Page 108 of Monster in Disguise

"As if you wouldn't have otherwise," I reply drily. He's always involved in other people's business.

"You might be right on that, but not with so much pathos. I'm already losing sleep over this."

"I think you're losing sleep for other reasons." Adrian chuckles.

"Hastings, did you just make a joke?" Vlad turns to him, scandalized. "You might be saved still." Vlad leans towards him to whisper, not too quietly. "P.S. though, it wasn'tthatfunny."

"Anyway," I clear my throat again, sensing the impending conflict. "If it's one of the families, then that changes things. I'll try to be more vigilant," I say, already going through everything that happened at the banquet and cataloguing everyone who was in attendance.

"Good, because you have a bigger problem on your plate. I've had someone run an analysis on this Chimera's work." He tosses a file on the desk.

"I see." I frown as I go through the reports. Every single Chimera incident had happened at the same time I'd been in the area. It's uncanny.

"It's personal," I utter out loud what I've been thinking for a while now. "And Catalina's being targeted because whoever it is knows what she means to me."

Vlad nods, his gaze intense.

"It has to be someone around you. Who else would know Chimera's M.O. to a T? Another question is whynow?"

"See, the ones that weknow ofstarted two years ago. I think they're trying to play with me."

"Mind games. Could be."

"The only other person who would be so intimately aware of Chimera is dead," I add, knowing both of them will catch my meaning.

"And dead people don't go around killing other people," Adrian replies drily. "I asked around, and the FBI is seeing the cases as top priority. They've brought in some famous forensic psychologists and criminal profilers, and they had a few things to say."

"Go on," I nod at Adrian, curious for any insight.

"There was more care given to females. And they were always accompanied by some sort of religious symbol. There was one instance in which the female had a cross carved in her palm, another where the cross was physically present next to the corpse.

The opinions are split, really. One profiler said it might be some internalized misogyny, going on about how the woman is inferior to the man in different religious interpretations. Then another suggested the opposite, that the killer is giving special care to females, and that it might be a case of recreating a certain type of death all over. Conversely, the males are always subjected to the worst treatments, and their corpses are the ones desecrated."

"That's..." I frown, thinking back to the nun. I turn to Vlad and see he's thinking the same.

"Theoretically speaking, the nun wasn't desecrated. It was almost like an offering, with how the organs were put on display. The religious symbols are certainly most prevalent in this instance."

"You're right. And the position of the teeth inside her cavity... her womb," I add pensively.

"I think it's a man," Vlad suddenly says, standing up. "If my previous theory is right, then the nun offered herself up, exactly as an offering. Why would a woman do that for another woman? Now, I'm sure it could be a case of sapphic love, but what are the odds, really? My bet is on a man though – a very charming man. And you're right about the placement of the teeth. We have to think about this as the killer would – every detail is intentional. The teeth could be interpreted as some symbol of fertility; he's laying his seed in her body."

"Was the nun also sexually assaulted?" I don't remember reading that in the forensic report.

"No, she wasn't. But then none of the other victims were either."

"Right, purity not profanity," I say, going back to the very basic concepts that religion and Chimera both have in common.

"Yes, the women are treated almost reverently, and the men oppositely."

"I think we're going off the deep end," Adrian puts a hand up. "You're looking into this too much. Do you really think everything is a symbol?"

"That's the thing. The original Chimera's M.O. was to appeal to the baser instincts. He would intentionally use any personal references to elicit a strong reaction," Vlad mentions, giving me a side glance.

"Then why don't we try to look at the clues through Marcel's lens? If he is the target, then the symbols are directly connected to him."

"A woman with strong religious connections?" I give a dry laugh. "I think I know a few of those."

"Right," Vlad suddenly says, pursing his lips. "Well, let's take them one by one."

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