3am

Chapter 16

At the scene, Liam and I have to hike almost a mile into the forest before we even see the body. By that point, my thigh is aching like hell and I am cussing this "New Field Strangler"-seriously?! The media couldn't come up with a catchier name than that?!-with every breath I take. At the scene, the body is laid out supine, just like the other three victims. He is dressed in an identical powder blue suit. He has the same red welt mark just above the collar from being strangled. It is obviously a fourth victim from the serial killer. But his timetable is starting to bug me. The first victim is missing about a week before being found. Victim #2 is found a week after the first one and hasn't been dead longer than a couple of hours. Victim #3 is found a day later, also only been dead a couple of hours. Now we have victim #4 found a day after victim #3. He is escalating. And that only means trouble...

I can't wrap my mind around this. Either the original "Field Strangler" has a copycat-and a damn good one at that!-or we put to death the wrong guy and the original is still hunting. But why the ten-year hiatus? I am no expert on serial killers, far from it to be honest, but I do know very few successfully quit killing for any extended period of time. Most stick to a pattern, usually dictated by their blood lust. And any apparent hiatuses are usually means the killer has moved out of one jurisdiction and into another. Is that what happened here? Did the real killer escape justice ten years ago, moved to another state and continued to kill?

"Not possible," I mutter. I shake my head to clear my mind and turn my attention back to the body in front of me. I notice that the victim is even younger than Joshua Olmstream. In fact, I doubt he is even sixteen years old. Like the last two victims, Leonard and Joshua, this boy is Caucasian. Which makes Saldenas the odd man out. He was Latino. But it plays into my theory that Joe was targeted to drag me into the investigation.

The young man has dark brownish-black hair. His eyes, staring up at nothing in the dead tree branch forest, are a dark chocolate brown. There is a small smattering of freckles across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. As I am looking at the body, I notice something...off...about the back of his left hand. I see Sharon a few feet away and let out a shrill whistle. When she looks up at me, along with everyone else in the immediate vicinity, I shout, "Hey! Sharon! Do you have a spare black light in your kit that I could borrow for a moment?"

"Sure," Sharon says and jogs over to where her kit sits, just outside the crime scene tape. She rummages around in it for a moment and then turns and jogs over to me. "Here you go," she says, handing the rectangular-shaped, hand-held, black light. "What do you need it for?"

"This," I say, cupping my left hand just above the left hand of the body, and turning on the light. The something I notice earlier lights up in the darkness, glowing a bright blue under the UV light. It's a miniature of the 'Man in the Moon' drawing that keeps popping up on all the victims.

"Holy..." Sharon says, her voice trailing off as she stares in shock at the glowing ink. "How did you...?"

"I noticed his hand looked... almost sticky, I guess," I say with a shrug. "It reminded me of what the back of my hand looked like after getting an invisible stamp at a club. You know the kind. Where your hand is stamped with black-light ink so if you leave you can come back in...?"

"Yeah... okay..." Sharon says, sounding unsure of anything I am saying. I hand back the black light just as someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn to look and see Graham standing there.

"Are you done communing with the dead so we can prepare to transport him back to the morgue, or do you need a few more minutes?"

"Oh bite me," I laugh as I climb to my feet. "Yeah, I am done. I look forward to what you discover about this one, Graham. I found the 'Man in the Moon' marking already, by the way..."