Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
* * *
Rex
* * *
Inara paces back and forth. She’s set up a wall of evidence by pinning things to the corkboard. We have the original files, but Hamish also had copies made of everything, and that’s what Inara is putting on display. She’ll bring the originals into the precinct tomorrow, but we’ll have copies in this room.
I walk over to the wall and stare at the picture of the Bondage Killer. Dennis Bundy is a nondescript white male with a wiry but strong build.
“Alfie,” I say, “give me the bio of Dennis Bundy.”
The computer chimes and reads the file. Inara raises her head from her work when Alfie says, “Dennis Bundy worked in home security. He sold Guardian systems and oversaw their installation.”
“That’s how he cased his victim’s homes,” Inara puts in. “My father was worried about the recent murders in the area and called the security company for a consultation. That was the first time he was in our home.” She’s talking about her family, but her voice is as neutral as the computer’s.
I’ve retreated to that cold space inside me, where nothing touches me. Most people wouldn’t understand how I can compartmentalize like this. But Inara does because she’s doing the same thing. We stare at the body of evidence like it’s a thousand-piece puzzle we need to solve. Piecing together a picture we’ve never seen before.
“He was strong enough to overpower his victims,” she continues. “And confident enough to put them on display.”
“What else is in his profile?”
She reads from the document she’s compiling. “White male, now aged sixty-two. No substance abuse. No mild altering drugs or medications. He was—is—intelligent and methodical. He loved the process. He took his time. He displays a psychopathic character style. What he lacks in empathy, he makes up for in narcissism. He believes he’s better than others.”
“Most serial killers have greater levels of narcissism,” I say.
“Yes. Like most billionaires,” she adds slyly.
My lips quirk, but now isn’t the time for jokes. “His motivations?”
Inara lifts her head. “You’ve killed people. What do you think?”
I take her question in stride. “It’s a compulsion. He was acting out a fantasy, one he’d rehearsed over and over.” One board has a list of the Bondage Killer’s original victims. “He was drawn to young girls or younger-looking women. He’d murder their parents or guardians and enact his sexual perversions on them.”
Inara comes to stand beside me. “But not on me.” Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her feels right. Even though we’re looking at the gruesome details of serial murder, it feels right.
“No. He spared you.” I face her. “You have to acknowledge he’s now fixated on you.”
“The one that got away,” she murmurs and moves to the next board. “In contrast, the Blackbird murders were simple. The killer isolated a single victim, incapacitated them, strangled them. No sexual contact, but he arranged the bodies afterward and left them on display along with a dead bird.”
“Do you think Dennis Bundy also committed the Blackbird murders?”
She chews her lip. “I don’t know. The timeline fits. But why would he change his MO so completely?” She murmurs the last part to herself, gazing off into the distance. “Death. Rebirth. BK was presumed dead in a fire that raged overnight. The warehouse was thought to have collapsed on him.”
“How could he have survived?”
“There must have been a bolt hole of some sort. It would make sense for him to have an escape route planned. He knew the search was closing in. If he’s alive, I want to know where he’s been all this time.”
“If he was wounded, he might have needed time to heal. Get medical care. Lie low.”
“In addition to an escape route, he might have had friends. You know there are chat boards filled with his fans. Sick minds, swapping fantasies.”
“I do know,” I say grimly. When I was a boy, I found those chat rooms and lurked long enough to learn a few things. I also worked on turning some of the worst offenders over to the authorities. I followed the cases and learned that money could buy a reduced sentence. After a few murderers proved to be so well-connected that they were let off without serving any hard time, I realized that there were better, more final ways to dispense justice.
I bow my head, reviewing the analysis Hamish sent over regarding the birds left at Inara’s townhouse. Barn swallows, all of them. The same bird left at the last murder site.
And BK calls Inara My Swallow.
Inara is right. This is a clear tie to the Blackbird murders. But does that mean the Bondage Killer is Blackbird?
We need more evidence. The timeline fits; if BK survived the fire, he could have committed the Blackbird murders. Those murders all happened a few months after the warehouse fire. But then why did he stop killing for so many years? And why did he start again?