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“Yes. The colors matter too, the ‘humors.’Nigredo, albedo, citrinitas,andrubedo.”
“And those are matched to the shapes.”
“Exactly.Nigredowith the inner circle.Albedowith the square andcitrinitaswith the triangle. That meansrubedois the outer circle.”
“All of which is great but doesn’t lead us to our killer.”
Faith sighed. “No. It doesn’t.”
Michael leaned back in his chair. We know our next victim will be positioned in the outer circle. Probably folded backwards with fingertips to toes or something.”
“Something like that,” Faith agreed. “And red mica powder will be spilled on her.”
“Are we sure the victim will be a her?”
"Reasonably. The sacrifices usually call for a virgin girl, according to Nina. Obviously, these women aren't virgins, but the killer's taken women each time. Even if the only reason for that is to easily overpower them, I think we can assume the victim will be a woman."
“Makes sense. Not that it matters anyway, I guess.”
Faith sighed again and sipped some of her coffee. It really wasn’t any better than the coffee already at the precinct.
“So what’s missing?” she said. “What else is unique about the crimes?”
“Different locations,” Michael said.
Faith sat up a little straighter. “Yes. Yes, I think you’re onto something. Each murder was committed at a different location. Cassidy at the Botanic Gardens, Samantha in her apartment, and Lorraine Hayes on a path by the river.”
“Or just a path by her job,” Michael said. “And Cassidy just happened to be alone at the gardens.”
Faith deflated a little. "Yes. That's possible, too."
“It’s the fact that Samantha was killed in her apartment,” Michael said. “That’s what makes me think the locations were just opportunistic and the victims are what matter. The issue isthat the only thing I could speculate on with any certainty is that the next victim will have black hair.”
“Which narrows it down to probably a million women or so.”
“Not necessarily,” Michael said. “Most people who have black hair actually have dark brown hair.”
“So it narrows it down to… what would you say? A few thousand?”
This time, Michael deflated. “Yeah. It doesn’t really help.”
Faith shook her head. "If the victims mattered, then why not kill all of them in their homes? They all lived alone. The killer put himself at risk, killing Cassidy in the Botanic Gardens and Lorraine Hayes on a public path next to the Chicago River less than fifty yards from a busy road. The locations matter. I just don't know why yet. But that's the key. If we figure out why the locations matter, then we might be able to figure out where the next location is, and we can maybe predict where the killer will take his next victim. Then we can have the locations watched. It's clumsy, but we might catch our killer that way. At the very least, we might keep him from acting."
“Yeah,” Michael said, a little encouraged. “Okay. Let’s brainstorm then. If we assume the locations matter, then it matters thatnigredotook place at the gardens,albedotook place at the loft apartment, andcitrinitastook place by the river. So why those locations with those humors? And where willrubedotake place?”
Faith rested her chin on her hand and thought for a moment. It seemed random, but it wasn’t. There was a purpose to those locations. Dr. Cranston had told them that each humor and each shape mattered for each part of the process. But he hadn’t mentioned the location.
Then Faith remembered. “The elements!” she cried out.
“The what?” Michael asked.
“The elements,” she said. “Dr. Cranston mentioned the four elements as well as the four shapes and the four humors.”
“Did he?”
“He did. We just didn’t think about it because we didn’t see the connection at the time. There was nothing to tell us how the poses of the bodies and the colors of the powder indicated the elements. But that’s the key! Thelocationsare the key. They’re the connection to the elements.”
Michael’s eyes widened. “Holy shit. You’re right. That makes sense. The Botanic Gardens are associated with Earth.”
