Page 7 of The Girl He Claimed

"Any sign of a struggle?"Christopher asked, pulling the car over to the side of the road.

Paige shook her head. "None,and that's consistent with the other deaths. The Exsanguination Killer is veryskilled at what she does. No signs of a struggle, no defensive wounds on thevictim. The toxicology report shows that she used a sedative, the way she doeswith most of her victims, stopping him from being able to fight back while shetied him up and killed him."

"Do we know what JacobMatthews was doing up there?" Christopher asked. "Does he hikeregularly?"

It was a good question. UnlessPaige was willing to believe that the Exsanguination Killer had simply waitedfor someone to happen past, then she had planned her crime somehow. Had shesimply worked with Jacob's regular patterns, or had she found a way to lure himto his death?

The answer to that was in thefiles.

"Jacob went up there to meetwith a young woman, or at least, he thought he did," Paige said. "Hissocial media accounts show him messaging with a Yolanda Bertram, who promisedto meet him for the first time up at the lookout point."

"I take it that she doesn'texist?" Christopher guessed.

Paige shook her head. "No, notas far as we can tell. The Exsanguination Killer used a fake profile to lurehim out here. The photograph was a stock one, and the account has just enoughactivity to make it seem real. She chatted with him online for days before shekilled him. She really put in a lot of work."

She'd fixated on a target, luredhim here, and then killed him slowly while he was helpless.

"And our tech teams haven'tbeen able to trace the account?" Christopher asked.

Again, Paige had to shake her head."It was set up using a VPN and a burner email address. Even if we couldtrace it back, I doubt she would have done any of this from her home address.There's no link to an actual person."

The Exsanguination Killer had beencareful, as always. Precise. Only one part of it stood out.

"This business of luringsomeone in online isn't her usual pattern," Paige said. "There'salways been the sense that she selects her victims somehow, but this isnew."

"It's just a pity we can'ttrace it back to her. When a killer introduces new elements, that's when theytend to slip up, right?"

Paige could only agree with that."It also suggests that she might be changing her approach more broadly.Evolving as a killer."

That was a frightening thought.

"We should get up to the crimescene," Christopher said. "Maybe there's a chance that she messed upand left something there."

They started to walk up the shortstretch of hiking trail leading to the clearing where Jacob Matthews had beenkilled. The air was crisp and cool, and the crunch of the dirt beneath theirfeet was the only sound in the stillness of the forest. Paige could feel ashiver run through her as she imagined what it must have been like for Jacob tohave been out here, alone and vulnerable.

They reached the clearing, easilyidentifiable by the remains of police tape cordoning off the scene. There wasnobody there now, but even so, Paige stood there, frozen to the spot, as shestared at it all.

The clearing was small, with treessurrounding it on all sides. Paige could see signs of the investigation, theground disturbed by footprints and the marks left by the forensic team. Shecould also see the spot where Jacob had been tied up; his arms had been stretchedout to either side to form a gruesome tableau.

At that moment, it was as if Paigewere fourteen again, staring down at the body of her father while horror filledher in a clearing similar to this one. No, not just similar, almost identical,down to the colors of the wildflowers clustered around the edges.

Christopher moved closer to her asif sensing her unease. He put a gentle hand on her arm. Even that was enough tomake her start. "Are you okay, Paige?"

Paige shook her head. "No.It... it's the same, Christopher. It's exactly the same."

"The same as what?"

"The same as the spot where myfather died," Paige managed. She felt almost overwhelmed then by theimplications of that.

"We both know that she mostlylikes to kill outdoors," Christopher pointed out. Paige could hear thepain in his voice too. The one major exception to that pattern was when theExsanguination Killer had murdered Jennifer. "It might just be similarbecause of that."

"It's not similar, it'sidentical," Paige said. She could feel the emotion welling up inside her."I couldn't see it from the crime scene photos, but it is. She did thisdeliberately. She knew I would see it. She knew it would hurt me."

That was why she'd lured thisvictim in rather than stalking him like her normal ones. She'd wanted to gethim to this exact spot.

Christopher's grip on her armtightened. "Paige, listen to me. You're letting her get inside yourhead."

Paige looked at him, tearsprickling at the corners of her eyes. "How can I not? She's taken so muchfrom me, Christopher. From us. My father, Jennifer, and now she's using theirdeaths to hurt me even more."

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