Know who didn’t stay quiet?
Ethan.
Instead, he went there.
“Which is bullshit. I’m calling it now that this is a distraction,” he said, holding up a picture of Jarod Shand’s body, covered in symbols. “It feels off to me, and when it feels off, it is off.”
They all looked over.
That’s when Gene lifted a brow.
Was he hearing what he was hearing?
Could they be this lucky?
“Really? On day one? Did you profile that already? Because normally I have to wait for day two for my profile from you.”
Oh, he was aware.
Only, Ethan could read a room, and the evidence was way too directed—almost scripted.
So, he shared what he was feeling. If there was one thing in his life that he was confident about, it was his profiling.
“I’m going by my gut. It all feels forced,” he said. “I’m not saying we don’t follow the lead, because tucked in it might be more leads, but this doesn’t feel ritualistic to me. This feels like punishment. This feels like anger. This feels like the opposite of a religious clusterfuck.”
Gene let his partner talk.
Ethan was very smart, and when he was on, he wasON.
He took the files from Gene, and opened them to the part where Ben had placed the pictures.
Then, he looked at Corbin.
“Give me the autopsy you have for Jaden Medin,” he said.
Corbin pushed the file toward him.
That’s when he looked at the pictures, and instead of making him change his mind, they made him stick to his gut instinct.
“What do you see?” he asked.
Everyone looked at the pictures, and it was Greyson who saw it first.
“The symbols aren’t randomly placed on their body. The same symbols are on the knees, the chest, and the groin—in the exact same locations.”
Ethan glanced over at Gene.
“How many times have we come across cases like this, and the person perpetrating the crimes is out of their minds?”
Gene laughed.
“All of the time. We’ve yet to have a sane ritualistic killer.”
Ethan pointed.
“And yet they are so in control they nailed the location each time with precision? Like they were reading a list or following a pattern?”
Will wasn’t a detective, or a Fed, but he looked atA LOTof crime scenes.
