Page 6 of Beneath the Scars

Old Mr. Butler

Went to his cupboard

To give the poor boy a bone

When he got there

The cupboard was dark

So he gave that poor child his bone.

The little boy cried

with his head on the mat

so scared and so sad

But he didn't want to make Mr. Butler mad

so he did what he must

And continued to trust

that one day, he'd be saved.

No one saved the boy, Agent Scott.

So I took my revenge.

Will you try to stop me?

Chapter Six

Byron

It'stoughnottotake each death personally, especially when the killer starts leaving notes addressed to you directly. With the note—carefully put away in an evidence bag, not that we'll find any prints—in my hand, I excuse myself and step out of the morgue.

A quick look at the time confirms it's later than he likes to get phone calls, but I know my section chief will make an exception for this.

"What did you find, Scott?" Section Chief Hinds says his way of greeting.

"It's our guy. He left me a note again."

"Same MO?" Hinds asks after a huge sigh.

Wishing I had a bottle of scotch to help calm the raging storm inside me, I stare at the words on the page in front of me until they turn into a jumbled mess.

"Yeah. This time, he accused the victim of child molestation. Nothing in his house gave me any indication he was anything but a model citizen, but chances are if we dig hard enough and deep enough, we'll find proof of his guilt, just as with all the other victims."

"Fucking hell, By," Hinds breathes out. "Where the fuck is this sicko finding all these whack jobs?"

It's the same question our entire team keeps asking each other. If we can figure out where the unsub is finding his victims, it might bring us closer to finding and catching him.

The question remains if we want to catch him because he seems to be taking out quite a few of the bad guys himself—criminals we didn't even know existed.

"I've got the vic's laptop and cellphone. I'll go through them tonight and send them to the team tomorrow morning so Giz can check them out. Who knows, maybe we'll be lucky and findsomething this time."

Chief Hinds doesn't respond to my wishful thinking, instead jumping right into what has to happen next.

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