Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“You gotta know, that skeeves me way the fuck out, Cade,” Rus growled.
“It would me too,” Bohannan agreed. “But breaking it down, it makes twisted sense. No one, not even him, is more intimate with what happened in those hotel rooms. No one, but you. You’ve spent days, months, years on his work, and he’s not a well man. It’s easy for him to feel, or more, convince himself you’re enjoying, even relishing what he does. He doesn’t even spend that much time on his victims. By that I mean what he does when he kills them. He definitely spends time choosing and finding where he’s going to kill them. Covering his tracks along the way. I’m sure he takes pictures and relives what he’s done. Even so, I’d lay money on the fact you’ve spent more time on what he’s done than he has, and he knows it.”
Yeah, it was twisted.
But it made sense.
Bohannan kept going.
“Running it down, victim one had a Carnelian. This denotes energy and ambition. It’s thought of as a source of creativity. Protection from adversity. His beginning.”
Rus nodded.
He knew this too, more than he wanted to know it.
“Crystal two, Chrysocolla. More energy. More creativity. But also wisdom. Self-expression. Crystal three, Tourmaline. Again, creativity. Grounding in the present moment. Protection against negativity. These are all for him. Victim three is when you enter the picture. And then there’s victim four, with the Malachite. Victim five held an Obsidian, which is also for you. Protection, but also it guards against attack.”
Rus was well acquainted with all of this as well.
Though he never considered it was for him.
“This was a shift in meaning,” Bohannan noted. “It could be about him worried he’s going to get caught. But that’s off-profile. He’s confident. Not a man to worry. So that’s why the profilers began to doubt the crystals meant anything.”
That was exactly why.
“Victim six, rose quartz,” Bohannan stated. “This is often equated with love and relationships, and that threw the profilers way off. That, as you know, is when they completely gave up on the crystals. Because, for the most part, this is meant between lovers. But it’s also about caring and compassion and connecting on a more profound level. It has connotations of finding your inner truth. By this victim, he feels that’s what he’s establishing with you.”
“Jesus Christ,” Rus bit out, feeling a cold creep into his blood, because this made sense.
Too much sense.
Bohannan dipped his head understandingly, but he kept talking.
“The last victim, he’s reaching out to you. Pink Halite. Unconditional love. It provides a shield against people who would hurt you. Now, I don’t think this love is physical love. He’s not homosexual or striking out against the world because he is and doesn’t want to be. He doesn’t have issues with his parents. He wasn’t bullied. He doesn’t have psychological wounds that have abraded away the tools every human needs to live harmoniously with others. He’s genuinely mentally ill. He was born this way.”
And again, Rus had heard all of this.
Bohannan carried on.
“He lives his life. He might be married. He’s good in bed, loving, giving, demonstrative. He feels he takes care of his victims. He feels they’re privileged to be of service to him. So he’s going to take care of his wife, his partner. And if he’s in a relationship, he truly loves his partner, or he does in how he understands that emotion. He might be so deep into this, and we know he’s smart, so he could also be manipulative and convincing, both traits of a malignant narcissist. So she could know what he’s doing and approve of it, allowing him to go out and make his art. But bottom line, you mean something to him, Rus. And I don’t think he’s here in Misted Pines to protect his work. He’s here to protect you.”
The fuck?
“What’s he protecting me from?” Rus demanded.
Bohannan shook his head. “I don’t know. Someone wasting your time and valuable skills on something undeserving of both. Maybe he fears for your safety because this is a wildcard. The good news is, my take, and I could be wrong, he would never hurt someone you care about. He would not cause you pain. He’d never hurt you, not directly. You mean too much to him. Honestly?”
Rus nodded again.
“I think you could retire, and he’d back that play. He might even go so far as finding something new to do so he’d have a new agent to impress and connect with, because that is now deeply involved in what he needs to get out of his scenes. His new crimes would be so different, no one would ever know. The cases would never be connected. He’d start all over again. And the Crystal Killer would just fade away.”
This did not sit well with Rus.