“We always assumed that he forced those women to take their clothes off, fold them neatly, and be carved up. Don’t you get it? He didn’t, maybe not even with Theresa. He cut them to pieces, then took off their clothes and put them in a garbage bag. Then he folded up clean clothes from their closet, or maybe he even brought some.”
“How do we know any of that?” That was Dodds’ voice. She recognized it instantly.
“How do we not know it? We didn’t know what we were missing. Are you going to call crime scene or not?”
It was Will. She had not heard his voice when it was agitated.
“Why would he do this?” Dodds demanded. Cheryl Beth stood against the wall listening, ten feet from the door.
“He wants to show he’s all-powerful. He can make a woman disrobe for him, make her welcome death.”
“So why would he, or she, leave them here?”
Cheryl Beth shuddered when she heard the pronoun. Leave what?
Will answered, “He must have been interrupted. Maybe he was going to come back for them. Put in a video cam and a transmitter and leave them here once crime scene’s gone over it.”
“Maybe your pain nurse did it.”
Cheryl Beth leaned back against the wall. Somehow just him saying it made her feel guilty. It was like a cop pulling into traffic behind you. It was way worse than that.
“You know she didn’t,” Will said. “Quit being such an asshole.”
“You always had a weakness for the pretty girls, Borders. I think she’s lying. You’ll see.”
“You’re wasting time.”
“Quit trying to tell me how to do my job!” He bellowed it.
Will yelled, too. “Then do your job.”
“What am I going to have to do to make you stop meddling in a homicide investigation? I will arrest your ass if you don’t stop.”
“This isn’t about me or you. This is what a psycho cop would do.”
“Oh, hell, Borders.”
“This is the best breakthrough we’ve ever had in this case,” Will said. “I’m asking you as a friend.”
“No,” Dodds cut him off harshly. “We’re not friends. You make up any story you want about going to Internal Investigations, but you know. I fired your ass as a partner because you lied to me.”
There was a long silence with only the background noise of a distant generator. Cheryl Beth walked in as if she had just arrived.
“You. What took you so long?” Dodds glared at her with hostile eyes. Will looked as if he were about to crumple and fall out of the wheelchair.
“We need to get you upstairs,” Cheryl Beth said.
“That can wait.” Dodds opened a leather portfolio with a legal pad in it, then picked through several pages of dense handwritten notes and diagrams. He was leaning against one of the old autopsy tables.
