Chapter 26: The Killer is Taunting the Police

Chapter 26: Chapter 26: The Killer is Taunting the Police

Madeline Quinn also hid behind Zeke Shaw in terror, not daring to look.

Asher was the first to go inside, limping slowly forward.

I didn’t know if it was just my imagination, but I felt like he was trembling.

I couldn’t tell if he was shaking from fear or excitement.

"Cece..." His voice was hoarse and unpleasant, his ruined vocal cords producing a suffocating tone.

"Cecilia?" Zeke Shaw called out with a frown, turning on his phone’s flashlight.

THUMP! With a muffled sound, the woman who had been standing there toppled straight to the ground.

Zeke Shaw’s expression darkened. He quickly grabbed a nearby stick and scanned his surroundings warily. That was a corpse...

"Ah!" Madeline was just an ordinary medical student, after all. No matter how strong-willed she was, she had never seen a corpse like this. She screamed, covering her eyes and crouching on the ground.

After a long moment, she slowly lowered her hands and asked Zeke Shaw through her tears, "Zeke... my legs are numb. I can’t look. Can you look for me... Please, just see if it’s Cece..."

She didn’t dare to see if the body was mine.

Forget Madeline; even I didn’t dare to look.

Taking a deep breath, I mustered my courage and moved forward with Zeke Shaw.

Zeke Shaw breathed a sigh of relief after getting a clear look at the corpse’s face, but I felt my spirit clench.

It wasn’t me...

Asher stumbled backward and fell to the ground. His vision swam, his eyes began to burn, and then, as if he’d gone mad, he ran out of the dorm and roared at the surroundings. "Come out..."

"Get the hell out here..."

I watched Asher in horror. ’Is he mentally ill? The kind with a split personality?’

’Could it be... he doesn’t even know he’s killed so many people?’

"It’s not Cecilia Caldwell." Zeke Shaw tossed the stick aside, frowned, and called the precinct. Soon, the sound of sirens filled the air.

Madeline Quinn sank to the ground, dejected, and suddenly broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Cece... Where is Cece?"

She hadn’t dared to look at the body, yet she was relieved it wasn’t mine.

The police and the forensic examiner arrived at the scene at the same time. By the time Zeke Shaw went out to look for Asher, he was long gone.

I, too, gave up, slumping in despair.

’When will this string of serial killings finally end?’

"The deceased is around twenty-three years old. Her skin is still elastic, so she likely died about ten minutes ago. She was calm before death, which suggests she was drugged." The forensic examiner gave a brief analysis of the scene. "The victim has no ear piercings. This earring was forcefully pierced through while she was still alive. Her fingernails were pulled out and then glued back on. It’s highly likely they aren’t the victim’s own nails."

Listening to the examiner’s analysis, I gave a helpless laugh. ’How could she have died only ten minutes ago? It took Asher half an hour just to lead us here...’

I froze for a second, my head snapping up as my whole body trembled. ’Could it be... there’s more than one killer?’

’Does Asher have an accomplice? Or are two people committing these crimes simultaneously, using extremely similar methods?’

I followed the police back to the station. Zeke Shaw immediately sent people to find Asher.

"Find him. Don’t frighten him. Just bring him back."

"Judging by how that madman was acting... he knew there was a body at the old orphanage, but he didn’t know exactly where," Madeline Quinn said, shivering as she clutched a cup of hot water, a jacket draped over her shoulders.

I sat beside her, leaning on her shoulder.

’If she knew souls really existed in this world, would she be too scared to sleep at night?’

I gave another helpless laugh and leaned on Madeline Quinn’s shoulder, lost in a daze.

’Everything happening now truly feels like a nightmare.’

’When I wake from this dream, where am I supposed to go?’

"Captain Lowell! The lab results are in! The fingernails on all ten of the victim’s fingers don’t belong to her. After analysis... they belong to... they belong to..." The colleague hesitated.

Zeke Shaw frowned. "Spit it out."

"They belong to Cecilia Caldwell."

I watched as the cigarette butt fell from Zeke Shaw’s hand and hit the ground, sending up a spark.

The reason that colleague was so shocked was probably because just a few days ago, they still suspected I was the killer.

’What kind of killer pulls out their own fingernails and places them on their victim’s body?’