‘Sometimes I have quick flashes of one of my previous visions. Something that wasn’t there before. They last only a couple of seconds.’
‘They’re called residual flashes,’ Hunter said without going into a detailed explanation.
Mollie looked at him curiously.
‘He reads a lot,’ Garcia explained. ‘So what was this flash about?’
‘Something I said.’
‘Something you said to who?’ Hunter this time.
‘To the priest. Just before I killed him.’
Click, click, click
.
‘But you said there was no sound in the priest’s vision,’ Garcia said.
‘There wasn’t. Not in the vision.’
‘But there was in the flash,’ Hunter acknowledged.
Mollie nodded and sighed.
‘So what did you say?’
A deep breath.
‘
They will all die
.’
Fifteen days before the first murder
Staring at his reflection in the mirror, he ran his tongue over his dry and cracked lips. It’s been almost four years, but he looked to have aged at least ten. His face now showed several deep lines, and his eyes seemed to have sunken further into his skull. But anyone who knew John Woods knew that the lines weren’t an indication of age, but of heavy anguish.
After his wife’s death, he’d relocated from Huntingdon County to York, in South Central Pennsylvania. He couldn’t stay in Huntingdon anymore. Everything about the place reminded him of his daughter. Her demonic dreams had cursed his life.
He splashed a handful of cold water on his face and combed what was left of his thin black hair back over his ears. Tonight, the York Catholic High School and Church was hosting a Christmas charity event. Over three hundred students and parents were expected.
John worked as a janitor at the school, and he always helped Father Laurence with anything needed, from plumbing to gardening and party decorations. There was still an hour before the party was due to start, but various parents were already arriving, bringing with them a variety of baked goods ready to be sold at the massive bake-sale that’d take place inside the school gymnasium. John’s task was to keep the bathroom floors and toilets clean during the party.
With his eyes still fixed on his reflection, he crossed himself and said a quick prayer before leaving the small apartment he rented just a block away from York Catholic High School.
Father Laurence had asked John to concern himself only with the bathroom inside the gymnasium. That’s where everyone would be. The main classroom building had been deemed out of limits, but John knew students liked to break rules.
It was past eight o’clock when John walked into the dark hallway of the main building. After checking the two bathrooms on the ground floor, he moved upstairs to have a look at the one right at the end of the hall. He’d walked those corridors so many times he didn’t need a flashlight.
As he approached the door to the bathroom, John could hear giggling coming from inside. He slowed his step and listened for a moment. There seemed to be at least three voices – one of them female. The lights were off, allowing John to sneak in quietly without being noticed. Slowly, he tiptoed his way towards the last cubicle, where the sounds were coming from.
The door was wide open, and in the faint light that came from a cell phone he could see someone standing behind a girl who was bent over the toilet. They were both naked and the boy standing behind her slapped her bare butt with his right hand while thrusting himself into her. They were both moaning with pleasure.
John was wearing dark trousers and shirt, which helped hide him in the shadows. With his back tight against the wall opposite the cubicles, he took a step closer. Sitting on the toilet, in front of the girl, another naked boy held a cell phone with his left hand, while pushing her head down onto him with his right. She took him into her mouth eagerly. The boy was filming everything.
John felt himself getting hard.
‘Nick, I want you inside me now,’ the girl said, lifting her mouth from the boy in front of her. ‘And Shawn—’ she faced the boy behind her ‘—I want all that in my mouth.’ She pointed to his erect penis.
John moved two steps back as quietly as he could. He didn’t want to disturb them.
The two boys swapped positions and everything started again. Nick, the boy now standing behind the demanding girl, still had his cell phone firmly in his left hand. Her moans quickly got more urgent, and John knew she was about to climax. And so was he.
John eased himself into one of the cubicles. Two from where the boys were. He didn’t need to see them; her moans were enough to drive him crazy. He closed his eyes and allowed his imagination and his hand to do all the work, but his mind didn’t bring back the images he’d seen just a few seconds ago. All he could think of was Mollie and the nights he’d walked into her room and delivered her from the temptations of this world.
With his thoughts of those nights, it took John only a few seconds to climax.
He sat there for a few minutes trying to control his body. It wrenched every couple of seconds from his ecstasy. When he was steady enough to stand, he cleaned himself up and left the bathroom as quietly as he’d come in. The students were still going at it.
‘John.’ He heard someone call as he walked back into the gymnasium.
Keeping his head low and his eyes on the floor, he carried on walking, pretending he didn’t hear it.
‘John Woods.’ A hand touched him on his right shoulder. ‘Didn’t you hear me call?’
John turned around nervously and his eyes widened in surprise. The old man standing in front of him had thin white eyebrows that matched the little hair he’d combed over from left to right. His round nose and rosy cheeks, together with his kind-looking eyes, gave him the friendliest of looks.
‘Father Lewis?’ John said, looking shocked before kissing the old priest’s right hand.
‘God bless you, my son.’
‘I didn’t know you were coming.’
‘It was a last-minute decision, John.’
Father Lewis had been the priest at the Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Huntingdon for as long as anyone could remember. John Woods had worshiped there his whole life.
‘How’s the church, father?’
‘Fine, John. We had a new coat of paint about a year ago. You should come back to visit us sometime.’
John’s eyes saddened.
‘I know, I know,’ Father Lewis said before John was able to form a reply. ‘The memories are still too vivid, right?’
A shy nod.
‘I’ve known you since you were a little kid, John. You’ve always been a very devout Catholic, and I have you in my heart as family. It pains me to know that you needed to leave us to be able to cope with your loss.’
John couldn’t bring himself to lock eyes with the priest.
Father Lewis smiled a comforting smile. ‘But the reason I’m here is to bring you good news.’
John finally looked up.
‘Can we step outside for a moment? It’s a bit too noisy in here.’
They found a quiet corner outside the school gym.
‘Do you remember Sarah Matthews?’ Father Lewis asked.
John squinted.
‘Short lady, curly blond hair, nice eyes, laughs real loud every time I tell one of my not very funny jokes,’ the priest reminded him.
He shook his head.
‘She always brought apple pies to all our bake-sales. Has a very pretty daughter named Emily.’
John smiled. He remembered Emily Matthews very well. A slender and tall girl, who at fourteen had all the boys drooling over her already voluptuous figure. John remembered the way she used to look at him during Sunday Mass. Like she knew she was a bad girl and she wanted him to deliver her from carnal temptation, just the way he did with Mollie.
‘Oh, I remember her now,’ John said, hiding his excitement. ‘The woman with the apple pies and the very loud laugh.’
‘That’s her.’ The priest nodded. ‘Well, Emily, her daughter, moved to Los Angeles about two years ago. She wants to go to drama school and become an actress.’ Father Lewis shook his head disapprovingly. ‘Kids these days, they all want fame and stardom, no matter what we try to teach them.’
John didn’t comment.
‘She came back this past weekend. She’ll be spending Christmas with her family in Huntingdon. I was talking to her after Sunday’s Mass, and she told me something that I just needed to come and tell you. It might bring some comfort back into your heavy heart.’
John frowned, not really knowing where the priest was going.
‘To pay her rent,’ Father Lewis continued, ‘Emily has taken a job as a waitress in a diner in a busy area of Los Angeles.’ He paused, as if what he was about to say filled him with joy. ‘And she swears she saw Mollie just a week ago.’
John’s heart skipped a beat. He stared blankly at Father Lewis.
‘I know.’ The priest nodded enthusiastically. ‘It’s hard to believe, but Emily said she was very sure. There’s a bus stop just in front of the diner where she used to work, and that’s where she saw Mollie. Apparently, Mollie hasn’t changed much, apart from her hair and a small scar on her lip.’
John remembered the night Mollie ran away. He’d given her that scar.
‘Emily didn’t manage to speak to her. She was serving customers, and by the time she was done with their order Mollie had already boarded a bus. They used to be friends in school, remember?’
John felt his body starting to shiver as words evaded him.
‘Isn’t that just great news, John?’ The priest smiled. ‘Mollie is alive and well. I was so overjoyed when Emily told me that I had to come over and see you. I know how worried you’ve been.’
John wasn’t listening anymore. The voices in his head now doing all the talking.
It was early evening when Hunter received an email with an attachment containing the latest lab results sent from the LACDC. The combination used on Amanda Reilly’s face to produce the melted wax effect was similar to what Doctor Winston had suggested, but not quite. The killer had created a mixture of rubber and petrolatum that was of a soft jelly consistency. The jelly, when mixed with a small amount of lead oleate, creates a gelatinous plaster that is readily adhesive to the human skin and it doesn’t run or soften. When exposed to intense heat, the entire mixture melts away. Depending on the strength of the adhesive property of the plaster, it can rip the skin clean off a person’s body as it melts. The wax-like clumps on Amanda Reilly’s face were actually a mixture of her torn-off skin and the melted rubber petrolatum combination used by the killer.
‘Where would the killer get hold of that stuff?’ Garcia asked after Hunter read the printout out loud.
‘Petrolatum is really just petroleum jelly,’ Hunter explained. ‘It can be bought over the counter at any drugstore. Lead oleate can be easily ordered over the internet, and the killer could’ve gotten the rubber simply by melting a common Halloween mask. The amount needed to create enough jelly to cover Amanda’s face would’ve been distinctively small.’
Garcia accepted it but still looked unsettled.
‘What’s bothering you?’ Hunter asked, placing the printout on his desk.
Garcia pulled his hair into a ponytail. ‘The conversation we had with Mollie this morning and everything she told us. It’s like she was there when it happened.’
‘And what do you think?’ Hunter pushed for an opinion.
Garcia paced the room. ‘She knew too many details about both crime scenes for her to be a hoax. She knew about the numbering. Her whereabouts on both nights checked out.’ He lifted his hands as if giving up. ‘I’m gonna be straight with you, Robert. I never really believed in any of this psychic crap. But unless she knows who the killer is and he’s been telling her stories, I think you’re right. She’s the real deal. And if so, she’s told us something we didn’t know.’
‘The killer showed the victims a piece of paper,’ Hunter admitted.
Garcia nodded. ‘And as you suggested before, it could easily have been a drawing or a picture of somewhere or someone.’
‘Whatever it is,’ Hunter said, his eyes fixed on Garcia, ‘if Mollie is right, that piece of paper links the victims together.’
A muffled, single click sound from Hunter’s computer announced the arrival of a new email. This time, Mike Brindle had sent them the blood test results from the photographs they found on the fireplace. Hunter read it first before handing the printout to his partner.
‘The killer used the same blood on both pictures?’ Garcia sounded unsure.
Hunter nodded and rubbed his eyes.
‘Doesn’t that do away with your theory that the killer uses the blood of the previous victim to mark his next one?’
‘Not at all.’ Hunter went back to his seat and reached for his mouse.
Click, scroll, click
.
Garcia waited a few seconds but got nothing. ‘Do you wanna elaborate on that?’