FOUND: A Hannigram Devil AU REWRITTEN

Chapter Ten

"It's interesting that I'm here to help you with the effects of your job, and I've yet to see you working."

Another girl had been murdered in Minnesota. The news had shocked Will — he knew logically that Nicholas wasn't the Shrike, he was merely a copycat, but he'd settled happily into the feeling that all of this was over. In reality, it was so far from over that Will decided he'd better get comfortable.

Will pulled the rental car up to the gravel driveway of another cabin, parking next to the police cars. "It's not a particularly interesting sight. Nor is it pretty."

A small crowd of FBI employees milled about outside. Will flipped the car in park and leaned back, burying his face in his hands.

"Are you alright?" Hannibal turned his head. Will was regretting letting him ride along in the car with him. He wasn't sure why he'd agreed to it; they'd simply both been at headquarters at the same time that morning and got on the plane together. They hadn't spoken much there nor in the FBI rental car, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Silence was natural with him. 

"I don't really want to see another dead girl."

"She won't haunt you. We've made sure of that, remember?"

Will didn't have any doubts about that. "Still, it's a sight you can't fully erase."

"You act as if this is an inevitability. Yet you aren't required to do any of this. This isn't your place anymore. There's a reason you left years ago."

"There's a lot of reasons I left." Will popped open the door and climbed out of the car, making his way up to the front door of the cabin. Hannibal followed like a shadow.

Jack didn't bother with pleasantries. "Her name was Marissa Schurr. Same height, weight, eye color, age, you know the deal by now," he said, frowning. "It's the circumstances that are standing out to us. This is the Hobbs' cabin. It's under the father's name. He hid it from us, didn't say a word about it. The only reason we found her was because we had permission from her aunt to search for information on Abigail."

Will shoved his hands in his pockets. "Well, that's that. Hobbs killed her. He hid her burial ground for a reason."

"I wouldn't have you here if things were that cut and dry. Hobbs is gone— hasn't been seen by anyone since the vigil. This girl was killed recently, likely last night. We would say that he was the killer and call it a day, but we want to be one hundred percent sure. DNA takes a while. You don't. We want confirmation that we're looking in the right direction, and then we want to figure out how to find him."

"What other kind of evidence do you need? The only girl that wasn't immediately mutilated was Abigail Hobbs, the daughter of Garrett Jacob Hobbs. All of the other victims bear a striking resemblance to her, and we figured that the reason he was going after all these girls that look alike was because he had one girl close to him, someone that he couldn't bring himself to hurt."

"Still could have been a different family member," Hannibal said. "We don't know much about Abigail's extended family relationships. Garrett Jacob Hobbs's disappearance could be completely unrelated. Or he's afraid that we'll blame him for the murders, just like we're doing now."

Will shot him an annoyed glare, and Hannibal smirked. "I'm simply playing devil's advocate," he said, clearly thinking this was a lot funnier than Will did.

"This crime scene seems different to me. It's reminiscent of Cassie Boyle's," Jack said. "Will, I want you to go in there and do what you do. Don't let your biases skew the way you see this. No prints. You know the drill. Doctor Lecter, are you going in there with him?" When Hannibal nodded, Jack's gaze became more stern. "Do not touch anything at all. Wear gloves. Hands off the scene."