was supposed to grab one of the other target's attention. But it backfires, for whatever reason; you can't leave your clue. You grab ten more women to leave the message."

"Shit," I looked at the floor. "The Scavenger's Daughter was meant to get my attention focused on Malachi."

"Why?"

"The first serial killer case that he worked, the bodies were put into a trash compactor. Same technique, just more modern equipment. That's why the teeth were old. It was a way to show me that a different mechanism can be used with the same results. Old teeth v. new teeth. Trash compactor v. Scavenger's Daughter."

"Is this Butcher going to be a problem on all our cases?" Alejandro scowled.

"Unlikely. He got involved with this one because it is directly aimed at two of his favorite things, Malachi and Ace. It also let him show off, 'I know the killers. I know where you are.' He was taunting us while helping us." Lucas commented.

"Just crushing a few women wouldn't bring Malachi into a case, no matter how much it reminded you of his first one. Just like the symbols were missing, there was something else they were supposed to do and didn't get the chance. Something that would specifically shout 'Malachi Blake needs to be involved.'" Xavier crossed his arms over his chest.

"Something that will probably turn up if we don't find the victims before they are killed," Lucas added.

"Doing anything that gets Malachi's attention is dangerous at best." I pointed out.

"You know that, we know that, but do they know that? They probably think it's two against one, they could take him." Michael added.

"No, Jessica would know that she couldn't. Like me, she would have seen the point where emotion turned to calm and life meant nothing to him."

"How can you be so sure?" Alejandro asked. I frowned at him.

"Because Ace does it from time to time, even the interviewee at the prison commented on it being scary," Lucas answered for me. "Anyone who has spent more than a second staring into the depths of that darkness would know better and Malachi's would be much worse."

"Imagine the Portal to Hell reflected on someone's face." I looked at Alejandro. "He smiles when he reaches that point, it isn't a happy smile."

"We don't have time to debate how scary Malachi is," Michael interrupted us.

"Very true, we'll just go with he's very scary," I finished and looked back at Lucas.

"I can only think of a few ways to guarantee Malachi would get involved. Me, his brothers, Nyleena, his mother, my mother. I'm not sure it would faze him if it was his father."

"What about ex-girlfriends?" Xavier asked.

"Unlikely he would remember them, once they are gone; they are well and truly gone. Malachi doesn't form emotional attachments, so everyone, even the women he sleeps with are background noise."

"You both live in lonely worlds." Lucas looked at Xavier. "Why did you mention ex-girlfriends?"

"Because the Chicago police just found a picture of Malachi in one of the new victims' in her apartment."

"Name?" I asked.

"Trisha North." Xavier answered, looking at his phone.

"Trish, wow, I haven't seen her in ages. They dated..." I sighed heavily.

"What, Ace?" Lucas asked.

"They were dating when Malachi went postal on Jessica Thompson's brother."

"You remember Malachi's ex-girlfriends?" Xavier tilted his head sideways.

"Most of them are very nice to me. They want me to like them. Trish was special though. I think Malachi did her wrong. We kept in touch for a year or two after they broke up. Then she got married, had a kid, got divorced, the child died..."

"Give her a list of all the victims," Lucas interrupted me.

"Why?"

"Find any more of Malachi's girlfriends on it?" Lucas said as he handed me a print-out.

I scanned through the names. One jumped out. She had been placed in the Scavenger's Daughter, Anna Rochelle. I sighed and pointed to it.

"Who is she?" Xavier asked.

"She was nice enough, never took a shine to me, but I understand that. She cheated on Malachi, not that I hold that against her, he isn't exactly a model of fidelity and he's emotionally distant even at the best of times. When he dies, women will come from miles around to dance on his grave. However, she didn't live in Chicago."

"No, she lived in Bloomington Indiana." Lucas frowned.

"She was a professor at the university there." I filled in more information.

"How did her and Malachi meet?" Alejandro asked.

"Not a clue, but at the time they met, she was living in St. Louis Missouri." I told him. "With Malachi, it could have been a trip to Six Flags or in a car accident or a talk he gave at SLU. Malachi isn't a dummy either. Universities beg him to give guest lectures on social matters."

"I forgot about his degree in Sociology," Lucas said.

"Not just that, he only got his bachelor's, but he got an honorary doctorate from SLU in Sociology after he wrote a paper that made it not only into the FBI's profiling report, but into a major scientific journal. I forget which one. Anyway, I believe Anna was his last girlfriend. It has been a few years since he has attempted to date."