The Crucifix Killer - Chris Carter [71]
‘Here?’ Garcia asked excitedly.
‘Yeah, we were sitting at this same table. She excused herself and said she needed to go to the ladies’ room to retouch her make-up or something. She never came back.’
‘What time was that?’
D-King raised his eyebrows at Jerome.
‘Late, around two or a quarter past two in the morning,’ Jerome said.
‘So you think she was abducted from this club?’ Hunter asked calmly.
‘It looks that way.’
‘Maybe she knew her abductor, someone that she’d been with before.’
D-King shook his head. ‘Even if she had bumped into someone she knew, she wouldn’t have just walked out of the club, she would’ve come back here to talk to me first. Jenny was a good girl.’
Hunter paused for a second, measuring how much he wanted to reveal about the victim. ‘She was drugged. GHB, have you ever heard of it?’
D-King gave Hunter a car-salesman smile. He knew Hunter couldn’t be that naive. ‘Yes, I know of it. Is that what was used?’
‘Yes.’
‘You said she was tortured?’ Jerome asked.
‘Yes.’
‘What exactly does that mean?’
Hunter’s gaze dropped to the pictures on the table. The image of her naked, mutilated body tied to the wooden posts flashed in his mind.
‘Whoever killed her wanted her to suffer as much as possible. There was no mercy kill, no shot to the head, no knife through the heart. The killer wanted her to die slowly.’ Hunter saw no point in hiding the truth. ‘She was skinned alive and left to die.’
‘She what?’ Jerome’s voice went up half an octave.
There was no response from either detective.
D-King tried to conceal his rage, but his eyes burned with it. His mind immediately created a grotesque picture of Jenny, alone, tortured, pleading for mercy, crying for help. He tried in vain to shake the image from his head. When he spoke, there was inimitable anger in his voice. ‘Are you a religious man, Detective?’
The question surprised both Hunter and Garcia. ‘Why?’
‘Because if you are, you better pray to God you find whoever killed Jenny before I do.’
Hunter understood D-King’s anger. While Hunter had to do things by the book and follow protocol, D-King didn’t. The idea of D-King getting to the killer before him was somehow appealing.
‘We’ll need to see a list of all her . . . clients, all the people she’d been with in the past six months. The killer could be someone she knew.’
D-King gave Hunter another cheesy smile. ‘I like you, Detective Hunter, you amuse me,’ he paused. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. Clients . . .?’
There was no way Hunter would be able to force a list of Jenny’s clients out of D-King and he knew it.
‘You said you needed her name, you’ve got it now. I’m afraid there is nothing more I can do for you,’ D-King said gesturing towards the stairs. Both detectives got up without saying a word. Hunter grabbed both pictures from the table. ‘One more thing,’ Hunter said, retrieving a piece of paper from his pocket.
D-King looked up at him with a ‘what now’ expression.
‘Have you ever seen this symbol before?’
D-King and Jerome both stared at the strange-looking drawing. Jerome shook his head.
‘No, never,’ D-King confirmed. ‘What does it have to do with Jenny’s death?’
‘It was found close to her body,’ Hunter lied.
‘Just one more thing . . .’ Garcia this time. ‘Do you know where Jenny came from? We’ll need to contact her parents.’
D-King looked at Jerome who shrugged. ‘I don’t really do background checks, but I think she said she came from somewhere like Idaho or Utah or something like that.’
Garcia nodded and followed Hunter. As they reached the stairs, Hunter turned and faced D-King once again. ‘If you get to him before we do . . .’
D-King locked eyes with Hunter.
‘Make him suffer.’
D-King uttered no reply and watched as both men left the VIP area and disappeared into the dancing crowd.
Thirty-One
‘What did that idiot Culhane tell you over the phone about Jenny?’ D-King asked, turning his attention to Jerome as soon as both detectives were out of sight.
‘He said he’d checked the morgue, the hospitals and the missing persons’ files and didn