Tortured Dreams

The following morning, Nyleena and Malachi were in my hospital room. Malachi looked grim, but then he usually does.

  “Well, do you want to hear the whole story?” Gabriel took the seat.

  “I’m all ears.”

  “Since this concerns all of you, you can both stay,” Gabriel looked at Malachi and Nyleena.

  “Good, I have a lot of questions,” Nyleena stated.

  “Let me do my bit then you can ask any questions that haven’t been cleared up.” Gabriel got comfortable in his chair and took out an electronic cigarette.

  He offered me a drag. I took it. I puffed off of it, but it wasn’t as satisfying as a real cigarette. It would do while I was stuck in a hospital bed. There was some irritation on the part of doctors that I had been admitted a day earlier with hypothermia and now for multiple wounds that had needed stitches. So they were pretty determined to either keep me in a hospital bed or in a rubber room. The hospital bed seemed like the better alternative.

  “It would appear that the moment the doctors told Jessica and her family that her brother wasn’t going to wake up she began plotting revenge. Including marrying one of his doctors to get access to money. It just turned out to be a fluke that it was Al Welbourne and therefore, her half-brother. However, she also knew he probably wouldn’t turn her in for identity theft when their marriage was annulled.” Gabriel took another drag off his electronic cigarette.

  “Sorry, does that work?” I asked him.

  “For me, no, I still smoke and chew, but this keeps me from smoking two and half packs a day.” Gabriel frowned at me. “Can I finish now?”

  “Yeah, sorry,” I muttered as he blew out water vapor.

  “Ok, so using his credit cards she tracks you down when the story about Gerard Hawkins breaks. She heads to Washington and audits a couple of classes. While there, she also gets involved with the Seattle fringe groups and collects a small following. She tells them that she is the incarnation of Lilith and they believe her because she has that kind of charisma. She’s as kooky as you,” Gabriel gave me a pointed look.

  I smiled back at him. Nyleena raised her hand. He turned his attention to her. She lowered it.

  “She’s plotting revenge against Ace in the beginning, then Al needs a date for a family wedding. He had been accepted by his newly found father. He shows up with Nyleena. At this point, her focus shifts, after all, while Ace could have stopped the beating, it was Nyleena that got her brother’s attention. She comes back to Kansas City and orders the Maidens, some Scavenger’s Daughters, two Brazen Bulls, a breast ripper, head cages, and creepier, something that is being examined by Dr. Samuels because he’s never seen anything like it.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “It’s sort of like a rack, but as the handle cranks and the limbs stretch, spikes come out of the wood.” Gabriel informed me.

  “That is something new.” I frowned.

  “Yeah, so she sees Nyleena and Al and threatens Al. She’s going to tell Nyleena about their marriage unless he cooperates. He agrees. He lets her keep his credit cards and gives her a debit card. He also steals a copy of your thesis and gets pictures of three plates from your book on torture when Nyleena has it in her custody.”

  “Which is why they only had the three to go off of,” I sighed.

  “That would be correct,” Gabriel put away the annoying cigarette machine.

  “What about her followers?” Nyleena asked.

  “She’s brilliant; she’s been keeping them hopped up on LSD and PCP. Turns out that when you are the drug dealer, making the drug yourself, you can keep a following of wayward young adults. They all had petty records, most of them were run-aways, they were just searching for a leader. Jessica Thompson filled the bill.”

  “How very Manson-esque,” Malachi finally commented.

  “Precisely, she got a cult together using drugs and charisma and got them to kill for her. That’s why the first set of victims were sexually assaulted. After she found out, she killed one of them to get the others to keep their hands to themselves. One thing Ace was right about though, she kept her victims in Hanging Coffins. She also kept them drugged. It appears that she was psychologically torturing them for the three days. According to Lucas, keeping them high on a hallucinogen was a good way to torture them.”

  “How’d they pick them?” Malachi asked.

  “Jessica gave a description; women between 5’6” and 5’9,” size eight or smaller, with dark hair and blue eyes. They trolled shopping areas looking for targets. When they found one, they would follow her and get her habits down. Then when they had the perfect ten and Ace was in town, they would kidnap them. They also had three back-ups for each killing, in case something went wrong. It turns out that Nyleena keeps a very detailed copy of your schedule, which is how they always knew where you were going to be. From there it was pretty easy; they rented a U-Haul to move the Maidens and impaling stakes. I was working with the theory that the Maidens would be incredibly heavy, turns out they aren’t…”

  “They are hollow,” I interrupted. “Most people think they weigh tons, they don’t, two strong men and a dolly would easily move one. If you remember, Lucas managed to wrestle one of them on his own when we were in the morgue.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” Gabriel frowned. “They used horses for the drawing and quartering and cleaned up afterwards. Hence no manure or hoof prints.”

  “Why my ex?” Malachi asked solemnly.

  “Because she sort of fit what Jessica remembered about Nyleena and Aislinn. Humans are terrible witnesses, always have been. Even seeing her the second time, didn’t help her. She could get dark hair and light eyes, but she couldn’t remember her exact height or weight. When I asked, she referred to Nyleena as a model. Tall, leggy, with dark hair and light colored eyes, she couldn’t remember details like how dark her hair was or her exact eye color. So she guessed her eyes were blue and her hair was dark brown. Your ex was just a victim as it turns out. Jessica was unaware you two had history. She couldn’t remember much about you at all. When I asked her to describe the man involved, she said he was tall and thin. Nothing about hair or eyes, it seems that you didn’t leave an impression. Even after we showed her a picture of you, she couldn’t identify you. Your lack of contact over the last two years with Ace was probably a good thing.”

  “Then you don’t know Malachi, it’s dangerous to stalk him,” I giggled and shot Malachi a look.

  “Yes, neither does she; that was the crux of the problem.” Gabriel told me. “She couldn’t target Malachi because she couldn’t remember him. Besides, she blamed her own gender not Malachi for her brother’s condition.”

  “Great,” I sat back in the bed and looked at the ceiling.

  “What?” Gabriel asked.

  “We have the who, what, where, when and why and most of it was thanks to my pseudo-serial killing stalker.”

  “Point taken.” Gabriel sat down. “Do you think this is going to be a problem?”

  “My pseudo-serial killing stalker?” I looked at him.

  “Yes.”

  “Who knows.” I shrugged at him.

  “Ok, we’ll work with it as it crops up. If it becomes a serious problem, we will focus all our energy on catching him. Something I don’t think he wants.” Gabriel patted my leg.

  “Thanks, boss,” I said to him. “Hey, how’d the police get there when they did? I don’t remember a call being made.”

  “I’m tagged,” Gabriel rolled up the sleeve of his shirt and showed me a scar. “I have a GPS implant. Michael couldn’t get a fix on it when we were in the bull, but once we were free, it started transmitting again. You and Lucas both get out tomorrow. I have some things to take care of and then I’ll be heading home.”

  “Where is home?” I asked him.

  “As of yesterday, Kansas City, Missouri. Before that, a motel wherever I was stationed.” He winked and walk
ed out.

  “’We’re going to go as well.” Nyleena told me.

  “Fine. Whatever. I see how it is. You’re just going to leave me on my own, in this hell hole.”

  “I’m sure you’ll find a way to entertain yourself. Besides, visiting hours are ending,” she kissed my cheek. Malachi kissed my forehead. I watched them both leave.

  Then I yanked the wire off my heart monitor. Yeah, I could entertain myself.

  Epilogue