Page 51 of Silver Secrets

“We lost our credentials when we ended our last contract, didn’t we?” Nash asked.

Kimi smiled. “The Bureau isn’t as complicated as you would think. Agent Wilson is a close friend, and he was happy to help me push through your clearance credentials. I can give you basic details of the case, and should you decide you want to take on the protection I’m here to ask from you, then we can dive into the classified information.”

“So, something’s happening here in Silver Springs?” Stone’s face was a blank slate, but Gage noticed the tension around his buddy’s eyes.

“I promise I’ll answer all your questions at the end. I just find it’s more effective to run a briefing this way. And unfortunately, gentlemen, I fear this is time sensitive.”

The room went silent as Agent Liu pulled a thick folder from her bag.

“Fourteen years ago, I was a junior investigator with the Bureau assigned to my first case. A missing sophomore from Colgate College in Washington State which we were able to tie to the Lover’s Eyes Killer. Have you heard of him?”

Gage looked around the table at his friends as they all shook their heads. He hadn’t either, but then again, fourteen years ago put them all in the Navy, deploying for missions, and not all that concerned with the news back home.

“Nineteen-year-old Sierra Park went missing on August eleventh, after leaving her shift at a local diner with her boyfriend. They were walking back to her rental when it appeared Sierra was taken. Her boyfriend, also a nineteen-year-old studying at Colgate College, was found on the sidewalk just a few houses down from Sierra’s. He’d been stabbed eight times before his throat was cut.”

“Christ,” Gunner mumbled.

“Crime of passion? He was sneaking around with Sierra and his real girlfriend found out? Freaked out and killed him?” Hawk threw out.

“That’s a very profiler way to think, Mr. Morgan. And you’re somewhat correct. In most cases with these parameters, deemed a ‘crime of passion’ killing, it would lead us to believe the suspect is likely female. But we don’t believe that’s the case here,” Kimi sighed.

“Why not?” Gage asked.

“Look. There were no traces of Sierra. We had local, state, and federal task forces combing through the college campus and surrounding neighborhoods. There was nothing. Not a single witness came forward who could tell us what had happened. Until a father and son walked into our mobile operations headquarters sixteen days after she went missing.”

“They found her?” Nash interrupted.

“Unfortunately, no. But they were out walking a trail and spotted a man hiking through the woods on his own. When they called out to him, the man ran from them, which they thought was suspicious. The college and community Sierra was taken from is surrounded by thousands of acres of national forest. It was our sixth day searching the forest when I found her.”

Twenty-two days. Fuck. That poor kid.

By the time Gage focused back on Kimi, all the color drained from her face. “Actually, she found me. I can still remember how shocked I was to see her stumbling through the trees, coming right for me. Her body was riddled with bloody cuts and dark bruises, and she was so weak. Sierra just kept telling me, screaming over and over again, that ‘he’ was still following her. I remember her crying, saying ‘You have to help me. He’s right there. He’s going to take me again.’ That was all she would say.”

Gage’s eyes shot over to look at Stone. His friend must have had the same thought as him. It was so similar to what Sloane had said to the both of them in the woods. The hair on the back of his neck stood up.

“When I interviewed her at the hospital later, she thought she’d been running for two days. She’d barely had food or water in the time she was held, but she still kept going. Her physical injuries took a while to heal, but from my interviews with her, his endgame was always something psychological. From the other cases we’ve tied to the Lover’s Eyes Killer, he’s never held the victim for an extended time. It had always been quick. But with Sierra, he was different. By her account, he didn’t want to break her physically. He fixated everything on keeping her long term.”

“What’s up with that moniker? Why’s he called that?” Hawk asked.

“All of his victims… they’ve all had one rare, and very distinct, physical feature. They’ve all had heterochromia.”

“What is that?” Gunner crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“That’s the eyes thingy.” Hawk started to explain. “Where the eyes are two different colors.”

“That’s exactly correct. In the first two cases we tied to the Lover’s Eyes Killer, the victims have had complete heterochromia, that is to say, one of their eyes has been blue, and the other either green or brown. In the most recent case, and the reason why I’m here, the victim had central heterochromia, where the color around her pupils were gold while the rest of her irises were light blue.”

Gage flipped through every person he could think of that he’d met or interacted with since coming to Silver Springs. He hadn’t noticed a single person with different colored eyes.

“So, this fucking weirdo has an eye fetish? And decided to… what? Make Sierra his wife?” Stone grumbled.

Kimi sighed. “We don’t really know, because there are no other survivors to question about his motives. Sierra didn’t initially fight back like the others. Something about that seemed to trigger him into this new obsession with her. For the other victims, and for Sierra, it started out the same. He stalked them. Leaving notes that started out tender and sweet, almost caring and concerned about their safety or well being. He called them ‘pure of heart’ and talked about them being a worthy replacement. But they slowly grew more unhinged as he moved through the fantasy of them being exactly what he was looking for. When he kidnapped the other women, and they fought back, we believe this act broke the spell for him and sent him into a rage.”

“And he murdered them,” Hawk concluded.

“Right. This changed when Sierra didn’t fight back. He initially deprived her of water, food, and sleep. He took her clothes and left her to freeze for hours. Then he tested her. Asked her if she would cuddle him for some warmth. Tried to get her to submit to him for something to eat or drink. She told me that she was so weak, she knew she’d never be able to physically overpower him. He drugged her water and food so she was never in a mental state to fight back.

“She tried to exploit the connection he was working to build with her. Sierra let him think that she was changing. And when she finally had the chance to escape, she took it.”

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