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Four victims.
Brook now had something to work with in order to build a profile.
She was finally back in her element…her true element.
Although there were other details floating around in the background, she purposefully pushed aside thoughts of Dr. Kolsby and Dr. Cranston. For all intents and purposes, all Kolsby had done was bring a killer to the attention of the police. All Cranston had done was pull off on the side of a desolate road. It didn’t matter that he’d been seeing one of the alleged victims two years before she’d gone missing. Even if Natalie Thorne’s remains were included in the ones that had just been located, there just wasn’t enough evidence to make an arrest.
It was best to start at the very beginning.
Chapter Fifteen
Bit Nowacki
December 2022
Wednesday — 10:47am
“Whatareyoudoing?”
The abrupt question startled Bit to the point where he almost dropped the aluminum can he had in his hand. He’d just popped open an energy drink. He hadn’t even taken a seat in his chair before Sylvie had snuck into his office behind him.
“I’m young, Little T,” Bit exclaimed as he hastily pressed the escape key on his keyboard so that she wouldn’t get a better look at the video that he’d had on the screen. From her knowing expression, he hadn’t been quick enough. “I’m not supposed to die from a heart attack at age twenty-four.”
“You’re rewatching the security footage from the house in Illinois, aren’t you?”
Bit could have attempted to deny such an allegation, but Sylvie was already pushing him aside with her hip so that she could reach for the computer mouse. She navigated directly to the video that had shrunk to the lower righthand corner of the screen.
“Did you find anything?”
Bit had to lean forward so that he could catch a glimpse of her blue eyes.
Sure enough, she wasn’t expressing one sliver of fear at the reminder of what had to be the worst moment in her life. She’d been abducted by a lunatic who had believed her soul had been possessed by another woman. There were still red marks from the abrasions on her wrists from when she had tried to escape the confines of zip tie cuffs. The scars would probably always be there as a reminder, but her inner strength wouldn’t allow her to be seen as a victim.
The only time that he’d ever experienced such fear was the day that his sister had called him over to her apartment to tell him that she had cancer. Primary Mediastinal B-Cell Lymphoma. A mouthful that he’d never said aloud. It wasn’t until her oncologist had determined that only an expensive, experimental rituximab enhanced anthracycline chemotherapy treatment could potentially save her life. He’d wasn’t proud of the way he’d gone about getting the money, but he didn’t regret a thing. Besides, it had led him here…to the team.
To Sylvie.
“Not yet,” Bit replied in resignation as he shooed her away from the keyboard. She immediately grabbed one of the other chairs that he’d made sure was available to the other team members. It wasn’t long until they were side by side. “I’ve been dissecting the footage. Basically, I’ve been pulling it apart frame by frame. Nothing shows up in the seconds leading up to the static, which is when I’m positive that the porcelain doll was moved from the closet back to the curio cabinet.”
The state police of Illinois had requested help on an investigation a couple of months prior, and the team had rented out a house in the heart of a small roadside town. Unfortunately, the renter had passed away in the months preceding their arrival.
Bit had always been the type to err on the side of caution, so he’d purposefully set up a camera inside the living room where he’d opted to sleep on the couch. While he’d been ninety-nine-point-nine percent certain that the team had played a prank on him by putting an antique doll back inside the curio cabinet after he’d stuffed her in a closet, there had been a margin of error.
For once, technology had failed him.
The camera had seemingly been working fine the entire time, with the exception of those few moments where odd things had happened during their time in the house. Bit was beginning to resign himself to the fact that he might never know what had truly transpired in Illinois.
Unless, of course, one of the team members fessed up to a prank.
“Were you the one who took the porcelain doll from the closet and put it back inside the curio cabinet?” Bit asked before holding his breath in anticipation.
“Bit, I did not touch that doll,” Sylvie said as she raised her right hand in oath.
He believed her, which left Theo or Fritz.
Detective Roger Fritz came across as a stuffed potato, but sometimes those were the very people who had a sick sense of humor. Bit narrowed his eyes as he thought through the various types of revenge he could enact.
“Great job in getting the list of patients, Bit,” Brook said as she strolled through the doorway. She hadn’t been in the best of moods lately, but she seemed to have gotten her spunk back. He wouldn’t go so far as to say she was jovial or completely vested in the holiday spirit, but at least the perpetual frown lines on her forehead had vanished. “We can’t interview them, but it still gives us something to work on. Theo has decided to question Dr. Kolsby’s assistant again since Sylvie wasn’t able to fit her in yesterday, so he’ll be out of the office most of the day.”
