Page 23 of The Hanging Dolls
“It’s just the case.” Zoe shrugged. “And you know my policy. Sugar fixes everything.”
“Sugar fixes everything,” Gina repeated, smiling. “Oh God, I gotta go, catch you later, okay?”
Zoe hung up but continued to stare at Gina’s name on the screen. She grazed her thumb over it. Guilt reared its ugly headas she thought of the secrets she was keeping from Gina about what really happened with Rachel. Shreds of clouds chased each other overhead, casting a bleak shadow over town, the mist forming a thin film on her face.
“Yeah… yeah… okay.” There was the sound of gravel crunching as Aiden walked toward her with a bag of taco bell in one hand and his phone in the other. “We’ll look at it when we get back. Thanks, Scott.”
“What happened?” Zoe asked when he disconnected. “Oh! Is that taco bell!”
“Yes…” He stared at her like she had two heads. “It’s just a bean burrito.” Zoe snatched it from him and began ripping into it, silencing those pangs of hunger. “Which was for me.”
“Huh?” she asked with a mouthful.
“Nothing.” An amused smile tugged on his lips—and suddenly, Zoe realized that she had never noticed how handsome his smile was. “Anyway, patrol officers found a toy around thirty feet from the crime scene. They bagged it. It’s back at the station.”
“A toy?” Zoe’s eyebrows shot up. “But Lily didn’t have a toy when she went missing, right?”
The wheels in Aiden’s head began to move at full speed. “She didn’t. Now, I highly doubt that the killer went to her place and picked up one of her own toys—though you should look into that anyway, just in case. Most likely, it was his way of trying to make her feel comfortable. The lack of evidence pointing to a struggle suggests that Lily wasn’t scared of him.”
After wolfing down the burrito, she continued sucking at the pop even though there were only bubbles left.
“Are you thirsty?” He frowned.
“No. Oh, how rude of me! Would you like some?”
“N-no.” He scratched his ear. “He could be engaging in grooming. The juxtaposition of the kindness followed by violence aligns with psychopathic tendencies?—”
“But you said before he might not be a sadistic psychopath.”
A fleeting grimace. “Might. Not all sadistic psychopaths will torture and maim. Though, the toy might be an indication of something else.”
“What?”
“Unresolved childhood trauma. The act of giving toys could symbolize a regression to their own childhood, representing a transference of their unmet needs onto the victims.”
“Have there been any instances like this before? In the archives?” Zoe asked.
“I didn’t find anything, but of course not everything is reported. What did you think of Bella?”
Zoe hadn’t given her much thought. “Regular teenager plagued with guilt. By the way, I was thinking about the message he left in the woods.” She pulled up the picture on her phone. “I think we are focusing too much on his tone and we should pay attention to the words he uses too.”
“Okay…” He leaned against the side of the door and crossed his ankles.
“I plucked a flower. Lily is a flower,” she began.
His eyes widened. “Stop me from stealing astar.”
She nodded. “I think we need to find a girl whose name means ‘star’.”
Zoe had known the moment she saw Lily’s body in the woods, the rope hanging ominously above her, and the picture pinned to it. There was a deliberate, almost ceremonial arrangement to the scene. This wasn’t a crime of impulse—it was calculated, ritualistic.
“This just confirms it. There were three nooses—one for each victim,” Aiden said quietly.
THIRTEEN
Scott stood outside the crowded bar, the neon sign above flickering in the evening mist casting a dull, red glow onto the wet pavement. Through the large, fogged-up windows, he could see the throngs of people packed inside, their voices rising and falling with laughter, shouts, and the clinking of glasses.
It was too damn tempting. He wanted in, wanted to get lost, wanted to feel like he was floating and flying and laughing again.
