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October 13 - October 25, 2025
“Bind them. Brand them. Cut them. Hang them,” I said softly. “That was how your father killed his victims.” I didn’t phrase it as a question, because I knew. Just by looking at Dean, I knew. “Yes,” Dean said, before lifting his eyes to look at the still-muted TV. “And I’m almost certain that’s what was done to this girl.”
The professor was a problem. You’re a problem solver. It was quick and clean—a single bullet to the back of his skull.
“Touch her again,” Michael told Christopher conversationally, “and Dean will be the one trying to pull me off of you.”
“Keys.” “Spatula,” Michael replied. She narrowed her eyes at him. “We aren’t just saying random nouns?” he asked archly.
“The victim is Trina Simms, and neighbors heard screaming and called 911 while her son Christopher was at the police station with Briggs.”
“We have a problem.” Dean’s voice was stiff, his posture the same. “I don’t think our UNSUB is a copycat.” He paused, then forced out a clarification. “I think my father has a partner.”
“Our UNSUB and Redding aren’t partners,” I said. “Men like Daniel Redding don’t have partners. They don’t think they have equals.” I searched for the right word. “The person we’re looking for isn’t a partner,” I said finally. “It’s an apprentice.”
Emerson Cole was an assignment, but this—this is going to be fun.
“Something you don’t know,” Redding mused. “Okay. Let’s try this one: you will never find the man who murdered your mother.”
“It is,” Sloane said, “if there’s more than one apprentice.” Is your apprentice a college student? Is your apprentice someone who’s never been to college? Is your apprentice over the age of twenty-one? Is your apprentice under the age of twenty-one? Oh, God.
“Clark’s DNA matches the sample found under Trina Simms’s fingernails.” I took a moment to process the implication. Sloane was obliging enough to put it into words. “So what you’re saying,” she replied, “is that Gary Clarkson isn’t just victim number four. He’s also our second UNSUB.”
Like Christopher Simms was in a meeting with Briggs when someone killed his mother.
Michael appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Dean let go of my hand.
why.
Three UNSUBs. Two of them are dead. If there was a third, if someone was still out there…
“No,” a voice said, directly behind me. “You won’t.”
She doesn’t want me to see him.
And then everything went black.
