The Mindf*ck Series

Chapter 8

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘦...𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.
- 𝘝𝘰𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦

𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗔𝗡

“Where’s Craig?” Leonard asks, breaking the silence in the car.

“Conveniently, the director called him to aid in a media thing upstate. Johnson is currently handling all media for this case.”

He mutters something under his breath before adding, “It’s pissing me off how obvious it is what they’re doing, yet no one is helping us stop it.”

“We just need evidence. We also need the entire story.”

“It’d be a lot easier to piece together this puzzle if our killer would just spell it all out for us. It’s obvious he wants us to know the truth,” Leonard grumbles.

He’s been lost in thought for most of this trip.

“He wants us to figure out the truth for ourselves. He thinks we’ll be on his side, considering he’s been saving us.”

Leonard turns to face me. “Are you conflicted?”

I shake my head. “No. I understand what happened ten years ago was beyond fucked up, and I have no sympathy to the victims we’ve found so far, but playing judge, jury, and executioner is not excusable. I also know how these cases go. It starts off as revenge, individuals getting targeted. But it turns into a massacre when the unsub devolves rapidly, and anything at all that’s perceived as a threat is killed as collateral damage.”

He looks back out the window. He’s seen these cases too.

“What if this one was different?”

“What?” I ask, confused.

He faces me again. “There were rare cases where the revenge killers actually killed just those who had wronged them. No one else was caught in the crosshairs.”

“Very few,” I remind him. “And almost all end with a shootout between law enforcement and the unsub. Still can’t play judge, jury, and executioner, regardless.”

“Most all revenge seekers are seeking revenge for themselves. It’s what causes the psychotic break—being too close to the triggers when the emotions finally take over,” he goes on. “We profiled this unsub as being one to avenge for someone else. He could have separation and even be able to form attachments, unlike other revenge killers, since I doubt it’s a proxy killer who is suffering a delusional paradigm.”

I heave out a long, weary breath. “I get the confliction you’re dealing with. Especially in this case, given what we’ve already learned and now seen. But innocent people will die if we don’t stop him. No one has the right to take the law into their own hands,” I say calmly, even though a silent argument in my mind contests my own words.

He cuts his gaze away before replying, “They tried to get help. They tried to seek justice. They were denied.”

“They?” I ask curiously.

“The unsub,” he states flatly. “I don’t know if I should keep referring to the unsub as 𝘩𝘪𝘮, since you said you feel it was a woman.”