Page 42 of Absent Feeling

“Amber,you’re the one whofoundChris Avery. It was your insight, and you did agreat job. You’ve caught a killer.”

“Butwhat if I’ve gotten something wrong?” Amber asked. She pointed to Avery. “Lookat him.”

“Iamlooking,” Simon said. “I’m looking at the man you found, the man whodid this. The man who killed three people. We’ve done it, Amber.You’vedoneit. Look, we can’t do anything else right now. Go take a break while we waitfor Avery to calm down enough to talk to. I need to call Palliser to let herknow what’s happening.”

Amberdidn’t think that was such a good idea, not yet, not until they had either aconfession or enough physical proof that it would be impossible for Avery to avoida conviction. But, with the pressure on Simon from Palliser, maybe he needed togive hersomething.

Evenso, Amber couldn’t help having doubts. She couldn’t imagine a man raging theway Chris Avery did being able to plan and carefully execute the murders. Shecouldn’t imagine him being able to set the scene with the inkblot design soprecisely every time, all without leaving a trace of evidence.

Theinkblot. Even now, thoughts of it wouldn’t flee from Amber’s mind. Even now,she had the sense that there was something about it that she was missing. Simonhad insisted that it wasn’t a puzzle, but there was still a part of Amber thathad a hard time believing it.

Maybeif Amber showed the design to Avery, his reaction to it would be the kind ofevidence that they needed. Amber started to call up the design on her phone,but she realized that she didn’t need to. The physical copies were here,waiting on the desk that Simon had taken as his own.

Amberpicked up one of those cards, turning it over in her hands. She started to gotowards the interrogation room, then stopped. If Avery was still raging, thenshe wasn’t going to be able to go in there safely to show him the design. Shewould have to wait for the moment when he calmed down, and even then, she wouldonly be able to do it with others there to make sure that he couldn’t lash outat her.

Amberwent back to the desk, intending to put the inkblot design back down. Instead,Amber found herself sitting there, staring at it. The design was fascinating,with its strange geometry that didn’t quite fit any of the standard Rorschachpatterns.

Itmeant something, Amber was sure of it. There was more to this than just arandom pattern, or even something that only meant anything in the deranged mindof the killer. He’d left this at the crime scenes for a reason. It was amessage.

Whatmessage, though? Amber had already looked for other designs that might be thesame or similar, but she knew that there weren’t any. This wasn’t a copy ofsome historical design, aiming to send a message through its title. It had tobe something else.

What,though? Amber let her mind lose focus, trying to find the state where it coulddrift and consider possibilities. It couldn’t be an image of a person or ananimal because it didn’t look anything like either and because Amber couldn’tsee what kind of message that would send.

Couldit be a map? Amber found herself looking for images of the state, then thecounty, then just the town. None of those shapes seemed to quite fit the shapeof the inkblot image. Amber thought that she might be wrong for a moment ortwo. How could it be a map when it didn’t correlate to any of the maps thatAmber could find?

No,that just meant that she hadn’t found therightmap. The part of Amber’smind that always seemed to know when she was making progress with a puzzleinsisted that she was on the right track with this. Thiswasa map; shejust had to work out what it was a mapof.

Onepossibility occurred to Amber after another minute or two of thinking. Therewas one place that was at the heart of all of this, one place that seemed to bethe reason that all of this was happening: the Guisborough Wellness Institute.

Ambertried to find images of it and felt a flash of disappointment. It seemedobvious that the pattern didn’t match up to the square edges of the building. Yet… what if it wasn’t just the building? Amber searched for map images of the facilityand its grounds, trying to trace the edges of those grounds with her finger.

Theshapes matched perfectly.

Amberfelt sudden excitement, followed by a fresh wave of puzzlement. She’d foundsomething, but what did it mean? Amber alreadyknewthat this was aboutthe Wellness Institute. What good was a clue that pointed to no more than that?

Therehad to be more to it, but what?

Amberstarted to go back through the files, trying to find an answer, trying to findanything that might help. She found herself looking at the crime scenephotographs again, looking for any detail that jumped out to her.

Onequestion came to her then: why had the killer both left the inkblotandtriedto reshape the bloodstains? Why do both?

Amberlooked at the photographs again. It occurred to her then that the positioningof the cards was the same in every case, always within the bloodstains, alwaysin the same spot within them. What if … what if the positioning of the carddesignated a spot within the broader map?

Amberchecked that spot against the maps of the Wellness Institute and its grounds. Itwould have been somewhere within the building, possibly representing just oneroom, but Amber couldn’t work outwhichroom without a detailed plan ofthe buildings. She couldn’t seem to find one of those here, but she had apretty good idea of where to find one.

Standing,she headed for the door.

“Yougoing somewhere?” Detective Heart asked.

“TheGuisborough Wellness Institute. If Agent Phelps asks, tell him that I need tocheck something.”

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Amberdrove as fast as she dared to Guisborough Wellness Institute. Already the lightwas starting to fail, and Amber knew from the previous murders that the killerliked to strike when it was dark, taking advantage of the chance to sneak intohis victims’ homes.

Thatmeant that she might only have a brief window in which to find the truth ofwhat was going on. Something had happened in the Guisborough Wellness Institute,and Amber needed to work out what.

Shetook the twists and turns of the road leading there as quickly as she could.Even as she did so, her phone started to ring. It was Simon. Amber put him onspeaker, continuing to race towards what she hoped was an answer.

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