Page 60 of Cruel Riches

12

Alexis

My jaw dropped. “What?”

“She’s being dramatic,” Laurel said, arching her brows. “Obviously, it’s not the Butcher, because he died ten years ago, but there is a copycat killer out there.”

Ruby grimly shook her head. “I honestly can’t believe it. It’s so crazy.”

I stepped aside to let them come in. “What happened?” I asked, heart hammering.

“I woke up when it was still dark,” Laurel began. “There were lights and voices outside my window. I got up to take a look, and there were cops swarming all over the place. Apparently some frat guy went for a jog across campus just before five, and he found the bodies in the quad.”

“There are still cops everywhere,” Ruby added. “They woke me up too.”

“Are there any details yet?” I asked.

Laurel nodded. “Someone made live threads on Reddit and Twitter. They get updated every few minutes. It’s a lot of speculation, though, seeing as it only just happened.”

“What do they know so far?”

“Two young women. Probably killed elsewhere due to a lack of blood at the scene. Strung up on branches. Gutted and eyes gouged out.”

Ruby held up her hands. “See? Butcher.”

“Butcher copycat,” Laurel said, brows rising.

I swallowed a lump in my throat. “God, those poor girls,” I murmured. “Do they know who they are yet?”

“I heard a policeman talking about it when I walked past earlier,” Laurel said. “They’ve only identified one body so far. Apparently it’s a girl who went missing from Avalon City a few weeks ago.”

“That’s exactly what the old Butcher did—kept victims alive somewhere for weeks before slaughtering them,” Ruby added softly, pulling her arms tight against her chest.

“Why didn’t we hear anything about the missing girl?” I asked, brows knitting.

“She was homeless,” Laurel replied. “One of her street friends reported her missing, but I guess the cops didn’t take it all that seriously. The media didn’t pick up the story, either.”

Ruby sighed. “I feel like such an ignorant bitch for saying this, but I honestly didn’t even know we had homeless people on the island until now.”

“We do,” Laurel said. “There’s over three hundred thousand people up in Avalon City, and then there’s all the smaller cities and towns as well. Over half a million people altogether. It makes sense that some people fall through the cracks.”

“It just seems crazy to me that an island packed with millionaires and billionaires would also have people who have absolutely nothing at all,” Ruby replied. “Like, how can they even survive here?”

“With great difficulty. But that’s just the way the world is right now,” Laurel said. “It’s fucked up.”

“That poor girl.” Ruby shook her head. “I can’t imagine how scary it must’ve been living on the streets. And then, instead of getting help from anyone, she got killed by some psychopath. She never had a chance.”

“Yeah. It’s horrible.”

“Do you know if they’re evacuating the campus?” I asked.

Laurel shook her head. “I think classes will probably be canceled for the next few days to stop people from tramping all over the quad, but I doubt they’ll cancel the whole semester.”

“But it’s not safe.”

“It is now. They’re tripling the number of security guards on campus, and there’s going to be a huge police presence too.”

I chewed on my bottom lip as I rooted around my closet for some clothes. “I just need a minute to get dressed,” I said to the girls before heading into the bathroom.

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