Page 439 of Chaos has a Name
They were toldThe Hollowpassed it down to his‘apprentices’or children. Now, they had DNA that opened that up to be just about any relative, and teeth marks on a skull that shouldn’t have them.
“It might be that the apprentices trained a long time. Or thatThe Hollowdidn’t die when expected, and maybe passed recently.”
She was thinking about the possibilities in her head as to who that could be. To her, it felt like Elkie Stormchaser’s husband who died not long ago, and her two sons.
But how to prove it?
She was going to have to talk to the woman.
“Tony, keep going through the bones. Using MATE, see how many different sets of teeth we have. Maybe we can put these deaths on a timeline, somehow. I need to figure out how to pinpoint this duo. I have a good idea of who is at the top of my list.”
They were glad she did because everyone else was confused as hell.
“Can we talk about his missing eyes?” she asked, meaning the latest victim. “It was delivered to the Chief of Police’s home without them.”
When she was focused on Axl, he knew he was up to bat. It was likely a test, and he was ready for it. He and Ethan had gone over their profile, making sure they were ready for Elizabeth.
“Maybe because the killer didn’t want to eat the person while he was watching them. It’s said that serial killers will blind or remove the eyes of a person who knows them so their conscience can keep free of the melee.”
She considered that.
“Or they are collecting them,” Ethan said. “We’ve had our share of collectors that do double duty. The skulls might just be because they’ve always done it, and that’s how they learned, but the eyeballs might be their thing—a way to track their kills.”
Once more, she focused on Tony.
“Are all the skulls showing the eyes were carved out?”
He was honest.
“The newer ones, yes, the older ones, no. These three in particular have marks inside the orbital socket that show they were dug out—and not pleasantly. If they all died like Chris said, at least they didn’t feel that.”
That was the truth.
Ethan was curious.
“Have they eaten the brains?” he asked. He was still trying to lock down the point in his profile if this was mental illness or illness caused by eating a diseased brain.
Tony went there.
“They left the brains intact on the latest victim, and as for the rest, I don’t see evidence they were dug out through the nasal cavity like the ancient Egyptians used to do.”
“So bug predation?” she asked.
He nodded.
“That’s the most logical scenario.”
“I concur,” MATE said, standing next to Tony. “The bugs did it with their little pinchers in the skull. That mystery is solved.”
Was it though?
With each fact, she had more questions, and none of them were making sense to her.
“Tox on the victim?” she asked. “Since we have some of his flesh?”
That’s when Ben got in on the act, like he was trying to impress MATE. Which was crazy since he should be trying to convince her.
Only, she didn’t have time or the inclination to give another lecture.
