The Murder Show

CHAPTER 24

As the convoy of vehicles weave through the streets towards downtown, Andy swings the car through the traffic noting Maya's edginess.

"You good Bishop?" She asks, yelling slightly over the noise of not only theirs but the surrounding vehicles' sirens.

Maya lets out a shuddery breath. "No, no I am not ok Andy." She says fighting the tears. "What if she's dead? What if this is where he has had her all the time, but we are too late?" She says with a shaky tone, indicative of the emotion she is desperately trying to push down.

"Maya listen to me, whatever we find, we can't do anything about that. We have all worked tirelessly since the second we knew she was gone, you can't torture yourself thinking about things that might not be true." Andy says strongly.

"I KNOW THAT!" She yells, before lowering her voice. "I know. I know everyone has gone without sleep, and food and seeing their families to spend the last 25 hours meticulously searching for her. But if it wasn't enough... I don't know if I will ever recover." Maya says.

"It won't come to that." Andy says resolutely not moving her eyes from the road as she follows one of the patrol cars.

"How can you know that?" Maya snaps.

"I can't. Same way you can't know it's not true... So focus, we are going to get her back, and then after all this. When this sick fuck is behind bars, you can finally get the girl." Andy tells her.

Maya chokes out a laugh. "I hope to god you are right." She says trying to shove the fear back down.

"Always am, partner." Andy winks.

____

Carina startles awake hearing the heavy bang of the large door as James Klein walks back into the space. He glances over at her with a neutral face, not speaking.

Carina glances around the room, eyes roaming over the pictures - this time not just focusing on the ones of her (or her and Maya) - but also on the ones of all the other victims, these however were more disturbing. He hadn't been stalking these people or taunting them as he had her. Instead there were two pictures of each victim.

One a random photo of the victim smiling at the camera - which if she had to guess she would think they were taking from social media or online profiles of some kind. And the second, well that was the disturbing one. A picture of the victim after he had brutally ended their life.

Each one of the pictures side by side a smiling happy alive person next to a wide-eyed, ashen skinned version of that same person with a large bloody wound across their neck. Carina felt the bile rise up in her throat. Wondering how long she had until she became one of those people.

"Why these people?" She asks.

Her voice seems to surprise him as he flinches slightly not having expected her to initiate conversation again perhaps. "You know why. They are sinners. Like you."

Carina shakes her head. "No, why THOSE people? Why ME? Out of all the gay or queer people on the planet, out of all the supposed sinners, why these people specifically? Why are we so special?" She asks.

"Well, you see that's how the good lord works." He says, smiling evilly. "He brought those people to me. He wanted me to cleanse them of sin. I didn't go looking for them.." He says.

Carina looks at him, staying quiet waiting for him to continue. "You see, this started out as something different, but somewhere along the way it became clear that God was sending these people to me, he wanted me to do good for the world, to rid the world of sinners." He smiles, while Carina fights the urge to scream or vomit at the repugnant nature of his words.