“When you woke up you were on your back?”
Tracy took a deep breath, “Yeah, I was disorientated, and I couldn’t figure out where I was. When I moved my arms, they wouldn’t budge. I looked above me and realized they were chained to a post on each side of my head.” Tracy closed her eyes, her hands were clenched in fists as she hunched over her knees. Tracy pursed her lips, her jaw hard as if gritting her teeth, then she sat back up, “And he stood at the end of the…table.”
“Did you get a good look at his face?”
“Oh yeah, I got a really good look,” she paused. “He had these clear, green eyes. Kind of a mossy color. And he was freaking pale, you’d think he was one of those albinos if not for the flash of short, red hair. And there was something wrong with one of his eyes…” She shook as if a chill went up her spine. “He also had freckles across his high cheekbones, and he was really thin.” She took a deep breath. “But I will never forget those eyes.” She looked Autumn in the eye. “They were dead inside.”
“What happened next?” She reached over and took the woman’s icy cold hands between hers.
“He umm… unzipped my pants and shoved his dick inside me.” Tracy spoke through gritted teeth. Tears tracked down the side of her good eye. She rummaged in her pocket, found a napkin, and dabbed at her face. “It fucking hurt like a bitch. I’d never had sex before. I was a good girl.”
“Did he ejaculate inside you?” Autumn forced the words out on a rasp.
Tracy shook her head and wiped beneath her eyelashes. “No,” she sniffled. “Surprisingly, he didn’t even finish. He was hard and then softened so he pulled out.” She shook her head, “The look on his face though, I thought he was going to kill me right then and there.”
“What was his expression?”
“It was this really dark scowl, as if he were thinking about something or someone. As if he realized…”
“He had the wrong person,” Autumn finished for her.
Tracy looked toward Autumn, her lips turned down. “How’d you know?”
Autumn offered her a tight smile. “Lucky guess.” A shiver moved down her spine. “Did he take your eye then?”
Tracy nodded and took another breath. “He said, ' You’re practice, no hard feelings, okay?’ I couldn’t figure out what the hell he meant at the time.”
Autumn closed her eyes and breathed through her nose. Of course, this woman was practice. It was his very first foray into the murder of humans.
“I like to kill things.”
Now that he was an adult, Elijah could find live prey that couldn’t fight back. He could take their eyes with no problem after he’d subdued them. And he’d realized it wasn’t for pleasure, so there wasn’t a need for sex with the victim.
It was for revenge.
Woo them to make sure they were docile. Strike them in the back of the head. Strangle them to make certain things were easier.
Then take the eyes.
Autumn needed no more details about what happened. Tracy DelMonico didn’t need to relive every single detail of her trauma.
Autumn needed one more thing verified.
She pulled out her phone and brought up the screenshot she took of Elijah staring directly into the camera. His lips curved up in that smirk. She held it up to Tracy. “Does this man look familiar?”
Tracy took the phone and nearly dropped it. “Th-That’s him.” She looked up sharply. “He’s the one who’s committing those murders, right? You have him in custody?”
“Not yet,” Autumn said as Tracy handed her back the phone. “I needed verification he was the one who hurt you.”
Tracy nodded. “That’s him all right.” She narrowed her eyes and glanced around them. “Forget Me Not…” she muttered the words and then widened her eyes. “My flower shop.”
Autumn waited for the woman to come to her own realization.
“A woman called about the flower, Forget Me Nots. Have I been…?”
Autumn shook her head. “No, Tracy, you’re not a suspect. I was going to ask you if you’ve had any recent orders for those flowers.” She searched the woman’s eyes. “And it looks like you have.”
Tracy nodded and bit her lip. “Yeah, God, I can’t remember the name. One of my delivery boys brought them to a commuter parking lot. The instructions were to leave them there.”
