Page 33 of The Tides of March

“Ouch! Poor kid. That is a problem,” Nox agreed as he went to the board and tapped the picture of the young man that had washed up on Pooles Island. “Bryan Hannigan—our first victim—was adevoutCatholic like the young man from Rome. He was taken from the seminary and was going to be a priest as well.”

Tony swallowed the knot that had formed in his throat. “So it’s safe to guess he was a virgin,” he said weakly, then glanced at the map and the pin on Pooles Island. “But the others weren’t becoming priests. Aside from a monastery, how do you findthree virgin men in this day and age?” he asked and Nelson held up a hand, sighing heavily.

“I can tell you how,” he said as he turned and opened his laptop so everyone could see the screen. “The techs from the forensics department sent this over earlier. I had them search the victims’ phones and computers and everyonebutBryan Hannigan were members of the same Reddit forum: incelsARENTus. I didn’t know what an ‘incel’ was so I looked it up and it means ‘involuntary celibate’ and is a derogatory term for a young man who blames women and society for their lack of romantic ‘experience.’ They often espouse extremely misogynistic sentiments. Some express dangerous, extremist talking points and advocate for violence against women.”

Tony’s face twisted. “Ew. I’ve heard the word used around campus and online but I didn’t realize it was that toxic.”

There was a hum of agreement from Nox. “Me too. I assumed it was something gross butyikes. Our victimsweren’tincels, though?” he verified and Nelson nodded.

“The subreddit is for virgins, mostly men, who don’t hate women and say they are virgins because they respect women too much to manipulate and gaslight them just to have sex,” he said and Tony winced.

“They sure made that easy. That’s like shooting virgin fish in a barrel.”

Fletcher groaned, scrubbing his closely cropped salt-and-pepper hair. “Too easy. Any chance they found anything else in common?” he asked Nelson.

“They did,” he said, giving the keyboard a few taps and there were several gasps as a photo of a stunning woman with brunette hair, light green eyes, and olive skin appeared on the screen. “Meet Meriel.” He gestured grandly at the screen and Tony widened his eyes appreciatively as he leaned in for a closer look.

Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun and she was wearing a light pink dress with poofy, off the shoulder straps and a corset that showcased her incredible breasts. She had hiked the flowing skirt up one of her thick, luscious thighs to reveal a sexy pink heel.

“I’d like to,” Tony said with a flirty wink, making Nox laugh.

“I sense a trap.” He gave Tony’s collar a yank.

“It is,” Nelson confirmed as he pointed at her foot. “Meriel is AI. This floating strap that doesn’t correspond with anything on the rest of the shoe is one clue,” he said, then enlarged her hand. “And she appears to have two thumbs.”

Tony hissed sheepishly. “I wasn’t looking at her hands.”

“Same,” Fletcher said in a guilty groan and Nelson nodded as he tapped, bringing up another Reddit thread. “Meriel posted this, describing her secret nerd fetish. She said she had fantasies about finding the sweetest, shyest, most unwanted nerds and making sure their first times were life-changing experiences.”

“Uh oh!” Tony said, shaking his head at the screen. “That is definitely a trap.”

“And they all fell into it,” Nelson replied. “They were all suspicious and needed convincing. But eventually, they were all hooked and she reeled them in within a matter of days.”

“You poor dummies,” Fletcher said sadly and they all muttered and sighed in agreement.

“Then what?” Nox asked, earning a hard look from Nelson.

“This is where Meriel got really clever. She never set up any meetings. She just strung them along.”

Nox’s head canted. “How do we know it was her if she strung them along?”

“The locations of the crime scenes,” Nelson said as he advanced to a screenshot of a direct message conversation between Meriel and Devin Shelley. “Here, he describes a busy day at work and says thateveryFriday night is like that. And thisis where he told her that he’s the last one to leave because he has to wait for the next day’s pastry delivery, then lock up the shop.”

There was a pained sound from Fletcher and Nox threw his hands up. “That was practically an invitation!”

“Yup.” Nelson went to the next screenshot. “This is from our last victim, Gabriele Barone. He was also Catholic and went to church with his mother regularly. He was a software engineer and worked in cybersecurity on one of the bases. I called and talked to his supervisor and she described Gabriele as ‘the sweetest nerd.’”

“Damn it,” Fletcher said, chewing on a thumbnail. “I think we’ve found the link.”

“Yup,” Nelson repeated. “Gabriele told Meriel that he walked the same trail every Saturday as long as the weather cooperated. It’s where he used to take his dog, Yoda, and the pug’s ashes were scattered at this scenic marker by the river,” he said as he went to the map on the rolling board and pointed at the pin. “They found Gabriele’s car in the parking lot and he was last seen by an early morning jogger. He said they crossed paths as Gabriele was just setting off and had a brief exchange about the conditions,” Nelson informed them.

“That is sneaky!” Nox said, strolling to the board. “Do they have any idea who is behind Meriel?”

“Not yet but they’re working on it,” Nelson replied as he shut the laptop.

Merlin clicked his teeth. “A digital siren! How devious,” he declared and gave Nox’s chest a jab. “You should tell them what Meriel means. I’d think that was pertinent,” he said scoldingly.

Nox gasped, smacking his forehead before flashing a wide grin. “It’s anoldname and it means ‘sea nymph!’ From the Gaelic word muir, which means ‘sea’ and ‘gheal,’ which translates to ‘bright.’ Muirgheal: ‘bright sea.’”

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