Page 33 of Shattered Sanctuary

Although they hadn’t discussed this before, Erin realized immediately that this was true. Chloe had obviously been attracted to him at some point. Either before she went to meet him or after she arrived at her destination. She didn’t have defensive wounds, so she’d apparently gotten in the car with him. Yet Erin understood that if he was exceptionally good-looking, it wouldn’t work in his favor. If he was just nice looking, he could attract almost anyone regardless of age.

Kaely glanced down at the papers on the table again. “You don’t like women, although your anger isn’t really directed at them. They’re only a means to an end.” She paused. “The most important thing isn’t the woman—it’s the figurine you force them to hold.” She paused again for a moment. “You’re uncomfortable touching them. You have no physical attraction to them. You want to kill them in a certain way. You practiced it several times before you killed Chloe. However, what you did to the first three wasn’t perfect, so you buried them. But you got it right with Chloe. That’swhy you displayed her. She was perfection.” She frowned and stared at the chair again.

Erin gulped. She’d never experienced anything like this before.

“I don’t see any connection between the women,” Kaely continued. “We’re not going to find you that way, are we? You’re not actually killingthem. You’re killing because of someone else.” She was quiet for a moment. “Okay, let’s move on. You don’t mind the makeup, their shoes, or their jewelry. Why? Is it because you’re uncomfortable with touching them that way?” She stopped again. “No, that’s not it.” She shook her head. “You don’t know anything about angels. If you did, you’d know that as far as we know, they’re all male. That tells me you don’t read the Bible. My guess is that if anyone ever tried to get you to go to church or read the Bible, you rejected it.” Suddenly she smiled. “That’s it, isn’t it? Someone tried to force the Bible on you, but you didn’t want anything to do with it. You hated them for trying to make you into what they wanted you to be. Did you kill them too?” Pause. “I think you did. What was it that set you off? What did they do to you? And how do the angels tie into it? Did they blame the angels for something? Did they tell you the angels...” She stopped, gazing at the empty chair as if she could actually see someone there. Her expression relaxed and she smiled. “They told you the angels took someone away that you loved, didn’t they? Like your mother, maybe? And that’s why you dress these women up as angels and put that figurine in their hands. You think you’re paying the angels back for what they took from you. You don’t remove their makeup, jewelry, or their shoes because theonly thing you believe about angels is that they are female and wear white robes.” She stopped suddenly and a look of surprise changed her expression. “No, that’s not it. You don’t take off their makeup, jewelry, or their shoes because your mother wore makeup, liked jewelry and high heels. You can’t remove them because it would betray her in some way. My guess is whoever told you that the angels took her away also believed your mother shouldn’t wear those things. That’s it, isn’t it?” She quickly clicked through the photos. Even though she didn’t say what she was looking for, instinctively, Erin knew. Although they couldn’t tell if the other women were wearing makeup, she wanted to know if they were wearing high heels or jewelry. Kaely didn’t say anything, but she nodded. “Two of these women wore heels. One didn’t. Two of them are still wearing jewelry.”

Kaely sighed and leaned back in her chair. Then she stared at the chair across from her and frowned. “You’re very dangerous, aren’t you? The women are picked at random. You’ll go after anyone who is available. Anyone who dresses the way you want. Like I said, I can’t profile you by studying the women. They’re only the vessel for your angel figurine, the white dress, and the blue ribbon that you add. My guess is that you might have been willing to add shoes and jewelry to the corpses, but that could leave evidence behind. We could find out where those things were purchased. But tracking down blue ribbon is nearly impossible.”

Erin wished she had her notebook so she could write down what Kaely was saying, but it was on the table, and Erin didn’t want to disturb her process.

“So, you live in this area. You’re in your late twenties tolate thirties, you’re nice looking...” Kaely almost whispered this. She was repeating the observations she’d already made. She seemed frustrated. Was she going to stop? As Kaely rubbed her forehead, Erin wanted to ask her, but again, she knew she had to stay silent.

“You have a good job,” Kaely said suddenly. “One that makes you seem appealing to the women you killed. Or... one that made you seem safe.”

A thought popped into Erin’s head that made her feel sick to her stomach. A job that made the victims feel safe? Like someone in law enforcement? No, it couldn’t be. She pushed the thought out of her mind. Her research had shown her that many serial killers posed as police officers. But surely no one on the Sanctuary police force could do these terrible things, right?

She heard Kaely speaking but missed part of it.

“I can see you now,” she was saying. “Young, attractive, strong, and working a job that demands respect.”

Erin was startled when Kaely stared at the chair and smiled as if she actually saw someone sitting there. Did she?

“Women are not afraid of you because of the job you have,” Kaely continued. “You live in Sanctuary, and you have a past. My guess is that your mother is dead, and you blame the angels for her passing. Someone told you this when you were young, and now, you’re visiting vengeance on God. You may be focused on angels, but your real hatred is for Him. We’re going to find you, you know. We’ve narrowed down the search, and you will make a mistake. In fact, you may have done so already. We’re coming for you.”

There was a silence as Kaely continued to stare at the empty chair. Then she smiled again. And for just a fewseconds, Erin was convinced she saw a figure in the chair herself. She put her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. It was impossible. Had to be her imagination. But a brief glimpse of a man sitting in that chair rocked her to her core.

TWENTY-FOUR

Kaely worked quickly on the profile. She could see the UNSUB clearly. Not his face, buthim.His soul, his essence. The evil that emanated from the chair across from her was almost overwhelming. This had happened to her before. Sometimes it made her feel physically ill. She wanted to catch this guy. He had to be stopped. This was the only part about being a behavioral analyst that she didn’t like. Walking away after the profile was done. She wanted to put her hands on the man who had killed those women. She wanted to make him pay. She knew it wasn’t godly, and it made her feel ashamed. One of the reasons she’d left the FBI was because of the toll it took on her soul. Yet, she missed it. And she didn’t want to.

She glanced over at Erin. She seemed rather shaken. Kaely knew this way of profiling was strange and that some people didn’t understand it. After she was finished, she smiled at Erin.

“Do you have any questions?”

Erin looked away for a moment. “I... I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like that before.” She frownedat Kaely. “When you do that, do you... I mean, do you actuallyseesomeone sitting in the chair?”

“Yes, sometimes I do. In fact, there was one instance where I could clearly see him. The murders happened in another city. As I worked the profile, I began to see an actual person. It was a witness who’d talked to the police. My boss called the police chief and told him to arrest the witness. Sure enough, it was him.”

“That’s amazing. I really, really wish you would let me write about this.”

Kaely grinned at her. “Wait a minute, I thought you weren’t sure you wanted to write anymore.”

“I’m... I’m not.”

“Well, you certainly jumped at the chance to write about my process,” Kaely said.

“So, will you let me?”

“Again, I have to say no... for now. Let me think about it.” Kaely sighed. “What behavioral analysts do is incredible. The basis of what I do comes from that training. I just create a profile a little differently. I would never want anyone to think that what I do is a better way of profiling. It isn’t.”

“It’s up to you,” Erin said, “but I think it’s fascinating.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Kaely said with a smile. “But some of the people I’ve worked with might not.”

“What about Noah?”

“He knows about it, of course,” Kaely said, “but I’m pretty sure he’d have a problem if a lot of people read about what I do.”

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