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“¿Cómo estás?” I said with a smirk as the detective slammed his hand against the desk with a grunt.
“I was good before you walked in, Sinclair. Twice in a week.”
“You’re a funny man, Detective,” I said with a grin. The man scowled. Detective Myers, Detective Rosario’s partner, let out a long breath, shaking his head.
“What do you want this time, Sinclair? ¡Pareces mi puta sombra!”
“I want to talk about Daiken and…”
“You’re like a dog with a bone.” Detective Rosario sighed. “Why are you still haunting me about that, Sinclair? Olvídalo! The pendejo who did it to the poor girl got his punishment!”
“Because it’s not Daiken, not that he doesn’t deserve that, but it’s not him. I was sure it was him when you first arrested him, but then I came across Nikki Singh, and… Daiken was in prison when she was killed. The tattoo…”
“Damn it, Sinclair,” the detective said with a grunt. “Girls these days follow each other blindly. It could be a trend.”
“You’re a good detective. You should know.”
He sighed. “There’s just too much evidence against Daiken. I don’t—”
“Just take a look.”
“The tattoo might not even be the same one.”
“These runes… they have meanings. This one on the left is Algiz, which means life, or when inverted, means death. The one on the right is Jera—harvest, and the one at the top is Inguz. It means new beginnings. You can see from here at the top… that’s this mark—Inguz. This could be related to a cult…” I paused, composing my face. “A sex racket.”
Usually, I preferred to conduct my own investigation. It afforded me the autonomy to determine the next steps without any interference. Killing would be difficult when the cops were involved. But I was going nowhere after three months of investigation and getting desperate.
“Or…” I said what I had been thinking for months now. “There’s a serial killer who just started exploring.”
The detective looked at me like I had lost a few screws in my head before he grabbed the very cold coffee sitting sullenly on his desk.
“Hijo de puta,” he cursed, spitting the coffee out. “I get where you’re going with this, Sinclair. Your instincts are usually on point, but without concrete proof…”
“Proof? Are we supposed to wait for him to kill again?” I asked, even though I knew he hadn’t said anything I wasn’t thinking about.
“What do you expect me to say, Sinclair? You’re no stranger to this game,” the detective said as he opened his drawer and pulled out a file. He grabbed a note from the file and handed it to me. “Take a look at this. It’s a copy of the note that hijo de puta sent to Sofia.”
When I find you, Sofia, I’ll touch every inch of you, and you’ll scream at me to stop, bitch, but I won’t stop. For all those times you looked down on me, I’ll make you look up at me. When I’m done with you, I’ll fucking bury you in water.
Gritting my teeth, I handed the note back to the detective. Bastards like Daiken didn’t deserve to live outside, but…
“I understand what it feels like to be possessed by a case. I caught the culero who killed Sofia. We’ll catch Nikki’s killer, too.”
“You didn’t catch Sofia’s killer, but for all our sake, I hope you’re right.”
The detective gave me a nod.
I was walking out of the police station when I saw Doctor West walking in, humming a song, holding onto a brown folder. Her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her heels made a sharp clicking sound against the tiles.
She didn’t notice me staring at her, and I was grateful she hadn’t noticed me. She was gorgeous in her black business suit, but what caught me off guard was the song. There was something familiar about it. I had heard it somewhere, but I had no idea where the hell I’d heard it.
Shaking my head to dispel the odd feeling in my stomach, I walked out and drove toward work.
10
THE STRANGLER
YARA
