Read Online Skye Cree 03: The Bones Will Tell by Vickie McKeehan - Free Book Online Page A

determined.
    Josh nodded. “He wants Skye to know that he’s able to pick and choose. Dr. Bayliss already addressed the fact he sent specific bones of one victim he knew wouldn’t yield a cause of death, the hand of another. This guy is far from stupid.”
    “ He’s gone all this time flying below anyone’s radar. He used the hand for shock value, nothing more. Since it’s likely from another victim it tells us there are more out there, which is why he sent it. He’s showing off,” Skye muttered. 
    “So what have we got other than the fact he’s a serial and he dismembers his victims?” Harry asked.
    Dawson cleared his throat again. “But you’re under a misperception, detective. Your killer didn’t dismember the first bones he sent Skye.”
    Skye’s smile faded. “He didn’t?”
    “No. He simply waited until the bones had been in the ground long enough time for the soft tissue to breakdown and decomposition was complete. The bones were all he has left of this victim. He simply utilized what he had on hand.”
    “But I thought…we all assumed…”
    “Now the hand, the hand was dismembered from the arm. See the cut marks. He nicked the wrist bone, here.”
    There wasn’t a lot of room to pace, but Skye did her best. She turned to the high bank of windows , walked there and back again and retraced her steps.
    “Okay, so h e keeps them for a period of time, days or perhaps weeks, tortures them while he has them bound and at his mercy before he decides to end their life,” Skye advised. “At some point, depending on his mood, he cuts them up or not. Is that about right?”
    Hennings nodded. “He wanted to show you the disparity from one victim to the other.”
    “Sick bastard,” Josh muttered. “Could I touch one of the bones? Anyone of them will do.”
    “Sure, you have your gloves on so it should be okay,” Hennings agreed, handing Josh the shinbone.
    The minute Josh held it in his hand, the montage of images blitzed through his head. “ He doesn’t live alone. He has family, has people close to him. His personal torture chamber is isolated which means he probably has access to a second home.”
    “You mean like a cabin with a cellar, or something like that?” Skye asked.
    Josh shook his head. “I don’t know, not exactly. I don’t know,” he repeated. “But something major has recently triggered his need for attention. Whether it was something he saw in the news or something else, he’s blown away by the fact that he’s never gotten his just due. He’s fed up at the cops for not connecting his numbers. For some reason he’s decided his ego needs stroking. He wants to play.”
    “BTK did that. It’ ll be his downfall,” Skye surmised.
    “Let’s hope,” Josh sent a distressed look at Harry. “In your favor, the cops may never have connected his victims because he may not have left many in a location where you could easily find them. Plus, he grabs them from various jurisdictions. The good guys don’t connect the dots and he keeps doing what he does best. And if he ever did leave a victim where she could be found, it had to be in the early years. He’s kept on killing and evolved. But now I think he’ll change his method.”
    “You mean abandon his own special place, his own dumping ground for high visibility, start leaving his victims where he wants them found? He wants his numbers to go up.”
    “Exactly.”
    The banter went on. All the while everyone in the room picked up on the dialogue, between Skye and Josh that showed an unmistakable intuitive insight into the killer, almost paranormal-like.
    “Will all th is unconventional stuff help catch this guy?” Hennings wondered to Harry.
    “ Sometimes with no crime scenes it all comes down to this. Law enforcement has to rely on the unconventional. And these two are about as unconventional as you could get.”
     



Chapter Six
    T hat weekend the unconventional pair contacted a realtor and went looking for a