This unsub had no cool off period.
Ten dead yesterday, one today.
And the planning... the flyers had to go out. The interiors of the barns had to be constructed. No, they weren’t cooling off. They were getting hotter.
Josh Perry had said it, and all evidence indicated that at least Aaron Treadman felt the same: the ad was sketchy, but the allure of money—crypto or not—was too hard to ignore.
Something occurred to Vaughn then.
The game show. This entire time, Vaughn had been thinking of the game show as a ruse.
What if it wasn’t?
It wasn’t airing on a ‘major streaming platform,’ but what if it was airing somewhere else? What if someone was broadcasting the contestants’ deaths? Possible.
Vaughn swirled his mouse, woke up his computer.
Snuff films were as old as time. It sickened him to think that people got off on watching other people die, but there was nothing he could do about it.
“Maybe this guy is—”
“Why didn’t you tell me that the math chick was there?” Darnell interrupted.
“What?”
“The math chick and her father. Why didn’t you tell me that they were there?”
“I don’t know, man.”
He knew—Vaughn didn’t want Darnell to propose Ivy as a suspect again.
“Don’t you think it’s a little odd?”
“What?”
“Dr.Reeves’s laptop was in Aaron’s possession, she shows up at one of the crime scenes. She definitely knows the games. Nobody would bat an eye if she was seen wandering around the chem building, either.”
Darnell had said all this before, and his hunch was beginning to bore Vaughn.
Don’t bite, don’t bite.
He bit.
“Why would she help us? Tell us about the games?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time that an unsub inserted themselves into an investigation—you know that.”
Vaughn did. Didn’t believe it in this case, though. He took a different approach.
“A female serial killer? Unlikely.”
“Agree in principle. But we’re not talking about a mass shooting or stabbing. This is hands-off. You know the profile.”
Female serial killers were rare—maybe ten percent. And when they killed, it was usually at a distance. Poisoning. Drowning. More ‘quiet’ methods.
Darnell saw the look on Vaughn’s face and clawed back a little.
“Look, I’m not saying she’s behind this, I’m just saying that she knows something. Something she’s not telling us. And I want you to make sure you’re not so blinded by your feelings for Dr.Ivy Reeves that you miss it.”
