PART TWO: THE GIRL WITHOUT A MIDDLE
Sleepers Awake was again the sound track. The curtains parted, revealing the same stage. Again a spotlight came up. Center stage were three brightly colored boxes similar to the ones they had found in the crawlspace of 4514 Shiloh Street. They were stacked. All three doors were open.
The man appeared. He was dressed exactly the same.
'Behold… the Girl Without a Middle.' He held out his hand. A heavyset girl walked onto the stage. It was Monica Renzi. 'And behold the lovely Odette.'
Monica was crying. She stepped into the boxes. The illusionist closed all three doors. He picked up a thin metal plate and shoved it between the top two boxes.
'My God,' someone said. 'My God.'
There were no other words.
'Click on the next one,' Byrne said, his anger clearly rising.
Moments later, the third video began.
PART THREE: THE DROWNING GIRL
This time the curtain parted to show a large, empty glass tank. It looked similar to the glass display case in the Eighth Street crime scene. There was a girl sitting inside.
'It's Caitlin,' Jessica said.
Within seconds the tank began to fill. Caitlin just sat there, as if she was accepting this fate. A diaphanous drape was lowered, hiding the tank. There was just the sound of the water beneath the heart-rending music of J. S. Bach.
Tony park clicked on the fourth video.
PART FOUR: THE GIRL IN THE SWORD BOX
It was Katja Dovic in the Sword Box, a red lacquered box with slits cut into the top and sides. The vision of the swords being pushed into the closed container was as horrifying as anything they had ever witnessed.
Tony Park clicked on the remaining three screens, but none of them launched a video.
For a long time no one in the room said a word. It appeared that the killer's kidnap attempt that morning had been thwarted, but there were a lot more girls from which he could choose.
'Can we find out where this is coming from?' Byrne asked.
'It's my understanding that this GothOde is based in Romania,' Hell said. 'Unfortunately, there's no way for us to know from where these videos have been uploaded. He could be doing it from a cyber- cafe.'
'What about the FBI?' Dre Curtis asked.
'I put in a call and forwarded everything to the Computer Crimes Task Force,' Hurley said. 'They have a forensic examiner on it now, although it will probably take a handful of court orders and three federal agencies to get anything done in a foreign country.'
It was then that Jessica noticed something at the bottom of the screen. 'What's this?' she asked, pointing to it.
There was a single word beneath the last video. Corollarium. It looked to be an active link. Before clicking on the link, Park navigated to an online Latin to English dictionary. He entered the word. The page displayed: corollarium — i n. [a garland of flowers; a present, gratuity]
Park returned to the GothOde page, clicked the link. A small window opened. It was a still photograph of a room with rotting plaster and broken shelves. In the middle of the room, amid the debris, was what looked a like a large package, wrapped in thin green paper. Out of the top came a variety of fresh-cut flowers.
Through the window beyond the box was visible a vacant lot, partially covered in snow. At the other side of the lot was a mural covering a whole wall, an elaborate rendering that included a man blowing a ribbon of smoke over a city skyline.
'This is Philly,' Jessica said. 'I know that mural. I know where this is.'
They all knew where it was. It was across from a corner building near Fifth and Cambria.
Jessica ran out of the room.
By the time the other detectives got to the parking lot she was gone.
Jessica paced in front of the address. The front door was padlocked. Across the street was the mural in the still photograph.
Byrne, Josh Bontrager, and Dre Curtis approached.
'Take the door down,' Jessica said.
'Jess,' Byrne said. 'We should wait. We could-'
'Take it… the fuck… down!'
Bontrager looked to Byrne for direction. Byrne nodded. Bontrager went into the trunk of his departmental sedan, came out with an iron pry bar. He handed it to Byrne.
Byrne took the door off the hinges with the massive lever. Josh Bontrager and Dre Curtis hauled it out of the way. Jessica and Byrne, weapons drawn, entered the space. The area they had seen in the photograph was now piled with more trash. But the view out the barred window was the same.
Jessica holstered her weapon and stormed across the room. She began pulling trash off the huge pile of debris in the center.
'Jess,' Byrne said.
She didn't hear him. If she did, she did not acknowledge him. Soon she uncovered the thing she sought, the thing she knew would still be there, the thing that had been placed in this precise spot, waiting for them.
'It's a crime scene, Jess,' Byrne said. 'You have to stop.'
She turned to look at him. Her eyes stood with tears. Byrne had never seen her like this.
'I can't.'
Moments later she had all the trash thrown aside. In front of her lay a body wrapped in green paper, the same kind of green paper used by florists.
The Garden of Flowers.
The dead girl was his bouquet.
Jessica tore open the paper. The scent of dried flora and putrefying flesh was overwhelming. Even in this decayed state it was obvious that the girl's neck had been broken. For a moment, Jessica did not move.
Then she fell to her knees.
SIXTY-TWO
They stood in the punishing heat. Around them buzzed yet another CSU team. Around them stretched another circle of yellow tape.
'This isn't going to stop until he's done all seven,' Jessica said. 'There are three more girls out there who are going to die.'
Byrne had no response. Nothing he could say.
'The Seven Wonders. What the fuck is this all about, Kevin? What's next?'
'Tony's on it now,' Byrne said. 'If the answer is out there he'll find it. You know that.'
Until now, all four of these girls had lived in two dimensions. Photographs on paper, a graphic file on a computer screen, myriad details on a police activity log or an FBI sheet. But now they had seen them alive. All four girls had been breathing on those videos. Elise Beausoleil, Caitlin O'Riordan, Monica Renzi, Katja Dovic. All four of them had entered that chamber of horrors and never left. And if that was not enough, this madman had to apply a special brand of indignity by putting them on display, for the whole city to see.
Jessica had never wanted someone dead so badly in her life. And, God forgive her, she wanted to be the one who pulled the switch.
'Jessica?'
She turned. It was JoAnn Johnson, commander of the Auto Squad. The Auto Squad had citywide jurisdiction
